Interactions between Local and Scientific Ecological Knowledge: Envisioning Landscapes for Protected Areas
Protected area networks are the most recognized and accepted strategy for conserving biodiversity in the face of global land use changes — such as ecosystem fragmentation and agricultural intensification . Yet the long-term protection of multiple landscape values, including biodiversity, is increasingly uncertain.
The way local communities perceive their landscapes within and around protected areas as well as the associated management practices directly affect the legitimacy and social acceptance of conservation governance.
Therefore, assessing human knowledge concerning natural processes and bio-cultural diversity is instrumental for designing conservation strategies for protected areas that are understood, legitimized, and accepted by local residents and stakeholders.
Scientific ecological knowledge and research on biodiversity have traditionally supported and informed the establishment of protected areas. However, people living within and around these protected areas hold a cumulative body of non-scientific knowledge, beliefs and practices about local ecosystems and their management that is grounded in local experience. Agricultural landscapes in Europe are the result of thousands of years of interactions between social and ecological systems. This is reflected in the valuable biodiversity related to agriculture (e.g. 63 EU Habitats included in the Annex I of the Habitats directive depend on agricultural practices) and in the multitude of still preserved local and traditional farming knowledge systems and techniques.
By relying on such traditional or local ecological knowledge, many rural communities have historically been able to conserve biodiversity and distinctive cultural landscapes, while supporting their livelihoods and dealing with uncertainty.
Local ecological knowledge is continuously being transformed and eroded due to industrialization and globalization processes and associated changes in lifestyles. Understanding protected area residents’ scientific and local ecological knowledge and how these influence perceptions about landscapes in protected areas could help to identify which knowledge systems or pockets of knowledge are relevant and — at the same time —under threat and need to be integrated in management and conservation strategies and plans.
Scientific and local ecological knowledge: A case study from Sierra de Guadarrama
Our research was conducted during 2019 in the Sierra de Guadarrama, a mountain range located in the central mountain systems of the Iberian Peninsula. The region spans 180.000 ha approximately and is located in the Spanish provinces Madrid and Segovia. Traditionally, predominant land-uses included livestock farming and pinewood timber logging. However, due to parallel effects of land intensification, rural abandonment and economic drivers, current activities are mostly related to nature-based tourism and recreation as well as animal husbandry. Due to the region’s proximity to the metropolitan area of Madrid (with approximately 5.5 million inhabitants), these landscapes have experienced rapid population growth in recent years, as well as a high pressure from tourism and urbanization processes.
Our findings revealed that Scientific Ecological Knowledge and Local Ecological Knowledge of Sierra de Guadarrama residents are strongly associated. In most cases, the two knowledge systems significantly correlated with the same characteristics, for example with the exposure and learning about nature, high formal education level, age or income. These results highlight a high level of permeability and interaction between both knowledge systems, pointing to their interdependency.
Rather than viewing local and scientific knowledge about ecosystems as mutually exclusive, researchers should consider these knowledge systems as interdependent and highly permeable.
Furthermore, in our study important questions were raised about how knowledge of biodiversity, ecosystems and nature conservation can be measured and conceptualized in future research — particularly in Western contexts, where local communities generally have a high access to nature-related experiences, and hybrid knowledge systems (combining traditional practices and innovations) can be consciously maintained and economically incentivized.
What does the profile of people living within and around protected areas tell us about their ecological knowledge?
Greater knowledge about biodiversity and ecosystems was moderately well predicted by the resident socio-demographics, their trip characteristics, their engagement with nature and the rural–urban gradient. Our research in the Sierra de Guadarrama suggests that a higher level of resident ecological knowledge, both local and scientific, was not reserved for long-term residents here— as was expected due to the results of other studies and contexts — , but rather associated with other traits such as a higher formal education level, income, age, living in areas distant to urban settings, and to the multiple ways of getting in touch with and learning about nature — i.e. reading, courses and seminars, collection of mushrooms or plants, nature observation or an environment-related profession.
These findings reveal that the activities mentioned may be important experiences for developing a deeper understanding of the local surrounding natural system, and for connecting with traditional practices —and are not necessarily only the preserve of people indigenous to the respective landscape.
How does ecological knowledge relate to perceptions of landscapes and ecosystem services in protected areas? — Visions of protected areas
Concerning the influence of ecological knowledge on perceived ecosystem service provision, perceived landscape impacts or perceived ecosystem vulnerability, we found a positive association between more knowledgeable residents and the perceived importance of regulating ecosystem services (i.e. erosion prevention), in particular services related to water (e.g. water regulation and fresh water provision), and the intrinsic values of nature, i.e. biodiversity. Besides, in general, higher ecological knowledge was positively associated with perceived vulnerability of strongly water-dependent ecosystems (e.g., riparian forest, mountain lakes and peatland), revealing the importance of water in this particular context.
Based on the resident characteristics associated with both scientific and local ecological knowledge, we defined a resident vision of Sierra de Guadarrama landscapes that we called “The landscape for intrinsic values, regulating ecosystem services and traditional practices”. This vision can guide landscape management decisions to include the acknowledgment and integration of local ecological knowledge for better understanding of nature and its conservation. However, a challenge of this vision is the potential lack of awareness of residents holding this view for instrumental and relational landscape values (e.g. raw materials, recreation or aesthetic values). It can be well-represented by more restrictive land use regulations (such as in national parks), by the new EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 or by national initiatives such as the Spanish Inventory of Traditional Ecological Knowledge associated with Biodiversity.
On the other hand, our results suggest that long-term residents who, in general, showed lower levels of ecological knowledge — both local and scientific — and formal education, but a higher landscape attachment, may prefer a landscape that offers provisioning — e.g. food or raw material — and some cultural services — e.g. recreation or aesthetic value. This vision corresponds to a less restrictive approach to nature conservation management in the study site, particularly in terms of the allowance of land uses and local practices (as is e.g. the case in biosphere reserves).
Some conclusions
T his research provides insights into the benefits of and limitations to interweaving apparently distinctive knowledge systems for landscape sustainability and nature conservation in protected areas.
Diverging attitudes and priorities towards the conservation and use of ecosystem services can lead to conflicts. We argue that understanding the causes underpinning these divergences, including ecological knowledge, perceived benefits and socio-demographics, can help to identify which knowledge systems or pockets of knowledge are relevant and vulnerable.
Our insights on the interplay of scientific and local ecological knowledge can inform sustainable landscape management strategies and plans in protected areas.
Full Study: Cebrián-Piqueras, M. A., A. Filyushkina, D. N. Johnson, V. B. Lo, M. D. López-Rodríguez, H. March, E. Oteros-Rozas, C. Peppler-Lisbach, C. Quintas-Soriano, C. M. Raymond, I. Ruiz-Mallén, C. J. van Riper, Y. Zinngrebe, and T. Plieninger. 2020. “Scientific and Local Ecological Knowledge, Shaping Perceptions towards Protected Areas and Related Ecosystem Services.” Landscape Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-020-01107-4
Website of the ENVISION Project: https://inclusive-conservation.org/.
