Authors: Díaz Reviriego, Isabel; Hanspach, Jan;

Biocultural approaches acknowledge and study the multiple relationships between the diversity of cultures and the maintenance, enhancement and creation of biodiversity through the management of species and landscapes. Biocultural approaches are seen as appropriate to address sustainability challenges across scales towards sustaining plural and just futures and their application is burgeoning in many scientific disciplines and beyond. This contribution is based on a systematic review of the scientific literature on biocultural approaches in Spanish and English language published between 1990 and 2021. The results show that biocultural approaches touch on many sustainability issues and that conservation appears as the focus emphasized in the majority of the articles reviewed. Also, local and traditional knowledge was the knowledge type most frequently studied, though the engagement with TEK holders was mainly based on consultation or information. We highlight key insights from these bodies of literature that could help in promoting biocultural conservation through processes rooted in the rights, needs, knowledge and customary practices of those who remain stewards of biocultural diversity for a more legitimate and inclusive conservation in Europe, where TEK is still largely neglected in conservation.