Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) is the accumulated understanding of specific ecosystems developed by communities over generations of intimate, attentive relationship with a particular place — knowledge of seasonal patterns, species relationships, soil indicators, water systems, and ecological dynamics that no brief scientific study can replicate. This knowledge is currently disappearing at a rate that parallels biodiversity loss itself, often taking irreplaceable information about sustainable relationship to specific landscapes with it. The emerging dialogue between TEK and Western ecology is producing insights neither tradition could generate alone.
Patan