Understanding Local Ecological Knowledge in Social Context: Insights from Sustainable Fisheries

1. Local Ecological Knowledgein Its Social Context Dr. Anthony Davis Director Social Research for Sustainable Fisheries Associate Vice-President (Research) Mount Saint Vincent University Halifax, Nova Scotia

2. To Begin With…. • Pursuits such as fisheries are human activities, not natural biological systems. • Economic, social and political attributes and contexts are key to understanding human activities such as fisheries. • Social research has turned to documenting local ecological knowledge (LEK) as a way to connect and to empower harvesters and their communities in resource management.

3. LEK is championed as key to developing alternative resource management systems that support local sustainability – ecological and economic. • Both sustainability and local empowerment, especially in resource management, are presumed to be desirable. • LEK is judged as contributory to a more sophisticated and locally sensitive understanding of fisheries within the marine ecosystem and management context.

4. Purpose of the Research was… • To develop a research design that documents LEK systematically • To identify and examine the attributes, strengths, and limitations of LEK for key fisheries (e.g., lobster, herring, white hake) • To connect LEK with marine science and resource management

5. What is LEK? • Experience-derived and -based knowledge of the local ecosystem • Generations of livelihood-based interactions in the same marine ecosystem • Knowledge informs where to fish for particular species under specific conditions (e.g., time of year, tides/currents, water/ocean floor attributes, solar and climate conditions) • Knowledge informs choice, design, and use of particular technologies

6. Sustainability is… • Brundtland Commission – to meet present day needs without compromising the future • Sustainability as reconciliation of human systems/needs with ‘nature’ (Cabezas et. al. 2003) • Sustainable Development as improving human lives within ecosystem carrying capacities (Reed 1996) • Sustainability as Conservation (Robinson and Van Bers 1998)

7. Sustainability as “…rearticulat[ing] environments towards…equitable forms of natural resource use” (Sandberg and Sorlin 1998). • Need to understand the nature of ‘power’ in sustainable resource management systems

8. LEK and Sustainability…. • Local resource users are not ‘environmentalists’ • But, livelihood needs create vested interest in resource sustainability • Includes health and bio-productivity of the marine eco-system • LEK may positively inform resource management

9. Study Region

10. Research Design and Methods: A Results Rich Research Process • Partnership and Consultation • Phase 1 – Assemble All Secondary Data to Build Socio-Economic and Historical Context • Phase 2 – Systematic Surveys to Identify Peer Recommendations and Document Social Attributes • Phase 3 – Interview LEK ‘Experts’ Beginning with Those Named most Frequently

11. Survey Overview Results CategoriesResearch Sites St. George’s Bay Chedebucto Bay Total # of Licenses 304 211 Total # Sampled 174 211 Total # of Interviews 127 159 Response Rate 73.0 75.4 Total # LK Experts 138 136 % Retired 15.2 30.1 %Active 84.8 69.9

12. Table 1: Selected Social and Fishing Attributes by Region

13. Table 2: Family Participation in Small Boat Fishing by Region

14. Customary Family Livelihood • Family participation in fisheries livelihoods remains diverse and rich • This quality does not vary much with respect to person’s age, number of years they have been fishing, and the number of years of formal education attained • This demonstrates the degree to which fishing livelihoods are embedded in and express family relationships and histories

15. Family Fishing Histories • Members of the same families have fished on the same grounds, often from the same harbors and communities for many generations • In this study, documented as many as six generations or 120 years • Fishing livelihoods begin with ‘apprenticing’ as crew in the boats of family (commonly father or grandfather) and/or friends • Apprenticing – acquire knowledge of local fishing ground, fishing practices, technical know-howand such

16. An LEK ‘Expert’ Fishing Family Genealogy Blue outline – males Black = Primary fish harvester (no berth) Red outline – Females Green = Primary fish harvester (berth) Blue = Some fishing experience

17. Table 3: Basis of Familiarity by Order of Recommendation by Region

18. Table 4: Basis of Familiarity by Order of Recommendation for Paq’tnkek Mi’kmaq

19. Table 5: Basis of Familiarity by Whether Fishing or Retired by Region

20. Lessons and Meanings….. • While LEK is a shared local knowledge system, not all locals are perceived by peers to hold or use LEK similarly. • Heterogeneous communities of resource users sharing core social attributes – ideas such as fishermen/community may hide more than they reveal. • Family, friendship, and direct fishing experience were much less determinant of perceptions/recommendations than anticipated.

21. Local social status dynamics (reputation/success) notably inform judgments of who is most knowledgeable. • Retired harvesters less likely to be acknowledged as LEK ‘experts’ than anticipated in a ‘traditional’ setting. • LEK social research must be designed to document for intra- and inter-community differences. • Research must account for these differences in documenting, analyzing, and representing LEK.