The academic publishing world is rapidly changing. These changes are driven by and have implications for a range of intertwined ethical and financial considerations. In this essay, we situate Journal of Ethnobiology (JoE) in the discourse of ethical publishing, broadly, and in ethnobiology, specifically. We consider it an ethical imperative of JoE to promote the core values of the field of ethnobiology as a platform for scholarship that is both rigorous and socially just. We discuss here the many ways JoE addresses this imperative, including issues of diversity, accessibility, transparency, and how these efforts contribute to our ongoing relevance. We find that JoE has achieved high ethical standards and continues to raise the bar in our field. However, the growing incongruity between monetary solvency and best practices could threaten JoE's longevity unless we keep adapting to the changing landscape. Looking to the future, we encourage all ethnobiologists to participate in the ongoing process of improving ethics in publishing, including careful consideration of where to publish precious ethnobiological knowledge.

The knowledge systems and practices of Indigenous Peoples and local communities play critical roles in safeguarding the biological and cultural diversity of our planet. Globalization, government policies, capitalism, colonialism, and other rapid social-ecological changes threaten the relationships between Indigenous Peoples and local communities and their environments, thereby challenging the continuity and dynamism of Indigenous and Local Knowledge (ILK). In this article, we contribute to the “World Scientists' Warning to Humanity,” issued by the Alliance of World Scientists, by exploring opportunities for sustaining ILK systems on behalf of the future stewardship of our planet. Our warning raises the alarm about the pervasive and ubiquitous erosion of knowledge and practice and the social and ecological consequences of this erosion. While ILK systems can be adaptable and resilient, the foundations of these knowledge systems are compromised by ongoing suppression, misrepresentation, appropriation, assimilation, disconnection, and destruction of biocultural heritage. Three case studies illustrate these processes and how protecting ILK is central to biocultural conservation. We conclude with 15 recommendations that call for the recognition and support of Indigenous Peoples and local communities and their knowledge systems. Enacting these recommendations will entail a transformative and sustained shift in how ILK systems, their knowledge holders, and their multiple expressions in lands and waters are recognized, affirmed, and valued. We appeal for urgent action to support the efforts of Indigenous Peoples and local communities around the world to maintain their knowledge systems, languages, stewardship rights, ties to lands and waters, and the biocultural integrity of their territories—on which we all depend.

Ethnobiology, like many fields, was shaped by early Western imperial efforts to colonize people and lands around the world and extract natural resources. Those legacies and practices persist today and continue to influence the institutions ethnobiologists are a part of, how they carry out research, and their personal beliefs and actions. Various authors have previously outlined five overlapping “phases” of ethnobiology. Here, we argue that ethnobiology should move toward a sixth phase in which scholars and practitioners must actively challenge colonialism, racism, and oppressive structures embedded within their institutions, projects, and themselves. As an international group of ethnobiologists and scholars from allied fields, we identified key topics and priorities at three levels: at the institutional scale, we argue for repatriation/rematriation of biocultural heritage, accessibility of published work, and realignment of priorities to support community-driven research. At the level of projects, we emphasize the need for mutual dialogue, reciprocity, community research self-sufficiency, and research questions that support sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities over lands and waters. Finally, for individual scholars, we support self-reflection on language use, co-authorship, and implicit bias. We advocate for concrete actions at each of these levels to move the field further toward social justice, antiracism, and decolonization.

A post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework is currently under negotiation under the auspices of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). This framework seeks to transform human-nature relationships towards its 2050 vision of “societies living in harmony with nature.” Global reports published to inform these negotiations include the second edition of Local Biodiversity Outlooks (LBO-2). In the context of ethnobiology, LBO-2 is particularly relevant because it features perspectives, experiences, and stories as told by Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLC) about the global biodiversity crisis. Based on these perspectives, LBO-2 identifies six areas in need of urgent transformation (i.e., in culture, land, food, economies, governance, and financial incentives), analyzing how these relate to ongoing negotiations of the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. In this article, we consider these transitions, as well as recommendations made by the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity, and reveal critical weaknesses in the ways the Global Biodiversity Framework addresses the views and perspectives of IPLC. Such shortcomings include separation of nature and cultures in the framework's goals and targets, and failure to recognize and embed customary land tenure and territorial management as vital for biodiversity conservation, sustainable use, and benefit-sharing. We make a series of recommendations to mainstream and prioritize support for the rights and collective actions of IPLC throughout the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.

Combining Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) with scientific research holds promise for more effectively meeting community objectives for the conservation of cultural forest resources. Our study focuses on predicting the abundance of western redcedar trees (Thuja plicata) within the traditional territories of five Indigenous Nations that are part of the Nnwaolas Council in British Columbia, Canada. Indigenous people in this region use western redcedar extensively for cultural practices, such as carving dugout canoes, totem poles, and traditional buildings. However, after more than a century of industrial logging, the abundance of redcedar suitable for these types of practices is in decline and no longer reflects past baseline conditions. We assess how using TEK from interviews with Indigenous carvers refines predictions of resource abundance compared to using only conventional field surveys. Our findings reveal that western redcedar trees suitable for traditional carving are generally rare, and that some important growth forms, such as those associated with carving community canoes, are nearly extirpated from the landscape. We demonstrate a useful application of TEK in conservation planning and highlight concerns about the impact of industrial forestry on culturally important trees.

