Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Biodiversity, Resilience and Sustainability

Abstract

Much of the world’s biodiversity has been in the hands of traditional peoples, societies of hunters and gatherers, herders, fishers, agriculturists, for a great many generations. Most living resources of the earth have been utilised for a historically long time; exceptions are few (e.g., open-ocean and deep-sea species). As Gomez-Pompa and Kaus [1990] observed, even tropical forests of the Amazon were not untouched environments but the result of the last ‘cycle of abandonment’ by traditional users. The fact is that pre-scientific, traditional systems of management have been the main means by which societies have managed natural resources for millennia [Berkes and Farvar, 1989; Gadgil et al., 1993]. In many cases, the main reason we have any biological diversity to speak about is because of these systems of management.

We thank M.D. Subash Chandran for permission to use unpublished data in Figure 1, and the Beijer Institute for providing opportunities for collaboration. Berkes’ work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Folke’s partly by the Swedish Council for Forestry and Agricultural Research, and Gadgil’s by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.