I know there are a lot of sensitivities around Tribal consultation and integrating Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) into conservation and resource management so I want to start by saying this is a genuine question that I am trying to understand so I can do my job better. I have been struggling to understand how this works and what the expectations are. I am U.S. based. My job involves a lot of resource management compliance. While I do not do tribal consultation directly, it often comes up in the planning process.
How is TEK incorporated into land management plans? I am struggling to reconcile science-based decisions with tribal recommendations. In my mind, you want to make a decision that is based on science. If the TEK doesn’t have any research supporting it, then I don’t understand including it. If it does have research supporting it, then isn’t that just using the best science available? Or do you only integrate TEK when there is supporting evidence?
An example might be if a tribe recommended burning a particular area at a particular time of year, but current research doesn’t exist/support burning at that time of year.