Storing and sharing: A review of indigenous and local knowledge conservation initiatives.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Benyei P
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6889095 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:There is increasing recognition that diverse knowledge systems can work in mutually enriching ways and that Indigenous and Local Knowledge (ILK) can enhance biodiversity conservation. However, studies using scientific knowledge and ILK in a complementary manner, and acknowledging convergent and especially divergent insights have remained limited. In this study, we contrasted proxies of abundances and trends of threatened and conflict-prone carnivores (caracal, cheetah, jackal, lion, leopard, spotted hyaena, striped hyaena) derived separately from scientific knowledge and ILK. We conducted camera trapping, track surveys and semi-structured interviews with local pastoralists from northern Kenya. We found convergences highlighting the need for conservation action and divergences suggesting scientific ecological sampling limitations or underlying socio-psychological phenomena. Overall, our study shows that complementing scientific knowledge and ILK as separate sources of information and opening up space for discrepancies can enrich our understanding of the status and trends of carnivores, as well as recognizing human-carnivore relationships.
| S-EPMC8035381 | biostudies-literature
Project description:In recent years, more and more health data are being generated. These data come not only from professional health systems, but also from wearable devices. All these 'big data' put together can be utilized to optimize treatments for each unique patient ('precision medicine'). For this to be possible, it is necessary that hospitals, academia and industry work together to bridge the 'valley of death' of translational medicine. However, hospitals and academia often are reluctant to share their data with other parties, even though the patient is actually the owner of his/her own health data. Academic hospitals usually invest a lot of time in setting up clinical trials and collecting data, and want to be the first ones to publish papers on this data. There are some publicly available datasets, but these are usually only shared after study (and publication) completion, which means a severe delay of months or even years before others can analyse the data. One solution is to incentivize the hospitals to share their data with (other) academic institutes and the industry. Here, we show an analysis of the current literature around data sharing, and we discuss five aspects of data sharing in the medical domain: publisher requirements, data ownership, growing support for data sharing, data sharing initiatives and how the use of federated data might be a solution. We also discuss some potential future developments around data sharing, such as medical crowdsourcing and data generalists.
| S-EPMC7246891 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Tanzania is one of the African countries endowed with diverse rangeland's biological resources hosting 6 out of 25 globally known biodiversity hotspots. Despite, government efforts on biodiversity conservation, the pressures on rangelands' biodiversity utilization are growing in line with increasing human population. With little recognition of contribution of local knowledge in biodiversity conservation, the current paper reviewed the potential of available indigenous knowledge in Tanzania and challenges limiting adoption of this vital knowledge on rangeland's biodiversity conservation. This review established that, the country has rich indigenous knowledge potential for rangeland management and biodiversity conservation. Traditional enclosures and pastoral mobility are among the important indigenous practices used for rehabilitation of degraded rangelands and conservation of fragile ecosystems. The coexistence of local communities with complex ecosystems offers them excellent experiences on rangelands' biodiversity conservation. However, increasingly loss of rangelands' biodiversity in the country is attributed to ignoring the contribution of local communities which are rich in indigenous knowledge and skills on rangelands management. Among of the challenges hindering the adoption and involvement of indigenous knowledge to conservation are; scientific bias toward pastoral communities, loss of local expertise, poor knowledge inheritance systems, poverty, conflicts and emergence of pandemic diseases. For effective and sustainable utilisation of indigenous knowledge, the following are recommended; fully engagement of local communities in conservation process, empowering local communities to reduce poverty and conflicts, mainstreaming the indigenous knowledge to conservation education, emphasising on livelihoods diversification to reduce reliance on biological resources and promoting studies to document existing indigenous knowledge.
| S-EPMC7544764 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThere is ongoing and increasing interest in the commercialization of biospecimen-derived products from Indigenous Peoples. Discourse on benefit-sharing specifically in the context of the commercialization of Indigenous Peoples biospecimens are currently lacking. A better understanding of the potential ethical imperatives is in need of exploration on this emerging topic. This review sought to elucidate through categorization the current discourse in the peer-reviewed literature on the commercialization of Indigenous Peoples' biospecimens from a benefit-sharing perspective.MethodsA scoping review methodology was utilized to perform a search of PubMed, CINAHL, Embase and Google Scholar. A two-stage screening process was used to assess the relevance of any included articles with subsequent manual open coding of articles. Content analysis was applied to identify the main categories and sub-categories within the article data.ResultsThirty-three articles met the inclusion criteria for analysis. Four overarching categories from the included articles were identified regarding the most common discourse on the commercialization of Indigenous Peoples' biospecimens from a benefit-sharing perspective, including: exploitation through biocolonialism, sovereignty and Indigenous rights, ethical considerations for benefit-sharing, and guidelines and standards concerns.ConclusionThis scoping review highlighted the crucial need to keep Indigenous communities at the center of research projects, ensuring any benefits, advancement, and potential commercial profits are returned to communities through clear and ethical agreements. We encourage all research institutions and institutional ethical review bodies to better clarify the collective needs and interests of Indigenous communities while centering their sovereignty and rights within the research process as it pertains to potential biospecimen product commercialization.
