Integrating remote sensing and local ecological knowledge to monitor rangeland dynamics

Rangelands are among the most extensive anthropogenic landscapes on earth, supporting nearly 500 million people. Disagreements over the extent and severity of rangeland degradation affect pastoralist livelihoods, especially when impacts of drought and over-grazing are confounded. While vegetation indices (such as NDVI, or Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) derived from remotely sensed imagery are often used to monitor rangelands, their strategic integration with local ecological knowledge (LEK) is under-appreciated. Here, we explore these complementary approaches in Kyrgyzstan’s pasture-rich province of Naryn, where disagreements regarding pasture degradation could greatly benefit from additional information. We examine a time series of MODIS satellite imagery (2000–2015) to characterize browning trends in vegetation as well as to distinguish between climate- and grazing-induced trends. We also compare and contrast measured trends with LEK perceptions of pasture degradation. To do so, we first examine statistical trends in NDVI as well as in NDVI residuals after de-trending with meteorological data. Second, we use participatory mapping to identify areas local pasture managers believe are overgrazed, a particularly useful approach in lieu of reliable historical stocking rates for livestock in this region. Lastly, we compare the strengths and weaknesses of LEK and remote sensing for landscape monitoring.Browning trends were widespread as declining trends in NDVI (and NDVI residuals) covered 24% (and 9%) of the landscape, respectively. Local managers’ perceptions of pasture degradation better reflected trends seen in NDVI than in climate-controlled NDVI residuals, suggesting patterns in the latter are less apparent to managers. Our approach demonstrated great potential for the integration of two inexpensive and effective methods of rangeland monitoring well-suited to the country’s needs. Despite limitations due to terrain, our approach was most successful within the semi-arid steppe where pasture degradation is believed to be most severe. In many parts of the world, sources of long-term spatially extensive data are rare or even non-existent. Thus, paired LEK and remote sensing can contribute to comprehensive and informative assessments of land degradation, especially where contentious management issues intersect with sparse data availability. LEK is a valuable source of complementary information to remote sensing and should be integrated more routinely and formally into landscape monitoring. To aid this endeavor, we synthesize advice for linking LEK and remote sensing across diverse landscape situations.     

The missing wetlands: using local ecological knowledge to find cryptic ecosystems

Small, temporally dynamic, biologically diverse isolated wetlands are among the most imperiled ecosystems, yet their conservation is hindered by lack of protective legislation and mapping. As part of an effort to better understand isolated wetland ecology in an area undergoing dramatic land use change, we mapped isolated wetlands in South Carolina’s Piedmont and Blue Ridge regions using remote sensing and local ecological knowledge (LEK). Remote detection of isolated wetlands was limited by digital resource resolution, topography, and wetland size. LEK was the most useful tool for locating small isolated wetlands. We sampled 10% of the study area using LEK and discovered 44 wetlands with “isolated” characteristics, none of which had been identified by remote sensing. Only 8 of 44 wetlands found through LEK could be identified using remote sensing after their discovery. LEK fills a gap in cryptic ecosystem detection when adequate remotely sensed data are not available. Though effective, using LEK is neither as rapid nor as repeatable as remote sensing. We suggest a two-pronged approach for finding cryptic ecosystems: remote sensing coupled with LEK where data resolution is inadequate. For remote detection of isolated wetlands, we suggest a minimum resolution of 0.33 m for Color Infrared, leaf-off, high-water photography. Despite great advances in remote sensing, data are not uniformly available worldwide and LEK may serve as an effective tool for locating cryptic resources for biodiversity conservation. Mapping cryptic resources will allow for more accurate resource and biodiversity conservation planning under current and future climate scenarios.     

Hatching Knowledge: A Case Study on the Hybridization of Local Ecological Knowledge and Scientific Knowledge in Small-Scale Atlantic Salmon (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Salmo salar</Emphasis>) Cultivation in Norway

We investigate drivers of hybridization of local ecological knowledge (LEK) and scientific knowledge (SK) in small-scale Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) fisheries in western Norway through a case study from the Ørsta River. We find three primary drivers of knowledge hybridization in local fishing groups as part of wild Atlantic salmon cultivation activities: facilitating intergenerational knowledge exchange, coping with regulatory change, and improving the perceived validity of local knowledge sets. We also identify three challenges to knowledge hybridization, and discuss how both drivers and challenges relate to once complementary SK and LEK sets that have diverged as SK has become more technical and complex. We examine the processes by which LEK and SK develop, evolve, and are used to facilitate wild salmon conservation in these fisheries and discuss the role hatcheries can play adapting and utilizing large-scale SK and salmon policy to the local environment through hybridization processes. We conclude with recommendations as to how reframing managerial views on hatcheries as facilitators of knowledge production and transfer may improve both the accessibility of SK to local communities and the integration of LEK into Norwegian wild salmon management.     

