Shepherding and the Dynamics of Intangible Heritage

This paper records the transformation process in rural husbandry activities, due to modernization and emphasizes the need for archiving some aspects of indigenous knowledge in the geographical area of Khaf in North East Iran. The researcher used descriptive- analytical method and with an applied approach. It suggests that modernization, within the changing operational use of pastures has increased livestock production on one hand, but has caused partial loss of employment, reduced income, increased migration, and degradation of renewable resources on the other hand. Thus, relying on the indigenous knowledge of livestock (environmental compliance) alone has not been able to provide socio-economic stability in rural communities. Combining indigenous and formal knowledge to balance a renewable resource management system is considered suitable approach in achieving rural sustainable development especially in a developing country like Iran.

Coffee farmers, members of Kramatjaya Forest Farmers Group in Garut Regency West Java, use Perhutani’s land to cultivate Arabica coffee. Apart from being a conservation area, this land is also arable volcanic soil and requires proper management that prioritizes coffee agribusiness aspects as well as ecological aspects, based on local and modern knowledge. This study implemented a knowledge management approach to reveal an understanding of local and modern ecological knowledge management in community coffee business practices. Empirical data were obtained through in-depth interviews and FGD. The research results show that for the last 10 years farmers have been utilizing Perhutani’s land to cultivate Arabica coffee by implementing modern coffee equipment and also adopting local ecological knowledge in each sub-system. Local knowledge in the production sub-system is demonstrated by terracing systems. In the sub-processing system, local knowledge is used in coffee processing using traditional methods, along with uses modern equipment. The study also shows that knowledge generation derived from external and internal sources, knowledge transfer came from the role of community leader and field school training, and knowledge application of coffee processing used modern technology through community leader networks.

Although it boasts a rich historical wealth of traditional ecological knowledge, the rural Eastern Cape of South Africa continues to be an environmental hotspot since the mid-twentieth century, suffering land degradation, overharvesting of resources and water scarcity. Over the years, much research effort has been directed to investigating how local communities use traditional knowledge to manage resources. By and large, the studies argue that traditional knowledge provided effective management strategies in the past, hence communities should continue using it. This raises the question: what is happening with traditional ecological knowledge in contemporary rural Eastern Cape in South Africa? To address this question, this work used snowball sampling to recruit 83 respondents from three villages of Colana, Gogela and Nozitshena for in-depth interviews. The respondents were elderly women and men whose families had at least a two-generation history of living in these villages. Using the meta-theory of critical realism, particularly its analytical tools of abduction, hermeneutics, dynamism and context, this work found that there are multiple factors, exogenous to traditional ecological knowledge, that make it fail to effectively address environmental challenges in the present-day rural Eastern Cape. They include changed worldviews, legal pluralism and changed lifestyles which are a consequence of adverse incorporation of traditional systems into the South African nation-state system. Indigenous practices, traditions, local ethics, taboos, social conventions, and other cultural practices, that ensured the usefulness of TEK, have been abandoned over time. Incorporation of rural traditional systems into the South African nation-state have been largely adverse. There has been little or no integration of TEK and the “imported” lifestyles. The application of the “plug-in” principle in this case, thus, faces a very formidable task despite the reality that it is the way to go to ensure sustainable natural resources management and the achievement of some of the SDGs.

Climate change puts indigenous people at greater risk than others. Nevertheless, because of their intimate knowledge of their land, indigenous peoples' traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) could be the answer to fighting climate change. This paper aims to explain the role that TEK plays in responding to climate change. Document analysis included grey literature as well as peer-reviewed literature and project websites linked to indigenous climate change adaptation knowledge. The findings show that TEK not only helps indigenous people cope with environmental and climate pressures, but also promotes socio-ecological system resilience.
 Keywords: climate change adaptation; traditional knowledge; traditional ecological knowledge; resilience
 eISSN 2398-4295 ©2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers (AMER); Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians / Africans / Arabians (ABRA); Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies (cE-Bs), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia
 DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ajbes.v5i19.194

This paper introduces the special feature of Ecology and Society entitled "Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Global Environmental Change. The special feature addresses two main research themes. The first theme concerns the resilience of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (hereafter TEK) and the conditions that might explain its loss or persistence in the face of global change. The second theme relates to new findings regarding the way in which TEK strengthens community resilience to respond to the multiple stressors of global environmental change. Those themes are analyzed using case studies from Africa, Asia, America and Europe. Theoretical insights and empirical findings from the studies suggest that despite the generalized worldwide trend of TEK erosion, substantial pockets of TEK persist in both developing and developed countries. A common trend on the studies presented here is hybridization, where traditional knowledge, practices, and beliefs are merged with novel forms of knowledge and technologies to create new knowledge systems. The findings also reinforce previous hypotheses pointing at the importance of TEK systems as reservoirs of experiential knowledge that can provide important insights for the design of adaptation and mitigation strategies to cope with global environmental change. Based on the results from papers in this feature, we discuss policy directions that might help to promote maintenance and restoration of living TEK systems as sources of social-ecological resilience.

