Paper short abstract:

Traditional ecological knowledge and extensive grassland management stands in the focus of a continuously developing research project studying impact of nature conservation regulations on these practices involving local farmers and other stakeholders to gain a better understanding in Central Europe.

Paper long abstract:

Studying traditional and local ecological knowledge (TEK) and extensive, small-scale management of natural resources in Central European cultural landscapes requires interdisciplinary methodology (cultural anthropological and biological (e.g. botanical) methods). There are many new scientific approaches examining the aforementioned issues including participatory and community-based methods, knowledge co-production. These approaches involve local communities into the planning and performance of studies about fragmented social-ecological systems interwoven with subsidy systems (e.g. CAP), conflicts caused by nature conservation legislation, stakeholder groups' interests changed by drastic political, social and economic processes. These complex social-ecological systems need a complex overview, regardless the scientific or social (humanities) background of the researcher, which however can significantly influence the emphasis and main focus of the results.

The history of a long-lasting research project aimed to reveal traditional ecological knowledge related to grassland management will be reviewed in a nature conservation point of view. The project started to investigate a local community in the Eastern Carpathians famous about TEK and traditional hay meadow management, continued on the western border of the basin in a typical Central European situation, where knowledge transmission ceased, traditional farming is abandoned, majority of the farmers moved here from elsewhere.

The aim is to outline the development and evolution of a project from a really easy, unique situation in a traditional community to the typical Central European situation - using newer and newer methods to involving more and more local experts into the design and performance of the studies.