Local knowledge: Who cares?

Think globally, act locally Local Knowledge Systems (LKS) consist of the knowledge, beliefs, traditions, practices, institutions, and worldviews developed and sustained by indigenous and local communities, and are believed to represent an adaptive strategy to the environment in which these communities live. The value of LKS has been contested by some scholars as being restricted to local issues 1, and local knowledge holders have alternative been labeled as “guardians of the earth”, “conservationists”, or as subsistence consumers who will no longer coexist sustainably with the environment when their populations increase, and as they become more integrated into market economies 2-4. LKS have sometimes been viewed as “traditional”, with the negative connotation of being outdated or primitive, and thus of little use to solve problems of modern society 5. Others have put forward that the adaptive nature, applicability and value of LKS need to be empirically tested and validated by science 6,7. In this Thematic Series, we focus on the potential and actual value of LKS to local and global challenges. The catchphrase of this paragraph, “Think globally, act locally,” has been around for a few decades as a slogan for activism at the local level to increase overall wellbeing on earth. In an increasingly globalized society with many social, economic and environmental uncertainties, what are the lessons that can be drawn from LKS? One of the virtues of LKS is that these systems depart from the premise of interconnectedness and embeddedness, whereby humans and their behaviors are seen as part of a broader environmental, socio-cultural and spiritual context. The ethnobiological literature showcases several examples that demonstrate the importance and usefulness of LKS for community health, nutrition, education and cultural heritage, conservation and other societal challenges, as we will review in the next paragraphs. This Thematic Series of the Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine contains solicited manuscripts based on new research that continues to demonstrate the potential and established value of ethnobiological knowledge and its associated plant and animal resources for local communities and society at large, especially in the areas of community health, education and conservation.