Local ecosystemic knowledge on soil and weather

Agriculture and forestry strongly depend on the perception, interpretation and the reaction of the local resource managers to eco-systematic processes. Soil and weather are the central conditions in determining the location of agriculture and forestry. Perception, interpretation and reaction of farmers to soil and climate are in close connection with specific local experience. The local knowledge of farmers concerning ecological systems has been only rarely a subject of research in industrialized countries. This research project should improve the understanding of the local systems of knowledge and experience and therefore of the interactive man-environment relation. It is the aim of the research project to make available the local knowledge of farmers and other local experts about soil and weather in the regions of Osttirol and Pinzgau. By using qualitative and quantitative methods of ethnobiology in the selected regions, the research should be able to answer the following questions: which type of knowledge about soil and weather is available, to which values and attitudes is it connected, how does it influence the behavior of local people in their management of natural resources, within which institutional network / context does it exist, which dynamics is the local system of knowledge (points 1-4) exposed to, which differences and congruencies exist between local knowledge/behavior and scientific knowledge. Finally, local knowledge will be assessed regarding its potential for the sustainable use of natural resources, and the possible areas of its integration into regional concepts of land-use will be identified.

Climate change is a topic broadcasted through media on a daily basis. News from media is based on global scientific knowledge about current eco-systemic processes, i.e. about the interaction of people and the global environment. In contrast, this FWF-project is interested in peoples` local perception of eco-systemic processes. In this specific project the local eco-systemic knowledge (here: LK) of farmers about soil, soil management, farming, weather and climate change have been studied in the Valley Grosses Walsertal and in Western Styria (both Austria). In both study areas, most farmers are engaged in off-farm labour and use technical devices and machinery for farming. During the last decades, as a consequence, the temporal and spatial distance of farmers to soil and nature has increased. At the same time farmers are now closer to media with e.g. weather news, and to scientific information about soil management (e.g. through attending courses, meeting consultants and receiving advice). This development has a strong impact on the LK systems in the study areas. Orally transmitted LK about weather and climate in the form of e.g. traditional weather proverbs or indicators for changing weather is still available, but is replaced in its relevance for management decisions by detailed LK about the most reliable source for weather news and by the day-to-day content of this news. Also, LK about soils and soil management includes a large proportion of global scientific technical terms and concepts acquired e.g. through formal agriculture education and media. LK from predecessors and from own observation/experience of/with soil and weather is highly relevant only for "downscaling" the global information, i.e. to adapt the received information from media to the very site specific needs and characteristics. Much knowledge called "local" knowledge by local people can be found in the study areas in printed sources (like agriculture calendars that are available in all German speaking areas of Central Europe), including a large proportion of information that is not site specific but originating from other German speaking areas or even countries. LK includes observations about topics like soil degradation or climate change and its effects on agriculture, forestry and hydrology. Several strategies have been embarked by farmers that help to mask differences in soil quality (e.g.: drainage; irrigation) or of weather extremes (e.g.: aeration of hay, hail nets, hail insurances, green houses, deployment of airplanes to inject silver nitrate into clouds of thunderstorms) and that reduce the immediate risk for natural disasters. As a consequence, local people feel more safe and less exposed to adverse ecosystemic trends, seasonality or shocks; and they also migrate with housing or infrastructure into areas that were known to be risk prone in former times. Now detailed and sophisticated global technical knowledge is applied to reduce risk of hazards (preventive blasting of snow in avalanche slopes with explosives deployed by helicopters) based on LK about where and when danger might arise. As a consequence of the strong presence of global knowledge in the study areas, many younger farmers express distrust with LK, characterizing it as "old fashioned" and "not appropriate" any more as basis for management decisions. This also includes rituals that were applied to protect against natural disasters or to ensure fertility of soils. Some of these rituals have been decontextualized from their origin and converted into tourist attractions. Those pockets of LK that are applied for the site-specific adaptation of the received global knowledge show similarities and differences between the domains soil, weather and climate: Signs, symbols and expressions of characteristics of soils and weather (e.g. pictures of a certain plot with bare soil or of clouds) can be interpreted by farmers only with additional context information relating and arranging the item (soil, cloud) in time and space. Thus, inquiry about soil or weather unfolds the mental map of local people about the systemic interactions of the elements of this domain with their main activity (in our case: farming) and with all other biotic and abiotic factors of the environment in space and time, including personal history, emotions and beliefs.