This is a whole systems approach to guide the decision making path. It is shared leadership based on an ethics of responsibility and collective accountability. We interpret this to directly include prioritizing indigenous systems and elevating indigenous interests in governance.
Integrated systems of knowledge management (ISKM)
This is a collaborative, multidisciplinary, whole systems approach to addressing environmental issues. For example, instead of just the components of oceans and rivers, the total aquatic system, and relations between the elements become the focus of attention. Within RESPONSE, priority is given to indigenous knowledge from contributing countries in a relational approach in which this knowledge is valued alongside that of science.
It is an ethical approach in response to the environmental crisis, and is supportive of collective action, it is an awareness of our individual and collective impact on people and place – enhancing the positive and mitigating/ precluding the negative; responsibility is understood to be complementary to Human Rights, and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and expands the scope of international and local action for sustainability.