A conceptual biocultural indicator framework for biodiversity in cultural landscapes: development and application in the Alhambra-Generalife-Albaicín (Spain) and Connemara (Ireland)

Abstract This paper develops a framework for the identification of biocultural indicators of biodiversity in cultural landscapes. To combat the persisting separation and dualistic conceptualisation of nature and culture in the heritage field, the framework views landscapes as dynamic assemblages of human and non-human actors. This highlights the significance of biocultural practices as indicators of how biodiversity emerges through the same human–environment relationships that give rise to both heritage and landscape over time. The proposed framework consists of four layers: landscape assemblage, key species, socio-ecological relationships, and the analytical output of biocultural indicator relationships. It is applied to two contrasting case study sites: the Alhambra-Generalife-Albaicín in Spain and Connemara in Ireland. Describing the different scales, ecologies, and spiritual-cultural beliefs present within the sites illustrates how biodiversity is sustained through long-standing practices in both landscapes, supported by traditional knowledge systems and environmental relationships that go beyond the nature/culture binary. Within the Alhambra-Generalife-Albaicín, historic hydrological engineering, symbolic planting, and sensory-spatial design imbued with Islamic environmental ethics shape the emergence of biodiversity. In Connemara, low-intensity farming, seasonal rhythms, and local sense of place maintain semi-natural habitats and foster biodiversity through long-standing land-use practices. Through comparative analysis, biocultural indicators allow the agency of human and non-human actors within these sites to become legible. The framework offers a flexible, interdisciplinary tool to recognise landscapes as biocultural and thus as shaped by time, use, ecology, and meaning. It amplifies the biocultural connection between biodiversity, landscape, and people, aiming to contribute to a more inclusive, context-sensitive approach to sustainable and resilient heritage management.