Since 2007 Living Oceans Society has been gathering local ecological knowledge (LEK) throughout the North Island and Central Coast. The LEK project is designed to work with fishermen, coastal community residents and other marine stakeholders. The purpose of the project is to gather and summarize LEK in a way that is accessible and useful to coastal communities, especially so that cultural and economic uses and values can be documented.
The maps that are produced from this project allow us and the participants to better understand our coastal ecosystems through knowledge sharing. In further analyses, Living Oceans Society combines local knowledge with data from scientific research to help bring about sustainable management of our marine resources. We produce maps that summarize local knowledge collected from interviews, and we share these maps with the people that provided the information.
We hope that all participants can use these maps in marine planning processes to make their concerns and needs known.
How can I participate?
Sign up now!
Why should I participate?
The benefits are for you, for Living Oceans Society, for your industry, your community and for the ocean environment:
- You, your industry and your community will have increased capacity to represent your social, cultural and/or economic needs in marine planning initiatives
- You will have access to the maps that combine the information you share with similar information from other participants
- You and your industry will have documentation of your traditional fishing areas
- You will be better able to respond to conflicting activities that are proposed for areas that are important to you
- We can all benefit from better documentation of important spawning and nursery areas for your fishery - documentation can lead to protection of these areas
- You may find it personally rewarding to share knowledge that promotes sustainable fisheries, healthy environments and coastal communities.
Any personal information that you provide remains private and confidential. If and when maps are released to the public, they summarize information from many participants in a way that data provided by any one individual are not recognizable.
