Local Ecological Knowledge and the Sustainable Co-Management of Sierra Nevada’s Social-Ecological System

Abstract

Local ecological knowledge systems have been the basis of Sierra Nevada’s social-ecological system, which has co-evolved over more than ten centuries until nowadays, based on the knowledge, practices, and innovations deriving from the relationship between people and the ecosystems on which they depend. In Sierra Nevada, this co-evolution is greatly influenced by the traditional water management system, generating a “cultural landscape.” However, during the twentieth-century Sierra Nevada’s social-ecological system was affected by diverse drivers of change such as climate change, rural exodus, land-use change, and conservation government policies, which are threatening its stability and the transmission of the related local ecological knowledge. Local ecological knowledge on water management, traditional agricultural systems, and knowledge related to grazing and cattle raising should be included in the co-management of the territory and representatives of this knowledge should be involved and collaborate with administration and researchers developing adaptive plants to reduce negative impacts of global change.