Centre for Functional Biodiversity, University of KwaZulu-Natal, School of Life Sciences, Private Bag X01, Scottsville, Pietermaritzburg, 3209, South Africa; Centre in Indigenous Knowledge Systems, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville Campus, Durban, 3603, South Africa.
Centre for Functional Biodiversity, University of KwaZulu-Natal, School of Life Sciences, Private Bag X01, Scottsville, Pietermaritzburg, 3209, South Africa.
J Environ Manage. 2021 Apr 15;284:112041. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112041. Epub 2021 Feb 2.
South Africa's communal rangelands constitute ~25% of the country's land cover and are largely managed for livestock grazing. These habitats play an important role in rural livelihoods and cultural practices. Using semi-structured interviews, we documented indigenous local ecological knowledge (LEK) held by rural dwellers linked to natural resource utilisation, environmental health and cultural keystone indicator species (CKIS) in the grassland communities of southern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Our main objective was to examine the ability for LEK to inform conservation management. We found that people who were heavily reliant on natural resources attained a higher LEK score, indicating a greater breadth of ecological knowledge, which in turn shaped their perceptions of environmental change. Community members confirmed the presence of conservation concern species within this area, highlighting the limitations of only using citizen science databases for conservation management, as their observations within these databases are biased towards major road routes and protected or urban areas. LEK can play an important role in identifying habitats crucial to species' persistence and delineating population trends over time. Our surveys highlighted the importance of the Southern Ground-hornbill Bucorvus leadbeateri as a CKIS that acts as an early warning system of changing weather, notably rain. However, LEK is context-specific, and some CKIS species such as the Southern Ground-hornbill have wide distribution ranges. Consequently, the cultural associations and implications differ based on local belief systems that are often defined by the language spoken and the community's geographical location. Our study demonstrated the importance of including indigenous LEK in conservation planning for threatened species and habitats and the importance of traditional family values responsible for transferring oral knowledge.
南非的公有牧场占该国土地覆盖面积的约 25%，主要用于畜牧业放牧。这些栖息地在农村生计和文化实践中发挥着重要作用。我们使用半结构化访谈，记录了居住在南非夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省南部草原社区的农村居民与自然资源利用、环境健康和文化关键指示物种（CKIS）相关的本土地方生态知识（LEK）。我们的主要目的是检验 LEK 为保护管理提供信息的能力。我们发现，严重依赖自然资源的人获得了更高的 LEK 得分，这表明他们具有更广泛的生态知识，进而影响了他们对环境变化的看法。社区成员确认该地区存在具有保护意义的物种，这突出表明仅使用公民科学数据库进行保护管理存在局限性，因为这些数据库中的观测结果偏向主要道路路线和受保护或城市地区。LEK 可以在确定对物种生存至关重要的栖息地和描绘随时间推移的种群趋势方面发挥重要作用。我们的调查强调了南非地犀鸟 Bucorvus leadbeateri 作为 CKIS 的重要性，它是气候变化，特别是降雨的早期预警系统。然而，LEK 是具体情况具体分析的，一些 CKIS 物种，如南非地犀鸟，其分布范围很广。因此，文化关联和意义因当地信仰体系而异，这些信仰体系通常由语言和社区的地理位置定义。我们的研究表明，将本土 LEK 纳入受威胁物种和栖息地的保护规划以及传承口头知识的传统家庭价值观的重要性。
