1,720,971 research outputs found
Wildlife in Vernacular as a Means for an Inclusive Environmental Sector and Community Engagement in South Africa
No full textSouth Africa has contrasts between integrative environmental law and pre-democratic social exclusion in the environmental sector. Communicating wildlife in vernacular, sharing wildlife knowledge in vernacular languages and consideration of wildlife according to vernacular contexts, contributes to inclusive environmental management. This wildlife in vernacular approach is based on seven years of mixed methods research which culminates in this paper on reflections of the possibilities attendant to communicating wildlife in vernacular languages. Firstly, community-level research and knowledge-sharing sessions resulted in the creation of an IsiZulu language field guide for frogs compiled specifically for the Zululand community. Subsequently, online surveys, conversational interviews, literature reviews, and DNA barcoding were used to expand on the studies of Indigenous cultural perspectives on herptiles (frogs and reptiles). Through this work, perspectives that are generally excluded from environmental decision making are revealed and capacity building for environmental management becomes linguistically accessible. This article discusses the untapped potential of often overlooked wildlife (frogs and reptiles) in marginalized vernacular languages and ways to achieve the largely unrealized environmental policy ambitions of being inclusive of all forms of knowledge, considerate of all perceptions of wildlife and affording everyone an opportunity to participate in environmental management regardless of their socioeconomic background.KEY POLICY HIGHLIGHTS Marginalized Indigenous cultural perspectives have conservation value.South African legislation provides for inclusion of cultural practices in environmental management.Communicating wildlife in vernacular increases social inclusion and community engagement in environmental management.While conducting the research discussed here, the author was supported by a bilateral scientific cooperation betweenNorth-West University and Hasselt University, financed by the Flemish Interuniversity Council (VLIR-UOS) GlobalMinds program (Contract Number: R-9363), the National Research Foundation (UID: 114663), and North-WestUniversity. Additional support was obtained from Youth 4 African Wildlife NPO and the South African Institutefor Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB)
Environmental science investigations of folk taxonomy and other forms of indigenous knowledge
Full text linkThe strides made in standardising English and Afrikaans frog names created a gap to achieve the same for the other South African languages spoken by the majority of the country's population. This gap hints at an exclusion of indigenous languages and associated cultures from wildlife-related matters. Frog names in indigenous languages are part of mostly undocumented cultural/indigenous knowledge systems and they are subject to indigenous naming and classification guidelines. Indigenous names often have localised use due to cultural specificity. Indigenous taxonomy is part of a pre-scientific knowledge system which is often considered a pseudoscience. However, a recent study was able to show that indigenous amphibian taxonomy from the Zululand region of South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal Province has scientific merit. 1 Furthermore, the investigated indigenous naming and classification guidelines have similarities to those used when formulating Afrikaans, English and scientific names. A comparison with other indigenous taxonomy research shows that similarities also exist between Zululand's taxonomy and indigenous taxonomies of other parts of the world. Researchers also found indigenous names to be condensed forms of knowledge rather than abstract words. 2 Information about species' behaviour and ecology is often contained within indigenous names. 3 Linnaean taxonomy's basic structure is inspired by indigenous taxonomy's fundamental organising principles. 4Phaka, FM (reprint author), North West Univ, African Amphibian Conservat Res Grp, Unit Environm Sci & Management, Potchefstroom, South Africa; Hasselt Univ, Ctr Environm Sci, Diepenbeek, Belgium.