Trends and prospects for local knowledge in ecological and conservation research and monitoring

Local ecological knowledge (LEK) of those who earn their livelihoods from natural environments has long been recognized as providing far-reaching insights into ecological processes. It is being increasingly used by ecologists to address diverse questions that often focus on applied conservation issues and may incorporate local knowledge with biological data from more conventional research and monitoring. We characterize how LEK has been used in the ecological and conservation literature over the last 25 years by broadly examining 360 journals and by evaluating 12 prominent ecological and conservation journals in greater detail. Over this period, the use of LEK has increased considerably, although only 0.01% of papers in the broad and 0.42% of those in the more detailed evaluation incorporated LEK. Despite this increase, LEK-based publications remain nearly absent from the more established theoretical literature and are largely restricted to more recent and arguably less prestigious applied and interdisciplinary journals. Most LEK studies used interviews, but generally failed to actively include community members in the research process. Changes to the research and publishing process that include local people and address these shortcomings and the broader issues of power and influence in the sciences are critical to the successful utilization of LEK. These changes are necessary for the appropriate depiction of these knowledge systems and to ensure that local knowledge holders will continue participating in ecological research aimed at conservation.     

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK): Ideas,inspiration, and designs for ecological engineering

In coming years society will be forced to adapt to lower energy levels due to projected declines in non-renewable energies. This will increase the challenge to ecological engineers to design sustainable ecosystems, driven by renewable energies to benefit society and the environment. This paper introduces the field of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) as an important source of ideas, inspiration and designs to help our profession meet this challenge. TEK refers to ecological knowledge and practices of indigenous and local cultures. Because these practices originated and evolved prior to the era of fossil-fuel dominance, they were designed and have continuously adapted to utilize renewable energies and resources. TEK is also well suited to sustainable design due to philosophical differences with Western science and culture. While Western culture views society as apart from and controlling ecosystems, indigenous cultures routinely see themselves as embedded within ecosystems. Because TEK has declined as the influence of Western culture has spread, there is an urgent need to identify and apply this knowledge for future benefit. Collaboration with scientists can help raise the social standing of indigenous people and of TEK within their own communities, thus contributing to cultural survival while maintaining this information. Applications of TEK relevant to ecological engineering including water management and agriculture in the Americas are highlighted.     

Hiding in the dark: Local ecological knowledge about slow loris in Sarawak sheds light on relationships between human populations and wild animals

Local ecological knowledge (LEK) increases understanding of certain species and the threats they face, especially little-studied taxa for which data on distribution and conservation are often lacking. We conducted 111 semi-structured interviews in Sarawak, Malaysia, to collect local knowledge about the behavior and distribution of the Philippine slow loris (Nycticebus menagensis) from two ethnic groups, the Iban and the Penan. Our study revealed that male Penan respondents, generally hunters, who frequently go into the forest were better at identifying animals from pictures. Overall, the Penan have a more detailed knowledge of slow loris behaviors, habitat, and distribution than the Iban. The two ethnic groups have different attitudes towards slow loris as the Penan hunt, eat, or keep them as pets while the Iban consider them sacred and signifiers of good luck. We advocate the use of LEK for providing complementary information to scientific methods in the study of cryptic animals.     

Application of traditional ecological knowledge in the management and sustainability of fisheries in East Africa: a long-neglected strategy?

Management and sustainability of fisheries has been guided by theories and models derived from modern ecological science. Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) has been ignored in all spheres of decision-making for management and sustainability of fisheries in East Africa. TEK guided African communities in the way they associated and interacted with the natural environment around them. Spiritual rituals, religious practices, social taboos and sacred animal totems guided the peoples on how and when to utilize the available natural resources. In the advent of modern scientific knowledge, the African traditional knowledge quickly faded away and is generally seen as irrelevant. Today the potential of TEK in the management and sustainability of fisheries in East Africa has not been realized and its status and future is unknown. TEK should be complementary to modern scientific knowledge in the management and sustainability of fisheries. This paper therefore focuses on the potential application of TEK in the management and sustainability of fisheries in East Africa and the issues that impede its application.     

