Abstract
Local ecological knowledge (LEK) represents an important link between resource users and their social-ecological system and plays a key role regarding the sustainable planning of environmental resources. This study investigates the nature of LEK in the case of a fishing village at the Tam Giang Lagoon in central Vietnam by applying an ethnographic participant observer approach. The research demonstrates a means to understand a complex, self-organized local network with a multitude of actors with different interests and adaptive behaviors, interfering in diverse and sometimes contradictory ways in the same environmental context. It concludes with two understandings about LEK. (1) It is important to recognize it as a concept that is not fixed in time and space as it is coevolving with broader system changes. (2) Only if approached through careful immersion and participation at the local level can it provide a valuable source of science-based information for improved decision-making.
Highlights
There are many small fishing and agricultural villages at the edge of rapidly developing cities in the least developed countries (LDCs) and middle-income countries (MICs), which face a variety of social and environmental challenges
Local ecological knowledge (LEK) plays a key role for the scientists and planners of environmental resources involved in the sustainable development of these regions (Agrawal 1995; Al-Roubaie 2010; Bohensky and Maru 2011; Whyte 2013)
In the process of reviewing LEK for potentially improving the sustainable planning of villages and the use of their resources in developing countries, it is important to recognize that the concept is not fixed in time and space but changes and adapts over time
Summary
There are many small fishing and agricultural villages at the edge of rapidly developing cities in the least developed countries (LDCs) and middle-income countries (MICs), which face a variety of social and environmental challenges. Local ecological knowledge (LEK) plays a key role for the scientists and planners of environmental resources involved in the sustainable development of these regions (Agrawal 1995; Al-Roubaie 2010; Bohensky and Maru 2011; Whyte 2013). This importance, has only recently begun to receive formal recognition (Mamun 2010; McGregor 2014) and there is still. The research question is as follows: How may a review of the concept of local ecological knowledge (LEK), applied through the lens of an ethnographic participant observer approach, enhance the planning of local environmental resources?
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