Coviability of social and ecological systems : reconnecting mankind to the biosphere in an era of global change. Vol. 1 : The foundations of a new paradigm

Ethnoecology attempts to understand how societies interact with their environment by focusing in particular on the processes of ecological knowledge constructions. These processes are part of a particular socio-cultural context, and they are the result of numerous interactions with non-human elements of the environment such as animals, plants, landscapes, artifacts, and so on. Local knowledge, as it is often called, is constantly renewed through daily relations. It constitutes a privileged indicator of environmental changes, and it allows societies to adjust their behavior within ecological and socio-cultural frameworks, which are more or less restrictive but relatively dynamic. Studying ecological knowledge, its dynamism, and the dynamism and implementation of the ecological and socio-cultural frameworks assist in sketching coviability models. The latter are considered as temporary and renewed adjustments of societies and their environment, adjustments that do not compromise the sustainability of their relationship and which emanate essentially from negotiation processes