Journal Article

Bridging conservation science and traditional knowledge of wild animals

Báldi, András, Molnár, Zsolt, Vadász-Besnyői, Vera, Babai, Dániel, Vadász, Csaba, Ulicsni, Viktor

2019

Overview

Many people call for strengthening knowledge co-production between academic science and indigenous and local knowledge systems. A major barrier to cooperation seems to be a lack of experience regarding where and how traditional knowledge can be found and obtained. Our key question was whether the expert judgment of academic zoologists or a feature-based linear model is better at predicting the observed level of local familiarity with wild animal species. Neither the zoologists nor the model proved sufficiently accurate (70 and 60%, respectively), with the inaccuracy probably resulting from inadequate knowledge of the local ecological and cultural specificities of the species. This indicates that more knowledge is likely to come from local knowledge than zoologists would expect. Accuracy of targeting the relevant species for knowledge co-production could be improved through specific understanding of the local culture, provided by experts who study traditional zoological knowledge and by local knowledge holders themselves.

• Publisher: Springer Science + Business Media,Springer Netherlands,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Animal species / Animals / Atmospheric Sciences / Conservation / Cooperation / Earth and Environmental Science / Ecological effects / Ecology / Environment / Environmental Engineering/Biotechnology / Environmental Management / Environmental policy / expert opinion / Experts / Familiarity / indigenous knowledge / Knowledge / Linear analysis / linear models / Local culture / Local knowledge / Native peoples / Physical Geography / prediction / Production / RESEARCH ARTICLE / Wild animals / zoologists / Zoology