Connecting Diverse Knowledge Systems for Enhanced Ecosystem Governance: The Multiple Evidence Base Approach

“…of thinking around ‘‘evidence-based’’ and ‘‘evidence-based practice’’ has a long history, particularly in medicine and was formally defined in medicine by Sackett et al. (1996) as, ‘‘the conscientious and judicious use of current best evidence from clinical care research in the management of…”

“…process may help to leverage the power dynamics, maintain integrity of knowledge systems, generate new questions, and thus enable ecosystem assessments and knowledge generation that are salient, credible, and legitimate for knowledge holders at different scales (Cash et al. 2003; Reid et al. 2006).”

“Scientific validation of traditional or local knowledge is often a more or less explicit requirement for inclusion of other knowledge systems (Agrawal 1995).”

“Ostrom (2011) for instance suggests that conceptual frameworks facilitate the integration of different types of theories and models as they apply to different questions and parts of a research problem, but together contribute to the understanding of a whole.”

“However, in the science-practice realm there are many emerging initiatives that use approaches similar to a MEB, see for example Danielsen et al. (2009, 2014), Rist et al. (2011), and Shirk et al. (2012), see also Box 2.”

“New methods are needed to find innovative ways for legitimate and constructive ways of aggregating, evaluating, and synthesizing knowledge to inform scales beyond the local (Berkes et al. 2006).”

“Our view is that learning how silvopastoral systems work and developing effective conservation programs and policies must draw on traditional and scientific knowledge, ecological and social science, and local and landscape information (Tengö et al., 2014).”

“…and knowledge-sharing processes by building mutual trust and respect across communication barriers of language, culture, worldviews and experiences (Tengo et al. 2014; Diaz et al. 2015; MoSTE 2015; Johnson et al. 2016; Mistry and Berardi 2016; Finn et al. 2017; Sharma 2017; Tengo et al. 2017;…”

“To do so we 482 need new mechanisms to generate and transfer knowledge and experiences and an efficient 483 cooperation between various knowledge systems--science, traditional knowledge, and conservation 484 practice (Molnár et al., 2008; Tengö et al., 2014).”

“Second, Tengö et al. (2014) posit that multiple structures in non-state actors can cater to diverse needs across geographical areas.”

“wetland grazing, forest-based pig farming), and carrying out knowledge co-production with their practitioners [11, 55].”

“To constrain subjectivities, one can first provide explicit contexts to the modeling questions: what time and space scales do they delineate? and then triangulate across fields of study to co-produce the knowledge behind the model design [119].”

“The benefits of a co-production of knowledge with indigenous communities through participatory research methods that respect their priorities, beliefs, and worldviews and empower communities in the process of addressing conservation challenges are now widely recognised and advocated by many researchers [1,2].”

“None of these challenges can be addressed through isolated disciplinary approaches but demand the collaboration of diverse academic and non-academic actors (Chambers et al. 2021, Tengö et al. 2014).”

“At the foundation of approaches to integrate different types of knowledge (Tengö et al., 2014) is the need for listening.”

“Breaking away from the pattern of marginalization of the social sciences and traditional knowledge [127,129] through adaptive governance calls for an explicit emphasis on deep ecology’s principle of epistemological pluralism.”

“Consequently, participatory mapping can be a successful tool for generating an enriched picture of the distribution of ecosystem services by enhancing the legitimacy and relevance of different stakeholders’ perspectives and knowledge (Tengö et al. 2014; García-Llorente et al. 2016).”

“Using multiple lines of evidence (Saenz-Arroyo & Roberts, 2008; Tengo et al., 2014) and a historical ecology (Thurstan et al., 2015) approach, we showed how abalone abundance and size changed in BC from the Holocene to present (Figure 2b).”

“While citizen science proponents often point to the need for new approaches to address the scale and scope of contemporary challenges, there is equally a need to recognise and appreciate the wisdom of these earlier forms of knowledge (Tengö et al. 2014).”

“Researchers should factor this approach into their evaluations by engaging in knowledge co-production ( Norström et al. 2020 ) and accessing multiple evidence bases that draw on different knowledge systems ( Tengö et al. 2014 ) .”

“The multi-knowledge evidence composed of different original knowledge systems (local, institutional, scientific) helps to better understand the current situation of the landscape (Tengö et al., 2014).”

