Traditional Ecological Knowledge

Conservation Ethos in Local Traditions: The West Bengal Heritage

by Debal Deb

Introducing Ethnobiology Letters

by Steve Wolverton

Steve Wolverton, Cynthia Fowler, David Cozzo

Ethnobiology Letters (EBL) is a peer-reviewed journal for short papers on topics related to ‘the study of human and... more Ethnobiology Letters (EBL) is a peer-reviewed journal for short papers on topics related to ‘the study of human and plant and animal interactions.’ The journal was created to address a few needs that were explicated during the Society of Ethnobiology annual board meeting in 2010 in Victoria, BC. First, there is no outlet dedicated to publishing short papers for ethnobiologists. Second, the Journal of Ethnobiology, from time to time, receives papers that present important data but that do not fit the mission of the journal to publish full-length, problem-oriented articles. Finally, the Journal of Ethnobiology is published twice per year; an open-access journal will publish a stream of papers between the two issues. To address these concerns, we decided to create a new complementary journal for the purpose of partnering with the Journal of Ethnobiology and our new, online monograph series Contributions in Ethnobiology. We immediately envisioned an open-access fully online journal to fill this niche, and EBL was born. We are interested in publishing a variety of types of papers, which we discuss in the rest of this letter.

HUNTING AND MORALITY AS ELEMENTS OF TRADITIONAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE

by Nick Reo

The legitimacy of contemporary subsistence hunting practices of North American Indians has been questioned because of... more The legitimacy of contemporary subsistence hunting practices of North American Indians has been questioned because of hunters’ use of modern technologies and integration of wage-based and subsistence livelihoods. The legitimacy of tribal traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) has been questioned on similar grounds and used as justification for ignoring tribal perspectives on critical natural resource conservation and development issues. This paper examines hunting on the Lac du Flambeau Indian Reservation in North Central Wisconsin, USA. The study documents contemporary hunting practices and the traditional moral code that informs hunting-related behaviors and judgments. Subsistence hunting is framed in the context of TEK and attention focused on the interplay between TEK’s practical and moral dimensions. Results indicate the importance of traditional moral codes in guiding a community’s contemporary hunting practices and the inseparability and interdependence of epistemological, practical, and ethical dimensions of TEK.

Importance of Belief Systems in Traditional Ecological Knowledge

by Nick Reo

Healthy country, healthy people: policy implications of links between Indigenous human health and environmental condition in tropical Australia

by Tess Lea

Development, heroism and the indigenous life project

by Tess Lea

The Ethnobotany of Europe, Past and Present

by Manuel Pardo de Santayana

PARDO DE SANTAYANA, M. A. PIERONI & R. PURI (2010). In Pardo de Santayana, M., A. Pieroni & R. Puri (eds.). Ethnobotany in the New Europe: People, Health and Wild Plant Resources: 1-15.

Taking Charge of the Bras d'Or: Ecological Politics in the "Land of Fog"

by William T. Hipwell

Author's PhD thesis, 2001

"The Lore of the Lake: A Call for the (RE)-envisioning the Legends and Myths from Kitchi Gami (Lake Superior)"

by Michel S Beaulieu

co-authored with Harvey Lemelin. In Lake Tourism Research: Towards Sustaining Communities and Lake Environments, eds. Norman McIntyre, et al. Thunder Bay: Lakehead University Centre for Tourism and Community Development Research, 2010, pp. 27-35.

Keeping the Local Local: Recalibrating the Status of Science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in Education.

by Michiel van Eijck

Indigenous Knowledge Governance System: A holistic model for indigenous knowledge management.

by Tariq Zaman

Tariq, Z., Yeo, A. W, Narayanan, K., (2011). Indigenous Knowledge Governance System: A holistic model for indigenous knowledge management. ELOKA Workshop: Data Management and Local Knowledge: Building a Network to Support Community-Based Research and Monitoring., University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A.

There are more than 30 million people living in South East Asia who can be classified as indigenous minorities. For... more There are more than 30 million people living in South East Asia who can be classified as indigenous minorities. For indigenous communities their knowledge is the main resource not merely for economic gains but also for their survival. The scientific community and organisations focuses on Indigenous Knowledge (IK) management as management of corpus of facts rather than management of and by a living system. IK as a living system has a much broader understanding of indigenous people and system as the community places themselves in relation to the environment in which they live. It is well acknowledged that use of ICTs for indigenous cultural preservation and revitalization can lead to several challenges. The Open Data movement is an example. This study will adapted the use of current knowledge management tools in the realization of a holistic approach to model Indigenous Knowledge Governance System (IKGS). The research methodology is comprises of two components first an intensive process of knowledge management system audit where the current community knowledge management practices and processes would discover while in second phase a generic framework of IKGS would propose. In this paper we present KM assessment tool for indigenous communities which has been tested in remote community in Bario, Sarawak. On the bases of our assessment of IKM of Bario, community capacity and resources, we have developed a IKGS framework and strategy map for Bario community. The framework developed has been instrumental in delivering strategies to best address the particular needs for effectively empowering indigenous communities. The newly formulated Malaysia National ICT R & D framework emphasizes on the provision of info-structures via tools, technologies and methodologies to support knowledge management (ranging from acquisition, through organization to application) as well as develop creative content with core competency in providing various media content, access, services and products. Our proposed research will support the second layer of the National ICT R & D framework that is generic processors for multilingual, multimedia, multimodal, knowledge management technology. This paper will highlight some of the lessons learnt during our replication and deployment process of the project using the eBario Project as an initial guide.

