How Can Storytelling Help Restore Mires? Applying Place-lore Fieldwork Methodology in Ecological Restoration

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7153253
AutoresLona Päll (Estonian Literary Museum, autor de correspondencia), Piret Pungas-Kohv (Estonian Fund for Nature)
Año2025
Volumen19
Número3
Páginas468-482
Fecha de publicación2025-04-03
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEnvironmental Communication (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1752-4032 • E-ISSN: 1752-4040
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17524032.2024.2420789
OpenAlexW4404094524
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas44

As ecological restoration changes the landscape and influences various social and ecological actors, restoration also needs to seek methodologies that integrate different kinds of knowledge and create multi-voiced discussions. We show how studying local environment-related narratives, i.e. place-lore, can be adopted in restoration activities. We argue that as place-lore expresses relationships between people and environment and such stories involve semiotic meanings from the environment, they have a great potential to motivate authentic and diverse discussions in restoration. As an example, we focus on wetland restoration and discuss the experience from the LIFE Mires Estonia (2015–2021) project where place-lore fieldwork was integrated with other restoration activities. Results from the project indicated how integrating the study of place-lore into restoration activities facilitates collecting various kinds of valuable data, addressing different stakeholders’ concerns, detecting possible conflicts, and, most importantly, empowers environmental relations and knowledge that benefit restoration outcomes.KEY POLICY HIGHLIGHTS Enabling different, even conflicting viewpoints around ecological restoration is crucial, to prevent closed, hermetic, or dogmatizing communication.Restoration discussions need to be open to methodologies that focus on small-scale local narratives because the ecological expertise that these kinds of narratives express can directly benefit restoration outcomes.Place-lore fieldwork serves as a participatory method that allows for more inclusive and diverse dialogues between restoration experts and people influenced by restoration

Art · Biology · Environmental resource management · Geography · Literature · Narrative · Restoration Ecology · Storytelling · American Environmental and Regional History · Environmental Philosophy and Ethics · Environmental Science · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Ecology