Zsolt Molnár
Biographic Data
| ID | 77060 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Zsolt Molnár |
| GIVEN NAMES | Zsolt |
| FAMILY NAME | Molnár |
| SIGNATURE | MOLNÁR Z |
| AFFILIATIONS | Institute of Ecology and Botany |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5454-4714 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 61 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 322 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 58 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 3 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Conservation charisma is not a guarantee for local recognition and significance
Local ecological knowledge (LEK) holders often differ from the scientific and conservation mainstream in their approaches and priorities regarding nature conservation. In particular, the perceived charisma and symbolic value of protected species may vary substantially between conservation institutions and local communities. This study examines local ecological knowledge and perceptions related to the corncrake ( Crex crex ), a conservation flagsh…
The importance of environmental attitudes in dealing with the environmental crisis and the relationship between education systems
The environmental crisis represents one of the most pressing challenges of the 21st century, deeply rooted in anthropogenic behaviors and maladaptive interactions with natural systems. This study investigates how environmental attitudes can be effectively cultivated through educational systems. A systematic review of the literature and a bibliometric analysis of 45 peer reviewed Scopus articles were used between 2020 and 2025, according to the PR…
Socio-cultural motives drive free-range livestock farming in Estonia
Grazing in heritage grasslands supported by nature conservation subsidies is increasingly carried out by a new generation of livestock keepers who are establishing their own traditions. To effectively understand and communicate with livestock keepers, it is essential to consider their socio-cultural background and the motives underlying their decisions. We conclude that, when transitioning to an agroecological system, livestock keepers are strong…
Delayed effects of indirect drivers behind changing habitat management in Central Europe
We argue, that appropriate subsidy schemes and governance models are essential to support surviving traditional farming practices, integrate biodiversity conservation with cultural heritage, and sustain innovative rural communities transitioning within Europe's marginalised agricultural landscapes
Who is local and what do they know? Braiding knowledges within carnivore management in Europe
Growing recognition of Indigenous Peoples and traditional local communities as stewards of biodiversity has brought to the fore the issues of knowledge and value pluralism in conservation policy and practice. Given their basis in practical and multi‐generational experience, Indigenous and local knowledges are highly relevant to managing human–wildlife interactions, especially species that are challenging to live with. Yet, these situated forms of…
The relevance of traditional knowledge for modern landscape management
Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) is increasingly acknowledged as key to sustainability and to the successful adaptation of local communities to rapid changes. However, implementing TEK is a major challenge in most parts of the world. A book published 80 years ago by Sambuu Jamsran, a Mongolian agricultural minister in the 1930s, provides a unique opportunity to compare the past versus present knowledge and practices of semi‐nomadic herders.…
Biodiversity and human well-being trade-offs and synergies in villages
Europe’s rural landscapes, shaped over millennia, support high biodiversity but often have lower living standards than urban areas, potentially leading to social and environmental injustice. Here we studied biodiversity and socioeconomic settings in Central and Eastern European villages across landscape complexity and urbanization gradients. We surveyed the biodiversity of villages by sampling nine taxonomic groups, including plants, arthropods a…
Are agri-environmental schemes doing their job? Evidence from Biebrza National Park, Poland
The Biebrza Valley is one of the largest wetland ecosystems in Central Europe to host species of convervation relevance, and features a strongly biocultural character. The semi-natural habitats that dominate its landscape have been developed as a result of centuries-long regimes of traditional grazing and haymaking. Starting in the 1960s, the gradual abandonment of traditional agriculture has threatened high nature value wetlands through secondar…
Towards biocultural realism
In this perspective, we present and discuss four major causes of the worldwide nature conservation failure: 1) ideologies based on nature–culture dualism, 2) the bias prioritising forests in conservation, 3) the illusory objectiveness of selected biological indicators, and 4) the mismanagement of rural agricultural landscapes. All of these relate to ignorance of historical ecology and neglect of the role past plays in shaping landscapes and foste…
Motivations, Concerns, and Benefits of International Volunteering in Hungary
