Feeding the Future with the Past: Incorporating Local Ecological Knowledge in River Restoration

Ewelina Szałkiewicz, Joanna Sucholas and Mateusz Grygoruk
Additional contact information
Ewelina Szałkiewicz: Department of Hydraulic and Sanitary Engineering, Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Spatial Management, Poznań University of Life Sciences, ul. Wojska Polskiego 28, 60-637 Poznań, Poland
Joanna Sucholas: Institute of Plant Sciences, Faculty of Biology and Preclinical Medicine, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstr. 31, 93053 Regensburg, Germany
Mateusz Grygoruk: Institute of Environmental Engineering, Department of Hydrology, Meteorology and Water Management, Warsaw University of Life Sciences-SGGW, ul. Nowoursynowska 166, 02-787 Warsaw, Poland

Resources, 2020, vol. 9, issue 4, 1-15

Abstract: Despite many years of experience in the river restoration field, which has become one of the most promising areas of water resources management, significant challenges and problems remain. These include the scope and scale of restoration measures, developing the reference model, assessment of restoration success, and the engagement of local stakeholders. Progress in addressing these challenges to river restoration could be achieved by changes in current approaches through the appreciation and integration of local communities and their local ecological knowledge (LEK). The results of discussion on ecological restoration indicate that ecological knowledge, which combines the interests of local communities and the environment, could be used in restoration projects. However, in the case of river restoration, this type of knowledge is systematically overlooked. In our paper, we discuss common river restoration problems and supportive elements that may be found in LEK. We conclude that the local stakeholders’ involvement and strong establishment of their position in the river restoration processes should be reconsidered. We believe that the application of LEK has large potential for improving water resources management and restoration of aquatic ecosystems and remains a key factor in a successful future of river restoration.

Keywords: river restoration; local ecological knowledge; traditional ecological knowledge; stakeholders; stakeholders participation; ecological restoration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/9/4/47/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/9/4/47/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jresou:v:9:y:2020:i:4:p:47-:d:349011

Access Statistics for this article

Resources is currently edited by Ms. Donchian Ma

More articles in Resources from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().