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Life sciences reading material in vernacular: lessons from developing a bilingual (IsiZulu and English) book on South African frogs
No full textThe discussion of African languages as languages of learning and teaching can be traced back to the 1980s. To date, this discussion still continues and efforts to intellectualise African languages have been lax. Here, we present practical South African examples of higher education achievements in African languages that demonstrate the challenges and opportunities of African language planning and corpus development. We particularly focus on the development of a peer-reviewed bilingual (IsiZulu and English) book on the frogs of Zululand, South Africa. The publication under consideration falls within the life sciences, and it is the first comprehensive book on South African frogs to be written in an African language. Developing life sciences reading material in vernacular is a time-consuming process that requires a multidisciplinary team which understands both life and social sciences. Furthermore, when vocabulary relating to a focal species is undocumented, field research is necessary to identify the nuances of a specific language or culture. This language planning effort under discussion demonstrates the IsiZulu language's ability to communicate life sciences and how language planning efforts can be made integrative and inclusive of previously marginalised languages.Financial support for Fortunate Mafeta Phaka was provided by the National Research Foundation [UID: 114663], North-West University, Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad (VLIR) Global Minds program [Contract Number: R-9363], and Youth 4 African Wildlife NPC
Idwi, Xenopus laevis, and African clawed frog: teaching counternarratives of invasive species in postcolonial ecology
No full textThis article presents a Pedagogical Framework for Invasive Species to shift how we understand, teach, and study invasive species, especially when people are responsible for their expansion into new ecosystems. The focus is on a species originating from countries in Sub-Saharan Africa that humans extracted and introduced in certain regions of the Americas, Europe, and Asia: Xenopus laevis, African Clawed Frog, or Idwi in the Zulu language. This article re-introduces the frog Idwi through lenses of de/post-colonial theory, Indigenous studies, and Critical Race Theory to create counternarratives. Through a popular press analysis, the article uncovers how humans in colonial contexts extracted species from de/colonizing spaces to export to other regions of the world. When the frogs were profitable, the entrepreneurs who exported them were valorized. However, once seen as invasive, frogs were targeted with xenophobic projections. This article foregrounds counternarratives that challenge and critique universal application of the "invasive species" label.We express our gratitude to Prof. Alastair Iles for recommending this journal. We thank Prof. tyrone B. hayes and Dr. Michelle Wooten for feedback on earlier versions of the manuscript. We sincerely appreciate the thoughtful suggestions and perspectives from the Executive Editor and anonymous Consulting Editors
Biocultural diversity of herpetofauna in South Africa: State and relevance as a science-based policy tool for conservation and social inclusion
No full textThe world’s regions of high biodiversity in general also have high cultural or linguistic diversity. Researchers noticed this coincidence and started to question whether the connection between the two diversities extended beyond their geographical co-occurrence. This concept of an inextricable connection between biological and cultural diversity became known as biocultural diversity and started being a research topic in the 1990s. Answering research questions about the interlinking of social and biological components of the world requires knowledge from different scientific fields. Ethnobiology which combines social and biological science methodology to investigate past and present relationships between biodiversity and people’s cultures, provided an ideal hybrid approach to investigate biocultural diversity. Through this approach that transcends scientific disciplines, the current research provides the first comprehensive analysis of the relationship between South African cultures and the country’s diversity of herptiles (frogs and reptiles). South Africa as a country rich in both biological and cultural diversity has a low number of biocultural diversity research in comparison to other research topics. Frogs and reptiles feature in many South African cultural practices and the interaction of South Africa’s cultures with the country’s herptile species is generally believed to be based on negative perceptions which pose a conservation threat for those species. This comprehensive analysis confirms conservation threats arising from traditional cultural practices in addition to highlighting prospects for social inclusion and just conservation planning that can be derived from the interactions of cultural diversity with biodiversity (specifically herptile diversity). Furthermore, the cultural importance of biodiversity can influence accumulation of primary biodiversity data that is used in biodiversity research and conservation. The study shows herptiles are important to various elements of people’s traditional cultures including language, entertainment, spirituality, traditional medicine and gastronomy. Within each element of culture there is either consumptive use of herptiles, or cultural practices are non-detrimental towards herptiles species. By increasing the understanding of the relationship between the two diversities, previously neglected perceptions of the natural environment are revealed along with cultural practices that promote or compel protection of nature. Increased understanding also makes it possible to extend the generic species names used by different cultures into individual names for all described species to enable better communication between specialists and society at large. Compiling comprehensive lists of species names in indigenous languages advances development of African languages and fosters learning about wildlife in vernacular. Cultural norms and practices relating to herptiles can provide opportunities to enhance teaching about herptiles by incorporating practical components of their importance to people. The conservation prospects and marginalised wildlife perspectives highlighted here can be incorporated into South African conservation planning to make conservation initiatives more just and inclusive towards South Africa’s diverse people and their contexts. From a policy perspective, this socially inclusive and just approach to conservation is attainable since South Africa’s environmental management principles provide for consideration of all perspectives and knowledge (including indigenous knowledge) in environmental management and decision-making. Ensuring that this and other biocultural diversity studies realise the ambitions of becoming science-based policy tools for conservation and social inclusion will require collaboration between various parties that are interested in and/or affected by the management of South Africa’s natural environment
