Integration Of Traditional Ecological Knowledge Research Articles

Advancing Environmental Justice through the Integration of Traditional Ecological Knowledge into Environmental Policy

As our planet faces more frequent and severe environmental threats due to climate change (including threats to biodiversity), environmental justice will be essential to ensure that the costs and burdens of combating these threats are shared equally, borne by all people worldwide in a fair and equitable manner. If the past is any indicator, however, environmental problems—and their “solutions”—disproportionately affect poor communities and communities of color, including Indigenous communities. Despite these past injustices, Indigenous lands, which make up only 20 percent of the Earth’s territory, contain 80 percent of the world’s remaining biodiversity—evidence that Indigenous peoples are among the most effective stewards of the environment. A primary reason for this remarkable statistic is the use and practice of Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge; ecological wisdom which has been passed down for generations and has been shown to strengthen community resilience in response to the multiple stressors of global environmental change. While the United States government has been slow to acknowledge the value of Traditional Ecological Knowledge, it has recently begun to incorporate that knowledge into environmental policy in response to the worldwide climate crisis. Continuing the integration of Traditional Ecological Knowledge into government environmental policy will ensure that such policies will be more effective at the federal, state, and local levels and more equitable in their application. Western scientists, government officials, and global leaders need to build trusting and co-equal relationships with Indigenous communities by actively listening to all cultures and respecting the many kinds of knowledge systems required to conserve the natural world and all living beings. This paper will address how incorporating Traditional Ecological Knowledge into U.S. policy would help safeguard the environment from further biodiversity loss and other ecological destruction, and advance environmental justice to ensure the fair treatment of all.

Adjustments in Indigenous peoples' forest use and management in the context of climate change: a global systematic literature review

The global diversity of forest use and management responses of forest-dependent Indigenous peoples to climate change remains poorly understood and lacks synthesis. Yet, such knowledge is essential for informed policy decisions and inclusive mitigation strategies. Through a systematic literature review, forest-dependent Indigenous peoples' responses to climate change and extreme weather events were analysed, including the prevalence of the strategies, their drivers, the role of sensitivity to climate change and the integration of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) in forest use and management. Also, an assessment was made of how forest dependence and traditional knowledge are acknowledged in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs). The results show knowledge clusters around coping and adaptation, mitigation, and joint strategies in North and South America and Asia. Multiple Correspondence Analysis showed that articles documenting adaptations trategies were associated to a reactive response time, Indigenous peoples as drivers and the integration of TEK and information on their climate sensitivity. The diversity of applied strategies found, mostly related to non-timber forest products (NTFPs), comprised ecologically sustainable and unsustainable practices. Mitigation s trategies, mostly REDD+ projects, which were significantly associated with proactive and external initiatives, largely omitted information on the sensitivity of the studied Indigenous group and the involvement of traditional knowledge. Joint strategies seem to be a good compromise of participatory efforts and were largely linked to integrating Indigenous peoples' traditional knowledge. Knowledge gaps include evidence of forest-related resilient livelihood strategies. Future research should focus on participatory and sustainable climate measures, the role of TEK and the drivers for the success of forest-related climate responses, as well as the potential effectiveness of joint adaptation-mitigation measures for forest-dependent Indigenous peoples on a global scale.

Bycatch mitigation requires livelihood solutions, not just fishing bans: A case study of the trammel-net fishery in the northern Beibu Gulf, China

Fishery bycatch is an acute threat endangering survival of coastal delphinids. While mitigation measures aim at restricting fishing activities by spatial, temporal and gear management, these measures undoubtedly decrease fishery production and trigger conservation-livelihood conflicts, particularly in artisanal fisheries associating with ‘poverty traps’. This study surveyed spatio-temporal activities of trammel-net fisheries and fishers’ education-household livelihood background in a rural fishing village in the northern Beibu Gulf, China to investigate dolphin-fishing interactions and the willingness of fishers to exit fishing and their ability to engage in alternative livelihoods with regard to fishers’ household livelihood baselines. Within the survey region, overlap between humpback dolphins and trammel-net fishing was high (at least 43.35%). Spatial closures through MPAs would help reduce 46.9% of trammel-net fishing. While labor force aging and low education levels were observed in fishing, farming and casual labor livelihoods, fishers showed an unwillingness to exit fishing and inability to engage in alternative livelihoods. The suspended MPA plan should be enacted immediately to reduce fishing-gear entanglements. Implementation of a permanent trammel-net ban or ‘exit-fishing’ policy, however, should address the household livelihood consequences to fishers. Though ecotourism is often recommended to fishers as an alternative livelihood, low education level hinders fishers’ ability to engage in dolphin-watching tourism in a sustainable manner. Fishing-gear modification, an ad hoc training program focusing on sustainable ecotourism, motivating and mobilizing local people in MPA monitoring and management, and integration of traditional ecological knowledge into livelihood diversification programs are critical components to deal with the complexity of this issue.