The scale of climate change put indigenous people at higher risk than the others. Nonetheless, due to their intimate knowledge of their land, traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) held by the indigenous peoples may be the key to combating climate change. This article aims to explain the role that TEK plays in adapting to climate change. Document review included grey literature alongside peer-reviewed literature and project websites related to indigenous knowledge in climate change adaptation. The findings show that TEK not only helps indigenous people cope with environmental and climate pressures, but the knowledge system fosters resilience of socio-ecological systems.Keywords: climate change adaptation; traditional knowledge; traditional ecological knowledge; resilienceeISSN: 2398-4287 © 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/e-bpj.v5i13.2059

BackgroundThe incorporation of multiple types of knowledge (e.g., science, Indigenous knowledge, traditional ecological knowledge) is an important undertaking, which can strengthen the evidence-base for policy advice, decision making, and environmental management. While the benefits of incorporating multiple types of knowledge in environmental research and management are many, successfully doing so has remained a challenge. In response there has been a number of recent reviews that have sought to better understand the what and how, when it comes to bridging Indigenous and science-based knowledge. Yet there continues to be a need for methods, models, and approaches for integrative work. This systematic map seeks to examine the extent, range, and nature of the published literature (i.e., peer-reviewed and grey) that integrates and/or includes Indigenous and science-based knowledge in coastal-marine research, monitoring, or management in Canada. Results from this study can be used to inform new and ongoing research and monitoring efforts and highlight evidence gaps.MethodsThe systematic map will aim to capture all available studies relevant to the question found in the peer-reviewed and grey literature. Accordingly, the search will leverage four databases focused on peer reviewed publications, carefully selected specialist websites, and two web-based search engines. Reference sections of relevant review articles will also be cross-checked to identify articles that were not found using the search strategy. All searches will be conducted in English. Search results will be reviewed in two stages: (1) title and abstract; and (2) full text. All screening decisions will be included in the database. The systematic map will employ a narrative synthesis approach that will include the use of descriptive statistics, tables (including SM database), and figures (including map with the studies geospatially referenced). In addition, an online version of the map and queryable database will be developed similar to other knowledge mobilization tools.

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.

Northern British Columbia (BC) and Alberta are sparsely populated forested lands under provincial jurisdiction (also known as Crown land) which are under intensive oil & gas exploration and pipeline development. Local Aboriginal people continue to implement traditional practices that maintain viable land and productive ecosystems by annual rotation of trap lines, hunting and gathering areas and similar activities. Aboriginal people can exert tremendous influence on pipeline projects through various means. Regulators and enlightened pipeline companies recognize the value of assessing traditional knowledge that has been collected over generations and passed down from the Elders to contribute to final routing, siting and project design identifying effects on environmental resources and traditional land and resource use and developing mitigation opportunities. Traditional knowledge includes experiential and secondary knowledge as well as accepted scientific research in the context of environmental assessments. Robust applications consider sources from all land users while being mindful of the intricacies inherent with Aboriginal engagement in order to gather substantive input for projects on Crown land. This paper explores the contribution of Aboriginal Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in the environmental assessment process on selected case studies involving recent natural gas pipeline projects in northern BC and Alberta from a balanced perspective. It also describes the evolution of a program developed by the author from its initial emphasis on Traditional Land Use (TLU) studies to the present day application of TLU studies, and TEK studies, focusing on lessons learned and regulatory and engagement challenges and successes.

Understanding the value of biodiversity through interdisciplinary scientic research is one tool for mitigating the looming environmental crisis (Leff 2006; Hissa 2008). In this sense, ethnobotany, the study of relationships between humankind and plants can substantially contribute to overcoming the environmental crisis (Alcorn 1995; Albuquerque 2005; Oliveira et al. 2009). Ethnobotany lies by denition within the ethnosciences eld and seeks to build a fruitful dialog between empirical knowledge coming from local communities and connect it to traditional livelihoods and academic scientic knowledge (Blaikie et al. 1997; Berkes 2008). From this dialog, it is possible to build a new hybrid knowledge closer to sociobiodiversity (Sillitoe 2009). The knowledge of rural and traditional communities about their environment is not restricted to the utilitarian character of plant species but also encompasses their distribution in space and time as well as the interactions established with the local fauna (e.g., pollinators). This traditional ecological knowledge, in addition to being an important tool for conservation policies, is the basis for maintaining the livelihoods and cultural diversity of rural and traditional communities. Thus, communities and traditional knowledge have played an essential role in the conservation debate to achieve alternative development models and promote sociobiodiversity.

