Digital technologies in ethnobiology and ethnoecology: methodological opportunities, ethical challenges, and participatory implications

Abstract The increasing adoption of digital technologies has reshaped methodological practices in ethnobiology and ethnoecology. Mobile data collection platforms, participatory mapping tools, biodiversity databases, remote sensing technologies, and digital analytical environments have expanded researchers’ capacity to document, integrate, and analyze biocultural knowledge across spatial and temporal scales. At the same time, digitalization raises critical methodological and ethical questions related to participation, data governance, and the representation of local knowledge systems. This article presents a critical narrative review of digital technologies used in ethnobiological and ethnoecological research, moving beyond an instrumental focus on tools to examine their methodological, ethical, and participatory implications. Digital technologies are organized into six functional categories—structured data collection, participatory mapping, biodiversity cataloging, audio recording and transcription, remote sensing, and data analysis and visualization—used as analytical devices to synthesize recurrent patterns across the literature. The review examines how these technologies shape knowledge production, integration, and communication, with particular attention to their mediating role in relationships between researchers and Indigenous peoples and local communities. Across categories, the analysis highlights trade-offs related to participation, consent, data sovereignty, standardization, and contextual depth. By synthesizing opportunities and limitations documented in empirical and methodological studies, this review argues that the value of digital technologies in ethnobiology lies less in technological novelty than in their capacity to support reflexive, transparent, and ethically grounded research practices when embedded within community-centered governance frameworks.