Role of traditional ecological knowledge on field margin vegetation in sustainable development: A study in a rural-urban interface of Bengaluru

Field Margin Vegetation (FMV) is an important part of agrobiodiversity which provides a range of ecological and economic benefits. Those services are mostly unaccounted in spite of having potential contribution to biodiversity conservation, well-being of farming households, climate change mitigation etc. The structure and composition of FMV and socioeconomic transformation are closely linked to each other. Transformation which influences FMV negatively leads to erosion of traditional ecological knowledge of the community that is associated with the use, management and conservation of native vegetations in the agroecosystems. There has been research on the function and composition of field margin vegetations, more specifically in the West but the documentation of traditional ecological knowledge on field margin vegetation from the viewpoint of socio-ecological sustainability is not readily available. Through this research an attempt is made to understand and document the uses of FMV by farmers and related traditional knowledge in rural-urban interface of Bengaluru, India. The agricultural landscape under study was found to be rich in FMV species belonging to 43 families. These species are used for a variety of purposes by the people l living in the rural-urban fringe of the northern transect of Bengaluru. This is a preliminary, yet substantial attempt that provides insights into the socioecological significance of the FMV component of agroecosystem. The findings would help in strategising actions to enhance its stake in initiatives to achieve sustainable development goals through health and nutrition, sustainable farming, environmental conservation and economic well-being. The study suggests that the scientific assessment of ecosystem services from FMV along with integration of traditional ecological knowledge in contemporary science would certainly contribute towards enhancement of its values.

Effects of traditional harvest and burning on common camas (Camassia quamash) abundance in Northern Idaho: The potential for traditional resource management in a protected area wetland.

The bulbs of common camas (Camassia quamash) were a staple food of Indigenous Peoples of western North America for millennia. Camas harvesting site productivity was encouraged through intense management. Common camas is considered a facultative wetland species, and populations have declined due to contemporary wetland drainage and land conversion. Conservation of existing habitat, as well as restoration of degraded systems, is necessary. Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and resource management (TRM) are often promoted as viable modes of contemporary resource management but are rarely tested or implemented. We designed a controlled experiment, informed by a born‐in‐the‐tradition specialist, to evaluate the response of common camas populations to traditional bulb harvest, burning, and a combination of harvest and burning. We recorded camas plant counts of three life stage classes of camas plants (single‐leaf seedling, multiple‐leaf adult, and flowering adult) over the course of 6 years in arrays of plots and subjected to treatments or left undisturbed as control. Harvesting removed plants (>800 bulbs) and reduced aboveground counts of camas densities (X¯ ~ 50% of control, p < .05). Burning contributed to a reduction in single‐leaf plants but had an overall positive effect (X¯ ~ 150% of control, p < .05) on adult camas and flowering plant abundance, and ameliorated the digging impacts. Treatment impacts tapered over the course of the study, and results indicate that a sustainable harvesting return interval of approximately 5 years may be possible when combined with fire to reduce litter and competition from pasture grasses and to accelerate the recovery of camas. Our findings support the hypotheses proposed by traditional knowledge specialists and ethnobotanists that digging and burning reduce intra‐ and interspecific competition and stimulate the growth of unharvested adult plants. More generally, our study supports the integration of traditional ecological knowledge into the evidence base available for protected area wetland prairie management.

Protecting Intellectual Property Rights and Traditional Ecological Knowledge: A Critical Look at Peru's Law 27811

The Peruvian government's Law N. 27811, an intellectual property law passed in 2002 and designed to register and protect traditional knowledge, provides productive opportunities for critical analysis. Framed within the trajectory of international intellectual property rights and discussions that complicate the integration of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) into Cartesian scientific frameworks, this paper critically examines how the Peruvian law has been implemented and its impacts in Indigenous communities, particularly in the Andean Amazon region. The analysis is based on the author's work assisting Indigenous communities in San Martin register their knowledge through this law. While the law represents an advanced legal attempt to address power inequalities, it remains problematic. It does not address the impoverishment of Indigenous Peoples and continues to subordinate Indigenous TEK to Cartesian science. Although it is a symbolic recognition of the value of Peruvian Indigenous Peoples, other mechanisms are still required to redress the long history of colonization and racism.

