Ethnoecology, Resource Use, Conservation And Development In A ...

weaknesses correspond to some of the main strengths of the biological research
endeavour, which has developed specialised methods and technical applications not
normally available in other contexts. The employment of biological techniques in data
collection and analysis can provide insights into subject areas – such as population
dynamics – not amenable to investigation in the relatively informal and unstructured
fashion in which ethnoecological knowledge is acquired.
Although it is not explored in the current thesis, it is likely that biology can
provide further theoretical insights not readily provided by ethnoecology. Possible
examples that come to mind include the concept of keystone species of both
producer and predator (e.g., Terborgh 1986), ecosystem-level properties such as
community structure and its relationship to stability (Pimm 1986), and the
relationship between harvest and production of populations subject to human
exploitation (e.g., see Millner-Gulland and Mace 1998: 13-29, 51-83). All of these
areas have potential applications to local management, and all incorporate theoretical
ideas which are counter-intuitive or otherwise obscure to more casual observation.
In short, then, the potential clearly exists for a richly productive and synergistic
relationship between ethnoecology and scientific ecology. A collaboration on these
terms between local communities concerned with improving management practices
relating to natural resources and the scientific community is one which would be
greatly beneficial to both parties. With this finding in mind, and having concluded
reporting and analysing field data, in the next chapter I return to the research
questions introduced at the start of the thesis.