Drawing upon Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) and Western science (WS) can be a more equitable and effective approach that strengthens the evidence-base for wildlife management, decision-making, and conservation action. However, implementing this approach remains challenging. We systematically reviewed the published literature that reported empirical results on bridging IKS and WS in decision-making processes and the implementation of practices designed to influence interactions between people, wildlife, and habitats. The aim was to examine the relationship between wildlife management, co-management, and knowledge bridging in Canada. Our standardized search across bibliographic databases identified 21 articles, including 27 case studies for analysis. In addition to bibliographic and contextual information (e.g., location), we coded for 11 functional questions across categories: (1) decision-making; (2) implementation of practices; (3) achievement of impacts; and (4) enablers and barriers to success. Through our analysis, we make the case that effective knowledge bridging requires active participation of Indigenous Peoples throughout the wildlife management process, including setting objectives, selecting/designing, and implementing actions, followed by monitoring and evaluating performance. Our results identify key enabling features (e.g., cross-cultural competency, trust and relationship building, knowledge co-production) that need to be fostered alongside addressing barriers (e.g., epistemological/ontological divides, poor power sharing arrangements, communication difficulties) for equitable and effective mobilization of knowledge bridging in wildlife management.
Nishima-Miller et al. (Wed,) studied this question.