Biocultural diversity of herpetofauna in South Africa: State and relevance as a science-based policy tool for conservation and social inclusion
No full textThe world’s regions of high biodiversity in general also have high cultural or linguistic diversity. Researchers noticed this coincidence and started to question whether the connection between the two diversities extended beyond their geographical co-occurrence. This concept of an inextricable connection between biological and cultural diversity became known as biocultural diversity and started being a research topic in the 1990s. Answering research questions about the interlinking of social and biological components of the world requires knowledge from different scientific fields. Ethnobiology which combines social and biological science methodology to investigate past and present relationships between biodiversity and people’s cultures, provided an ideal hybrid approach to investigate biocultural diversity. Through this approach that transcends scientific disciplines, the current research provides the first comprehensive analysis of the relationship between South African cultures and the country’s diversity of herptiles (frogs and reptiles). South Africa as a country rich in both biological and cultural diversity has a low number of biocultural diversity research in comparison to other research topics. Frogs and reptiles feature in many South African cultural practices and the interaction of South Africa’s cultures with the country’s herptile species is generally believed to be based on negative perceptions which pose a conservation threat for those species. This comprehensive analysis confirms conservation threats arising from traditional cultural practices in addition to highlighting prospects for social inclusion and just conservation planning that can be derived from the interactions of cultural diversity with biodiversity (specifically herptile diversity). Furthermore, the cultural importance of biodiversity can influence accumulation of primary biodiversity data that is used in biodiversity research and conservation. The study shows herptiles are important to various elements of people’s traditional cultures including language, entertainment, spirituality, traditional medicine and gastronomy. Within each element of culture there is either consumptive use of herptiles, or cultural practices are non-detrimental towards herptiles species. By increasing the understanding of the relationship between the two diversities, previously neglected perceptions of the natural environment are revealed along with cultural practices that promote or compel protection of nature. Increased understanding also makes it possible to extend the generic species names used by different cultures into individual names for all described species to enable better communication between specialists and society at large. Compiling comprehensive lists of species names in indigenous languages advances development of African languages and fosters learning about wildlife in vernacular. Cultural norms and practices relating to herptiles can provide opportunities to enhance teaching about herptiles by incorporating practical components of their importance to people. The conservation prospects and marginalised wildlife perspectives highlighted here can be incorporated into South African conservation planning to make conservation initiatives more just and inclusive towards South Africa’s diverse people and their contexts. From a policy perspective, this socially inclusive and just approach to conservation is attainable since South Africa’s environmental management principles provide for consideration of all perspectives and knowledge (including indigenous knowledge) in environmental management and decision-making. Ensuring that this and other biocultural diversity studies realise the ambitions of becoming science-based policy tools for conservation and social inclusion will require collaboration between various parties that are interested in and/or affected by the management of South Africa’s natural environment
Naming South African frogs and reptiles in nine Indigenous languages
No full textScientific taxonomy, as a standardised means of communicating about wildlife, might have limited use or relevance for wildlife conservation stakeholders with minimal understanding of scientific names. Indigenous language names can improve species-specific communication with non-expert conservation stakeholders due to their familiarity. Indigenous names for wildlife are, however, not specific to all scientifically described species and are seldom documented for wider use. To have a folk-formal taxonomy that is familiar to non-expert stakeholders in herptile (amphibians and reptiles) conservation and useable by experts, we conducted the first comprehensive analysis of nine South African Indigenous cultures’ naming and classification of herptiles based on Indigenous language names recorded from an online questionnaire and existing literature. Etic and emic analyses of the collected names revealed the underlying guidelines of folk taxonomy and its comparability to scientific taxonomy respectively. Furthermore, taxonomic correspondence analysis provided an understanding of the correspondence between scientific species and Indigenous language delineation of herptile diversity. Multiple scientific species are generally grouped together into a single folk taxon based on observed similarities and only a few Indigenous language names are specific to scientific species. The underlying guidelines of folk taxonomy and their comparability and correspondence to scientific taxonomy were the basis for extending the generalised Indigenous names of herptiles into a comprehensive list of names for South Africa’s 543 scientifically described herptile species (136 frog and 407 reptile species) in the nine official South African Indigenous languages.</p
