| Despite unprecedented interest over the last twenty years in local and indigenous ecological knowledge (IEK), there is still a lack of awareness of the implicit complexity in IEK and the epistemological barriers to its effective use. Development professionals and project participants usually do not attempt to understand the social structures and biophysical features of the ecosystem that support the system of knowledge and how the process of change impacts that system.; For researchers and development practitioners, both local and non-local, to have access to and to understand embedded knowledge that is undergoing change and adaptation, a new conceptual approach is required. The goal of this research process is to expand and refine the understanding of indigenous ecological knowledge as dynamic and place-based knowledge in order to inform contemporary resource management strategies. The influence of socio-economic, ecological and cultural change on the interactions of humans within the local ecosystem is examined using a case study of two communities in the Solomon Islands.; This research positions local ecological knowledge as an emergent property of a complex system of context, practice and belief (CPB). This approach makes the critical distinction between the widely applied development practice of participatory consultation designed to extract knowledge, and this research, which examines local epistemology and the process of change to understand the basis of human-ecosystem interaction.; The relationship of people to the ecosystems in the communities of Uzamba and Valapata is contingent on the CPB complex and changes within it. The context for place-based ecological knowledge includes the condition of the biophysical environment, settlement patterns, population structure and growth. Practice includes the system of governance (control by the chief and resource tenure system), the traditional vs. adopted education system as well as hunting and agricultural practices. The third subsystem discussed is belief, where the traditional belief system has been supplanted by a monotheist belief system. |
