Dynamics of pastoral traditional ecological knowledge: a global state-of-the-art review

Traditional ecological knowledge enables pastoralists to cope with social-ecological changes, thereby increasing thesustainability of their practices and fostering social-ecological resilience. Yet, there is a significant knowledge gap concerning the extentto which pastoral traditional ecological knowledge has changed over time at the global level. We aim to fill this gap through a systematicliterature review of 288 scientific studies on pastoral traditional ecological knowledge. We reviewed 152 papers in detail (selectedrandomly from the 288) for their content, and focused specifically on 61 papers that explicitly mentioned one of the four types ofknowledge transition (i.e., retention, erosion, adaptation, or hybridization). Studies on pastoral traditional knowledge represent lessthan 3% of all the scholarly literature on traditional ecological knowledge. Geographical distribution of the 288 case studies was largelybiased. Knowledge domains of pastoral knowledge such as herd and livestock management, forage and medicinal plants, and landscapeand wildlife were relatively equally covered; however, climate-related knowledge was less often studied. Of the 63 papers that explicitlymentioned transition of pastoral traditional ecological knowledge, 52 reported erosion, and only 11 studies documented explicitlyknowledge retention, adaptation, or hybridization of traditional knowledge. Thus, adaptation and hybridization was understudied,although some case studies showed that adaptation and hybridization of knowledge can efficiently help pastoralists navigate amongsocial-ecological changes. Based on the review, we found 13 drivers which were mentioned as the main reasons for knowledge transitionamong which social-cultural changes, formal schooling, abandonment of pastoral activities, and transition to a market economy weremost often reported. We conclude that future research should focus more on the diverse dynamics of pastoral traditional knowledge,be more careful in distinguishing the four knowledge transition types, and analyze how changes in knowledge impact change in pastoralpractices and lifestyles. Understanding these phenomena could help pastoralists' adaptations and support their stewardship of theirrangeland ecosystems and biocultural diversity.

Automated summary

Traditional ecological knowledge plays a crucial role in enabling pastoralists to cope with social-ecological changes. However, there is limited research on the extent and dynamics of pastoral traditional ecological knowledge at a global level. The existing literature focuses mainly on knowledge erosion, while knowledge retention, adaptation, and hybridization are understudied. Factors such as social-cultural changes, formal education, abandonment of pastoral activities, and transition to a market economy are reported as the main drivers of knowledge transition.