Who Knows? On the Importance of Identifying “Experts” When Researching Local Ecological Knowledge

Documenting local ecological knowledge (LEK) has recently become a topic of considerable interest within the social research, development, and indigenous rights communities. For instance, LEK is thought to offer a substantial alternative to existing, largely top–down, natural resource management regimes. LEK informed resource management systems would acknowledge peoples' experiences and priorities, while also providing people with additional means of empowerment. Given these qualities, one might reasonably expect that rigorous design and methodological attributes will characterize LEK research, particularly respecting the procedures employed to identify and to select local knowledge experts. Our review of the recent social research literature suggests that insufficient attention is given both to reporting the methods employed and to employing systematic approaches, especially with regard to the critical issue of how local experts are identified. We detail a research design that systematically solicited peer recommendations of fisheries local knowledge experts in a study focused on two northeast Nova Scotian embayments. Finally, we argue that in order to achieve the stated purposes and potentials of LEK research, researchers need to become more attentive to reporting on the methods employed and to employing systematic approaches than is currently the case.     

Chinanteco management ofAechmea Magdalenae: Implications for the use of TEK and TRM in management plans

The importance of incorporating traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and traditional resource management (TRM) into resource management plans is increasingly recognized, but little quantitative data exists on the ecological and economic implications of these systems. We quantitatively evaluate the TEK and TRM associated with the nontimber forest species, Aechmea magdalenae, in indigenous Chinanteco communities in Mexico. Two TRM systems forA. magdalenae are described and their effects on growth rates of individuals and populations are measured. Simulations using matrix population models combined with yield experiments reveal that one management system is higher yielding and less costly than the other. Thinning and transplanting are two of the most important management practices that enable populations to withstand higher rates of harvest than those predicted in a management plan that was not based on TRM. Quantitative evaluation of Chinanteco TEK is used to discuss how it may be best combined with science in management plans for nontimber forest species.     

Traditional Ecological Knowledge of a Riverine Forest in Turkana, Kenya: Implications for Research and Management

The present study explores traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of Turkana pastoralists and cultivators in the context of a riverine forest in northern Kenya. The Turkwel River and its floodplain sustain a thick forest, which is used for grazing and extraction of non-timber forest products. However, sedentarisation and agricultural expansion have resulted in localised clear-felling of trees, while river damming has altered the natural flow regime. A series of structured, semi-structured, and group interviews were combined with a botanical inventory in order to assess the relevance of TEK to ecological research and forest conservation. Turkana informants gave 102 vernacular names for the 113 woody species. Of these, 85% had a domestic or pastoral use among the 105 specific uses that were described. Ethnobotanical knowledge was relatively homogenous and not related to age, gender, or source of livelihood. The informants had in-depth knowledge of some key ecological processes. The conceived threats to forest survival were primarily cultivation and permanent settlements, while the effects of river damming and livestock grazing were disputed. A claimed decline in rainfall was confirmed by official data. There is strong evidence that TEK could be used to generate hypotheses for research and to design sustainable conservation strategies. A revised version of the indigenous system of tree management should be incorporated into the official forestry policy in order to resolve future conflicts between pastoralists and cultivators.     

Shifting Baselines on a Tropical Forest Frontier: Extirpations Drive Declines in Local Ecological Knowledge

The value of local ecological knowledge (LEK) to conservation is increasingly recognised, but LEK is being rapidly lost as indigenous livelihoods change. Biodiversity loss is also a driver of the loss of LEK, but quantitative study is lacking. In our study landscape in SW China, a large proportion of species have been extirpated. Hence, we were interested to understand whether species extirpation might have led to an erosion of LEK and the implications this might have for conservation. So we investigated peoples'' ability to name a selection of birds and mammals in their local language from pictures. Age was correlated to frequency of forest visits as a teenager and is likely to be closely correlated to other known drivers of the loss of LEK, such as declining forest dependence. We found men were better at identifying birds overall and that older people were better able to identify birds to the species as compared to group levels (approximately equivalent to genus). The effect of age was also stronger among women. However, after controlling for these factors, species abundance was by far the most important parameter in determining peoples'' ability to name birds. People were unable to name any locally extirpated birds at the species level. However, contrary to expectations, people were better able to identify extirpated mammals at the species level than extant ones. However, extirpated mammals tend to be more charismatic species and several respondents indicated they were only familiar with them through TV documentaries. Younger people today cannot experience the sights and sounds of forest animals that their parents grew up with and, consequently, knowledge of these species is passing from cultural memory. We suggest that engaging older members of the community and linking the preservation of LEK to biodiversity conservation may help generate support for conservation.     