This paper’s objective was to reveal the Hungarian population’s knowledge and attitude about international volunteering. The study compared the opinion of returned volunteers with that of those population groups that had no international volunteering experiences and drew conclusions about the similarities and differences. The article aimed to evaluate the perceived roles and impacts of volunteering as well as the experienced difficulties and chal…
Poor convergence between local traditional farmers and conservationists on which species to protect locally
Locals engaged in traditional farming and possessing traditional ecological knowledge consider certain species worthy of protection, as do official nature conservationists, although the sets of taxa may not be identical. Exploring the relationship between the two sets of taxa could bring many practical benefits, yet the literature on this subject is scarce. For more efficient conservation and better engagement and knowledge co‐production with loc…
Benefits and challenges of reviewing across knowledge systems
Evidence‐based conservation can benefit substantially from multiple knowledge sources and different knowledge systems. While traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and collaborative research are increasingly acknowledged, detailed cross‐knowledge system reviews are scarce and their methodology underdeveloped. We have two objectives: to prepare such a review and to discuss the benefits and challenges of such reviews. We review pig keeping in fores…
Oral history methods can reveal drivers of landscape transformation
Ecosystems and landscapes shaped by the intricate relationship between people and their natural environment embody the impact of many different past land‐use practices and historical events. However, in some regions, classical historical records of landscape change do not exist or are insufficiently detailed. Local communities' ecological memory can play an important role in filling this gap by reconstructing the socio‐ecologically relevant indir…
Biological invasions on Indigenous peoples’ lands
Herder–scientist Gathering and Herder Festival in Hungary
This article was published open access under a CC BY-NC 4.0 licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
It’s not Merely a Struggle, the Way We Live, it’s Wonderful, too! The Changing Life and Role of Women Herders in the Last 120 Years in Hungary
Women have always played a significant role in herding in Hungary, although their tasks and recognition have changed substantially over time. Nowadays, the vital role of women is becoming increasingly visible and recognised in Hungary. In this paper, members of the Hungarian Women Herders group and three researchers reviewed the scattered ethnographic, autobiographical and other literature, and conducted interviews with five active and retired wo…
The global relevance of locally grounded ethnobiology
While ethnobiology is a discipline that focuses on the local, it has an outstanding, but not yet fully realized potential to address global issues. Part of this unrealized potential is that universalistic approaches often do not fully recognize culturally grounded perspectives and there are multiple challenges with scaling up place-based research. However, scalability is paramount to ensure that the intimate and context-specific diversity of huma…
How international volunteering can contribute to the development of Africa
International volunteering has an unquestionable role in global development, but its complexity and contribution is yet to be widely emphasised. Working to implement humanitarian and/or development aid programmes initiated by the UN and other transnational bodies, international volunteering supports global change in general, and offers concrete benefits for both the recipient and donor societies. Africa is the biggest beneficiary of global suppor…
The direct drivers of recent global anthropogenic biodiversity loss
Effective policies to halt biodiversity loss require knowing which anthropogenic drivers are the most important direct causes. Whereas previous knowledge has been limited in scope and rigor, here we statistically synthesize empirical comparisons of recent driver impacts found through a wide-ranging review. We show that land/sea use change has been the dominant direct driver of recent biodiversity loss worldwide. Direct exploitation of natural res…
Behind the general pattern of forest loss and gain
Despite deforestation taking place globally, forest cover is increasing in many European landscapes. This increase, however, resulting from plantations and spontaneous forest regrowth, may obscure the generally declining trend of semi-natural forests, though the latter are essential for local and landscape-level conservation strategies and sustainable forest management. We assessed changes in semi-natural and secondary forest cover since the 18th…
Dynamics of pastoral traditional ecological knowledge
Traditional ecological knowledge enables pastoralists to cope with social-ecological changes, thereby increasing the sustainability of their practices and fostering social-ecological resilience. Yet, there is a significant knowledge gap concerning the extent to which pastoral traditional ecological knowledge has changed over time at the global level. We aim to fill this gap through a systematic literature review of 288 scientific studies on pasto…
