• Citizen science can be a conduit for Indigenous local knowledge
• However, CS and ILK represent distinct types of knowledge systems
  • Keeping this in mind is critical when designing knowledge collaborations
  • Context of interactionbetween science and ILK
• A Multiple Evidence Based (MEB) Approach can reconcile this

ILK systems

• A kind of Traditional Ecological Knowledge
• social and ecological knowledge, practices and beliefs about living beings and their relation to one another and the environment
• Can provie info, methods, theory and practice for ecosystem stewardship
• Locally developed knowledge systems - changing to meet the needs of the context where they are produced
  • Supports governance of complex social-ecological systems
  • Revised in response to changing context

1. Different knowledge systems might emphasize different qualitative attributes of the environment
   • Usually about things that are easily observable
2. Local knowledge processes are concerned with why the new knowledge is important
   • What aspects are seen to be important
   • How to discuss and make sense of observations
   • Which species are observed and their significance varies across knowledge systems
3. All knowledge systems areunderpinned by values concerning relation to environment
   • can be specific to cultural contexts and maynot be easily shared (understood by) other cultures
   • For example the health of a species might be seen to be connected to a certain ceremony

Scietific knowledge

• Also generated in a value context - basedon research funding and what kind of knowledge is considered valuable
• The role of the individual is minimized
  • In ILK systems the individual knower's identity and beliefs are sometimes more relevant

Combination

Indigenous people / communities (IPLC) can use both scientific approaches and ILK and potentially weave toether approaches - they can also be scientists.

• Indigenous rangers inAustralia using water monitoring plus traditionaltechniques for water health - holistic approachvs scientific techniques

Knowledge collaborations help to strengthen IP capacity to maintain their won know

Citizen science

• Tools to facilitate data collection from everyday people
• Community engagement tool and many have a goal to contribute to stewardship

Types of projects

• Some projects are just contributory (data collection) - design, analysis and interpretation done by professional scientists
• Some projects just use volunteers to interpret data, like trail cam image classification
• Some projects are co-created with the community with
  • These kinds are sometimes related to justice or human rights
  • E.g. THe Extreme Citizen Science Initiative

Summary

• Generally science-based framing and practise
• RIght methods must be chosen to meet community needs

Citizen Science as a conduit for ILK

• CS initiatives are striving to find constructive ways to embrace knowledge holders as legitimate knowledge holders coming from different knowledge systems
• The examples were all websites that hold traditional knowledge. I don't really see how this is science
• Free, prior and informed consent for CS initiatives w.r.t. ILK is central - and a continuous process
• Data ownership issues need to also be carefully addressed, especially with sacred info. Requires two-way dialogue
• A challenge is difficulty of indluding knowledge that isn't reproducable to scientific data
  • GIS has limited potential to represent ILK and can contibute to overlooking of important concepts
  • Mapping only what is deemed important from science perspective can fall short in recognizing cultural identity
  • Positivist representations of space?
  • Indigenous geographical storytelling platforms- look into this (ACT 2019)
• Some projects use the term "Indigenous science"
• Recogniztion of place-based ILK systems ifs important

Ways forward

Multiple Evidence Based approach (MEB) - an approach for guiding collaborations between knowledge systmes

Using Indigenous, local and scientific knowledge together to form a bigger picuture that generates evidence for sustainable use of land areas

Example: Kimberley Indigenous Saltwater Sicence

• How an MEB can be applied in practice
• Focused on collaboration
• Rough start
• working group members with representatives from each nation identified the appraoch and recruited reserarchers
• Link local knowledge into regional approach

Example: Lion Guardians in Kenya

• Case on how complementing conventional scientific monitoring with ILK and CS can work better than just science
• Employs Maasai warriors to collect data onlion numbers and movements
• COmbines telemetry with Maasai traditional tracking systems
  • They can estimate age and sex from the tracks
• Led to an increase in detection of lions and improved understanding of connectivity between populations and broader metapopulation

Example: Oil spill mapping in Peruvian Amazon

• More Indigenous led design than the Kenya one

Indigenous research methodologies

• Devloped in response to hegemony of science and its use in colonization
• Mode of academic inquiry with holistic conceptions of systems including emotions and spirituality that uphold religious practices

Example from Greenland

Piniakkanik Sumiiffinni Nalunaarsuniq locally based monitoring system for Greenland natural resources

• Natural Resources Comitees established in coastal communities among fishermen, hunters and environmentally interested people
• Meet each quarter to report observations and propose decisions
• These are presented to the local government

No mention here of the ethical issues with citizen science used for management decisions - e.g. what if the community members who report pollution are making money from the pollution source?