Ethnobiology and research on Global Environmental Change: what distinctive contribution can we make?

Abstract

Several reports have shown that communities of small farmers are the most vulnerable to global environmental change (GEC). Others have revealed that societies which can count on a rich body of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) are more resilient in facing this challenge, since their behaviour is already adaptive in character. Within this scenario, the IPCC establishes the need for "cross fertilisation" between TEK and scientific knowledge (SK). But how can we arrive at interpretative agreements when these two knowledge systems are so different? In this review I analyse the substantial role ethnobiology can play in providing empirical evidence on this subject in Latin America. The characteristics of our discipline offer differential advantages: 1) because we are actually there, our interpretation of vulnerability and adaptation arise from experiences shared with people who have a long term interconnection with their environment, and not from abstract indices created in offices; 2) because we work on a community scale, at a local level, and the most appropriate approach in search of solutions should be bottomup and not topdown; 3) because we are academically trained as interlocutors, and 4) because our approach is rooted in a vision of the landscape as a cultural construction. Ethnobiologists must come to operational agreements on how to deal with GEC, and set down guidelines for a reconciliatory dialogue between SK and TEK, a process which should not be considered something easy or quick, but a longterm process which is just in its infancy.

Colheita de pinhões da Pewen (Araucaria araucana): uma situação significativa que liga as crianças Mapuche à Natureza

“…A nivel mundial, existe un amplio consenso en la necesidad de incorporar el conocimiento ecológico local (CEL) para lograr objetivos de conservación y sostenibilidad de los socio-ecosistemas (Berkes et al 2000;Ladio 2017;Garnett et al 2018). Dada su alta dependencia por los recursos naturales, las comunidades locales e indígenas son más vulnerables que otros sectores sociales frente al actual contexto de cambio global (Ladio y Lozada 2000;IPBES 2019).…”

Firewood Resource Management in Different Landscapes in NW Patagonia

“…Within this scenario it is essential to review government strategies and conservation plans, which are always top-down. The inclusion of bottom-up perspectives on the subject of firewood is necessary in order to find solutions that take local management and cosmologies into account in an inclusive way (Ladio, 2017). Our empirical information reveals that the inhabitants of Patagonia are creating new environments with richness and versatility of use, and seeking new alternatives in the face of firewood scarcity, through landscape domestication.…”

“…), flora and populations all coevolve. Thus, complementary use of the landscape, selection of species that grow quickly after harvesting and innovation in supply strategies (purchase), understood as local responses to the problem of change (Ladio, 2017), promote faster recuperation of the landscape and woody species, decreasing uncertainty and increasing biocultural resilience (Ladio, 2017;Morales et al, 2017). For example, some informants revealed that since many people have started buying firewood, regeneration of native plants such as Retanilla patagonica has been observed.…”

“…In particular, the Andean environment, across its entire altitudinal gradient, is taken advantage of as a source of natural resources through different gathering practices, although practices tending toward tolerance, facilitation and promotion are also observed , generating a gradient/continuum of landscapes with different levels of human intervention. These spaces were, and still are, valued differentially according to their vegetation and geomorphological characteristics, as well as their utilitarian and symbolic attributes (Ladio andLozada, 2003, 2004;Ladio et al, 2007).…”

Ten important questions/issues for ethnobotanical research

“…Researchers from different disciplines have agreed that humans have modified environments throughout history to favor their survival, producing persistent effects (Laland et al 2010;Levis et al 2017;Sullivan et al 2017). In this case, new generations inherit modified environments that result from past decisions, and this may affect the knowledge and current use of plants for different uses (Albuquerque et al 2018;Lins Neto & Albuquerque 2018), especially in the face of climate change (see Ladio 2017).…”