Recognizing Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ rights and agency in the post-2020 Biodiversity Agenda
The Convention on Biological Diversity is defining the goals that will frame future global biodiversity policy in a context of rapid biodiversity decline and under pressure to make transformative change. Drawing on the work of Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars, we argue that transformative change requires the foregrounding of Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ rights and agency in biodiversity policy. We support this argument with fo…
Response to “Practice what you preach
Reyes-García, Victoria; Fernández-Llamazares, Álvaro; Aumeeruddy-Thomas, Yildiz; Benyei, Petra; Bussmann, Rainer; García-del-Amo, David; Hanazaki, Natalia; Luz, Ana Catarina; McElwee, Pamela; Meretsky, Vicky J.; Molnár, Zsolt; Ruiz Mallén, Isabel; Salpeteur, Matthieu; Brondizio, Eduardo
Local traditional ecological knowledge about hay management practices in wetlands of the Biebrza Valley, Poland
BackgroundThe Biebrza Valley is one of the largest complexes of wetlands (floodplain and percolation mire) and conservation sites in Central Europe. Local communities have managed the area extensively for subsistence and farming purposes for centuries; nonetheless, since the 1960s, hand mowing and livestock grazing have been gradually ceasing due to the intensification of farming, and wetlands have undergone natural succession. Currently, the pro…
Locally Based, Regionally Manifested, and Globally Relevant
The knowledge, values, and practices of Indigenous peoples and local communities offer ways to understand and better address social-environmental problems. The article reviews the state of the literature on this topic by focusing on six pathways by which Indigenous peoples and local communities engage with management of and relationships to nature. These are ( a) undertaking territorial management practices and customary governance, ( b) contribu…
A spatial overview of the global importance of Indigenous lands for conservation
Understanding the scale, location and nature conservation values of the lands over which Indigenous Peoples exercise traditional rights is central to implementation of several global conservation and climate agreements. However, spatial information on Indigenous lands has never been aggregated globally. Here, using publicly available geospatial resources, we show that Indigenous Peoples manage or have tenure rights over at least ~38 million km2 i…
Working with Indigenous, local and scientific knowledge in assessments of nature and nature’s linkages with people
Working with indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) is vital for inclusive assessments of nature and nature’s linkages with people. Indigenous peoples’ concepts about what constitutes sustainability, for example, differ markedly from dominant sustainability discourses. The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystems Services (IPBES) is promoting dialogue across different knowledge systems globally. In 2017, member states of IPBES adop…
Conservation and the social sciences
Interactions between conservation and the social sciences are frequently characterized by either critique (of conservation by social scientists) or co-optation (of social scientific methods and insights by conservationists). This article seeks to push beyond these two dominant positions by exploring how conservationists and social scientists can engage in mutually transformative dialogue. Jointly authored by conservation scientists and social sci…
Recognizing Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ rights and agency in the post-2020 Biodiversity Agenda
The Convention on Biological Diversity is defining the goals that will frame future global biodiversity policy in a context of rapid biodiversity decline and under pressure to make transformative change. Drawing on the work of Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars, we argue that transformative change requires the foregrounding of Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ rights and agency in biodiversity policy. We support this argument with fo…
Landscape ethnoecological knowledge base and management of ecosystem services in a Székely-Hungarian pre-capitalistic village system (Transylvania, Romania)
BACKGROUND: Previous studies showed an in-depth ecological understanding by traditional people of managing natural resources. We studied the landscape ethnoecological knowledge (LEEK) of Székelys on the basis of 16-19(th) century village laws. We analyzed the habitat types, ecosystem services and sustainable management types on which village laws had focused. METHODS: Székelys had self-governed communities formed mostly of "noble peasants". Land-…
Classification of pasture habitats by Hungarian herders in a steppe landscape (Hungary)
BackgroundLandscape ethnoecology focuses on the ecological features of the landscape, how the landscape is perceived, and used by people who live in it. Though studying folk classifications of species has a long history, the comparative study of habitat classifications is just beginning. I studied the habitat classification of herders in a Hungarian steppe, and compared it to classifications of botanists and laymen.MethodsFor a quantitative analy…
