Archaeological labor in the Andes unfolds not only in field trenches and labs but also in the social and cosmological landscapes where sites remain powerful actors affecting daily community life. Drawing on collaborative fieldwork in the Huaylas and Cosma River Basins of the Cordillera Negra Mountains, Ancash, Peru, this article reflects on how archaeological work is shaped by theoretical framing, traditional field methods, and the relationships between descendant communities and the archaeological sites they live around that influence daily fieldwork. We argue for an expanded definition of archaeological labor that encompasses ceremonial, emotional, and relational work alongside excavation and analysis and share strategies in hiring, organization, and training. These include daily routines that make space for ritual practice, decision-making frameworks that treat local knowledge as actionable, and project planning that honors contractual and cultural obligations. By including these community-framed practices in the methodology, we call for culturally engaged archaeological labor that recognizes how communities, researchers, and sites co-produce knowledge and working conditions, thereby building a safer, more inclusive, and more equitable work environment.

This article explores the intersection of Indigenous cultural heritage and international intellectual property (IP) law. Drawing on personal narrative, community memory, and institutional experience, it traces how, despite colonial legacies embedded within global IP regimes, Indigenous Peoples have carved out space for agency and influence through diplomatic engagement in international forums such as the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The article narrates and examines the evolution of Indigenous participation within WIPO’s Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge, and Folklore (IGC), culminating in the landmark adoption of the 2024 WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources, and Associated Traditional Knowledge. Through the lens of “Indigenous diplomacy,” it argues that Indigenous advocates have not only contested exclusion but also reshaped aspects of legal norms, contributing to a broader decolonial movement that seeks justice, recognition, and the right to control and benefit from their intellectual and cultural heritage.

This study investigates how rural women’s leadership, grounded in traditional knowledge and daily ecological practices, contributes to environmental education and strengthens both family and community sustainability within the emerging model of rural tourism in Morocco. The research is framed by international environmental commitments, notably the Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which emphasise the value of local communities in preserving natural resources and transmitting ecological knowledge. The central question examines the extent to which rural women, through their leadership and embodied knowledge, foster environmental learning and reinforce the socio-ecological resilience of households and communities. The study mobilises theoretical approaches from environmental education, experiential and social learning and socio-ecological systems theory to analyse the interplay between knowledge transfer, community engagement and biodiversity protection. Methodologically, the research adopts a qualitative design based on semi-structured interviews, participant observation and thematic analysis supported by NVivo software. Conducted in the Taounate region, the study targets women participating in rural ecotourism initiatives. Findings reveal that women act as key agents of informal environmental education, ensuring the transmission of traditional knowledge, promoting sustainable practices and enhancing collective ecological awareness. Their leadership reinforces natural resource conservation and contributes to the long-term sustainability of families and local communities while aligning local practices with global environmental commitments positioning them as essential actors in bridging local practices with global environmental sustainability agendas.

Sámi reindeer herders employ a snow taxonomy that challenges intellectual property law’s foundational distinction between natural phenomena and cultural creation. Terms like seaŋáš (granulated depth hoar, density 267 kg/m3, formed through constructive metamorphism) and čearga (wind-packed snow, density 250–450 kg/m3, creating impenetrable grazing barriers) represent systematic organization of environmental knowledge that extends beyond linguistic classification to describe snow conditions actively created through traditional herding practices. This article argues that traditional snow taxonomies deserve intellectual property protection as cultural artifacts created through sustained human–environment interaction. Analysis of Sámi terminology reveals systematic coordination of physical properties, temporal patterns, spatial distribution, and functional implications for reindeer herding—intellectual achievement that transforms continuous environmental variation into discrete cultural categories embedding sustainability ethics and practical wisdom. Three doctrinal extensions provide protection: database copyright for systematic knowledge organization under Feist Publications’ creativity standard; collective trademark protection for terminology functioning as cultural identifiers; and geographical indication protection for snow conditions created through traditional landscape management. Climate change strengthens these arguments by blurring natural–artificial distinctions as human activities increasingly influence Arctic conditions.

On 24 May 2024, member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) adopted the Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge. Mandating that contracting parties require that patent applicants disclose any genetic resources or associated traditional knowledge that their invention is based on, the treaty has been hailed as historic triumph. In this article, we analyze whether the treaty is so remarkable in relation to Aotearoa New Zealand’s existing law and practice. Finding that it is not, and that the treaty could place limits on the law, we argue that Aotearoa New Zealand should not sign the Treaty but could learn from it. We conclude that, while Aotearoa New Zealand must continue to partake in any ongoing international negotiations, it should continue to find ways to address the domestic situation.

