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Figure 2. A ranger and herder discuss grazing in a pasture outside Marcali.
Photo: Anna Varga, 2012
The application of TEK in conservation is particularly important for habitats
whose forming and maintenance (e.g., mountain hayfields, wood pastures) can
only be realistically realized and upheld in the long run in possession of this
knowledge (Anderson 2005; Babai — Molnar 2014). The maintenance of these
types of habitats requires traditional modes of landscape use, considerable human
labor and managing care (Oteros-Rozas et al. 2013; Varga et al. 2017a). In the
previous century, these modes of use were often given up, hence these areas of
considerable natural and cultural value have drastically decreased all over Europe
(Schmitz et al. 2012). The restoration and maintenance of habitats in the abandoned
areas were begun, and is pursued almost exclusively by conservationists. In ideal
cases, through the recognition of traditional landscape use, the underlying KET
also becomes known, used and acknowledged. There are indeed positive cases
(Hirschnitz-Garbers — Stoll-Kleeman 2011), but in the support systems and
prescriptions (e.g. Natura 2000) or in practice, KET is not, or just nominally,
recognized. The cause — apart from those mentioned above - is the education and
working methods of conservationists. Top-down and science-based decisions are
predominant; during their studies, conservationists almost exclusively only
encounter Western academic scientific knowledge and its attitude to the natural
world (Standovär — Primack 2001; Mihok et al. 2016). This is further reinforced
by the fact that local residents with TEK usually have little ability to assert their
interests(Heikkinen et al. 2012). It would promote the solution of the problem if
an interest group could take an active part in the integration of TEK. This would
require learning about the attitude to this kind of knowledge not only of the
communities that provide and foster it, but also of those who would potentially