Paper short abstract:

Abolfazl Sharifian is an ethnoecologist from Iran who works on traditional pastoral systems. His work emphasis on the value of pastoralism and traditional ecological knowledge in sustainable natural resources management and conservation.

Paper long abstract:

There is a significant knowledge gap concerning the extent to which pastoral traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) has changed. We conducted a systematic review of 152 papers on pastoral TEK, focusing specifically on 63 papers that explicitly mentioned types of knowledge transitions (retention, erosion, adaptation or hybridization). Studies on pastoral TEK represent less than 3% of all the scholarly literature on TEK. Geographical distribution of the case studies was largely biased. Knowledge domains of pastoral TEK such as herd and livestock management, forage and medicinal plants, and landscape and wildlife were relatively equally covered, however, climate-related knowledge was less studied. Out of the 63 papers explicitly mentioning transition of pastoral TEK, 83% reported erosion, and only 11 studies documented explicitly knowledge retention, adaptation or hybridization. We conclude that future research should focus more on the diverse dynamics of pastoral traditional knowledge, be more careful in distinguishing the four knowledge transition types.