| Abstract Detail
Economic Botany: Ethnobotany Shaw, L. [1], John, Bev [2], Young, J. [1]. The ecology of food and medicine plant gathering sites as defined by Tl’azt’en Nation. In recent years, the important role that indigenous people and their knowledge will play in conservation and management of natural resources has been recognized. The desire to understand the connection between ecological and socio-economic systems has resulted in an interest to combine the knowledge gained from Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and western science. This project is part of a Community-University Research Alliance (CURA) project between Tl’azt’en Nation and the University of Northern British Columbia. Tl’azt’en Nation is part of the Carrier (Dakelh) linguistic group and their traditional territory inhabits approximately 6500 km² of land in north-central B.C. The knowledge being collected will include Traditional Knowledge information relating to both the ecology of food and medicine plant gathering sites and the criteria for gathering of individual plants for specific uses by Tl’azt’en Nation. Focus groups and one-on-one surveys have been conducted thus far with knowledgeable community members to collect Traditional Knowledge on 15 specific plants used for food and medicine purposes. In order to further describe the site characteristics (e.g., soil types and plant community composition), western science methods will be used in the spring field season. The intent of this study is to consolidate information relevant to protection of traditional gathering sites, which can be formulated into policy for Tl’azt’en Nation’s continued management of their traditional lands. Correlation of gathering sites with BEC (biogeoclimatic ecological classification) will provide working tools for local land managers towards the protection and preservation of current sites and the restoration of sites that have been lost.
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1 - University of Northern British Columbia, Ecosystem Science and Management, 3333 University Way, Prince George, BC, V2N 4Z9, Canada
2 - John Prince Research Forest (Chuzghun Resources Corporation), PO Box 2378, Fort St James, BC, V0J 1P0, Canada
Keywords:
TEK
Tl'azt'en Nation
plant gathering sites
Food plants
medicine plants.
Presentation Type: Poster:Posters for Topics
Session: P
Location: Ball Room & Party Room/SUB
Date: Monday, July 28th, 2008
Time: 12:30 PM
Number: PET005
Abstract ID:833 |