The past, present, and future contributions of science in the St Elias Mountains, and its relationship with regional development, resource management, and traditional ecological knowledge is examined. Science has evolved from an early foundation of exploration, through stages of resource inventories and surveys, to deductive scientific research and, more recently, a promising reconnection with traditional knowledge. Directly and indirectly, events such as the Klondike Gold Rush, construction of the Alaska Highway, creation of the Arctic Institute of North America's Kluane Lake Research Station, and establishment of protected areas have helped foster scientific activities in the region. In turn, this scientific perspective has influenced regional development by providing detailed information that has been utilized, to varying degrees, in resource use, planning, and decisionmaking. Over the past decade, management of the region has become less sectoral and more cooperative in nature, due partly to the implementation of co‐management agreements, regional land use planning, and settlement of first nations’ land claims. Incorporating both science and traditional knowledge into this process through collaborative endeavours such as long‐term ecological monitoring, adaptive management, and information integration will contribute to ecosystem‐based management of the St Elias and ensure that both perspectives play an integral role in sustainable development of the region.

Europe consists of various different regions with their own local traditions, specialties and peculiarities. There is currently a lack of awareness of local traditional foods, traditional specialties, traditional agricultural practices and traditional ecological knowledge in Europe, because the international debate has focused mostly on traditional knowledge held in developing countries and by indigenous peoples. Consequently, in most European states such knowledge and products have not been fully recognized and documented. Otherwise, within the European Union, at national and at Community level, measures have already been taken to protect traditional knowledge in a defensive and partly in a positive way. Relevant in this sense are the legal protection of ‘Traditional Specialities’, Portugal's legislation for the protection of traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources, designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuff, and documentation schemes for traditional food specialities, as illustrated by the Austrian and Bavarian systems.

For 99% of our time on Earth, humans have been hunter-gatherers, intricately connected to and reliant upon our local lands and waters for food, materials, medicines and shelter. In this time we have evolved a unique and in-depth knowledge base, termed local ecological knowledge or ecoliteracy, which has been essential to sustaining human and ecosystem health over thousands of years. However with livelihood diversification towards non-resource dependent strategies, the emergence of local markets as a consequence of globalisation, and global patterns of economic development, our collective local knowledge is now being lost. With the loss of local livelihoods and knowledge comes a departure from traditional food systems as hunters, fishers, and gatherers and cultivators lose the skills needed to locate, collect, preserve, prepare, consume and manage indigenous foods. Traditional food systems have provided nutritional health and food security for indigenous and marginalised communities for generations, and play a critical role in cultural continuity, social systems and ecosystem biodiversity. The current phenomenon of local knowledge erosion with economic development, and its effect 66on local food systems, is discussed. There has been a global shift from traditional and local foods to industrialised marketed foods, most notable in indigenous and marginalised communities. This shift has consequences for human health (in terms of nutrition and physical health), cultural health (in terms of community identity, ceremonies and social networks) and ecosystem health (in terms of resource management and biodiversity) in both industrialised and developing countries across the world.

BackgroundForests have been grazed for millennia. Around the world, forest grazing by livestock became a controversial management practice, gradually restricted in many countries over the past 250 years. This was also the case in most Central and Eastern European countries, including Hungary, where forest grazing was a legally prohibited activity between 1961 and 2017. Until the 2010s, ecologists and nature conservationists considered it merely as a historical form of forest use. As a result, there is little contemporary scientific information available about the impact of forest grazing on vegetation and the traditional ecological knowledge associated with it. Our aim was to explore and summarize this type of knowledge held by herders in Hungary.MethodsWe interviewed 58 knowledgeable herders and participated in forest grazing activities in 43 study locations across the country. The results were analysed qualitatively.ResultsWe revealed a living ecological knowledge tradition and practice of forest grazing in native and non-native forest stands. The impact of livestock grazing on native and non-native forests is not considerably different, in the view of the herders. For both forest types, the greatest impact of grazing was the suppression of the shrub layer, while grazing also increased the dominance and palatability (“tameness”) of the grasses. Livestock could cause significant damage to seedlings during forest grazing, but if done with care, grazing could also be an integral part of forestry management.ConclusionsSustainability of current forest grazing practices depends on the depth of local and traditional knowledge applied and herders’ stewardship. We stress the importance of collaborating with holders of local and traditional knowledge in order to gain a better understanding of the effects of livestock grazing on vegetation in temperate forests.

The Amazon rainforests and their biological diversity are being lost rapidly by the onslaught of extractive industries, large-scale agriculture and infrastructure development, which also undermines the integrity of indigenous territories and ethnicities, threatening the tremendous cultural diversity of the Amazon. The loss of forest, the disintegration of local communities and the increase of the market economy erode indigenous ecological knowledges that is intricately tied to the territory and the forest itself, with all that is contained within it. This chapter draws on collaborative research with an indigenous knowledge holder in the Colombian Amazon and presents insights into the wealth of indigenous ecological knowledges that still exist and that is of tremendous importance for understanding the different ways of seeing and relating to the social-ecological systems still present in the Amazon region. Based on these insights, we argue for more inclusive approaches to forest governance, that includes indigenous ecological knowledges, particularly relating to forest fauna. In more particular, indigenous knowledges on hunting must be included in future forest governance in order to ensure the continuous existence and practice of the wealth of this knowledge that has been accumulated by indigenous peoples over many generations. (Less)