Codiaeum variegatum has become a well-known ornamental plant in Europe and North America and has long been culturally significant in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, for example as a boundary plant. This paper asks, firstly, how variations in foliage are classified, managed, and valued in one population (Nuaulu on the island of Seram, eastern Indonesia), and how this relates to the range of uses to which these variations are put. Secondly, the paper suggests that this particular case helps shed light on the importance of leaf variegation as an organoleptic quality in the context of biocultural evolution. It is noted that the features that evolved in its area of endemism are those making it attractive as an ornamental globally. While color variations in foliage combining genotypic cultivar differences, clonal differences, and age-dependent differences produce phenotypic instability and are a problem for ornamental plant producers in a commercial context, they are not a problem for Nuaulu.

Food habit studies in the Amazon emphasize the consumption of fish and manioc (Manihot esculenta) flour as basic diet in different ethnic groups, while little is known about human plant-related diet dynamics during the hydrological regime. In a scenario of food transition in rural Amazonia, with insertion of industrialized items in the diet, traditional food and consumption of regional products have undergone transformations, affecting the autonomy and lifestyle of traditional populations. Considering this, the objectives of the current case study were: (1) to contextualize plant-related eating habits in five Riverine communities on the Lower Purus River and (2) to characterize the dietary dynamics of plant eating according to the hydrological regime, considering the provenance of food items. We conducted interviews and sample collection in both low- and high-water seasons. We calculated species richness and diversity per meal and season and used multivariate analysis to access differences in plant consumption between seasons. The greatest richness and diversity of plants is consumed in the flooding season and mainly as snacks, the meal most susceptible to being replaced by industrialized foods. Despite a significant difference in diet between seasons, the basic array of plants consumed is similar in both seasons, with availability topped up by external purchases. This tendency deserves attention and action from public policies aimed at providing food security in the region.

This article explores the use of Cyperus articulates in Putumayo, Colombia. This often-overlooked medicinal plant, known here as chondur, is used as a shamanic tool to fight the multiplicity of spiritual agents that can cause illness in western Amazonia. It also has a central role in yagé/ ayahuasca ceremonies, placing it in a unique position for an analytical observation of the dynamics of health in the region. The article examines two different folk varieties of this potent plant, each with its unique use, purpose, and symbolism. The use of these plants in healing rituals and yagé ceremonies highlights the importance of tools, techniques, and devices to reinforce the therapeutic narratives.

Since at least the mid-nineteenth century, California's Pacific Coast has been an epicenter of global commercial fishing activities. Decades of intensive harvest, pollution, anthropogenic climate change, and disease, however, have resulted in the collapse of many of the state's most important and profitable fisheries. Much of the research designed to understand the processes and consequences of this crisis of the oceans has focused on production issues—the number of fish that live in and are harvested from the ocean. Here, we turn our attention to consumption issues and explore how market-forces, status, ethnicity, and evolving perceptions of food can drive fisheries collapse. We use the rise and fall of the California abalone (Haliotis spp.) fishery as a case study and compile data on the price of abalone dishes from bills of fare, primarily in southern California, dating between 1901 and 2005. We explore how and why restaurant prices for abalone dishes changed over the last century and the role of consumer demand (or taste) and social status in influencing the health and stability of fish stocks.

The current biodiversity conservation framework explores “nature-people” relationships, recognizing culture's central role. This study aimed to combine local knowledge with scientific ecological data to better understand the relationships between wild animals and local people. We worked in a village (Los Baldecitos) located in the area of influence of Ischigualasto Provincial Park (San Juan, Argentina). We conducted 20 free listing interviews and 12 semi-structured and open ones. We analyzed how the overall salience of different species (established through free listing and cognitive salience index) can be explained by ecological (measured through species occupancy models) and cultural (expressed in interviews) aspects of salience. The cognitive salience index and estimated animal occupancy showed a positive correlation, although it was not statistically significant (Spearman's Rho = 0.48, P = 0.095, N = 17). This could mean that cultural aspects (faunal uses, perception related to attitudes and to nature conservation) were relevant in explaining overall salience. Ten species had the highest and most statistically significant salience and were recorded by camera traps. Some of them share spaces with people (village, water points, corrals, and domestic animal areas), and others were less likely to share habitats where people are present. Wild species have cultural value related to uses and acceptance due to material (tangible benefits, ecological functions) and non-material (affectionate, emotional, aesthetic, presence in oral expression) values. Two carnivores elicited negative reactions because of their predatory damage to domestic animals. This study demonstrates methods to interweave local and scientific knowledge to understand people-nature relationships in context.