Shallow water marine habitat mapping of Kaledupa Island using integrating tradisional ecological knowledge and multispectral image classification

Marine scientists had applied many remote sensing methods to shallow-water marine habitat mapping. However, integrating traditional ecological knowledge and remote sensing application to produce marine habitat map was still very limited. The aims of this study are to try to implement the integration of traditional ecological knowledge and multispectral image classification for shallow-water marine habitat mapping in the marine protected area (MPA) of Kaledupa Island, Wakatobi National Park (WNP). Imagery data used was Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (2016). Fishers from Kaledupa Island visually interpreted Landsat 8 OLI multispectral image to identify sangnga (live coral), sangnga mate (dead coral), rondo (lamun), and one (sand). Their interpretations were used as input to image supervised classification with Mahalanobis and Maximum Likelihood. Then, habitat mapping with four classes could be produced. Results indicate that marine habitat mapping can be generated well by combining traditional ecological knowledge and multi-spectral image classification, Mahalanobis with the overall accuracy 71.67% and kappa statistic 0.62%; Maximum Likelihood Analysis with the overall accuracy 73.33% and kappa statistic 0.65%. This hybrid method is useful to marine scientists and coastal resource managers in producing swallow-water marine habitat map and management planning of MPA.

Towards a Framework for the Integration of Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Meteorological Science in Seasonal Climate Forecasting: The Case of Smallholder Farmers in Zimbabwe

Global evidence shows that seasonal climate forecasting can be a useful strategy in adapting to the effects of climate change on agricultural production. Meteorological science based seasonal clima...

Classifying conservation targets based on the origin of motivation: implications over the success of community-based conservation projects

Community-based conservation (CBC) projects represent one approach to biodiversity conservation when working with indigenous and local people. This method aims to achieve conservation and development goals simultaneously, however whether both types of goals can be met or whether competition between the two precludes success is an issue of much discussion. Conservation targets are one of the most important elements upon which a conservation project is built. We propose that one way to link biodiversity conservation with human development goals is to consider people’s needs and interests in the selection of the conservation target. Here, we present three categories of conservation targets that vary according to the origin of motivation that drives indigenous and local people to conserve the target. According to the type of target selected, the level of participation, integration of traditional ecological knowledge, level of external intervention and long-term sustainability will vary. We encourage conservation practitioners to understand the motivations that lead indigenous and local people to participate in conservation projects, and to develop and design CBC projects from these incentives.

Perceptions of the value of traditional ecological knowledge to formal school curricula: opportunities and challenges from Malekula Island, Vanuatu.

BackgroundThe integration of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) into formal school curricula may be a key tool for the revitalisation of biocultural diversity, and has the potential to improve the delivery of educational objectives. This paper explores perceptions of the value of TEK to formal education curricula on Malekula Island, Vanuatu. We conducted 49 interviews with key stakeholders (local TEK experts, educators, and officials) regarding the use of the formal school system to transmit, maintain, and revitalise TEK. Interviews also gathered information on the areas where TEK might add value to school curricula and on the perceived barriers to maintaining and revitalising TEK via formal education programs.ResultsParticipants reported that TEK had eroded on Malekula, and identified the formal school system as a principal driver. Most interviewees believed that if an appropriate format could be developed, TEK could be included in the formal education system. Such an approach has potential to maintain customary knowledge and practice in the focus communities. Participants identified several specific domains of TEK for inclusion in school curricula, including ethnomedical knowledge, agricultural knowledge and practice, and the reinforcement of respect for traditional authority and values. However, interviewees also noted a number of practical and epistemological barriers to teaching TEK in school. These included the cultural diversity of Malekula, tensions between public and private forms of knowledge, and multiple values of TEK within the community.ConclusionsTEK has potential to add value to formal education systems in Vanuatu by contextualising the content and process of curricular delivery, and by facilitating character development and self-awareness in students. These benefits are congruent with UNESCO-mandated goals for curricular reform and provide a strong argument for the inclusion of TEK in formal school systems. Such approaches may also assist in the maintenance and revitalisation of at-risk systems of ethnobiological knowledge. However, we urge further research attention to the significant epistemological challenges inherent in including TEK in formal school, particularly as participants noted the potential for such approaches to have negative consequences.

