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https://doi.org/10.15414/2019.9788055220703

4 International Scientific Conference Abstracts Book
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OVERVIEW OF TRADITIONAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE AND PERSPECTIVES
OF ITS APPLICATIONS IN SLOVAKIA
Alexander Fehér, Lýdia Končeková, Daniela Halmová

Department of Environmental Management, Faculty of European Studies and Regional Development,
Nitra, Slovak Republic; E-mail.: alexander.feher@uniag.sk
The current protection trends and the overall use of ecosystems are based on scientific
research and often marginalize observations and experiences of local residents and
knowledge passed down orally from generation to generation (oral history). The traditional
ecological knowledge (TEK) withstood the test of time and is independent of whether it has or
has not been scientifically explained (although some information has been later confirmed).
These findings support, directly or indirectly, the intentions of the CBD, National Biodiversity
Strategy in Slovakia and the platform IPBES.
The review paper summarizes and systemizes the existing information on TEK and also
includes results of fieldworks by the presentation of case studies. So far, our international
cooperation in the area of TEK has been focused mainly on the V4 countries (also Ukraine,
Romania, Austria, and Germany). The research on the TEK is prominent especially in Eastern
Europe as the population in Western Europe failed to keep track of TEK because of the heavy
industrialization (intensive technocratic agriculture etc.). The basic attributes of TEK are
originality (they are 'indigenous'), sustainability (often used for hundreds of years) and
cultural heritage. The TEK is characterized by high inter-disciplinarity as it uses the
knowledge and methods of ecology, anthropology, history, ethnology, ecology, nature
conservation, etc. The practical use of the TEK is applied mainly in the area of natural
resources utilization and in the preservation of local communities. However, it is also
important to verify the TEK because the environmental conditions and the level of knowledge
(local and scientific) are changing over time. The basic methods of obtaining information on
traditional environmental knowledge are observation and controlled interview. Local
ecological knowledge is also important in today’s changing conditions, e.g. climate change.
Local people have their own seasonal observations (phenomena, their course, phenology,
population dynamics of different species of plants and animals, etc.) and knowledge on
biological invasions (new species of plants and animals in the area), water regime (floods,
water level changes, etc.), behavior of animals (e.g. when predicting certain events) etc. Since
2016, the Department of Environmental Management (and its predecessors) at the Faculty of
European Studies and Regional Development of SUA in Nitra in cooperation with other
institutes have been organizing international seminars entitled Traditional Ecological
Knowledge (TEK 2016-2018). These seminars presented some of the first works focused on
the theory of TEK in Slovakia and its use (in agriculture, provisional and cultural ecosystem
services and disservices of natural and semi-natural ecosystems, healing, nutrition,
conservation of biodiversity, meteorological phenomena, mitigation of climate change
impacts, etc.).
Keywords: biodiversity, ecosystem services, Slovak Republic, traditional ecological knowledge.

Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Slovak Grant Agency for Science (VEGA) Grant No. 1/0767/17
Response of ecosystem services of grape growing country to climate change regional impact – change
of functions to adaptation potential.

|28 4 International Scientific Conference Agrobiodiversity Nutrition, Health and Quality of Human and Bees Life
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September 11–13, 2019