Anticipating Climatic Variability: The Potential of Ecological Calendars

Kassam, Karim-Aly; Ruelle, Morgan L.; Samimi, Cyrus; Trabucco, Antonio; Xu, Jianchu

doi:10.1007/s10745-018-9970-5

Cited by 39 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 33 publications

(36 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Once this baseline of mutual understanding has been explicitly established, managers or outside experts could highlight the fact that there are also more slow-moving factors, and subtle floristic indicators, that, from an academic or managerial perspective, suggest when pasture may need to be rotated, despite on-the-ground appearances. A protocol for integrating these perspectives could then be established (e.g., Kassam et al 2018). Given the enthusiastic participant engagement we observed with our methods (Activity 3, in particular), we suggest that incorporating audiovisual tools, such as video, or time-lapse visualizations, may be particularly effective in this process.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing for consensus on Kyrgyz rangelands: local perceptions in Naryn oblast

Levine¹,

Isaeva²,

Zerriffi³

et al. 2019

E&S

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Consensus on the state of rangelands is often elusive. This is especially true in the primarily agropastoral former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan. Some argue Kyrgyz rangeland is being rapidly degraded by overgrazing. However, poor data and climatic changes confound this assessment. Thus there is contention amongst researchers, state officials, and local agropastoralists about the etiology and appropriate degree of concern regarding changes in flora and landscape patterns. This lack of consensus makes pasture management difficult for local elected managers. In this study, we use audiovisual primes, structured interview tasks, and consensus analysis to examine the degree of agreement among local agropastoralists of Naryn oblast about (a) the nature of several degradationambiguous plant and landscape types found in the area, and (b) indicators of "good" pasture. We find relatively little interparticipant agreement on high-resolution details, but a pattern of consensus regarding (i) a refutation of select species as indicators of degradation, as well as (ii) apparent shared heuristics for determining what makes for good, versus bad, pasture. We consider socio-historical and cognitive drivers of these patterns, and close with a discussion of implications for management.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing for consensus on Kyrgyz rangelands: local perceptions in Naryn oblast

Levine¹,

Isaeva²,

Zerriffi³

et al. 2019

E&S

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This process is the co-generation of insight described in this paper from setting the research agenda, undertaking the research through to implementation of policy action (Greenwood and Levin, 2007). The second framework was transdisciplinarity, which situates the co-generation of knowledge outside the ivory tower of academia (Kassam et al, 2018). The final framework is the recognition of the complex connectivity between biological and cultural diversity which facilitates the co-generation of knowledge and transdisciplinarity based on the foundation of the ecological habitat (Maffi, 2001;Harmon, 2002;Kassam, 2009a).…”

Section: Ecological Calendar Project Pamir Mountains Afghanistan Anmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This project started in 2006 and now is a moderately large, 13year, international-scale project in 5 villages in the international Pamir Mountains to build trust, co-generate knowledge and create an outcome that is useful to communities to secure their livelihoods and food systems (Kassam, 2009b(Kassam, , 2010Kassam et al, 2011Kassam et al, , 2018. At the core of the project is work on understanding and using ecological calendars of the human body (Kassam et al, 2011).…”

Section: Ecological Calendar Project Pamir Mountains Afghanistan Anmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Research to Support Transformative Impacts on Complex, “Wicked Problems” With Pastoral Peoples in Rangelands

