scholarly journals From the other side of the knowledge frontier: Indigenous knowledge, social–ecological relationships and new perspectives

2010 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cameron Muir ◽  
Deborah Rose ◽  
Phillip Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Adaptive Management ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Ecological Resilience ◽  
Ecological Relationships ◽  
The Past ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Resource Managers ◽  
Natural Resource Managers

A river is like a mirror: it reflects the care given by people whose lives depend upon it. A scald on red ground or the slow death of a river reveals more than troubled ecological relationships – they are signs of broken social relationships. How people take care of social relationships and how they take care of ecological relationships are the same question. In this paper we emphasise the importance that Aboriginal people place on social relationships for good ecological relationships. In the past few decades natural resource managers have sought Indigenous knowledge relevant to Western ideas of environment, and in doing so, created distinctions between ‘ecological’ and ‘social’ knowledge – this is an artificial ‘white-fella’ separation. Additionally, Indigenous knowledge has been treated as if it were a static archive that need only be extracted and applied to resource development and planning. Instead it is dynamic, adaptive and contextual. As a consequence of compartmentalisation and the assumption of timelessness, the importance of social relationships in ecological relationships has been overlooked. Some research has explored similarities between Indigenous knowledge and the Western concept of adaptive management, and raised the possibility of synergy between them. We agree there are possible connections and opportunities for exchange and further learning between Indigenous knowledge and ecological resilience and adaptive management. However, Indigenous knowledge and Western science belong to different world views. An important task is to explore ways of grappling with this ontological challenge. We suggest a conceptual turn around that we believe could assist in opening a dialogue as well as creating a set of foundational principles for robust ecological and social relationships.

scholarly journals Community Self-Organisation from a Social-Ecological Perspective: ‘Burlang Yatra’ and Revival of Millets in Odisha (India)

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1867
Author(s):  
Lopamudra Patnaik Saxena
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Indigenous Community ◽  
Ecological Perspective ◽  
Ecological Relationships ◽  
Ecological Memory ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge System ◽  
The Social

In this paper, I focus on the revival of an Indigenous community seed festival known locally as Burlang Yatra (‘Indigenous Biodiversity Festival’) in the district of Kandhamal in Odisha (India). This annual event brings together millet farmers to share knowledge and practices, including exchange of Indigenous heirloom seeds. Such community seed festivals remain largely underappreciated (and underexplored). Investigating Burlang Yatra through a social-ecological lens allowed for a greater understanding of its capacity to build and strengthen relationships, adaptation, and responsibility, three key principles that together link the social and the ecological in a dynamic sense. These principles, driven by intergenerational participation and interaction as well as social learning, can be seen as fostering ‘social-ecological memory’ of millet-based biodiverse farming. The festival’s persistence and revival illustrate a form of grassroots self-organising that draws on values of an Indigenous knowledge system. Within a restorative context, it has the capacity to repair and restore cultural and ecological relationships that the community has with their own foods and practices. This paper offers a new understanding of community self-organising from a social-ecological perspective and particularly in a marginalised context as supporting the revitalisation of Indigenous food systems.

scholarly journals Navigating Multiple Tensions for Engaged Praxis in a Complex Social-Ecological System

Land ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Cockburn ◽  
Carolyn Palmer ◽  
Harry Biggs ◽  
Eureta Rosenberg
Keyword(s):  
Landscape Management ◽  
Project Team ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Working Relationships ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Resource Managers ◽  
Realist Analysis ◽  
Natural Resource Managers ◽  
Social Learning Processes

Innovative, pragmatic approaches are needed to support sustainable livelihoods and landscape management in complex social-ecological systems (CSES) such as river catchments. In the Tsitsa River Catchment, South Africa, researchers and natural resource managers have come together to apply such innovative approaches. Since CSES are characterised by uncertainty and surprise, understanding and managing them requires a commitment to reflexive praxis and transdisciplinarity. Accordingly, we facilitated a collective reflection and learning process in the project team to deepen our understanding of praxis in CSES. Our findings indicate that CSES thinking created an enabling framing. However, building new linkages among diverse actors to put CSES thinking into practice is challenging, since it requires the development of novel working relationships. Existing institutional structures, power dynamics, and ways of working impose significant constraints. A deeper critical realist analysis of our findings revealed a metaphor which explains why this work is challenging. In this metaphor, the Tsitsa Project team is navigating a bumpy terrain of dialectic tensions. These are tensions for example between natural science and social science, and between science and indigenous knowledge. Based on this metaphor, we suggest an expanding role for scientists and managers, and recommend transformative social learning processes to support teams navigating such bumpy terrains.

