Bridging the gap between local knowledge and western science is essential to understanding the world’s ecosystems and how people interact with and affect them. International scientific assessments have generally focused on global phenomena from a “developed country” perspective that excludes local needs, knowledge, and cultural values. But scientists and policy-makers are becoming more aware that they need to find new ways to assess the world’s changing environment that capture both global and local views and knowledge.
Enter Bridging Scales and Knowledge Systems: Concepts and Applications in Ecosystem Assessment, a new book available from Island Press (paperback or hardcover). Bridging Scales brings together world-class scientists to build a formal framework that links local and indigenous knowledge with global scientific enterprise.
Bridging Scales is the latest release from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a comprehensive study by more than 1,300 scientists requested by the United Nations in 2001. The assessment found that the degradation of 15 of the 24 ecosystem services examined is increasing the likelihood of potentially abrupt changes that will seriously affect human well-being.
Bridging Scales suggests that, for local communities, the “local problem” definition is more important than the “scientific problem” definition in natural-resource assements. The book includes case studies in Portugal, Peru, India, Brazil, the Arctic and other regions, contributed by over two dozen authors.
The World Resources Institute, one of the primary convenors of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, will soon release Restoring Nature’s Capital: An Action Agenda to Sustain Ecosystem Services. The report will examine the changes that should be made so that ecosystems can meet the needs of current and future generations.