Frog and reptile conservation through the lens of South Africa’s nature-based cultural practices
No full textEthnoherpetology improves our understanding of the conservation implications of nature-based cultural practices through investigations of the influence of traditional culture on frog and reptile species (herptiles). Improved understanding of the implications of human activities on these taxa is especially important as herptiles are experiencing global population declines. Furthermore, improved understanding of nature-based cultural practices can better inform conservation planning that includes cultural practices as defined by South African legislation. The herptile-based cultural practices recorded from a sample of 275 online questionnaire respondents and 68 publications show some cultural practices to compel or inspire protection of herptiles. Conversely, other practices were found to pose a conservation risk as they either involve killing herptile species or they perpetuate negative perceptions towards them. Leveraging protective cultural practices as a conservation tool and mitigating culture-motivated threats requires integrating cultural aspects into modern law. Such an integrative approach is possible under South African legislation’s provisions for socially inclusive conservation planning and recognition of customary law. Integrative conservation approaches are also in line with international policy such as the Kunming-Montreal global biodiversity framework. In addition to an inventory of herptile-based cultural practices, the study also assesses their feasibility as conservation tools. Furthermore, this study highlights a need for quantification of their conservation implications (both positive and negative) and aligning protective traditional cultural practices with modern means of law enforcement
Library books as environmental management capacity building opportunities exclude most South African languages
Full text linkSocial inclusion in South Africa’s environmental management remains a concern regardless of equality being enshrined in the country’s environmental management policy. This policy makes provisions for citizens to be afforded equal opportunities to learn about the environment and develop capacity to participate in environmental management. As South Africa is a multilingual country where most of the population does not use English as their primary language, environmental capacity development opportunities should ideally be linguistically accessible to all citizens to avoid perpetuating the pre-democratic exclusion of the languages spoken by most of the population of African descent. Given that public libraries play a role in promoting democracy, the books they catalogue are assumed to provide environmental management capacity development opportunities. Here we use the language of publication of public library books as an indicator for assessing the role of native South African languages in promoting environmental management opportunities. The books from South African public libraries considered in this study’s sample were found to provide environmental management capacity development opportunities in mostly English. Dominance of English in these capacity development opportunities excludes many citizens as most South Africans do not use English as their primary language. This study argues that such exclusion is at odds with South Africa’s inclusive environmental management policy and decreasing exclusion will require actions that support policy by encouraging publishing in Indigenous languages and elevating the status of marginalised languages
Barcoding and traditional health practitioner perspectives are informative to monitor and conserve frogs and reptiles traded for traditional medicine in urban South Africa
No full textPublished literature suggests that indigenous cultural practices, specifically traditional medicine, are commonplace among urban communities contrary to the general conception that such practices are associated to rural societies. We reviewed literature for records of herptiles sold by traditional health practitioners in urban South Africa, then used visual confirmation surveys, DNA barcoding, and folk taxonomy to identify the herptile species that were on sale. Additionally, interviews with 11 SePedi and IsiZulu speaking traditional health practitioners were used to document details of the collection and pricing of herptile specimens along with the practitioners' views of current conservation measures aimed at traditional medicine markets. The herptile specimens sold by traditional health practitioners included endangered and non-native species. The absorbance ratios of DNA extracted from the tissue of herptiles used in traditional medicine were found to be unreliable predictors of whether those extractions would be suitable for downstream applications. From an initial set of 111 tissue samples, 81 sequencing reactions were successful and 55 of the obtained sequences had species level matches to COI reference sequences on the NCBI GenBank and/or BOLD databases. Molecular identification revealed that traditional health practitioners sometimes mislabel the species they use. The mixed methodology employed here is useful for conservation planning as it updates knowledge of animal use in indigenous remedies and can accurately identify species of high conservation priority. Furthermore, the study highlights the possibility of collaborative conservation planning with traditional health practitioners. Barcoding and traditional health practitioner perspectives are informative to monitor and conserve frogs and reptiles traded for traditional medicine in urban South Africa Running title: Herptile traditional medicine in South Africa Fortunate M. PhakaThis research is made possible by a bilateral scientific cooperation between North-West University and Hasselt University. Financial support for FMP was provided by the National Research Foundation (UID: 114663; 130501), South African Institute of Aquatic Biodiversity, Youth 4 African Wildlife NPC, and the Flemish Interuniversity Council (VLIR) Global Minds program (Contract Number: R-9363). MPMV is supported by the Special Research Fund of Hasselt University (BOF20TT06) and by Research Foundation–Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen) research grant 1513419
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