A Typology of Indigenous Engagement in Australian Environmental Management: Implications for Knowledge Integration and Social-ecological System Sustainability
نویسندگان
چکیده
Indigenous peoples now engage with many decentralized approaches to environmental management that offer opportunities for integration of Indigenous Ecological Knowledge (IEK) and western science to promote cultural diversity in the management of social-ecological system sustainability. Nevertheless, processes of combining IEK with western science are diverse and affected by numerous factors, including the adaptive co-management context, the intrinsic characteristics of the natural resources, and the governance systems. We present a typology of Indigenous engagement in environmental management, derived through comparative analysis of 21 Australian case studies, and consider its implications for the integration of IEK with western science. Sociological and rational choice institutionalism underpin our analytical framework, which differentiates on three axes: (1) power sharing, incorporating decision making, rules definition, resource values and property rights; (2) participation, incorporating participatory processes, organizations engaged, and coordination approaches; (3) intercultural purpose, incorporating purposes of environmental management, Indigenous engagement, Indigenous development and capacity building. Our typology groups engagement into four types: Indigenous governed collaborations; Indigenous-driven cogovernance; agency-driven co-governance; and agency governance. From our analysis of manifestations of knowledge integration across the types, we argue that Indigenous governance and Indigenous-driven co-governance provides better prospects for integration of IEK and western science for sustainability of social-ecological systems. Supporting Indigenous governance without, or with only a limited requirement for power sharing with other agencies sustains the distinct Indigenous cultural purposes underpinning IEK, and benefits knowledge integration. We conclude by advocating that the typology be applied to test its general effectiveness in guiding practitioners and researchers to develop robust governance for Indigenous knowledge integration in environmental management.
منابع مشابه
Indigenous Knowledge, Science, and Resilience: What Have We Learned from a Decade of International Literature on “Integration”?
Despite the increasing trend worldwide of integrating indigenous and scientific knowledge in natural resource management, there has been little stock-taking of literature on lessons learned from bringing indigenous knowledge and science together and the implications for maintaining and building social-ecological system resilience. In this paper we investigate: (1) themes, questions, or problems...
متن کاملIndigenous Accounts of Environmental Stewardship in Light of the Theory and Language of Maharishi Vedic Science
The principles and practice of sustainability have gained momentum in the last 15 years and now form a central part of conversations around social praxis and the future. It has been proposed that the theories driving sustainability science are embedded in Indigenous history, and it has been shown that many ancient traditions always concerned themselves with sustainable and ethical living. Among...
متن کاملEvaluation and Comparison of Sustainability levels of Rice Production in Sari County
Introduction It is difficult to measure sustainable agriculture as a multidimensional concept. While it is relatively easy to express philosophical definitions of agriculture sustainability, providing an operational and methodology definition for evaluating the level of sustainability is difficult. Different methodological approaches have been formulated and developed to assess the sustainab...
متن کاملA Bayesian model decision support system: dryland salinity management application
Addressing environmental management problems at catchment scales requires an integrated modelling approach, in which key bio-physical and socio-economic drivers, processes and impacts are all considered. Development of Decision Support Systems (DSSs) for environmental management is rapidly progressing. This paper describes the integration of physical, ecological, and socio-economic components i...
متن کاملCross-cultural environmental research in New Zealand: Insights for ecological economics research practice
a r t i c l e i n f o Indigenous cultures and knowledge systems have been virtually ignored by Ecological Economics theory and practice, in spite of the increasing willingness of indigenous peoples to engage in the holistic and integrative research that ecological economists aspire to. This paper draws on the involvement of ecological economists in cross-cultural research in New Zealand, to dis...
متن کامل