VIII. Knowledge Integration/Traditional Ecological Knowledge

Ecosystem services have been a major organizing principle for Conservation Biology for the past two decades. However, the links between the services provided and the actual species that produce those services can vary across and within communities and genders. In this presentation I will discuss the ways members of Indigenous Fijian communities prioritize the ecosystem services provided by mangroves and reefs and then link those priorities to lists of specific species (including medicinal plans and reef fish) that provide those services. Drawing on data gifted from Indigenous knowledge holders we conducted “Mangrove walks” and “fisher follows” to generate lists of species and the ecosystem services they support and discuss how these species lists can be used to structure conservation and management plans. Lastly, we will highlight how the results can be read through the lenses of both gender and multispecies ethnography.

Addressing environmental crisis requires a methodology that recognizes multiple ways through which stakeholders engage with such environmental crises. In this paper I use the framework of epistemological pluralism to examine the non-timber forest production system for “lac,” a type of resin produced by insects of the species Kerria lacca. The work I present here is part of an action research project in a forest-dependent indigenous village in Chhattisgarh, India that aims to enhance the livelihood opportunities around lac rearing. I conducted multi-sited ethnography using the framework of epistemological pluralism to understand a crisis in lac production. I ask- “Why is productivity of lac declining?” from the epistemic vantage points of stakeholders situated at the level of: (i) village community, (ii) non- government organization, and (iii) national-level science institution. I conclude by highlighting that pluralist approach to problem diagnosis resulted in a nuanced understanding of the issue at the intersection of human-nonhumn, further encouraging collaborative intervention.

The Hakdagwi:va Peach Springs Chapter of the Arizona Native Plant Society is the very first ever Native American Plant Chapter in Arizona, possibly the country! Formed on the Hualapai Indian Reservation by Natives, the chapter just celebrated its 1 year anniversary. Arizona is actually home to more Indigenous tribal lands than any other state in the country with 27% of the state made up of reservation totaling more than 20 million acres. The ancestral lands of the Hualapai Indian Tribe include a region within the world that is botanically distinctive and rare. Located within the eastern extent of the Mojave, and northern extent of the Sonoran Deserts, present and ancestral lands are situated within a unique bio-region. This presentation will share about the successes of our Native led Peach Springs Chapter of the Arizona Native Plant Society.

Indigenous knowledge on the role of mushrooms is fast declining. A survey was conducted in some ten local communities in Kilum-Ijim, northwestern region of Cameroon, to investigate the uses and perceptions of mushrooms by the indigenes. Semi-structured questionnaires, focus group discussions, and pictorial method were used to collect information. Results revealed that mushrooms were used mainly as food and medicine. Local names were found to be a very important factor in distinguishing edible, medicinal, poisonous and substrate of mushrooms. Local knowledge of mushrooms as food and medicine still exists in all the ten village communities surveyed. Elderly men and women were more knowledgeable on the role of mushrooms than the younger generation. There is need to preserve and document traditional knowledge of the different edible and medicinal mushrooms as majority of this knowledge is lost as a result of death of elderly people, habitat degradation and migration of indigenes.