Abstract: Indigenous groups offer alternative knowledge and perspectives based on their own   locally developed practices of resource use. We surveyed theinternational literature to focus on the role of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in monitoring, responding to, and managing ecosystem processes and functions, with special attention to ecological resilience. Case studies revealed that there exists a diversity of local or traditional practices for ecosystem management. These include multiple species management, resource rotation, succession management, landscape patchiness management, and other ways of responding to and managing pulses and ecological surprises. Social mechanisms behind these traditional practices include a number of adaptations for the generation, accumulation, and transmission of knowledge; the use of local institutions to provide leaders/stewards and rules for social regulation; mechanisms for cultural internalization of traditional practices; and the development of appropriate world views and cultural values. Some traditional knowledge and management systems were characterized by the use of local ecological knowledge to interpret and respond to feed-backs from the environment to guide the direction of resource management. These traditional systems had certain similarities   to adaptive management with its emphasis on feedback learning, and its  treatment of uncertainty and unpredictability intrinsic to all ecosystems.                           
 View Full Article PDF >

Excerpt: "Just up the hill from the old Lyons homestead, in what is now Redwood National Park, stand a group of majestic tan oak trees, their broad bases hollowed and blackened by fire. Amelia Lyons tended these trees by burning out the undergrowth around them, and like generations of Hupa women before her, she was rewarded with an abundant crop of acorns. Long after her death, the ground is littered with hundreds of small brown globes dropped by the trees. But without Amelia's fires, the acorns are riddled with weevil holes."
View Full Article PDF >

Abstract: "This article highlights the findings of the literature on aboriginal fire from the human- and the land-centered disciplines, and suggests that the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples be incorporated into plans for reintroducing fire to the nation’s forests. Traditional knowledge represents the outcome of long experimentation with application of fire by indigenous people, which can inform contemporary policy discussions."
View Full Article PDF >

Description: This sub-chapter describes approaches to research that involves traditional knowledge in indigenous communities, including working with communities to develop research questions and methods, and describes two case studies.
View Full Article PDF >