Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) describes aboriginal, indigenous, or other forms of traditional knowledges regarding sustainability of local resources. TEK refers to "a cumulative body of knowledge, belief, and practice, evolving by accumulation of TEK and handed down through generations through traditional songs, stories and beliefs. [It concerns] the relationship of living beings (including human) with their traditional groups and with their environment." TEK is commonly used in natural resource management as a substitute for baseline environmental data to measure changes over time in remote regions that have little recorded scientific data.
Contents
- Faces of traditional ecological knowledge
- Factual observations
- Management systems
- Past and current uses
- Ethics and values
- Culture and identity
- Cosmology
- Ecosystem management theory
- United States Environmental Protection Agency
- The Integration of Tribal Traditional Lifeways Into EPAs Decision Making
- Environmental Justice
- Climate Change
- References
The use of TEK in management and science is controversial since methods of acquiring and accumulating TEK, although often including forms of empirical research and experimentation, differ from those used to create and validate Western scientific ecological knowledge (SEK). Non-tribal government agencies, such a the United States Environmental Protection Agency have established integration programs with some tribal governments in order to utilize TEK in environmental plans and climate change tracking.
There is a debate whether holders of TEK (i.e., Indigenous populations) retain an intellectual property right over traditional knowledge and whether use of this knowledge requires prior permission and license. This is especially complicated because TEK is most frequently preserved as oral tradition and as such may lack objectively confirmed documentation. Ironically, those same methods that might resolve the issue of documentation compromise the very nature of traditional knowledge.
TEK is often used to sustain local populations and maintain resources necessary for survival. However, it can be weakened or invalidated in the context of rapid climate change, environmental impact, or other situations in which significant alterations of ecosystems render TEK weak or obsolete. Environmental justice issues such as water pollution and environmental degradation also threaten TEK, as environmental resources are integral to the sustainability of indigenous health, knowledge, and management practices.
TEK can also be referred to as traditional environmental knowledge which emphasizes the different components and interactions of the environment. More specifically it contains the knowledge of species of both animals and plants, and biophysical characteristics of the environment through space and time. However Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Traditional Environmental Knowledge can be used interchangeably due to the nature of both terms being synonymous where both emphasize the cultural relations with the environment and non-human relations with animals.
Faces of traditional ecological knowledge
The faces of TEK provide different typologies in how it is utilized and understood. These typologies are good indicators in how TEK is used from different perspectives and how they are interconnected, providing more emphasis on "cooperative management to better identify areas of difference and convergence when attempting to bring two ways of thinking and knowing together."
Factual observations
The first face of TEK incorporates the factual, specific observations generated by recognition, naming, and classification of discrete components of the environment. This aspect of TEK is about understanding the interrelationship with species and their surrounding environment. It is also a set of both empirical observations and information emphasizing the aspects of animals and their behavior, and habitat, and the physical characteristics of species, and animal abundance. Therefore this type of "empirical knowledge consists of a set of generalized observations conducted over a long period of time and reinforced by accounts of other TEK holders."
Management systems
The second face refers to the ethical and sustainable use of resources in regards to management systems. This is achieved through strategic planning to ensure resource conservation. More specifically this face involves dealing with pest management, resource conversion, multiple cropping patterns, and methods for estimating the state of resources. A lot of ignorance toward traditional ecological knowledge is at the fault of management, these people are used to growing up in a more modern advanced system, they tend to ignore it.
Past and current uses
The third face refers to time dimension aspect of traditional ecological knowledge, focusing on the past and current uses of the environment transmitted through oral history. Oral history is also used to transmit cultural heritage through generation to generation to maintain the sense of family and community.
Ethics and values
The fourth face refers to value statements and connections between the belief system and the organization of facts. In regards to TEK it refers to environmental ethics that keeps exploitative abilities in check. This face also refers to the expression of values concerning the relationship with the habitats of species and their surrounding environment - the human-relationship environment.
Culture and identity
The fifth face refers to the role of language and images of the past giving life to culture. The relationship between Aboriginals (original inhabitants) and their environment are vital to sustaining the cultural components that define them. This face reflects the stories, values, and social relations that reside in places as contributing to the survival, reproduction, and evolution of aboriginal cultures, and identities. It also stresses "the restorative benefits of cultural landscapes as places for renewal"
Cosmology
This last face of TEK is a culturally based cosmology that is the foundation of the other faces stated. The combination of these faces relates to the assumptions and beliefs about how things work, and explains the way in which things are connected, and gives principles that regulate human-animal relations and the role of humans in the world. From an anthropological perspective, cosmology attempts to understand the human-animal relationship and how these directly influence social relationships, obligations toward community members, and management practices.