Reid

Fernández‐Giménez

Wilmer

et al. 2021

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Pastoralists and researchers (and others) are finding new ways of working together worldwide, attempting to sustain pastoral livelihoods and rangelands in the face of rapid and profound changes driven by globalization, growing consumption, land-use change, and climate change. They are doing this partly because of a greater need to address increasing complex or “wicked” problems, but also because local pastoral voices (and sometimes science) still have little impact on decision-making in the governmental and private sectors. We describe here, using six worldwide cases, how collaborative rangelands partnerships are transforming how we learn about rangelands and pastoralists, whose knowledge gets considered, how science can support societal action, and even our fundamental model of how science gets done. Over the long-term, collaborative partnerships are transforming social-ecological systems by implementing processes like building collaborative relationships, co-production/co-generation of knowledge, integration of knowledges, social learning, capacity building, networking and implementing action. These processes are changing mental models and paradigms, creating strong and effective leaders, changing power relations, providing more robust understanding of rangeland systems, reducing polarization and supporting the implementation of new practices and policies. Collaborative partnerships have recurring challenges and much work is yet to be done. These challenges rest on the enduring complexity of social-ecological problems in rangelands. At a practical level, partnerships struggle with listening, amplifying and partnering with diverse (and sometimes marginalized) voices, the time commitment needed to make partnerships work, the bias and naivete of scientists, the recognition that partnerships can promote negative transformations, management of power relations within the partnership, and the need to attribute impacts to partnership activities. We think that the future of this work will have more focus on systems transformations, morals and ethics, intangible and long-term impacts, critical self-assessment, paradigm shifts and mental models, and power. Overall, we conclude that these partnerships are transformative in unexpected and sometimes intangible ways. Key transformations include changing mental models and building the next generation of transformative leaders. Just as important is serendipity, where participants in partnerships take advantage of new windows of opportunity to change policy or create new governance institutions. We also conclude that collaborative partnerships are changing how we do science, creating new and transformative ways that science and society interact that could be called “transformative science with society.”

show abstract

“…Seasonal calendars are a way of documenting TK around seasonal cycles and the communities' relationships to their environment (Kassam et al 2018;Mondragón 2014;Rubis and Nakashima 2014). These can be effective educational and cultural tools for discussions on environmental changes, including climate variability and change, and can help to advance understanding of regional changes (Lefale 2010;Leonard et al 2013;Rubis and Nakashima 2014).…”

Section: Products For Communicating Weather and Climate Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Across Oceania, there were only a few documented indigenous seasonal calendars, apart from Australia (Mondragón 2014; http://www.bom.gov.au/iwk/), and the Pacific NMSs were keen to address this gap. Revitalizing seasonal calendars is seen by many indigenous communities as building capacity in the face of climate change (Kassam et al 2018). As the calendars are often based on the behavior of local plants and animals, they can vary even for closely associated communities, including the number of seasons the year is divided into (Rubis and Nakashima 2014; http://www.bom.gov.au/iwk/).…”

Section: Products For Communicating Weather and Climate Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing Climate Resilience in the Pacific

Chambers

Plotz

Lui

et al. 2020

The Palgrave Handbook of Climate Resilient Societies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

National meteorological services (NMSs) are mandated to provide relevant and timely meteorological information to communities, including forecasts and warnings of conditions that are likely to endanger life, property, or the environment. However, in rural or remote areas, particularly in developing countries, traditional weather forecasting may be preferred over contemporary methods. Across the Pacific, NMSs are working with traditional knowledge (TK) experts to build community resilience to extreme events. Using five Pacific countries as examples, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu, we demonstrate how a participatory approach can be used to preserve and promote the continued use of TK of weather and climate and illustrate the entire process for collecting and incorporating this knowledge into NMSs products and services. Critical components we identified included: understanding legal and governance requirements; developing sustainable partnerships; guidelines and processes for collection and documentation of TK; secure and respectful storage of TK; developing monitoring networks; and improving weather and climate communication using TK. The Pacific TK projects were indigenous run, built on in-country partnerships between the NMSs and other organizations and government departments, and considered global, regional, and national legal and policy constraints around the collection of TK and protection of intellectual property. Community members participated in setting the project goals and in determining how the TK was collected, stored, and used. This approach allowed the NMSs to create products and communications that were tailored to meet community needs, while also benefiting wider audiences through their use in the media and the education sector.

show abstract

Anticipating Climatic Variability: The Potential of Ecological Calendars

Cited by 39 publications

References 33 publications

Testing for consensus on Kyrgyz rangelands: local perceptions in Naryn oblast

Testing for consensus on Kyrgyz rangelands: local perceptions in Naryn oblast

Using Research to Support Transformative Impacts on Complex, “Wicked Problems” With Pastoral Peoples in Rangelands

Enhancing Climate Resilience in the Pacific

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About