Folk knowledge of invertebrates in Central Europe - folk taxonomy, nomenclature, medicinal and other uses, folklore, and nature conservation
BACKGROUND: There is scarce information about European folk knowledge of wild invertebrate fauna. We have documented such folk knowledge in three regions, in Romania, Slovakia and Croatia. We provide a list of folk taxa, and discuss folk biological classification and nomenclature, salient features, uses, related proverbs and sayings, and conservation. METHODS: We collected data among Hungarian-speaking people practising small-scale, traditional a…
Multidimensionality and scale in a landscape ethnoecological partitioning of a mountainous landscape (Gyimes, Eastern Carpathians, Romania)
BackgroundTraditional habitat knowledge is an understudied part of traditional knowledge. Though the number of studies increased world-wide in the last decade, this knowledge is still rarely studied in Europe. We document the habitat vocabulary used by Csángó people, and determine features they used to name and describe these categories.Study area and methodsCsángó people live in Gyimes (Carpathians, Romania). The area is dominated by coniferous …
Typology and distribution of small farms in Europe
The contribution of small farms to local food supply, food security and food sovereignty is widely acknowledged at a global level. In the particular case of Europe, they often are seen as an alternative to large and specialised farms. Assessing the real role of small farms has been limited by a lack of information, as small farms are frequently omitted from agricultural censuses and national statistics. It is also well acknowledged that small far…
How Mongolian herders perceive ecological change in a "stable" landscape
Gantuya, B., M. Biró, Á. Molnár, Á. Avar, A. Sharifian Bahraman, D. Babai, and Z. Molnár. 2021. How Mongolian herders perceive ecological change in a “stable” landscape. Ecology and Society 26(2):21. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12454-260221
"I See the Grass Through the Mouths of My Animals" - Folk Indicators of Pasture Plants Used by Traditional Steppe Herders
Why is a type of rangeland grass called “the soul of the Hortobágy steppe” by a local herder deemed to be of low value by range scientists? In this paper I examine how herders see wild forage and fodder plants “through the mouths of the animals,” what kind of indicators they use, and how these indicators affect folk taxonomy. I focus on the Poaceae and Cyperaceae families (grasses, sedges, and their relatives), underrepresented taxa in ethnobiolo…
Prohibited, but still present
Background Forests have been grazed for millennia. Around the world, forest grazing by livestock became a controversial management practice, gradually restricted in many countries over the past 250 years. This was also the case in most Central and Eastern European countries, including Hungary, where forest grazing was a legally prohibited activity between 1961 and 2017. Until the 2010s, ecologists and nature conservationists considered it merely …
Bridging conservation science and traditional knowledge of wild animals
A herder's duty is to think
BackgroundTraditional habitat knowledge, like the classification of folk habitats and how people partition their landscape into habitats, is an emerging but still understudied part of traditional ecological knowledge. Our objectives were to reconstruct the folk habitats and the partitioning of the landscape into these folk habitats by Mongolian herders in Northern Mongolia and to compare it with other Northern Hemisphere boreal-temperate classifi…
The global relevance of locally grounded ethnobiology
While ethnobiology is a discipline that focuses on the local, it has an outstanding, but not yet fully realized potential to address global issues. Part of this unrealized potential is that universalistic approaches often do not fully recognize culturally grounded perspectives and there are multiple challenges with scaling up place-based research. However, scalability is paramount to ensure that the intimate and context-specific diversity of huma…
Local traditional ecological knowledge about hay management practices in wetlands of the Biebrza Valley, Poland
BackgroundThe Biebrza Valley is one of the largest complexes of wetlands (floodplain and percolation mire) and conservation sites in Central Europe. Local communities have managed the area extensively for subsistence and farming purposes for centuries; nonetheless, since the 1960s, hand mowing and livestock grazing have been gradually ceasing due to the intensification of farming, and wetlands have undergone natural succession. Currently, the pro…
Land-use modifications and ecological implications over the past 160 years in the central Apennine mountains
Today’s Mediterranean landscapes result from the interaction between ecosystems and anthropogenic activities. This study aims to assess how the land-use changes between the mid-nineteenth and end of the twentieth century influenced the temporal continuity of the ecosystems in central Apennines (central Italy). Information was acquired from Gregorian cadastral maps, orthophotos and aerial photos (1850, 1954, 1980 and 2010), digitised and georefere…