Ecosystem management theory
Ecosystem management is a multifaceted and holistic approach to natural resource management. It incorporates both science and traditional ecological knowledge to collect data from long term measures that science cannot. This is achieved by scientists and researchers collaborating with Indigenous peoples through a consensus decision-making process while meeting the socioeconomic, political and cultural needs of current and future generations.
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The traditional values and cultures of American Indian nations are what makes them distinct. This accumulated knowledge and understanding is also called Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). The EPA acknowledges tribal peoples connection to the environment and seeks to develop environmental programs that incorporate their communities, traditional knowledge, and economic and social dynamics into decision making processes. The EPA also recognizes the importance of TEK in shaping scientific research. Although TEK is not currently recognized as an important component of mainstream environmental decision making, but scientists are developing core science competency programs that align with TEK and promote self-sufficiency and determination.
The Integration of Tribal Traditional Lifeways Into EPA's Decision Making
In November 2000, U.S. President Bill Clinton issued Executive Order 13175, which required federal departments and agencies to consult with Indian Tribal governments in the development of policies that would have Tribal Implications (TI). Tribal Implications are defined by the EPA as having "substantial direct effects on one or more Indian tribes, on the relationship between the federal government and Indian tribes, or on the distribution of power and responsibilities between the federal government and Indian tribes." As a Federal agency of the U.S. government, the EPA was required by law to establish a set of standards for the consultation process. As its initial response, the EPA developed a set of standards that would allow for meaningful communication and coordination between EPA and tribal officials prior to EPA taking actions or implementing decisions that may affect tribes. The standards also designated EPA consultation contacts to promote consistency and coordination of the consultation process, and established management oversight and reporting to ensure accountability and transparency.
Within the EPA consultation has taken many forms, one of which is EPA Tribal Councils. In 2000, the EPA's Office of Research and Development formed the EPA Tribal Science Council. The council, made up of representatives from tribes across the nation, is meant to provide a structure for tribal involvement in EPA's science efforts, and serve as a vehicle through which EPA may gain an understanding of the scientific issues that are of highest priority to tribes at a national level. The Council also offers tribes an opportunity to influence EPA’s scientific agenda by raising these priority issues to an EPA wide group.
Of importance for tribal members at the initial gathering of the EPA Tribal Science Council was the inherent differences in Tribal Traditional Lifeways and western science. Tribal Traditional Lifeways include "spiritual, emotional, physical, and mental connections to the environment; connections which are based on intrinsic, immeasurable values"; and an understanding that the earth’s resources will provide everything necessary for human survival. TTL, moreover, emphasizes an approach to "local development that is based on co‐evolution with the environment, and on respecting the carrying capacity of ecosystems." It is ultimately an environmental concept that has developed with an emphasis on the symbiotic character of humans and nature. Contrastingly, western science favors analytical and reductionist methods, it is objective and quantitative, and it does not make distinctions between empirical and sacred. The EPA's Tribal Science Council, however, was meant to act as a meeting place where both groups could "share information that may contribute to environmental protection for all peoples with neither culture relinquishing its identity." Nonetheless, such efforts have been stifled by the nature of TTL. Tribal Traditional Lifeways are passed down orally, from person to person, generation to generation, whereas western science relies on the written word, communicated through academic and literate transmission. Endeavors to bring together western scientists and tribal people have also been hindered by Native American's perceptions that scientific analysis are put in a metaphorical “black box” that shuts out tribal input. Similarly, many western scientists believe tribal people do not want to share with TTL with western scientists. Regardless, the EPA has recognized the ability of indigenous knowledge to advance scientific understanding and provide new information and perspectives that may benefit the environment and human health.
The integration of TTL into the EPA's risk assessment paradigm is one example of how the EPA-Tribal Science Council has been able to enact change in EPA culture. The risk assessment paradigm is an "organizing framework for the the scientific analysis of the potential for harmful impacts to human health and the environment as a result of exposure to contaminants or other environmental stressors." Risk assessment has been used by the EPA to establish "clean-up levels at hazardous waste sites, water quality and air quality criteria, fish advisories, and bans or restricted uses for pesticides and other toxic chemicals." Tribal people are concerned, however, that current risk assessment methodologies do not afford complete value to tribal culture, values, and/or life ways. The Tribal Science Council seeks to incorporate TTL into exposure assumptions existent in the EPA risk assessment model. A long-term goal for the EPA’s Tribal Science Council, however, is a complete shift in decision-making assessments from risk to preserving a healthy people and environment. As stated above, tribal people do not accept a separation of the human and ecological condition when they characterize risk. Through EPA initiated seminar, workshops, and projects, tribes have been able to engage in dialogue about the integration of Tribal Traditional Lifeways into EPA risk assessment and decision-making. This has occurred in a number of ways: inclusion of unique tribal cultural activities such as native basketry, the importance of salmon and other fishes, native plant medicine, consumption of large amounts of fish and game, and sweat lodges as exposures for estimating potential risk to people or to communities. Although these types of tribal specific activities may be included in EPA's risk assessment, there is no assurance that they will be included nor is there consistency in how they may be applied at different sites across the country.
