informal knowledge and adaptive co management of protected areas (christo fabricius, bianca currie...
DESCRIPTION
Protected areas can be conceptualized as complex adaptive systems, with feedbacks between social and ecological processes inside and outside their boundaries. Understanding and managing these feedbacks requires as much information and knowledge as possible. Protected area managers on their own are seldom able to collect and process the full array of information required to adaptively manage protected areas, especially in the context of the broader social-ecological landscape. In that sense informal, local and traditional knowledge can be valuable in providing supplemental or even core information required to make complex management decisions. Involvement of local knowledge holders may also assist in building bridges between protected area managers and local stakeholders, and ignoring local knowledge often leads to conflict with subsequent demands on precious human and financial resources. In this presentation we provide a conceptual framework for the role of knowledge, learning and co-innovation in adaptive co-management. We provide examples of informal, local and traditional knowledge and its relevance for biodiversity conservation and protected area management, and of the lost opportunities and conflicts that come to the fore when such knowledge is ignored. We also discuss some of the pitfalls and share ideas of processes and methods that may promote the better use of informal, local and traditional knowledge in adaptive co-management of protected areas.TRANSCRIPT
Social networks,
communities of practice
Codes of conduct,
incentives
Management practices
Drainage basins
Landscapes
Local ecosystems,
biotic communities
Sense making Understanding ‘Mental models’
Knowledge; Beliefs
Folke 2006. Global Env Change 16(3): 253-267
Info
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LocalLocal UniversalUniversalScale of perspectiveScale of perspective
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Listservers
Conventions
Licenses, permits
Global change
models
Space
programmes
Conferences
Seminars
EIAs
Ecological research
Compliance monitoring
Management plans
Management activities
Ecosystem use
Customs, traditions
Fabricius et al. 2006. in: Reid W. et al. (eds.). Bridging Scales and Knowledge Systems. Concepts and Applications in Ecosystem Assessment. Island Press.
Monitoring relative changes in forest health over time
Assessing livestock condition as an indicator of veld condition (Bolus 2010. MSc, Rhodes)
Comparing the abundance of medicinal plants inside and outside protected areas (Fabricius & Burger 1997 – SA J Sci)
People’s Biodiversity Transects , Bathurst commonage
(Fabricius , Cundill, McGarry & Gambiza, SANBI 2005)
People’s Biodiversity Registers (Fabricius & Pereira in review; Gadgil 2007)
Assessing the relative contribution of forest resources to local livelihoods (Scheepers 2007. PhD, Rhodes)
• Historical trends and conditions • Inter-generational transfer of knowledge • “At one stage when the national road
wasn’t there and the railway bridge wasn’t there, there was a huge, huge estuary that wound its way down to the sea.”
Images from www.knysnawoodworkers.co.za
Why are forests expanding at Nqabara?
people move Natural Expansion
Building materials not
needed
Stop cultivation
ExoticsLack of fire encourages
growth
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Reasons for change
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Chalmers & Fabricius 2007. Ecology & Society
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Forests
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Forest size1974Forest size2001
“harvest wood only once it is dead and is dry” “Thatching grass and reeds are allowed to be harvested between April and July”. “If people want to go into the red zones for traditional ceremonies or to visit sacred pools, they must get permission from the office”
• Wilderness Lakes CMF member (70): “There are also a lot of people in there who’ve got extensive experience in different relative areas and a lot of knowledge...some are retired water engineers you know, farmers with extensive experience in catchment management elsewhere.”
• Retired Sedgefield resident traumatized by 2007 floods: “But the old-timers knew a thing or three. … In their wisdom people came back later and said ….those are the [areas] that got flooded”.
http://www.discover-sedgefield-south-africa.com
• Knysna birding enthusiast: “..and then the Bird clubs do on-going counts in certain areas…[search for] correlation between why numbers are increasing or decreasing, [why] birds have moved off, to give us some idea of what’s going on...”
• [Referring to a senior resident] “..he’s not a scientist but he’s got a scientist’s mind and he’s done a lot of analysis particularly of the water”
• Retired Sedgefield resident: “I have a timetable with me and I tend to write notes on
the back of it…if there is any change in the mouth and I record those, well I’ve kept a sort of a diary of that on the computer so I’ve got that sort of thing”
• “.. I go down there on a daily basis and I take a lot of photographs..,You tend to notice things that are happening”
Resistance, lack of buy-in, taking inappropriate action Retired Sedgefield resident: “I would launch a campaign, I would make it very uncomfortable for them. Because sometimes that’s only way to actually get them to listen. But anyway...” Retired engineer: “..if the state isn’t doing their duty it is the citizen’s duty to do it for them…[that is why].. we did some engineering at the railway bridge”.
• Capacity – Skills of officials and local people – Capacity for adaptive management
• “Stakeholder inclusivity is vital to the success of an adaptive planning process” (Roux & Foxcroft 2011. Koedoe 53 (2).
• Yet only 18% of papers reviewed involved external stakeholders in adaptive management
• Power differentials & perceptions of power • Mutual (dis)respect
– Historical baggage – Attitudes – Divergent value systems
• Unwillingness to compromise and learn • Prejudice amongst professionals of local knowledge, and amongst locals of
scientific knowledge • Validity and quality control of data from citizen science
Enabling Environment
Plan
Experiment
Monitor, & Evaluate
Learn
Adapt
Diverse range of stakeholders
Ecological knowledge and Institutional arrangements
Adaptive co-management framework