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coordinated by the FAO and UNESCO. Through the criteria of World Heritage,
UNESCO has recognized since the 1990s those landscapes whose specificity is
connected to some human activity, thus tightly interweaving natural and cultural
heritage. A good example is the saline plains of the Hortobagy and the pastoral
world related to their use. Several sets of knowledge and practices traditionally
connected to certain landscapes are recognized by UNESCO as intangible heritage
(e.g. traditional fishing along the lower stretch of the Danube in Hungary, the
traditional knowledge of herders of the Hortobdgy, http 5, 4).
One of the most significant 21“ century conventions is the /ntergovernmental
Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).' The aim of
this body (established in 2012) is to facilitate solutions of ecological and
conservation issues and problems by interpreting and using existent knowledge in
the world; and further, to contribute to the wellbeing of humankind in a way that
local communities be acknowledged, supported and involved in the safeguarding
and improving of natural-cultural values (Palotäs et al. 2019). IPBES not only
warns of the significance of landscape use and the conservation of related traditional
ecological knowledge, but it recognizes the latter as having equal rank to Western
scientific knowledge (Molnar et al. 2019).
This kind of thought and goal is new in the sphere of international conventions,
because it makes it explicitly clear that conservation can and must be built on
concepts other than those derived from natural science as well. “Mother Earth” is
named on the central image of IPBES, thereby recognizing all kinds of knowledge
and worldviews that differ from the Western scientific world; this also resonates
with Pál Juhasz-Nagy’s earlier quoted thought and can be interpreted as a step
toward the re-sacralization of nature (Diaz et al. 2015; Schmeller — Bridgewater
2016; Molnar et al. 2019).
Recommended readings
Anderson, M. Kat 2005. Tending the Wild. Los Angeles, University of California Press.
The book could have been written about the traditional Hungarian landscape use and the
conservationist and other efforts to revive it. The book introduces in detail the
‘unnoticeable’ but decisive farming methods of the Californian wooded (Quercus
spp.) prairie which is very similar to Hungarian landscapes, and their role in preserving
natural-cultural values.
» lending the Wild” is one of the decisive foreign works that has influenced my own work.
I heartily recommend it to anyone who would like to explore the depths of the
diversity of the relationship between nature and the human being, or would like to
learn more about Californian Indians’ folk knowledge of nature and contemporary
challenges. It is available in English, but it is easy to read.
IPBES: “is an independent intergovernmental body founded by states in 2012; it has 132 member
countries today. It makes scientific assessments of the fast-deteriorating biome, ecosystems and
natural goods of the planet for politicians and decision-makers. It offers t tools and methodologies
for creating policy in protection of natural values and their sustainable use.”