Integrating Traditional Ecological Knowledge into Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation

Ecology and evolution are the core disciplines that investigate the processes that generate and maintain biodiversity in space and time. The theoretical and applied studies produced in these two disciplines represent pivotal information to set conservation biology priorities. Because humans represent one of the main factors contributing to land-use changes in world ecosystems, it is essential to include them in theoretical and applied studies. However, most of the current literature in ecology, evolution, and conservation (hereafter EEC) uses the variable “human” as the negative driver of biodiversity changes. On the one hand, by including humans as the source of biodiversity loss, EEC produces relevant information to be broadly used in applied grounds such as in biodiversity management and conservation.

On the other hand, disregarding that local populations depend on biodiversity for a living could hamper our ability to produce socially inclusive theories. Studies in the last two decades with Ethnobiology, Human Ecology, and Anthropology have argued that traditional ecological knowledge is a missing component in EEC studies. Thus, bringing ecological or evolutionary processes together with the traditional knowledge could represent a step forward in a responsible and inclusive discipline.

This Research Topic's primary goal is to provide new avenues in biodiversity studies by explicitly integrating the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) with ecology, evolution, and conservation. Moreover, we encourage the submission of manuscripts using theoretical elements from ecology and evolution to foster ethnobiological research development. This Research Topic will welcome manuscripts in the following themes:

1. Integration of ethnobiological data to support biodiversity conservation and wildlife management strategies.

2. Traditional ecological knowledge and restoration ecology.

3. Evolutionary perspectives in the interaction between people and nature.

4. Integrating biocultural and ecological traits to understand biodiversity use by human populations

5. Human macroecology and macroethnobiology.

6. Humans as niche constructors: patterns and processes.

7. Nature’s contribution to people: including the Traditional ecological knowledge in the decision-making process. 

8. Domestication of plants, animals, and landscapes, with relevance to conservation and restoration.

We will also open a forum inviting researchers to provide new and provocative ideas and hypotheses integrating ecological and ethnobiological processes. In this forum, we expect a thought-provoking paper building new theoretical grounds to foster future studies or refuting previous theoretical approaches in one or more subtopics indicated above.