E-Letter responses to:

special/news: Jennifer Couzin Opening Doors to Native Knowledge Science 2007; 315: 1518-1519 [Summary] [Full text] [PDF]

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Published E-Letter responses:

Native Knowledge

Finn Danielsen, Neil Burgess, Elmer Topp-Jørgensen   (1 August 2007)

An Overlooked Research Tradition

Dr. Patty A. Gray   (27 March 2007)

Native Knowledge 1 August 2007
Finn Danielsen NORDECO, Copenhagen DK-1159, Denmark, Neil Burgess, Elmer Topp-Jørgensen Respond to this E-Letter: Re: Native Knowledge	J. Couzin´s article “Opening Doors to Native Knowledge” (News, 16 March, p. 1518) revealed the trend toward increased collaboration between scientific and local cultures in providing answers to climate-change questions in the Arctic. We believe that polar science could benefit from experiences from those developing countries where a suite of locally based approaches to environmental assessment are emerging (1). Two factors make these techniques particularly relevant in the Arctic. First, locally based methods appear effective in incorporating evidence-based assessments in decision-making at the local level (2), and, by their nature, locally based methods tend to focus on issues of greatest concern to local stakeholders, thus having considerable potential to influence on-the-ground management activities. Second, locally based methods can track the delivery of goods and services from natural ecosystems, which are a prime focus of several international environmental agreements (3), yet are extremely hard to monitor using a top-down approach (1). Without proper monitoring of ecosystem benefits, the success of these international agreements cannot be evaluated, exposing them to criticism or abandonment. Locally based approaches are, however, vulnerable to various sources of bias. Problems include a risk, in the absence of careful documentation, of methods drifting over time or of results reflecting long-term perceptions more than current trends. This caveat is also relevant in the Arctic. We propose that thorough comparison of data collected by local stakeholders and scientists is an important avenue for further research. Finn Danielsen NORDECO, Skindergade 23, DK-1159 Copenhagen, Denmark. Neil Burgess WWF-USA, 1250 24th Street NW, Washington, DC, USA, and University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, UK. Elmer Topp-Jørgensen Department of Fisheries, Hunting and Agriculture, P.O. Box 269, DK-3900 Nuuk, Greenland. References 1. See www.monitoringmatters.org/cases.htm. 2. F. Danielsen et al., Ambio, in press. 3. Report on the 6th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, Strategic Plan Decision VI/26 (UNEP, Nairobi, Kenya, 2002).
An Overlooked Research Tradition 27 March 2007
Dr. Patty A. Gray, Social Anthropologist University of Alaska Fairbanks Respond to this E-Letter: Re: An Overlooked Research Tradition	I applaud the awakening of consciousness of scientists to the fact that indigenous people have valid knowledge, and I thank Ms. Couzin for an interesting glimpse of this process of discovery. However, I find it odd that the phenomenon of researchers "literally working side by side" with indigenous people is presented as though it is something new. It might be worth pointing out that social and cultural anthropologists have been conducting research in this way for about a century—it is called the ethnographic method. They have carefully documented indigenous knowledge (long before this became jargon) in countless ethnographies that have largely been ignored by "science" as being too detailed and too biased for serious scientific study. Yet it is no coincidence that Igor Krupnik—a cultural anthropologist—is a leader in this "new" trend in science, and many of the other scientists named in your article (such as Bruce Forbes and Gary Kofinas) are either working with anthropologists or have borrowed ethnographic methodology from them. It might be worthwhile for Science to look a bit deeper into the research tradition that takes it as given that one must spend months, even years, alongside the people one wishes to learn something from.