Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
interpretation of the natural world. Traditional ecological knowledge is highly ra-
tional, empirical, and pragmatic, while simultaneously integrating cultural values and
moral perspectives. With its worldview of respect, responsibility, and reciprocity with
nature, TEK does not compete with science nor detract from its power, but extends its
scope into additional human interactions with the natural world (box 18.2).
Development of Place-Based, Sustainable Economies
The interdependence of ecosystem services and cultural services means that restora-
tion may also serve the goal of development of sustainable, place-based economies.
Such economies are characterized by a reliance on local resources and short com-
modity chains in which the labor, value-added, and economic benefits remain largely
in the local economy. Emery (1994) suggests that these human ecological systems are
regulated by four elements: resource availability, access to resources, knowledge of re-
sources, and economic demand. Ecological restoration and TEK may enhance the
critical factor of resource availability, while biocultural restoration augments ele-
ments of demand, access, and knowledge of the resource and its use.
Restoration of sustainable, place-based economies can also serve to stem the out-
flow of young people from an indigenous community to seek employment. Such
migration can pose a significant risk to cultural integrity because opportunities for
intergenerational knowledge transfer, language fluency, and other cultural ties are
weakened. Sustainable economies encourage caretakers of the land to continue their
stewardship practices. Thus, restoration that encompasses revitalization of both eco-
system and cultural services becomes a priority.
The White Earth Land Recovery Project of the White Earth Ojibwe provides an
outstanding example of reciprocal restoration of a place-based economy in practice.
Concomitant with the recovery of tribal lands lost in illegal land takings of the past
century, the White Earth community has worked to create a sustainable, local econ-
omy tied to simultaneous restoration of land and culture. Recovery of title to a portion
of the historic land base has enabled restoration of access to ecological resources. The
TEK of the community has been engaged to develop the local economy through har-
vest and processing of local nontimber forest products—maple products, preserves
from wild-gathered fruits, wild rice, and traditional agriculture—for local consump-
tion and for sale. These activities simultaneously promote ecological well-being of the
landscape through traditional caregiving practices, community health through resto-
ration of the traditional diet, and revitalization of TEK and language.
Restoration of the “Remembered Forest” of the Klamath peoples similarly repre-
sents the goal of reciprocal restoration of a forest-based economy (Wolf 2004). The
Klamath people of southern Oregon were made landless by disastrous federal policies
of Termination in 1954 (Hood 1972), followed by intensive forest exploitation as the
lands they had tended sustainably for centuries were overharvested by the U.S. Forest
Service. Even without title to their own ancestral lands, the Klamath Tribe developed
a forest restoration plan designed to regain a tribal homeland and subsistence base
where forest management was driven by tribal values of permanence, collaboration,
