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Territories of Life: Sources of Biocultural Diversity, Resilience, and Self-Determination

Volume 13 | 2025

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The concept of “territories of life” embodies the inextricable link between people and nature that is central to biocultural diversity. In this issue, Indigenous and other land stewards tell stories of their fight for self-determination and for the protection of their land-based identities, languages, cultures, and ways of life. Read the Editorial and Table of Contents.

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Editorial | From Radicle Reclamation to Homecoming

Langscape Magazine Volume 13
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Black to the Land

A Black urban girl in Upstate New York reclaims ancestral gardening.
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I Am Still Hmong

A Hmong immigrant finds her way back home through her language and her poetry.
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Basandja

In the heart of the Congo, a community revives a traditional code of conduct for caring for the environment.
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Sacrifice Zones

In a Québec watershed, a student documents the transformation of territories of life into toxic dumping grounds — and back.
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Reeds of Harmony

As guardian of a tradition that breathes life into the land, a Nigerian weaver engages in a timeless dance with her reeds.
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Orans in Peril

In Rajasthan, agro-pastoralists defend their sacred landscapes from “green” development.
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Oldoinyo Sambu

A Maasai man tells the story of his splendid and diverse territory of life in Tanzania.
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Fragments of Amazonia

A visual artist vividly portrays the Waorani people’s struggle to defend their Amazonian territory from oil exploitation.
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Wellsprings of Territories of Life

Gaoli pastoralists in central India assert their traditional natural resource governance against fortress conservation.
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Cultivating Ngāti Manu Kaitiakitanga

In Aotearoa, a marae-based educational program rebuilds connection with ancestral land and water in a changing social and environmental context.
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Voices of the Hindu Kush

In a remote area of northwestern Pakistan, the Kalash community has maintained harmony with its territory of life.
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Conservation Deeds by the People, for the People

In Papua New Guinea, Indigenous communities adopt conservation deeds to protect their lands on their own terms.
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The Many Voices of the Sea

A refuge for migrants crossing the Mediterranean, Malta rediscovers its land-based identity while helping newcomers rebuild theirs.
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The Nyishi Fly on the Hornbills’ Wings

Removed from their lands by a tiger conservation project, Indigenous villagers in Northeast India reconnect with their forest home through hornbill conservation.
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Radicle Reclamation

Rooted in place like radicles that nourish plant seeds, Indigenous Peoples’ relationships to their territories of life re-emerge despite the legacy of colonialism.
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Fishing in Troubled Waters

Loktak Lake fishers in Northeast India assert their inherent right to their territory of life.
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Homecoming

In a fictional account set in the near future, a Badaga woman finds her way back home to the forest of her dreams in…
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My Body, My Ancestor, My Home

Lacking roots in either of his ancestral places of origin, a Chinese-French dancer learns to inhabit his own body as a territory of life.
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Painting the Unseen

A collaborative project centers more-than-human worlds in Bhutan’s protected and conserved areas.
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The Past Is Our Future

In the mountains of Taiwan, Tayal community members reaffirm their ancestral knowledge and cultural identity to protect their territory of life.
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Tama’s Dream

The Hewa of Papua New Guinea pursue conservation-based development by maintaining traditional biodiverse mosaics on their lands.
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Enspirited Landscapes

In the heart of the Hengduan Mountains of southwest China, Qiangic-speaking peoples maintain their bond with culture, place, and the spirit world.
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Whispers of the Forest

An ancient healing practice persists and thrives in the forests of a territory of life in central India.
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Life in Territories

Tea and coffee plantations in southern India encroach on Indigenous Peoples’ ways of life and territories, threatening the protection of their sacred groves.
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