Fungal ethnoecology
Background Scientists frequently raise the topic of data deficiency related to the abundance and distribution of macrofungi in the context of climate change. Our study is the first detailed documentation on locals' perception of fungal ecology which covers a large mycophilous region of Europe (Mazovia, Poland). Methods A total of 695 semi-structured interviews were carried out among local informants in 38 localities proportionally distributed thr…
Biological invasions on Indigenous peoples’ lands
In the trap of interacting indirect and direct drivers
Babai, D., B. Jánó, and Z. Molnár. 2021. In the trap of interacting indirect and direct drivers: the disintegration of extensive, traditional grassland management in Central and Eastern Europe. Ecology and Society 26(4):6. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12679-260406
Preserving for the future the — once widespread but now vanishing — knowledge on traditional pig grazing in forests and marshes (Sava-Bosut floodplain, Serbia)
Background Traditional knowledge is key for sustainability, but it is rapidly disappearing. Pig keeping in forests and marshes is an ancient, once widespread, now vanishing practice, with a major economic and ecological potential. The knowledge of pig keepers and the foraging activity of pigs are hardly documented. Methods We studied the knowledge of traditional pig keepers ( svinjar s) on wild plants and pig foraging on the Sava-Bosut forest-mar…
Known but not called by name
BackgroundDocumenting local ecological knowledge (LEK) has recently become a topic of considerable interest. LEK can contribute to various areas of ecology, including habitat management and conservation biology. It has been recently revealed that recreational fishers' ecological knowledge (FEK) can also provide valuable information about different organisms and habitats, while recreational fishers' ecological knowledge is understudied in many asp…
Species-rich Mountain Grasslands Through the Eyes of the Farmer
Species-rich semi-natural grasslands are important components of European cultural landscapes. In Transylvania, Romania, they are managed by extensive land-use systems which, in turn, are maintained to this day through in-depth traditional ecological knowledge. Interdisciplinary approaches should help to better understand how these land-use systems operate, including their impact on vegetation, as well as help to solve a complex problem encounter…
Towards biocultural realism
In this perspective, we present and discuss four major causes of the worldwide nature conservation failure: 1) ideologies based on nature–culture dualism, 2) the bias prioritising forests in conservation, 3) the illusory objectiveness of selected biological indicators, and 4) the mismanagement of rural agricultural landscapes. All of these relate to ignorance of historical ecology and neglect of the role past plays in shaping landscapes and foste…
Response to “Practice what you preach
Reyes-García, Victoria; Fernández-Llamazares, Álvaro; Aumeeruddy-Thomas, Yildiz; Benyei, Petra; Bussmann, Rainer; García-del-Amo, David; Hanazaki, Natalia; Luz, Ana Catarina; McElwee, Pamela; Meretsky, Vicky J.; Molnár, Zsolt; Ruiz Mallén, Isabel; Salpeteur, Matthieu; Brondizio, Eduardo
Bronze metallurgy of the Otomani communities of the Carei Plain and the valley of the Eriul River
From the cultural point of view, the Carpathian Basin resembled a mosaic during the circa 500 years of the Middle Bronze Age. Despite the fact that every community developed a specific material culture we still may speak about a so-called “tell society” in this period based on social and economical macro features. This is specific type of habitat in the region under study and the major part of the great Hungarian Plain, where a “cultural complex”…
Classification of pasture habitats by Hungarian herders in a steppe landscape (Hungary)
BackgroundLandscape ethnoecology focuses on the ecological features of the landscape, how the landscape is perceived, and used by people who live in it. Though studying folk classifications of species has a long history, the comparative study of habitat classifications is just beginning. I studied the habitat classification of herders in a Hungarian steppe, and compared it to classifications of botanists and laymen.MethodsFor a quantitative analy…
Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age habitat in the Someşul Mic Basin
The emergence of large fortifications at the beginning of Early Iron Age reflects a change in settlements system. The current paper studies settlement sites along with metal finds, graves and graveyards from Late Bronze Age cultures to Early Iron Age/Hallstatt period in the Transylvanian Plateau.Our aim is to investigate the transformations and the dynamics of the settlements through cartographic documents and data relating to the landscape aroun…
Multidimensionality and scale in a landscape ethnoecological partitioning of a mountainous landscape (Gyimes, Eastern Carpathians, Romania)