Environmental Justice
Environmental justice is defined as the, “fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies." Indigenous peoples are disproportionately affected by environmental damage.
Multiple reservations throughout the United States are within 25 kilometers of industrial facilities such as oil refineries and plastics manufacturers. Traditional ecological food systems can be threatened by industrial pollution and environmental degradation. In a study of the Yupik people on Saint Lawrence Island, blood samples taken from Yupik people had higher than average levels of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). POPs and other pollutants concentrate in fatty animal tissues more severely in Arctic climates. The Yupik traditional diet relies on large amounts of fish and fatty tissues from whales, which have become contaminated.
Water resources are important aspects of the survival of traditional ecological knowledge. Indigenous peoples living on reservations in South Dakota are victims of contaminated groundwater from leached uranium from nearby mining operations. Traditional ecological management system are also affected by environmental change. The Klamath River basin in California has been declared by the EPA as “endangered” after a massive salmon population decline. The river ecosystem was altered after the institution of major dam projects for agriculture irrigation. Salmon is a key food in the traditional diet and culture of nearby tribes.
For many years now, the EPA has focused on securing environmental justice for tribes and indigenous people. Their tribal program and environmental justice programs concentrate on "helping federally recognized tribes develop their own environmental programs." These programs and policies aim to strength engagement with tribal governments and indigenous communities and build trust and a sense of responsibility towards federally recognized tribes.
In July 2014, the EPA completed its "Policy on Environmental Justice for Working with Federally Recognized Tribes and Indigenous Peoples", which describes how the Agency works closely with tribes and indigenous groups and members, as well as grassroots organization, to protect the environment and public health and address environmental justice concerns in Indian country. The Policy is supported by seventeen individual principles which, when firmly implemented individually to together, can improve the execution of the EPA's programs. More effective administration can help "support the fair and effective implementation of federal environmental laws, and provide protection from disproportionate impacts and significant risks to human health and the environment." While this Policy identifies guidelines and procedures for the EPA in regards to environmental justice principles as they relate to tribes and indigenous peoples, they are in no way applicable as rules or regulations. They cannot be applied to particular situations nor change or substitute any law, regulation, or any other legally-binding requirement and is not legally enforceable.
The EPA believes in securing environmental justice for all communities and persons across the nation. Achievement of this goal is measured on the basis of two standards: whether everyone enjoys "the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards, and equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work."
Climate Change
Unlike Western science, traditional ecological knowledge is more holistic and stresses more on the health and interactions of the environment. Climate change affects traditional ecological knowledge in the forms of the indigenous people’s identity and the way they live their lives. Rising temperatures pose as threats for ecosystems because it harms the livelihoods of certain tree and plant species. The combination of the rise in temperatures and change in precipitation levels affects plant growth locations. The warming also affects insects and animals. The change in temperatures can affects many aspects from the times that insects emerge throughout the year to the changes in the habitats of animals throughout seasonal changes. As the temperature gets hotter, wild fires become more likely to happen. Not only are different aspects of the environment are affected, but together, the health of the ecosystem is affected by climate change and so the environmental resources available to the indigenous people can change in the amount available and the quality of the resources.
Water resources are also affected. In particular, about a third of the Navajo Nation people need to physically attain their own water. Damage to their water resources poses as dangers to overall health and crop failures. As sea ice levels decrease, Alaska Native peoples experience changes in their daily lives; fishing, transportation, social and economic aspects of their lives become more unsafe. The defrosting of soil has caused damages to buildings and roadways. Water contamination becomes exacerbated as clean water resources dwindle.
Climate change undermines the daily lives of the Native peoples on many levels. For example, to immediately deal with these conditions, the indigenous people adjust when they harvest and what they harvest and also adjusting their resource use. Climate change can changes the accuracy of the information of Traditional Ecological Knowledge. The indigenous people have relied deeply on indicators in nature to plan activities and even for short- term weather predictions. As a result of even more increasing unfavorable conditions, the indigenous people relocate to find other ways to survive. As a result, there is a loss of cultural ties to the lands they once resided on and there is also a loss to the traditional ecological knowledge they had with the land there. Climate change adaptations not properly structured or implemented can harm the indigenous people's rights. The EPA has mentioned that it would take into consideration Traditional Ecologial Knowledge in planning adaptations to climate change. The National Resource Conservation Service of the United States Department of Agriculture has used methods of the indigenous people to combat climate change conditions.