Adaptive Co-Management and Grizzly Bear-Human Conflicts in Two Northern Canadian Aboriginal Communities

It has been postulated that the emergence of adaptive co-management can be driven by crises that transform social-ecological systems with low resilience. We compared two concurrent case studies of grizzly bear-human conflicts in northern Canada to assess whether such crises could effect such transformations in bear-human systems. We conclude that they can, evaluate the outcomes, and identify conditions that may explain these observations. For remote communities, horizontal and vertical institutional connections are important for facilitating learning and the integration of information in wildlife management, yet they can be difficult to establish. Events in Baker Lake, Nunavut, showed that without such connections local peoples’ substantial ecological knowledge may not be integrated effectively into decision processes. In the Inuvialuit Settlement Region the quota system for grizzly bear harvests has been able to successfully incorporate both scientific and traditional ecological knowledge, largely because of its cross-scale institutional network. The leadership provided by individual champions was also an important determinant of both case studies’ outcomes.     

Fishers' Knowledge of Marine Species Assemblages: Bridging between Scientific and Local Ecological Knowledge in Southeastern Puerto Rico

Increasingly, local ecological knowledge (LEK) held by groups of people engaging directly with their ecosystems for food production is recognized as a valuable tool for understanding environmental change, as well as for ecosystem management and conservation. However, the acceptance of LEK for resource management has been partly hindered by difficulties in translating local knowledge into a form that can be applied directly to Western scientific endeavors. Anthropology's focus on cultural meaning makes its practitioners uniquely qualified to find common ground between different systems of knowledge. Here, I report the use of ethnographic methods to represent Puerto Rican small-scale fishers' knowledge about tropical coastal habitat connectivity and the composition of species assemblages by underwater habitats. These two topics are of current interest for tropical fishery science and their study can benefit from fishers' extensive experience with the coastal environments on which they depend.     

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

People draw upon multiple forms of environmental knowledge, from scientific to highly contextual local or traditional forms of knowledge, to interpret problems and gauge risks in complex socio-ecological systems. In collaboration with three remote Alaska Native communities, and using an interdisciplinary, participatory, and mixed methods research approach, we explored traditional ecological knowledge and scientific aspects of wild berries and the broader context of community health and environmental change. Combining site visits, key informant interviews, focus groups, survey questionnaires, portable field bioassays, and laboratory follow-up analyses, our research revealed the importance of local subsistence resources for community wellness. Multiple berry species were found to have powerful bioactive health properties for ameliorating metabolic syndrome as well as importance for community wellness. Communities differed in the degree to which they characterized berries as healthy foods and perceived environmental risks including climate change. Findings suggest the importance of incorporating locally available foods and socio-cultural traditions into community wellness programming. This article also discusses challenges and opportunities associated with transdisciplinary, participatory research with indigenous communities.     

Coppice Harvesting of Fuelwood Species on a South African Common: Utilizing Scientific and Indigenous Knowledge in Community Based Natural Resource Management

The limitations of Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) with respect to the difficulties of comparing local versus scientific knowledge categories within a bounded definition of ‘community’ were investigated by means of a study exploring local indigenous knowledge pertaining to harvesting technique, and the impact of soil and species type on the post-harvest coppice response of popular savanna fuelwood species, among rural inhabitants of the Bushbuckridge region of the Limpopo Province, South Africa. Soils and plants were evaluated chiefly in terms of their perceived ability to retain precipitation, making rainfall a driving force in local understanding of environmental productivity. Some indigenous knowledge showed an agreement with biological data, but overall the variability in responses, as well as the diverse scales at which indigenous and scientific knowledge is directed, were too great to allow for simplistic parallels between local ecological indices to be made. Indigenous environmental knowledge was underscored by the perceived symbolic link between environmental and social degradation. It is recommended that environmental managers incorporate indigenous knowledge as a component of a systems-level approach to natural resource management, where biological, cultural, economic, and symbolic aspects of natural resource use are nested within a broader ecosocial system. This approach to indigenous knowledge is offered as an alternative to the simple scientific evaluation that so often characterizes environmental management.     

传统生态知识的民族生态学分析框架

传统生态知识是民族生态学研究的核心范畴,国外已有多年的研究基础,国内的相关研究正是方兴未艾。通过文献查询和比较分析等方法,介绍了国外已有的传统生态知识的民族生态学分析框架的3个模型:知识-实践-信仰的三角形框架;本土经验知识-资源管理知识-社会制度知识-世界观知识的四椭圆框架;事实观察-管理体系-旧有及当下利用-伦理价值-文化特征-宇宙观的五边形框架。结合田野调查研究,提出了一个立体的传统生态知识的民族生态学分析模型,强调了传统生态知识的动态特征,将民族对于自然的被动认识和主动认知、民族人际关系规范、民族的哲学与伦理等方面所呈现出的传统生态知识进行了分类,从而为民族生态学的调查研究提供了方法上的建议。最后总结了这个立体的传统生态知识分析框架的意义,并建议在我国的生态文明建设中发展和应用民族生态学。     