How Fishers Count: Engaging with Fishers Knowledge in Fisheries Science and Management

by Tim Daw

Traditional knowledge of wild edible plants used in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal): a comparative study

by Javier Tardío

Pardo de Santayana, M., J. Tardío, E. Blanco, A.M. Carvalho, J.J. Lastra, E. San Miguel, and R. Morales. 2007. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 3:27

Cultural Importance Indices: A Comparative Analysis Based on the Useful Wild Plants of Southern Cantabria (Northern Spain)

by Javier Tardío

Tardío, J. and M. Pardo de Santayana. 2008. Economic Botany 62(1):24-39.

Knowledge, use and ecology of golden thistle (Scolymus hispanicus L.) in Central Spain

by Javier Tardío

Polo, S., J. Tardío, A. Vélez-del-Burgo, M. Molina, and M. Pardo-de-Santayana. 2009. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 5(1):42

Tecnologie digitali, rappresentazioni del territorio e ricerca etnoantropologica: le fonti orali e la rappresentazione del territorio

by Fabio Malfatti

Malfatti, F. 2011, Tecnologie digitali, rappresentazioni del territorio e ricerca etnoantropologica. Le fonti orali e la rappresentazione del territorio, in: "Quaderni di Thule," n. X, vol. Atti del XXXII Convegno Internazionale di Americanistica.

Le attività di ricerca previste nel progetto Formazione istituzionale, ricerca e documentazione per lo sviluppo... more Le attività di ricerca previste nel progetto Formazione istituzionale, ricerca e documentazione per lo sviluppo agroforestale sostenibile delle comunità mapuche dell’area di Coñaripe, Cile ci hanno consentito di affinare una metodologia di integrazione tra dati registrati in formato digitale (video, audio, fotografia, dati GPS), l’uso di software per l’analisi qualitativa di dati audiovisivi (Transana) e SIT (GIS), per realizzare una cartografia del territorio che rispettasse il punto di vista delle comunità mapuche coinvolte nel progetto, ma anche quello dei vari attori coinvolti (istituzioni, organizzazioni non governative, ricercatori). Ne è scaturita un’interessante ipotesi metodologica in fase di sperimentazione che integra dati etnografici, etnobotanici, remote sensing e rappresentazioni cartografiche digitali.

FIGHTING BIOPIRACY AT THE SOURCE: SENSITIZING INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES TO WESTERNIZED INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND THE THREAT OF BIOPIRACY

by Johanna Staral

This is a draft copy of a paper that will be presented at IATED 2012 Valencia in March. The final paper will be published in the proceedings of the IATED 2012 conference. Please no citation or quotation without author permission. However, feedback and comments are very welcome.

International intellectual property law has failed to adequately protect the biological resources and traditional... more International intellectual property law has failed to adequately protect the biological resources and traditional knowledge of indigenous people from biopiracy. International treaty bodies continue to seek solutions to the biopiracy problem, but greater participation from indigenous communities in these negotiations is essential. Before effective participation can take place, an effort to expose these communities to westernized intellectual property law in a culturally relevant way is needed. Non-profit organizations working on the ground in developing countries find themselves in a unique position to foster an understanding of intellectual property ownership among the community and business leaders in indigenous populations. Sensitizing members of indigenous communities will allow for greater participation in both domestic and international policy making, more control over the biological resources and traditional knowledge, and a better understanding of the benefits and possible risks under the current international framework. We propose the development of a customizable digital learning module that can be disseminated to these target populations through the existing framework of non-profit organizations in developing countries. This educational system will introduce the concept of IPRs using interactive technology and multilateral-sharing on how different regional cultures control the dissemination of TK; first comparing them to each other and then to the international system of IPRs. Once an indigenous community clearly understands the position of the developed world and the differences in their conception of traditional knowledge, culture and intellectual property, they will be able to identify the needs and concerns of their people in regards to the international policies that so deeply affect them.

Patrimonio natural, usos tradicionales y conservación: Opinión.

by Manuel Pardo de Santayana

PARDO DE SANTAYANA, M. & R. MORALES (2001). Quercus 189: 64-65.

Promoting Wellness in Alaskan Villages: Integrating Traditional Knowledge and Science of Wild Berries

by Ewan Robinson

The king of the forest: Local knowledge about European brown bears (Ursus arctos) and implications for their conservation in contemporary Western Macedonia

by Nicolas Lescureux

Co authored with Nicolas Lescureux, John D.C. Linnell, Sabit Mustafa, Dime Melovski, Aleksandar Stojanov, Gjorge Ivanov, Vasko Avukatov

Published in Conservation & Society 2011 volume 9 issue 3 pp. 189-201

From a conservation point of view, Macedonia's brown bear (Ursus arctos) population appears to be a key link in the... more From a conservation point of view, Macedonia's brown bear (Ursus arctos) population appears to be a key link in the distribution of one of Europe's largest brown bear populations, the Dinaric-Pindos population. The lack of information concerning the bear population in the Republic of Macedonia and bear acceptance by local people inspired us to explore local knowledge and perceptions concerning bears that could be relevant for their conservation. Accordingly, we adopted a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews to determine how the specific behaviour and ecology of bears can influence, through interactions, local peoples' knowledge and perceptions. Our results show that due to numerous interactions, the informants' knowledge appeared to be detailed and consistent, both internally and with existing scientific literature about bears. Bear specific behaviour allows them to be located, individualised and thus appropriated by villagers, and also to be identified as an alter-ego. For the villagers, the occasional harmfulness of a bear is not the result of a general characteristic of bears in general, but of some individual bear's behaviour. Finally, bears enjoy a relatively good image as long as local people can react against individuals that cause damage. However, direct or indirect poaching of bears is still a main concern for the Macedonian brown bear's conservation.