PARENT SESSION
Oral Session #50: Traditional Ecological Knowledge.
Presiding: J. Ford
Wednesday, August 7. 8:00 AM to 11:30 AM. Greenlee Meeting Room, TCC.
Bridging restoration ecology and conservation biology with Traditional Ecological Knowledge: Redefining ecological integrity.
Martinez, Dennis*,1, 1 Indigenous Peoples' Restoration Network of the Society for Ecological Restoration, Douglas City, California
ABSTRACT- Ecological integrity is a concept which connotes completeness of ecological structure, composition, and processes at various spatial and temporal scales. It implies relative ecological stability and resiliency, and is considered an ecologically appropriate restoration goal by many restoration ecologists and conservation biologists. Yet sustainable cultural practices of indigenous peoples and their Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) are seldom incorporated into reference or baseline ecosystems, and are usually left out of current definitions of ecological integrity. We argue that integrity should include reference systems which are based on both historical fidelity and ecological functionality. Historical fidelity requires that attention be paid to cultural land practices of indigenous societies of long-standing occupancy of place. A case in point is conservation biology planning by World Wildlife Fund (WWF)in the Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregion of northwest California and southwest Oregon. I wrote a report for WWF in which the ethnographic evidence suggests that the native Takelma/Dakubetede peoples needed to use prescription fire at virtually all montane elevations in order to maintain their tribal economies at precontact population levels. For restoration ecology, this translates into numerous group selection cuts of varying sizes in mid-elevation forests and the restoration of Indian fire selectivity, seasonality, intensity and frequency across the landscape. For conservation biology, the restored mid-elevation forest habitat may offer a better chance of animal dispersal between seaside reserves due to the kind of restored habitat that animals have co-evolved with for millenia.
KEY WORDS: ecological integrity, restoration ecology, conservation biology, traditional ecological knowledge