Ethno-ornithology and biological conservation

Ethno-ornithology has not yet become well integrated within avian conservation. With few exceptions, indigenous and other local and traditional knowledge about birds is not yet integral to the study, management and protection of avifauna carried out by governments and non-governmental groups. This chapter attempts to lay the groundwork for the integration of ethno-ornithology into wildlife management and conservation by first addressing the issue of the adequacy of local and traditional knowledge of ecological and other land management issues, in general, and then showing how ethno-ornithological knowledge is already incorporated within conservation, albeit in a largely unheralded fashion, using examples from Honduras and the US. A discussion of methods for conservation-friendly ethno-ornithology follows; this draws largely on the author’s prior work in Honduras. Another section examines a few existing wildlife research and management cases in New Zealand and the Arctic that have incorporated local and traditional knowledge about birds. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the utility of multicultural field guides.