Abstract
Butler, J. R. A., A. Tawake, T. Skewes, L. Tawake, and V. McGrath. 2012. Integrating traditional ecological knowledge and fisheries management in the Torres Strait, Australia: the catalytic role of turtles and dugong as cultural keystone species. Ecology and Society 17(4): 34. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-05165-170434
Highlights
There is recognition of the valuable role that traditional knowledge held by indigenous communities, often termed traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), can play in the contemporary management of natural resources
We assess the role of these factors in the application of TEK in the Torres Strait Islands, Australia, where commercial and subsistence fisheries are fundamental to the Indigenous Melanesian culture and livelihoods
The application of TEK and science and management knowledge (SMK) in natural resource management potentially enhances the resilience of socialecological systems by providing a diversity of knowledge for problem solving and related cross-scale and adaptive governance networks (Folke 2004, Folke et al 2005, Berkes and Turner 2006, Davidson-Hunt 2006, Berkes 2009)
Summary
There is recognition of the valuable role that traditional knowledge held by indigenous communities, often termed traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), can play in the contemporary management of natural resources. Their life histories, distributions, and behavior are nested within resource management systems, tools, and techniques. These are embedded within the social institutions, codes and norms required to implement management systems, and a worldview that shapes environmental perception. TEK can complement SMK by providing long-term baselines for stock assessments, local knowledge of species’ ecology and behavior, habitat conditions and trends, plus customary management systems (Johannes et al 2000, Dulvy and Polunin 2004, Haggan et al 2007, Johannes and Neis 2007)
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