Integrating hunter knowledge with community-based conservation in the Pamir Region of Tajikistan

Abstract

Indigenous hunting communities around the world possess capabilities to accumulate and maintain knowledge based on their traditional practices, cultural norms, and belief systems. Case studies around the world have demonstrated that merging indigenous hunting knowledge with community-based conservation approaches is often complementary to biodiversity conservation. A combination of such approaches improves wildlife conservation practices and livelihood strategies while enhancing communities' social-ecological resilience. However, if mismanaged, such approaches lead to negative results in the community, such as an increased exposure/vulnerability to corruption, power inequality among interest groups, as well as mismanagement of wildlife species. We explore the existence of hunting-specific traditional ecological knowledge and the contribution of such knowledge to wildlife management in the case of community-based conservation in Tajikistan. We reviewed hunting-related literature from 1850 to 1950, conducted interviews, and accompanied hunters in the field to document their ecological knowledge of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO), also known as the Pamir region of Tajikistan. Throughout our research, we found that there exists a rich body of hunter-specific ecological knowledge of hunting norms, ethics, taboos, and belief systems in the Pamir region of Tajikistan. Traditional hunters largely accepted a community-based conservation approach because it resonates with their subsistence hunting practices. Also, combining traditional hunter knowledge with a community-based conservation approach created an opportunity for knowledge sharing, improved the quality of scientific wildlife surveys, and led to better collaboration among conservancies and other conservation NGOs. More importantly, such approaches empowered and incentivized local traditional hunters to take responsibility for wildlife management.

Community perceptions of co-managing Tajik National Park

“…Co-management is appealing to governance and the production of scientific knowledge alike. Recent cases of community-based conservancies outside protected areas in Tajikistan have demonstrated that scientists working with communities to co-generate knowledge improves collaborative decision-making (Shokirov and Backhaus 2020). Moreover, co-generated knowledge has been shown to better inform development projects in the region (Shokirov and Backhaus 2020).…”

“…Recent cases of community-based conservancies outside protected areas in Tajikistan have demonstrated that scientists working with communities to co-generate knowledge improves collaborative decision-making (Shokirov and Backhaus 2020). Moreover, co-generated knowledge has been shown to better inform development projects in the region (Shokirov and Backhaus 2020). Co-management approaches provide an appealing possibility for conjoining scientific findings with improved governance techniques.…”

“…In the case of Tajikistan, the three root causes of biodiversity loss are mainly economic (e.g., over-harvesting due to poverty pressure), political (e.g., lack of rules, laws and clear management policies; and tensions caused by a transition to a post-Soviet system and the civil war), and institutional (e.g., lack of cooperation and collaboration among institutions) (Squires and Safarov 2013). Drawing upon community knowledge in areas with limited data helps clarify what levels of protection according to scientific findings are needed (Squires and Safarov 2013;Haider et al 2018;Shokirov and Backhaus 2020).…”

“…Most of the local hunters we interviewed favoured traditional hunting practices that their predecessors carried out in the region, for example, those in practice before and at the beginning of the Soviet era (Shokirov and Backhaus 2020). The majority of the hunters pointed out that they hunt because the experience of hunting allows them to meet the animals and have a special spiritual connection to the wildlife.…”

Coupling paraecology and hunter GPS self‐follows to quantify village bushmeat hunting dynamics across the landscape scale

“…Formal authority over natural resources is centralised in most of Central Africa, but top‐down management of hunting has proven difficult to sustain over large spatial and temporal scales (Smith et al, 2018; van Vliet, 2018). For both ethical and pragmatic reasons, there is a rising call for devolved and participatory bushmeat management (Bowler et al, 2020; Coad et al, 2019; Ingram, 2020; Shokirov & Backhaus, 2020; van Vliet et al, 2015). Still, applications of interventions and studies of their mechanisms and effects remain rare.…”