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Abstract:
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"Many forest communities possess considerable knowledge of the natural resources they use.
Such knowledge can potentially inform scientific approaches to management, either as a source of baseline
data to fill information gaps that cannot otherwise be addressed or to provide alternative management
approaches from which scientists and managers might learn. In general, however, little attention has been
given to the relevance of quantitative forms of such knowledge for resource management. Much discussion
has focused on the integration of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) into management, but less attention
has been paid to identifying specific areas where it is most useful and where it may be most problematic.
We contrasted scientific data with information from TEK in the context of a threat to the sustainable
harvesting of a nontimber forest product (NTFP) of livelihood importance in southern India, specifically,
a fruit tree infected by mistletoe. The efficiency of deriving information from NTFP harvesters compared
to scientific field studies was assessed. We further evaluated the potential of TEK to provide novel solutions
to the management problem in question, the degree to which TEK could provide quantitative information,
and the biases that might be associated with information derived from TEK. TEK complemented previously
gathered ecological data by providing concordant and additional information, but also contradicted some
results obtained using a scientific approach. TEK also gave a longer-term perspective with regard to NTFP
harvesting patterns. Combining information on historical and current harvesting trends for the NTFP with
official data suggests that current assessments of sustainability may be inaccurate and that the use of diverse
information sources may provide an effective approach to assessing the status of harvested resources."
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