BackgroundTraditional habitat knowledge is an understudied part of traditional knowledge. Though the number of studies increased world-wide in the last decade, this knowledge is still rarely studied in Europe. We document the habitat vocabulary used by Csángó people, and determine features they used to name and describe these categories.Study area and methodsCsángó people live in Gyimes (Carpathians, Romania). The area is dominated by coniferous …
Landscape ethnoecological knowledge base and management of ecosystem services in a Székely-Hungarian pre-capitalistic village system (Transylvania, Romania)
BACKGROUND: Previous studies showed an in-depth ecological understanding by traditional people of managing natural resources. We studied the landscape ethnoecological knowledge (LEEK) of Székelys on the basis of 16-19(th) century village laws. We analyzed the habitat types, ecosystem services and sustainable management types on which village laws had focused. METHODS: Székelys had self-governed communities formed mostly of "noble peasants". Land-…
Ethnoecology - The best medicine against allergy
This essay, which is the 6(th) in the series "Recollections, Reflections, and Revelations: Ethnobiologists and Their First Time in the Field", is a personal reflection by the researcher on his first field experiences with ethnobiology. Author writes on how Hungarian herders in the Hortobágy salt steppes and Csángó people in the Carpathian mountains changed his views on landscape, vegetation, local people, traditional small-scale grassland managem…
Folk knowledge of invertebrates in Central Europe - folk taxonomy, nomenclature, medicinal and other uses, folklore, and nature conservation
BACKGROUND: There is scarce information about European folk knowledge of wild invertebrate fauna. We have documented such folk knowledge in three regions, in Romania, Slovakia and Croatia. We provide a list of folk taxa, and discuss folk biological classification and nomenclature, salient features, uses, related proverbs and sayings, and conservation. METHODS: We collected data among Hungarian-speaking people practising small-scale, traditional a…
Species-rich Mountain Grasslands Through the Eyes of the Farmer
Species-rich semi-natural grasslands are important components of European cultural landscapes. In Transylvania, Romania, they are managed by extensive land-use systems which, in turn, are maintained to this day through in-depth traditional ecological knowledge. Interdisciplinary approaches should help to better understand how these land-use systems operate, including their impact on vegetation, as well as help to solve a complex problem encounter…
The bear in Eurasian plant names
Ethnolinguistic studies are important for understanding an ethnic group's ideas on the world, expressed in its language. Comparing corresponding aspects of such knowledge might help clarify problems of origin for certain concepts and words, e.g. whether they form common heritage, have an independent origin, are borrowings, or calques. The current study was conducted on the material in Slavonic, Baltic, Germanic, Romance, Finno-Ugrian, Turkic and …
"I See the Grass Through the Mouths of My Animals" - Folk Indicators of Pasture Plants Used by Traditional Steppe Herders
Why is a type of rangeland grass called “the soul of the Hortobágy steppe” by a local herder deemed to be of low value by range scientists? In this paper I examine how herders see wild forage and fodder plants “through the mouths of the animals,” what kind of indicators they use, and how these indicators affect folk taxonomy. I focus on the Poaceae and Cyperaceae families (grasses, sedges, and their relatives), underrepresented taxa in ethnobiolo…
Assessing nature's contributions to people
Recognizing culture, and diverse sources of knowledge, can improve assessments
A spatial overview of the global importance of Indigenous lands for conservation
Understanding the scale, location and nature conservation values of the lands over which Indigenous Peoples exercise traditional rights is central to implementation of several global conservation and climate agreements. However, spatial information on Indigenous lands has never been aggregated globally. Here, using publicly available geospatial resources, we show that Indigenous Peoples manage or have tenure rights over at least ~38 million km2 i…
Typology and distribution of small farms in Europe
The contribution of small farms to local food supply, food security and food sovereignty is widely acknowledged at a global level. In the particular case of Europe, they often are seen as an alternative to large and specialised farms. Assessing the real role of small farms has been limited by a lack of information, as small farms are frequently omitted from agricultural censuses and national statistics. It is also well acknowledged that small far…
The contributions of Indigenous Peoples and local communities to ecological restoration
Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLC) are affected by global environmental change because they directly rely on their immediate environment for meeting basic livelihood needs. Therefore, safeguarding and restoring ecosystem resilience is critical to support their well‐being. Based on examples from the literature, we illustrate how IPLC participate in restoration activities maintaining traditional practices, restoring land degraded by ou…
