Assessing long-term changes in Indigenous Environmental Knowledge

ongoing

Ethnobiological research provides contradictory evidence of changes in Indigenous Environmental Knowledge (IEK) systems, with some studies suggesting processes of knowledge erosion and others emphasizing adaptability and resilience. The ecological impacts of such changes are also largely unknown, given that ethnobiologists generally lack diachronic or longitudinal data for the study of IEK changes over long periods of time, and their knock-on effects on biodiversity. Using systematic ethnobiological place-based data collection in a unique research site in the Bolivian Amazon with an untapped wealth of long-term ethnobiological information, in this project I will rigorously assess the processes through which IEK systems change over time, and the ecological impacts associated with such changes. This project will be conducted in partnership with the Tsimane’ Indigenous Peoples through processes of knowledge co-production. The combined use of cutting-edge geospatial analyses with ethnographically-grounded data will allow me to disentangle the interwoven relationships between IEK changes and biodiversity loss, and provide a more granular interpretation of causality in hypothesis-driven ethnobiological research. The project will contribute to a paradigm shift in the way in which change and causality are addressed and theorized in ethnobiological scholarship, enriching scholarly discussions about the push and pull between continuity and change within IEK systems, and significantly expanding our knowledge of the pathways through which the loss of collective intergenerational memory impinges negatively on biodiversity conservation. The project’s ground-breaking nature lies on its focus not only on changes in IEK content (e.g., plant uses), but also on the contexts for such changes (e.g., biocultural landscapes), and its interwoven ecological impacts (e.g., forest loss).