Combining the Insights of Indigenous Knowledge, Non-Linear Mathematics and Disturbance Ecology to Conserve New Guinea’s Forests

One of the greatest barriers to integrating indigenous knowledge into conservation planning is the confusion over the relationship between tradition and biodiversity. Western science has only recently incorporated nonlinearity, connectedness and disturbance into its view of nature and has been slow to discard its idealized notions of traditional life. On the other hand, indigenous naturalists have been accumulating their knowledge unencumbered by the philosophical shifts of western thought, developing a dynamic view of nature that incorporates connectedness, disturbance and recovery as a normal course of events in the natural world. Drawing on twenty-five years of ethno-ecological fieldwork with the Hewa of New Guinea, this paper uses birds to present their perspective that describes on the relationship between small-scale environmental disturbance and biodiversity. Their insights have provided a template for the conservation of their forests and traditions that are compatible with the goals of conservation NGOs.