Integrating traditional knowledge when it appears to conflict with conservation: Lessons from the discovery and protection of sitatunga in Ghana

Abstract

Cultural traditions can conflict with modern conservation goals when they promote damage to fragile environments or the harvest of imperiled species. We explore whether and how traditional, culturally motivated species exploitation can nonetheless aid conservation by examining the recent “discovery” in Avu Lagoon, Ghana, of sitatunga (Tragelaphus spekii gratus), a species familiar to locals, but not previously scientifically recorded in Ghana and regionally assumed extinct. Specifically, we investigate what role traditional beliefs, allied hunting practices, and the associated traditional ecological knowledge have played in the species’ discovery and subsequent community-based conservation; how they might influence future conservation outcomes; and how they may themselves be shaped by conservation efforts. Our study serves to exemplify the complexities, risks, and benefits associated with building conservation efforts around traditional ecological knowledge and beliefs. Complexities arise from localized variation in beliefs (with cultural significance of sitatunga much stronger in one village than others), progressive dilution of traditional worldviews by mainstream religions, and the context dependence, both culturally and geographically, of the reliability of traditional ecological knowledge. Among the benefits, we highlight (1) information on the distribution and habitat needs of species that can help to discover, rediscover, or manage imperiled taxa if appropriately paired with scientific data collection; and (2) enhanced sustainability of conservation efforts given the cultivation of mutual trust, respect, and understanding between researchers and local communities. In turn, conservation attention to traditional ecological knowledge and traditionally important species can help reinvigorate cultural diversity by promoting the persistence of traditional belief and knowledge systems alongside mainstream worldviews and religions.