One of the most incredible aspects of the Mexican Baja Peninsula is the immense wealth of plant and animal diversity it holds. The human communities living alongside this richness have boundless intimate knowledge of its natural history, potentially with novel insights into the ecological and evolutionary processes shaping the diversity of plants and animals. These same human communities have likely also witnessed changes to these natural environments over their lifetimes, particularly as the effects of global change are being felt by similar rural communities around the world. However, because the area is so remote, they often have little access to scientific data or current information about the causes or effects of the changes they observe. Using a thematic analysis of recorded conversations, this project seeks to connect remote rural ranches in Mexico with scientists, to gather data on the issues that matter most to the community members, and work to find collaborative solutions. Through thematic analysis of recorded conversations, our research reveals that unpredictable climate variability, including droughts, hurricanes, and shifting seasonal patterns, poses significant challenges to ranching livelihoods. Ranchers’ deep ecological knowledge provides critical insights into the stresses of changing and increasingly unpredictable environmental trends. By integrating local perspectives with scientific approaches, this study highlights the potential for collaborative biodiversity research.

Parachute science is the problematic and extractive practice of non-local researchers taking data, knowledge and information from communities of which they are not members, failing to engage the local community and local scientists, marginalizing them in most aspects of the research, and using the results to their own benefit. Perpetuated by colonialism and unequal access to resources such as funding, education and data, it is harmful to local scientists and undervalues the contributions of the community as a whole. Ultimately, it erodes trust within the scientific community and, more broadly, builds dependence on foreign researchers and makes science less global and collaborative. Increasing international and cross-cultural collaborations while being careful to avoid parachute science can help minimize these impacts. Here, we offer our perspectives on parachute science and suggestions on how to avoid it, based on our experiences conducting research internationally with diverse scientists and communities, including both academics and non-academics. Instead of a parachute, we suggest opening the scientific “umbrella” to incorporate diverse perspectives and local contributions in generating relevant and impactful scientific insight.

Africa is an important global reservoir for biological, cultural and traditional knowledge about fungi and lichens, which are used as food, medicine and in mythology, among other things. African human populations are undergoing highly significant changes and adaptation processes, which are accompanied by rapid urbanization, meeting with western civilization, high rural migration and the loss of natural ecosystems. Indigenous knowledge is being lost, including that concerning fungi and lichens. Ethnomycology and ethnolichenology provide a diversity of knowledge about beneficial and poisonous fungi and lichens, and give insights into their sociological impact on human behaviour and use. Here we present a working and publishing environment established with the Diversity Workbench software in line with national and international initiatives for FAIR guided provision of research data. The database application called ‘EthnoMycAfrica’ contains published ethnomycological and ethnolichenological information from Africa. The content is created and curated by team partners from Central, East, West, North and Southern Africa. Data entry is performed both online and offline, optionally via a mobile device. Currently, the system with the tools DiversityDescriptions and DiversityNaviKey contains a total of 1350 well-structured and freely and openly accessible data records. EthnoMycAfrica is the first database with a data schema, standard descriptors and data content created mainly by African scholars. The data can be useful for researchers, students, conservationists, policy makers, and others. It will also provide a basis for facilitating hypothesis generation and meta-analysis.

As interest in Australian native products continues to grow worldwide, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (First Peoples) are striving to be industry leaders in the production of their traditional foods that are being developed for commercial markets. To successfully gain market approval both within Australia and globally, food regulatory authorities require at least a documented history of safe use to indicate dietary safety. Moreover, many countries also require compositional analysis and safety data to further support their safe human consumption. However, safety data are lacking for many of these traditional food items and the history that surrounds their safe use has rarely been recorded in written form, but rather passed on through cultural practices and language. This review evaluates the suitability of current frameworks for assessing the dietary safety of traditional foods and highlights the food-safety regulatory hurdles currently felt by First Peoples and their businesses attempting to enter the Australian native foods industry. These issues also extend to the requirements of food regulatory authorities around the world, when assessing the market eligibility of traditional food items. Potential solutions to these problems are discussed, including new proposed processes that can be incorporated into the current food regulatory frameworks. Importantly, these proposed processes would allow the dietary risk assessment of traditional foods to be completed in a manner that better accommodates the stories, traditional knowledge and interests of First Peoples, while also meeting the safety data requirements set out by regulatory bodies both within Australia and around the world.