Pervasive human-driven decline of life on Earth points to the need for transformative change
The time is now For decades, scientists have been raising calls for societal changes that will reduce our impacts on nature. Though much conservation has occurred, our natural environment continues to decline under the weight of our consumption. Humanity depends directly on the output of nature; thus, this decline will affect us, just as it does the other species with which we share this world. Díaz et al. review the findings of the largest asses…
“The Cleaner the Meadow, the Healthier the Grass that Grows there, and the Healthier the Land, Too”
The authors investigate forms of grassland management in the westernmost part of Hungary, in the cultural landscape of the Őrség region. On the basis of semi-structured interviews with knowledgeable elderly people in the region, they were able to reconstruct former land use from an ecological perspective and its role in developing and maintaining high biodiversity in grasslands, which are also valuable from the cultural and conservationist perspe…
Learning from Indigenous Populations and Local Communities
Bridging conservation science and traditional knowledge of wild animals
A herder's duty is to think
BackgroundTraditional habitat knowledge, like the classification of folk habitats and how people partition their landscape into habitats, is an emerging but still understudied part of traditional ecological knowledge. Our objectives were to reconstruct the folk habitats and the partitioning of the landscape into these folk habitats by Mongolian herders in Northern Mongolia and to compare it with other Northern Hemisphere boreal-temperate classifi…
Working with Indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) in large‐scale ecological assessments
There have been calls for greater inclusion of Indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) in applied ecosystems research and ecological assessments. The Intergovernmental Science‐Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Global Assessment (GA) is the first global scale assessment to systematically engage with ILK and issues of concern to Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLC). In this paper, we review and reflect on how th…
Importance of Indigenous Peoples’ lands for the conservation of Intact Forest Landscapes
Intact Forest Landscapes ( IFL s) are critical strongholds for the environmental services that they provide, not least for their role in climate protection. On the basis of information about the distributions of IFL s and Indigenous Peoples’ lands, we examined the importance of these areas for conserving the world's remaining intact forests. We determined that at least 36% of IFL s are within Indigenous Peoples’ lands, making these areas crucial …
Indicators for relational values of nature’s contributions to good quality of life
Relational values are values of desirable relationships between people and nature and among people (through nature). We report on the approach to capture relational values of nature’s contributions to people in the regional assessment for Europe and Central Asia of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). We present a framework considering indicators along four relational value dimensions about…
Working with Indigenous, local and scientific knowledge in assessments of nature and nature’s linkages with people
Working with indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) is vital for inclusive assessments of nature and nature’s linkages with people. Indigenous peoples’ concepts about what constitutes sustainability, for example, differ markedly from dominant sustainability discourses. The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystems Services (IPBES) is promoting dialogue across different knowledge systems globally. In 2017, member states of IPBES adop…
Conservation and the social sciences
Interactions between conservation and the social sciences are frequently characterized by either critique (of conservation by social scientists) or co-optation (of social scientific methods and insights by conservationists). This article seeks to push beyond these two dominant positions by exploring how conservationists and social scientists can engage in mutually transformative dialogue. Jointly authored by conservation scientists and social sci…
Prohibited, but still present
Background Forests have been grazed for millennia. Around the world, forest grazing by livestock became a controversial management practice, gradually restricted in many countries over the past 250 years. This was also the case in most Central and Eastern European countries, including Hungary, where forest grazing was a legally prohibited activity between 1961 and 2017. Until the 2010s, ecologists and nature conservationists considered it merely …
Geography (45 works) · Biology (37 works) · Ecology (37 works) · Environmental resource management (23 works) · Biodiversity (19 works) · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management (19 works) · Environmental Science (18 works) · Political science (17 works) · Sociology (17 works) · Land Use and Ecosystem Services (15 works)