Indigenous knowledge and long-term ecological change: detection, interpretation, and responses to changing ecological conditions in Pacific Island communities

Abstract

When local resource users detect, understand, and respond to environmental change they can more effectively manage environmental resources. This article assesses these abilities among artisanal fishers in Roviana Lagoon, Solomon Islands. In a comparison of two villages, it documents local resource users' abilities to monitor long-term ecological change occurring to seagrass meadows near their communities, their understandings of the drivers of change, and their conceptualizations of seagrass ecology. Local observations of ecological change are compared with historical aerial photography and IKONOS satellite images that show 56 years of actual changes in seagrass meadows from 1947 to 2003. Results suggest that villagers detect long-term changes in the spatial cover of rapidly expanding seagrass meadows. However, for seagrass meadows that showed no long-term expansion or contraction in spatial cover over one-third of respondents incorrectly assumed changes had occurred. Examples from a community-based management initiative designed around indigenous ecological knowledge and customary sea tenure governance show how local observations of ecological change shape marine resource use and practices which, in turn, can increase the management adaptability of indigenous or hybrid governance systems.

Fig. 1

The Solomon Islands with Roviana Lagoon inset. The two outlined areas within the lagoon inset map indicate the specific research site locations

Fig. 2

Cross-section schematic of a generalized Roviana pepeso, showing local environmental classifications and their approximate English equivalents

Fig, 3

Air photographs and satellite image with delineated areas indicating the size of seagrass meadows at Baraulu Village in 1947, 1979, and 2003

Fig. 4

Air photographs and satellite image with delineated areas indicating the size of seagrass meadows at Nusa Hope Village in 1947, 1979, and 2003

Fig. 5

Changes in seagrass meadow size (ha) near a Baraulu Village based on analyses of aerial photographs from 1947, 1969, 1979, 1983, and a 2003 IKONOS image and b Nusa Hope Village based on analyses of aerial photographs from 1947, 1969, 1979, 1991, and a 2003 IKONOS image