Investigating Wildlife Movement Pathways through the Chignecto Isthmus: A Participatory Mapping Approach for Knowledge Co-Production

Abstract

Inclusive knowledge systems that engage local perspectives and social and natural sciences are critical for conservation planning. This thesis explores local tacit knowledge application to identify wildlife locations, movement patterns and heightened opportunities and barriers for connectivity conservation planning in a critical linkage area known as the Chignecto Isthmus in Canada. Thirty-four local knowledge holders with strong tacit knowledge of wildlife and the land participated in individual interviews and group workshops, both of which engaged participatory mapping. When the results were digitized and combined with formal-natural-science data collected from previous studies in the region, local knowledge provided rich explanatory and complementary data. Consistent with other studies, engagement of local knowledge was found to (i) provide important insights, knowledge translation, and dissemination to complement formal, natural science, (ii) help build a more inclusive knowledge system grounded in the people and place, and (iii) lend support to conservation action for connectivity planning.