Linking Australia's Landscapes

2013 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Community Support ◽  
Landscape Scale ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Biosphere Reserves ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Past ◽  
Resource Managers ◽  
Natural Landscapes ◽  
Natural Resource Managers

Networks of land managed for conservation across different tenures have rapidly increased in number (and popularity) in Australia over the past two decades. These include iconic large-scale initiatives such as Gondwana Link, the Great Eastern Ranges Initiative, Habitat 141°, and the South Australian NatureLinks, as well as other, landscape-scale approaches such as Biosphere Reserves and Conservation Management Networks. Their aims have been multiple: to protect the integrity and resilience of many Australian ecosystems by maintaining and restoring large-scale natural landscapes and ecosystem processes; to lessen the impacts of fragmentation; to increase the connectivity of habitats to provide for species movement and adaptation as climate changes; and to build community support and involvement in conservation. This book draws out lessons from a variety of established and new connectivity conservation initiatives from around Australia, and is complemented by international examples. Chapters are written by leaders in the field of establishing and operating connectivity networks, as well as key ecological and social scientists and experts in governance. Linking Australia's Landscapes will be an important reference for policy makers, natural resource managers, scientists, and academics and tertiary students dealing with issues in landscape-scale conservation, ecology, conservation biology, environmental policy, planning and management, social sciences, regional development, governance and ecosystem services.

Australian Saltmarsh Ecology

2009 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
Coastal Development ◽  
Comprehensive Review ◽  
The Past ◽  
Resource Managers ◽  
Natural Resource Managers

Australian Saltmarsh Ecology presents the first comprehensive review of the ecology and management of Australian saltmarshes. The past 10 years in particular have seen a sustained research effort into this previously poorly understood and neglected resource. Leading experts in the field outline what is known of the biogeography and geomorphology of Australian saltmarshes, their fish and invertebrate ecology, the use of Australian saltmarshes by birds and insectivorous bats, and the particular challenges of management, including the control of mosquito pests, and the issue of sea-level rise. They provide a powerful argument that coastal saltmarsh is a unique and critical habitat vulnerable to the combined impacts of coastal development and sea-level rise. The book will be an important reference for saltmarsh researchers, marine and aquatic biologists, natural resource managers, environmentalists and ecologists, as well as undergraduate students and the interested layperson.

Adaptive Management: Popular but Difficult to Implement

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith A. Layzer ◽  
Alexis Schulman
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Adaptive Management ◽  
Natural Resource Management ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Real World ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
Implementation Challenges ◽  
Resource Managers ◽  
Natural Resource Managers

Popularized by scientists in the 1970s, adaptive management is an integrative, multi-disciplinary approach to managing landscapes and natural resources. Despite its broad appeal many critics complain that adaptive management rarely works in practice as prescribed in theory. This chapter traces the history and evolution of the concept and assess its implementation challenges. One reason adaptive management has not always delivered on its promise to make natural resource management more “rational” is that in the real world of policymaking scientists and natural resource managers must contend with advocates that have conflicting values and goals. Scientists and managers also operate in the context of institutions that create particular constraints and opportunities, and are generally inflexible and resistant to change. In recognition of these sociopolitical realities, the focus of much adaptive management practice and scholarship has shifted to governance, particularly collaboration with stakeholders, transformation of the institutions responsible for management, and the process of social learning.

scholarly journals Adaptive Management of Ecosystem Services for Multisystemic Resilience

2021 ◽  
pp. 725-743
Author(s):  
Katharine F. E. Hogan ◽  
Kirsty L. Nash ◽  
Elena Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Global Change ◽  
Adaptive Management ◽  
Multiple Scales ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Ecological Resilience ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Key Topics

Globally, ecosystems provide the equivalent of trillions of dollars every year in the form ecosystem services. These include provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services. People are dependent on ecosystem services, yet their sustainability is at risk due to increasingly rapid global change that impacts the resilience of social-ecological systems at multiple scales. In this chapter, the authors outline the concepts and theory of multisystemic social-ecological resilience. They discuss management principles that embrace cycles of change in social-ecological systems and work with these systems toward sustainability rather than pushing for increased efficiency and stability, which tends to undermine resilience across systems and scales. They explore adaptive management as a framework that supports improved understanding and management of ecosystem services for resilience in light of global change, outlining key topics for questions of research and practice.

