Science Must Embrace Traditional and Indigenous Knowledge to Solve Our Biodiversity Crisis

Abstract

Traditional and Indigenous knowledge has successfully preserved and restored biodiversity across the globe. However, its recognition as being as equally valid as Western science as a way of knowing remains lacking. If we are to preserve global biodiversity and rewild key habitats, science and Indigenous knowledge must work in partnership while also being restitutive and rights based.

Traditional Knowledge Aids Description When Resolving the Taxonomic Status of Unsettled Species Using Classical and Molecular Taxonomy: The Case of the Shallow-Water Octopus Callistoctopus furvus (Gould, 1852) From the Western Atlantic Ocean

“…In summary, in line with contemporary best practices in taxonomy (see Dayrat, 2005), we have redescribed and designated a neotype for C. furvus using an integrative approach, combining scientifically orthodox methods for diagnosis with ethnoknowledge gathered from traditional fishers. This work highlights the reliability of information furnished by traditional people that are scientifically untrained but nonetheless seasoned observers of their surrounding nature (e.g., Ogar et al, 2020). Undoubtedly, this kind of collaborative approach may be useful in the case of cryptic invertebrates such as octopuses, particularly in remote coastal locations such as those studied here.…”

“Two‐Eyed Seeing”: An Indigenous framework to transform fisheries research and management

“…Pressure is mounting across spheres (i.e. legal, practical; see Table 2) and scales (institutional to global) to pair Indigenous knowledge systems together with Western scientific practices (Ogar et al, 2020). Regardless of terminological preferences, what we sorely need are approaches that: remedy, rather than reinforce, existing power relations; respect differences, instead of suppress them; and uphold, as opposed to diminish, their unique strengths (Muller, 2012).…”

Indigenous Ecological Reconstruction After Industrial Ruin in Two Iconic Sámi Catchments: Ethics of Comanagement?

“…And as Blomquist (2020) and others points out, the demarcations of market/private management options enter into tensions and complex relations especially if seen from an Indigenous viewpoint (LaFrance et al, 2012). Ogar et al (2020) point out that many of the common resource pools for humanity are in fact located on Indigenous homelands and continue to be the safe havens of biodiversity globally.…”

“…The overarching theoretical notion for this article rests on the capacity of the communities involved to practice what is known in the Arctic as traditional land uses (i.e., hunting, reindeer herding, fisheries, gathering economies, cultural relations; for this work, we mainly focus on fisheries and relations with aquatic ecosystems). Indigenous scholars, like Elina Helander-Renvall (1999, see also Ogar et al, 2020) for the Sámi, have warned that knowledge embedded in the culture and ways of life in the Arctic has not been equally respected as science. Māori scholar Linda Tuhiwai Smith (2001) goes further to say that research has been directly connected with the colonial process globally.…”

“…When members of the comanagement team that emerged, including scientists and Sámi, were contemplating with the Sámi organizations and leadership 4 the idea of installing comanagement as a vehicle for advancing Sámi traditional land uses in Näätämö and in Ponoi, it took place in [2008][2009] in the context of a very rapidly proceeding climate change. Pecl et al (2017) as well as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Arctic Council (2013, see also Serikova, 2019 andOgar et al, 2020) have pointed to the fact that the north boreal and the Arctic are undergoing a system shift because of climate change impacts. The region is undergoing the largest species redistribution since the last glacial era (Pecl et al, 2017).…”