| S-EPMC9386140 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundIndigenous peoples of Canada, United States, Australia, and New Zealand experience disproportionately high rates of suicide as a result of the collective and shared trauma experienced with colonization and ongoing marginalization. Dominant, Western approaches to suicide prevention-typically involving individual-level efforts for behavioural change via mental health professional intervention-by themselves have largely failed at addressing suicide in Indigenous populations, possibly due to cultural misalignment with Indigenous paradigms. Consequently, many Indigenous communities, organizations and governments have been undertaking more cultural and community-based approaches to suicide prevention. To provide a foundation for future research and inform prevention efforts in this context, this critical scoping review summarizes how Indigenous approaches have been integrated in suicide prevention initiatives targeting Indigenous populations.MethodsA systematic search guided by a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach was conducted in twelve electronic bibliographic databases for academic literature and six databases for grey literature to identify relevant articles. the reference lists of articles that were selected via the search strategy were hand-searched in order to include any further articles that may have been missed. Articles were screened and assessed for eligibility. From eligible articles, data including authors, year of publication, type of publication, objectives of the study, country, target population, type of suicide prevention strategy, description of suicide prevention strategy, and main outcomes of the study were extracted. A thematic analysis approach guided by Métis knowledge and practices was also applied to synthesize and summarize the findings.ResultsFifty-six academic articles and 16 articles from the grey literature were examined. Four overarching and intersecting thematic areas emerged out of analysis of the academic and grey literature: (1) engaging culture and strengthening connectedness; (2) integrating Indigenous knowledge; (3) Indigenous self-determination; and (4) employing decolonial approaches.ConclusionsFindings demonstrate how centering Indigenous knowledge and approaches within suicide prevention positively contribute to suicide-related outcomes. Initiatives built upon comprehensive community engagement processes and which incorporate Indigenous culture, knowledge, and decolonizing methods have been shown to have substantial impact on suicide-related outcomes at the individual- and community-level. Indigenous approaches to suicide prevention are diverse, drawing on local culture, knowledge, need and priorities.
| S-EPMC9761945 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Ninu (greater bilby, Macrotis lagotis) are desert-dwelling, culturally and ecologically important marsupials. In collaboration with Indigenous rangers and conservation managers, we generated the Ninu chromosome-level genome assembly (3.66 Gbp) and genome sequences for the extinct Yallara (lesser bilby, Macrotis leucura). We developed and tested a scat single-nucleotide polymorphism panel to inform current and future conservation actions, undertake ecological assessments and improve our understanding of Ninu genetic diversity in managed and wild populations. We also assessed the beneficial impact of translocations in the metapopulation (N = 363 Ninu). Resequenced genomes (temperate Ninu, 6; semi-arid Ninu, 6; and Yallara, 4) revealed two major population crashes during global cooling events for both species and differences in Ninu genes involved in anatomical and metabolic pathways. Despite their 45-year captive history, Ninu have fewer long runs of homozygosity than other larger mammals, which may be attributable to their boom-bust life history. Here we investigated the unique Ninu biology using 12 tissue transcriptomes revealing expression of all 115 conserved eutherian chorioallantoic placentation genes in the uterus, an XY1Y2 sex chromosome system and olfactory receptor gene expansions. Together, we demonstrate the holistic value of genomics in improving key conservation actions, understanding unique biological traits and developing tools for Indigenous rangers to monitor remote wild populations.
| S-EPMC11239497 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Although deforestation rates are declining, protected forest areas remain under threat. While the importance of spatialized ('mapped') community knowledge for conservation planning is acknowledged in scientific literature, the integration of such knowledge in forest governance and conservation planning remains scarce, particularly in Ghana. This paper aims to make clear how participatory spatial knowledge tools and geographic information systems can be used to assess the threats to forest conservation in Ghana's high forest zone. The results show that holders of spatial community-embedded knowledge not only sketch-mapped the location and spatial distribution of the threats to forest conservation in the forest reserves, but also provided information on the actors they perceived to be causing such threats. Such information is not available in forest inventories conducted by the responsible government agencies, but is needed to focus conservation strategies and make them more effective. Maps with the anticipated condition of the forest in 10 years' time furthermore provided insights which can help governance actors to deal with the underlying drivers of forest degradation. This suggests that local spatialized knowledge needs to be integrated into the institutional arrangements for the governance of forested landscapes, and that such governance cannot be effective without the inclusion of local people's knowledge. Due consideration is however to be given to the conditions that ensure that spatialized knowledge production and its use in landscape management decision-making occurs in an inclusive manner.