Examining the Specifics approach to identifying indicators of sustainable natural resource management in Ontario, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia

2000 ◽  
Vol 76 (5) ◽  
pp. 725-738 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. Lautenschlager ◽  
Holly MacLeod ◽  
Chris Hollstedt ◽  
David Balsillie
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Bases ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Resource Managers ◽  
Natural Resource Managers ◽  
Local Range

Natural resource managers, environmental interest groups, and public agencies need identifiable, measurable indicators of sustainability based on meaningful fine-scale specifics that are appropriate for both fine and increasingly broader social/ecological scales. The "Identify the Specifics" framework, field tested in Ontario, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia, uses collective local expert knowledge to integrate and prioritize social/ecological concerns that become the foundation for both local and increasingly broader-scale indicators of sustainable management. Results to date suggest that: (1) local experts have valuable knowledge to contribute; (2) identified local indicators, once reviewed, can contribute to both local- and broader-scale indicators; (3) fewer than 10 indicators may provide an adequate foundation for assessing the sustainability of local range and forest management practices; and (4) local and broader-scale experts commonly identify different indicators because they have different knowledge bases, priorities, and responsibilities. Differences in the indicators identified among experts representing different scales may be minimized if indicators at broader scales are developed with knowledge of specifics from finer scales. The Specifics approach is presently being used across British Columbia to help identify knowledge gaps and related research and extension priorities. Key words: criteria and indicators, ecological concerns, extension, forest management, natural resources, priorities, range management, specifics, sustainability

Participatory Mapping in Browns Canyon National Monument, Colorado (USA)

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
John Harner ◽  
Lee Cerveny ◽  
Rebecca Gronewold
Keyword(s):  
Land Management ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Management Plan ◽  
Bureau Of Land Management ◽  
National Monument ◽  
Resource Managers ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Us Forest Service ◽  
Natural Resource Managers

Natural resource managers need up-to-date information about how people interact with public lands and the meanings these places hold for use in planning and decision-making. This case study explains the use of public participatory Geographic Information System (GIS) to generate and analyze spatial patterns of the uses and values people hold for the Browns Canyon National Monument in Colorado. Participants drew on maps and answered questions at both live community meetings and online sessions to develop a series of maps showing detailed responses to different types of resource uses and landscape values. Results can be disaggregated by interaction types, different meaningful values, respondent characteristics, seasonality, or frequency of visit. The study was a test for the Bureau of Land Management and US Forest Service, who jointly manage the monument as they prepare their land management plan. If the information generated is as helpful throughout the entire planning process as initial responses seem, this protocol could become a component of the Bureau’s planning tool kit.

Integration of Human/Social Dimensions into the Traditional European Model of Natural Resource Education and Management

2005 ◽  
Vol 156 (8) ◽  
pp. 264-268
Author(s):  
James J. Kennedy ◽  
Niels Elers Koch
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Western World ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
Roles And Responsibilities ◽  
Resource Managers ◽  
Natural Resource Managers ◽  
Rural Ecosystem ◽  
Professional Roles And Responsibilities

The increasing diversity, complexity and dynamics of ecosystem values and uses over the last 50 years requires new ways for natural resource managers (foresters, wildlife biologists, etc.)to understand and relate to their professional roles and responsibilities in accommodating urban and rural ecosystem users, and managing the complimentary and conflicting interactions between them. Three stages in Western-world natural resources management are identified and analyzed, beginning with the (1) Traditional stage: natural resources first, foremost and forever, to (2) Transitional stage: natural resource management,for better or worse, involves people, to (3) Relationship stage: managing natural resources for valued people and ecosystem relationships. The impacts of these three perspectives on how natural resource managers view and respond to ecosystems,people and other life-forms is basic and can be profound.

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