O'Neill Alexander R, Badola Hemant K, Dhyani Pitamber P, Rana Santosh K
Fulbright-Nehru Research Scholar, United States-India Education Foundation (USIEF) and the United States Fulbright Commission, Washington, DC, USA.
G. B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment and Sustainable Development, Sikkim Unit, Pangthang, Gangtok, East Sikkim, Sikkim, 737 102, India.
J Ethnobiol Ethnomed. 2017 Mar 29;13(1):21. doi: 10.1186/s13002-017-0148-9.
Biocultural knowledge provides valuable insight into ecological processes, and can guide conservation practitioners in local contexts. In many regions, however, such knowledge is underutilized due to its often-fragmented record in disparate sources. In this article, we review and apply ethnobiological knowledge to biodiversity conservation in the Eastern Himalayas. Using Sikkim, India as a case study, we: (i) traced the history and trends of ethnobiological documentation; (ii) identified priority species and habitat types; and, (iii) analyzed within and among community differences pertaining to species use and management. Our results revealed that Sikkim is a biocultural hotspot, where six ethnic communities and 1128 species engage in biocultural relationships. Since the mid-1800s, the number of ethnobiological publications from Sikkim has exponentially increased; however, our results also indicate that much of this knowledge is both unwritten and partitioned within an aging, gendered, and caste or ethnic group-specific stratum of society. Reviewed species were primarily wild or wild cultivated, native to subtropical and temperate forests, and pend IUCN Red List of Threatened Species assessment. Our results demonstrate the value of engaging local knowledge holders as active participants in conservation, and suggest the need for further ethnobiological research in the Eastern Himalayas. Our interdisciplinary approach, which included rank indices and geospatial modelling, can help integrate diverse datasets into evidence-based policy.
生物文化知识为生态过程提供了宝贵的见解，并能在当地环境中指导保护从业者。然而，在许多地区，由于这类知识在不同来源中的记录往往零散，因而未得到充分利用。在本文中，我们回顾并将民族生物学知识应用于东喜马拉雅地区的生物多样性保护。以印度锡金邦为例，我们：（i）追溯了民族生物学文献记录的历史和趋势；（ii）确定了优先物种和栖息地类型；以及（iii）分析了社区内部和社区之间在物种利用和管理方面的差异。我们的研究结果表明，锡金邦是一个生物文化热点地区，有六个民族社区和1128个物种参与生物文化关系。自19世纪中叶以来，来自锡金邦的民族生物学出版物数量呈指数级增长；然而，我们的研究结果还表明，这些知识大多未被记录下来，且分散在社会中一个老龄化、基于性别以及特定种姓或族群的阶层中。经审查的物种主要是野生或野生栽培的，原产于亚热带和温带森林，并依据世界自然保护联盟濒危物种红色名录进行评估。我们的研究结果证明了让当地知识持有者作为保护工作的积极参与者的价值，并表明有必要在东喜马拉雅地区开展进一步的民族生物学研究。我们的跨学科方法，包括等级指数和地理空间建模，有助于将不同的数据集整合到基于证据的政策中。