Are Glaciers ‘Good to Think With’? Recognising Indigenous Environmental Knowledge 1

Lively debates in arctic and subarctic communities centre on potential contributions of indigenous knowledge to environmental sciences. Some scientists are now attempting to integrate traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) into existing knowledge frameworks as data. Anthropologists working with oral tradition propose an alternative approach. They reason that greater knowledge value, especially the possibility of surprises, may come from unfamiliar oral accounts that do not seem to fit easily within conventional frameworks. This paper builds on accounts I first heard from senior indigenous women in north-western North America about unorthodox behaviour of glaciers. These glaciers were depicted as sentient, wilful beings that responded directly and sometimes dramatically to human behaviour, often with devastating results. Similar themes are documented in colonial records where such ideas were discounted as ‘superstition’. Oral traditions, though, do not provide straightforward data for contemporary sciences. As practices such as oral storytelling now become recognised as knowledge and translated in new contexts, concepts like indigenous knowledge travel and accumulate meanings. Surging glaciers disrupt conceptual fields. Stories about them may prove good to ‘think with’ as we consider challenges of gathering diverse practices into the ubiquitous but narrowly framed category, knowledge.     

Have the Harmful Effects of Introduced Rats on Islands been Exaggerated?

Introduced rats are now being eradicated from many islands. Increasingly, these eradications are contested by activists claiming moral, legal, cultural, historic or scientific reasons and poorly documented evidence of effects. We reviewed the global literature on the effects of rats on island flora and fauna. We then used New Zealand as a case study because of its four-decade history of rat eradications and many detailed and innovative studies of how rats affect native species. These include use of exclosures, local manipulations of rat populations, video surveillance, and measurements of responses following eradications. The most intensive studies have been on the Pacific rat (Rattus exulans), a small South-East Asian species spread by Polynesians throughout the Pacific. These and the more recently introduced Norway rat (R. norvegicus) and ship (roof) rat (R. rattus) suppress some forest plants, and are associated with extinctions or declines of flightless invertebrates, ground-dwelling reptiles, land birds, and burrowing seabirds. On islands off France, Norway rats are also implicated in declines of shrews. Globally, ship rats were associated with declines or extinctions of the largest number of indigenous vertebrate species (60), including small mammals such as deer mice and bats. Effects of rats on forest trees and seabird populations are sufficiently pervasive to affect ecosystem structure and function. However, the data are patchy. Deficiencies in our knowledge would be reduced by documenting distribution and abundance of indigenous species before and after eradications. Comprehensive measurements of the responses of indigenous species to rat eradications would enable the development of testable models of rat invasion effects.     

Abstracts of papers presented at the 12th Biennial Conference of the Society for Research on Amphibians and Reptiles in New Zealand,University of Otago,Dunedin, New Zealand, 9–11 February 2007

Abstract

This study of customary harvests of sooty shearwater Puffinus griseus chicks by Rakiura Maori compares the utility of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and ecological science for understanding patterns in prey availability. We recorded TEK of 28 muttonbirders about emergence patterns and variation in chick size at different aspects of 14 breeding islands and in their coastal fringe compared to inland areas. Spatial and temporal variation of chick availability were measured using the methods of ecological science in the 2001 harvest season across Putauhinu Island, south west of Rakiura, New Zealand. As predicted by TEK, titi emerged earlier from west than east coast locations on Putauhinu. Scientific measures were also consistent with an earlier emergence in coastal compared to inland areas as asserted by TEK, but conclusive inference is potentially confounded by movement of chicks between burrows just before fledging. A TEK construct predicting heavier chicks on the west coast was not supported by scientific measurements. We also measured the characteristics of areas preferred for harvesting so that we could gauge representativeness of the areas “sampled” by the muttonbirders to accumulate their TEK. Within forested habitat, areas harvested by muttonbirders had 62–65% higher chick density than unharvested areas. The muttonbirders concentrated harvesting where there was less ground cover and taller canopy cover and only hunted on nights and times of the season when harvesting was most profitable. Therefore, TEK may be less able to detect wider‐scale variation and harvest impacts on prey in particular. Short runs of scientific information from spatially and temporally stratified sampling will complement and assist inference from longer term TEK. As shown in this case study, TEK and science often agree on pattern, but are likely to disagree on why a pattern exists.     

The local ecological knowledge of butterfly diversity is derived from utilitarian purposes in Southwest China’s biodiversity hotspot

Biodiversity and Conservation - Local ecological knowledge (LEK) is considered useful for biodiversity monitoring and conservation management. However, LEK may provide limited information if the...