| S-EPMC8560677 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Knowledge sharing between individuals is a key process for knowledge-intensive organizations to create value and gain a competitive edge. An individual is in the center of a complex set of factors, which are conducive to the knowledge-sharing process. The purpose of this empirical study is to explain the interaction mechanisms between personality and knowledge-sharing behavior and to examine the mediating effects of willingness to share knowledge and subjective norm. The theory of planned behavior, the social exchange theory, and the big five personality traits theory are combined to explain tacit knowledge-sharing behavior. A survey strategy and purposive sampling was applied, and the analysis was conducted on a sample of 288 employees from Croatia working on knowledge-intensive tasks for which high levels of tacit knowledge sharing are characteristic. A standard online questionnaire consisted of items evaluated on a 7-point Likert-scale, ranging from strongly agree (7) to strongly disagree (1). In the structural model, relationships between altruism, willingness, subjective norm, and tacit knowledge sharing were tested. Confirmatory factor analysis with maximum likelihood estimation was performed by using SEM software AMOS version 23. The findings of the study suggest that altruism has a direct impact on tacit knowledge sharing, reaffirming a relationship with knowledge sharing but distinguishing between sharing of different types of knowledge, assessing tacit knowledge sharing as a construct separate from general knowledge sharing. Our findings suggest that willingness to share is a predictive factor of knowledge sharing behavior between employees, having both direct impact on tacit knowledge sharing and being a mediator between the trait of altruism and tacit knowledge sharing. The mediation test also indicates that altruism has an indirect influence on tacit knowledge sharing when subjective norm was a mediator. The findings suggest that personality traits relying on social capital, such as altruism, have more influence on tacit knowledge sharing compared to personality traits that have accentuated intrinsic components. The study contributes to the better understanding of factors stimulating knowledge-sharing behaviors and provides recommendations based on empirical evidence, which may later be applied in the development of knowledge-sharing leadership styles, employee hiring, and auxiliary initiatives.
| S-EPMC7378797 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundSuicide is a major public health issue among Indigenous Sámi in Nordic countries, and efforts to prevent suicide in the Sámi context are increasing. However, there is no literature on suicide prevention initiatives among Sámi. The aim of the study was to map suicide prevention initiatives targeting Sámi in Norway, Sweden, and Finland during 2005-2019.MethodInitiatives were identified and described through utilizing networks among stakeholders in the field of suicide prevention among Sámi, acquiring documentation of initiatives and utilizing the authors first-hand experiences. The described initiatives were analyzed inspired by the "What is the problem represented to be?" (WPR)-approach.ResultsSeventeen initiatives targeting Sámi were identified during 2005-2019, including nine in Sweden, five in Norway, one in Finland and two international initiatives. Analysis with the WPR-approach yielded 40 problematizations regarding how to prevent suicide among Sámi, pertaining to shortcomings on individual (5), relational (15), community/cultural (3), societal (14) and health systems levels (3). All initiatives were adapted to the Sámi context, varying from tailor-made, culture-specific approaches to targeting Sámi with universal approaches. The most common approaches were the gatekeeper and mental health literacy training programs. The initiatives generally lacked thorough evaluation components.ConclusionWe argue that the dominant rationales for suicide prevention were addressing shortcomings on individual and relational levels, and raising awareness in the general public. This threatens obscuring other, critical, approaches, such as broadening perspectives in prevention planning, improving health systems for Sámi, and promoting cultural empowerment among Sámi. Nevertheless, the study confirms considerable efforts have been invested into suicide prevention among Sámi during the last 15 years, and future initiatives might include a broader set of prevention rationales. To improve evaluation and identify the most promising practices, increased support regarding development of plans and implementation of evaluation components is needed.
| S-EPMC8573914 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Kakamega forest is Kenya's only rainforest and is distinguishably rich in biodiversity but threatened by agricultural encroachment and other forms of human activity. It is also one of Kenya's Important Bird Areas and a significant source of natural products to neighboring rural communities, such as medicinal plants, food, wood and other fibers. By using structured questionnaires for direct interviews, local indigenous knowledge was tapped through involvement of a focal group of elderly key informants in three blocks of the forest. Forty key species of medicinal plants used by local people were identified and recorded. Fifty-five percent of these were shrubs, thirty-two percent trees, seven-and-a-half percent lower plants such as herbs or forbs while five percent were climbers. About seventy percent of the medicinal plants occurred inside the forest itself and thirty percent around the edge and the immediate surroundings outside the forest. Thirty-eight (95%) of the plants were indigenous to Kenya and two (5%) exotic. Such extensive indigenous knowledge of the medicinal uses of the plants, including their distribution trends in the forest, may be tapped for decision support in rural health service planning, policy formulation for conserving the forest, tracking and mitigation of climate change impacts.
| S-EPMC3954169 | biostudies-literature