Earth Stewardship and the Biocultural Ethic: Latin American Perspectives - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 91

extensive Puna and Paramo in the high Andean Altiplano, the world's largest tropi-
cal forests in the Amazonian basin, the world's largest wetlands in the Pantanal, the
widespread grasslands, savannas, and dry forests in the Gran Chaco, the world's
driest habitat in the Atacama desert, and the most extensive area of Southern
Hemisphere temperate and sub-Antarctic forests and fjords in the archipelagoes of
southwestern South America (Olson et al. 2001 ; Spalding et al. 2007 ; Abell et al.
2008 ). In the twenty-fi rst century, these ecoregions host the world's greatest diver-
sity of plants and most animal groups, and are still inhabited by endemic cultures
with their languages and worldviews (Guevara and Laborde 2008 ). For a planetary-
scaled initiative, such as the ESA's Earth Stewardship Initiative, to be effective,
however, it is essential that the richness and value of regions such as the intricate
South American reservoir of biological and cultural diversity are better acknowl-
edged by the discourses and policies that govern global society.
South American ecosystems play a critical role in the world's regulation of cli-
mate and conservation of biodiversity, and support a plethora of cultures with ances-
tral and contemporary ecological worldviews and sustainable practices. The value
of these worldviews and practices for Earth stewardship has only recently begun to
be considered by academics (Rozzi 2001 ). Neither do global discourses and envi-
ronmental policies adequately include the diversity of languages and ethics rooted
in the heterogeneous biocultural mosaic of South America and other continents.
This is due in part to the limited inter-linguistic and inter-cultural dialogue among
academics, educators, and policy makers that reside in different regions of the world
(Li et al. 2015 in this volume [Chap. 13 ]). In order to contribute to solving this defi -
cit, a specifi c purpose of this chapter is to provide conceptual elements for:
(i) facilitating inter-cultural dialogues and negotiations that acknowledge and
include the diversity of ecological worldviews, values, and languages, thereby
fracturing the current homogeneity of neoliberal global discourses and policies;
(ii) fostering forms of biocultural inter-species co-inhabitation embedded in the
diversity of habitats and life habits.
As shown by practices associated with Earth Stewardship in South America
(May Jr (2015a, b); Mamani Bernabé 2015 in this volume [Chaps. 6 , 7 , and 27 ]),
biocultural inter-species co-inhabitation requires not only rational or verbal
interactions but it also involves corporality, affection, and sharing everyday life
experiences. 2 Llamas and potatoes, for example, are not mere natural resources but
rather co-inhabitants that participate in rituals, farming and husbandry practices,
2 The biocultural perspective of this essay shares central concepts with intercultural philosophy
( sensu Fornet-Betancourt 1994 , 1998 ). However, the biocultural ethic extends the moral community
beyond the boundaries of the human species. The worldviews of contemporary ecological sciences
and of Amerindian cultures support the concept of a community of life. This can be also considered
as a moral community on the basis of the notions of kinship (based on evolutionary genealogies
shared by humans and other living beings) and of co-inhabitation, embedded in the recurrent eco-
logical and cultural interrelationships among human and other-than-human beings (Rozzi 2012 ,
2013 ). Recent ethnography of South America illustrates the creativity and agency of the other-than-
human world, as well as the rich communication that takes place between human and other-than-