The most important aspect of TEK to me is that it is in danger of being lost. Traditional Ecological Knowledge has been used for years in various communities, but much of these communities are at risk of losing this knowledge because of external forces. For me this is especially important in indigenous communities, where there is already a chance of loss of culture because of urbanization. Some loss of TEK could also be because of relocation. A lot of times this can be because scientists or other people want to use the land for something else. The relocation can cause the communities to have to resort to new ways of living in which they cannot use their TEK. TEK can even be a disadvantage to communities because it may cause scientists, for example, to want the land for bioprospecting, such as looking for medicinal plants. Also, a lot of times, communities are forced to assimilate with urban populations. It is difficult for communities to keep TEK when there is no use for it.
When I lived in Costa Rica, I visited various indigenous communities, all in various states of maintaining their traditional cultures. One of these groups, the Ngobe, live fairly far from urbanized communities, and therefore are able to maintain much of their culture. However, even though they live far from most other communities, they have begun to change their culture and assimilate to the urban cultures. This is causing the children to learn less and less of the TEK that their ancestors used; information such as plants, their traditional language, etc. In order to try and combat this, a few of us spoke with the Healer of the community in order to make a book with traditionally used plants - both used for medicine and food. We included the ways that the plants could be used, ways to prepare, locations they could be found, etc. Because the traditional language of the people, Ngobere, is being lost and Spanish is taking its place, we created the book in Spanish, but also had it translated to Ngobere. This will hopefully aid in keeping the traditional culture and TEK alive in the community, even if more urban ideas are coming in.
I believe TEK has a lot of value. Although most of us don't know it, a lot of the information we know is probably based on some form of TEK. A lot of medicines are made by plants that were found because of TEK; scientists speak with indigenous peoples and other communities and may hear about a plant that they can use. We are all therefore, in a way, products of TEK, and it is very important that we do not abuse the information and that we try to maintain the TEK that is still remaining in the world.
