The importance of integration of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) into western scientific knowledge system (WS) in NRM has been globally recognised. There has been a lot of research exploring the Indigenous traditional knowledge for environmental management. While sharing many research topics such as environmental philosophy in Indigenous culture and Indigenous participation, the research in different parts of world would have different focuses and interests. For example, in central Australia, where Indigenous people have always a close connection with the desert, such Indigenous traditional knowledge is closely associated with “desert knowledge”. In Taiwan, many studies focus on the relations (including conflicts) between indigenous traditional knowledge and modern environmental management approaches. In China, a lot of studies have concentrated on traditional knowledge protection.
It is believed that the indigenous knowledge from different indigenous communities in different countries would have some differences and similarities. Different researchers from different cultural backgrounds would also have different observations and perspectives on these issues. A comparative study, which involves researchers from different backgrounds, therefore, would be helpful to understand different indigenous cultures and therefore contribute to the integration of traditional knowledge into modern sciences to find the solutions for global environmental crises.
However, there are still some key issues associated with such comparative study, such as: distinction of the role of TEK in NRM and the implication of integration of TEK into WS for NRM practice, research/practice gaps, and appropriate approaches….
Therefore I would like to ask these questions and expect to get answers, comments and ideas from you. Thank you.
1) How do you say the role of TEK in NRM and the implication of integration of TEK into WS for NRM practice? Any examples?
2) What should be done in future research to bridge different TEKs to contribute to fighting against global environmental crises? What are research gaps here?
3) What do you think appropriate approaches /methodologies for such comparative study would be?
Excellent post!
There are two things I would like to contribute here.
First, I think that researchers should stop considering that TEK has to be "validated" by WS. Both knowledge types should be considered on equal footing. This way, we could reach research objectives much faster and find solutions to important issues such as climate change, instead of constantly "reinventing the wheel". Speaking of finding solutions, indigenous people have knowledge that is usually very well rooted in the local context. Hence, it is the most appropriate to find effective solutions. But for this to work, researchers have to consider working in partnership.
Second, I also think comparative studies are very interesting and important. In my opinion, there are two ways for such studies to be interesting for a large audience: (1) It can be a c omparison of two (or more) different countries/areas with very similar environmental/socia/political settings. This way, you really compare apples with apples. (2) It can be a massive study where several different settings are compared, with a few replicates of each state of a given variable in order to make comparisons where some variables can be held "constant" while others are examined.
Very good points here. Yes, it is the time to think about "validation"! I would also agree that we ideally compare "apples with apples", but may I add here that probably sometime to compare "pears" with "apples" (both are fruits") is still a good thing to do? Thanks a lot for your comments Hugo!
Yes, you're right that it's relevant to compare different peoples, but then:
1) you have to make sure that your sampling scheme allows you to decipher differences due to peoples/cultures and differences due to context.
2) you have to take into account that, generally speaking, indigenous people do not like to be compared (at least it is the case in Canada). They feel it puts them into some kind of weird "competition", against their own will.
But all that being said, I agree with you that comparative studies, when conducted properly and following strict ethics rules, can be very informative.
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