Tribal-Federal Collaboration in Resource Management

The increase in collaborative projects involving American Indian tribes and natural resource management agencies in the United States reflects two emergent trends: 1) the use of collaborative approaches between agencies and groups in managing natural resources; and 2) the concurrent increased recognition of American Indian rights, institutionalization of consultation processes, and a general movement of Indian self-determination. This article focuses on institutional mechanisms that bring together tribes and natural resource management agencies in collaborative processes to achieve mutually desired resource management objectives. Using qualitative analysis of data from ten collaborative projects across the United States, we identify attributes of collaborative arrangements emerging from tribal–federal collaboration: decision-making authority; transfer of funds from agency to the tribe(s); the level of mutual dependency; the sharing or transfer of various forms of knowledge, including scientific and cultural; and responsibility for conducting management field work. Examining the similarities and differences across the attributes, we characterize the projects into five types (co-management, contractual, cooperative, working relationship, and conservation easement), and find that considerable variation exists in the forms and functions of tribal–federal collaborative arrangements. We explore two types of collaborative arrangements in more depth to better understand what factors influence the integration of traditional ecological knowledge. Comparing gray wolf (Canis lupus) recovery in Idaho and forest restoration in northern California, we find that traditional ecological knowledge was a key factor in initiating both collaborative projects, but also that the application of traditional ecological knowledge on-the-ground differed. Donoghue et al. / Tribal–Federal Collaboration Forests (Lesko and Thakali 2001), the Navajo hogan project (KenCairn 2002), and Yakama Nation huckleberry management on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest (Fisher 1997). Contracts, memoranda of understanding, and partnership agreements define the collaborative processes and rules for many types of natural resource projects. Although mechanisms provide structure to collaboration, many aspects of stakeholder participation are not formally defined, including how mutual objectives are identified, how information is shared, how work is done on-the-ground, how financial and human resources are used, and how knowledge is respected, shared and transferred. Norms and culture shape the roles and responsibilities of participants in collaborative processes. Resource management agencies have rules and procedures and a culture of management; American Indians have distinct norms, beliefs, values and traditions related to the environment and resource management. Although there are many definitions and forms of traditional ecological knowledge, for many American Indian tribes, traditional ecological knowledge is the reflection of cultural norms and practices that influence how tribal members steward and coexist in natural environments. Traditional ecological knowledge is important in collaborative arrangements because it brings other forms of knowledge and practice to solve resource management problems, and creates opportunities for mutual learning and building respect for different ways of knowing. Given that these collaborative arrangements tend to explicitly define roles and responsibilities, this research asks the question to what extent do formal institutions, such as contracts and partnership agreements, limit or facilitate the integration of traditional ecological knowledge in collaborative resource management projects? And, does this vary depending on the type of institutional arrangement that governs the col-

Integrating Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Ecological Science: a Question of Scale

The benefits and challenges of integrating traditional ecological knowledge and scientific knowledge have led to extensive discussions over the past decades, but much work is still needed to facilitate the articulation and co-application of these two types of knowledge. Through two case studies, we examined the integration of traditional ecological knowledge and scientific knowledge by emphasizing their complementarity across spatial and temporal scales. We expected that combining Inuit traditional ecological knowledge and scientific knowledge would expand the spatial and temporal scales of currently documented knowledge on the arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) and the greater snow goose (Chen caerulescens atlantica), two important tundra species. Using participatory approaches in Mittimatalik (also known as Pond Inlet), Nunavut, Canada, we documented traditional ecological knowledge about these species and found that, in fact, it did expand the spatial and temporal scales of current scientific knowledge for local arctic fox ecology. However, the benefits were not as apparent for snow goose ecology, probably because of the similar spatial and temporal observational scales of the two types of knowledge for this species. Comparing sources of knowledge at similar scales allowed us to gain confidence in our conclusions and to identify areas of disagreement that should be studied further. Emphasizing complementarities across scales was more powerful for generating new insights and hypotheses. We conclude that determining the scales of the observations that form the basis for traditional ecological knowledge and scientific knowledge represents a critical step when evaluating the benefits of integrating these two types of knowledge. This is also critical when examining the congruence or contrast between the two types of knowledge for a given subject.

Emergence of Indigenous Vegetation Classifications Through Integration of Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Remote Sensing Analyses

Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) can play an important role in the understanding of ecological systems. Although TEK has complemented scientific and managerial programs in a variety of contexts, its formal incorporation into remote sensing exercises has to date been limited. Here, we show that the vegetation classifications of the Ache, an indigenous hunter-gatherer tribe of the Mbaracayu Forest Reserve in Paraguay, are reflected in a supervised classification of satellite imagery of the reserve. Accuracy of classification was toward the low end of the range of published values, but was reasonable given the difficult nature of separating forest classes from satellite images. Comparison of the resultant map with a more traditionally elaborated vegetation map highlights differences between the two approaches and the gain in information obtained by considering TEK classifications. We suggest that integration of TEK and remote sensing may provide alternative insights into the ecology of vegetation communities and land cover, particularly in remote and densely forested areas where ecological field research is often limited by roads and/or trail systems.