Ecological Knowledge as Adaptive Management (outside reading 4)

The article titled “Rediscovery of Traditional Ecological Knowledge as Adaptive Management” by Berkes, Colding, and Folke is about the use of traditional ecological knowledge as a source for adaptive management. It goes into detail of what traditional ecological knowledge is and the different management practices that have come out of it. Essentially, traditional knowledge is information passed down and adapted within a culture. It is seen as different from scientific knowledge, but it has been proven to be just as useful when applying it to something. One brief section in the article talks about how the world views tied to the traditional knowledge provide the environmental ethic by which to create management practices. It states, “the pervasive cosmology of traditional societies may be characterized as a ‘community of beings’ world view in which humans are part of an interacting set of living things.” This reminds me of other arguments I have read, both within and out of the deep ecology movement, that all generally say to be environmentally conscious on a personal level, people need to recognize the connections and interdependencies that humans have with the rest of the world. The article goes on to state, “traditional world views often also have a spiritual component, which may be interpreted as a way to deal with uncertainty.” This makes me wonder, if those of us in Western society want to do a better job of protecting the environment, what can we do? It does not seem plausible for people to shift their spiritual views or revert to the ways of living before the Industrial Revolution. Shifting one’s world view could work, and I think that there are people doing this. However, not everyone would be willing or capable of making this shift. Another important point that the article makes is that local knowledge is a big component of traditional ecological knowledge. In Western society, I think we do have the ability, and responsibility, to use local knowledge and apply it finding solutions to environmental issues.

Berkes, F., Colding, J., & Folke, C. (2000). Rediscovery of traditional ecological knowledge as adaptive management. Ecological applications, 10(5), 1251-1262.