“, 2010); strongly respecting and combining different knowledges (Agrawal, 1995; Berkes, 1999; Max-Neef, 2005; Tengo et al., 2014; Mistry and Berardi, 2016); and integrating across systems, jurisdictions and tools (DĨaz et al.”

“Findings of the ZPC support the relevance of networks for knowledge exchange and the complementarity of knowledge systems in building resilience [28,37].”

“A growing number of frameworks seek to create this kind of knowledge space (Tengö et al. 2014; Díaz et al. 2015; Reyers et al. 2015).”

“…Base’ approach, allows for “an enriched picture of understanding, for triangulation and joint assessment of knowledge, and a starting point for further knowledge generation” (Tengö et al. 2014, p. 579) and moves beyond material justice to (also) include epistemic justice (Massarella et al. 2022).”

“In this study, we focused on citizen energy roles in the collective envisioning of the sustainable energy transitions [29], and utilised the framework of target, system and transformation knowledge to systematise different steps from knowledge claims to collective framing of citizen energy actions [30].”

“While the inclusion of several disciplines provides added value for conservation [10], it also increases the complexity of the research [23].”

“Many definitions exist for TK, TEK, local ecological knowledge (LEK), and other forms of non-scientific knowledge, which have lately been supplemented with definitions of local and Indigenous knowledges (ILK), especially in the context of the IPBES (Díaz et al., 2015; Tengö et al., 2014), and other international proce…”

“To achieve more equitable and transparent ways of connecting different knowledge systems in policy and planning processes, Tengö et al. (2014) have proposed a multiple evidence base approach (MEB).”

“…processes of bringing knowledge systems together – i.e., mobilizing (exchanging, bringing out, selecting), weaving (bridging, braiding, combining), translating (into a common language of communication, and synthesizing (reframing) commonly accepted knowledge (Teng ¨ o et al., 2014, 2017).”

“collaboration is that by bringing together diverse actors with varied educational backgrounds, occupations, experience and knowledge systems, knowledge integration and innovation can be facilitated [58,59].”

“…include the idea of “integrated valuation,” which strives to integrate ecological, economic, and social values of ES (Jacobs et al. 2018), as well as the idea of “connecting diverse knowledge systems” of ES through combining indigenous and scientific knowledge (Tengö et al. 2014, 2017).”

“Knowledge systems of this type (locally or regionally maintained, adapted, and transmitted, e.g., Tengö et al. 2014) can help the science policy community to think beyond aspects that can be fitted into models, and the variables that continue to be refined by model improvement might well be what…”

“While there are growing calls for more inclusive governance, which actively engages with diverse forms of knowledge (Tengo et al., 2014, Tengo et al., 2017, Hill et al., 2020), there is a limited understanding of the defining characteristics of such tacit knowledge, and how it can contribute to…”

“The multiple evidence approach (MEB) holds that western scientific research, and Indigenous knowledge systems are regarded to engender different “manifestations of valid and useful knowledge” [27] which can generate new insights and innovations through complementarities.”

“…essential roles that different sources of knowledge play in the co-production of transformations towards sustainability, with an emphasis on the increasingly recognized role of Indigenous and local knowledge systems (Lam et al., 2020; Norström et al., 2020; Tengö et al., 2014; Wyborn et al., 2019).”

“…regime shifts can benefit from mobilizing, making use of and connecting Indigenous knowledge to other knowledge systems in ways that can generate new insights, understandings and innovations to manage complex adaptive systems (Berkes, Colding, & Folke, 2000; Folke et al., 2003; Tengo et al., 2014).”

“A multiple evidencebased approach (Tengo et al. 2014) was adopted to enable an enriched picture of the progress of the healthy Country work.”

“It would also be beneficial to further develop and integrate methods for encompassing multiple knowledge systems into resilience practice (Tengö et al. 2014, Falardeau et al. 2018) and how to enable adaptive processes of governance and comanagement (Walters 1986, Armitage et al. 2009, Schultz et…”

“Ways forward have been described through, for example, a multiple evidence approach with two-eyed seeing, knowledge-weaving processes, or an ethic of equivocation (Teng ¨ o et al., 2014; Reid et al., 2021; Korhonen-Kurki et al., 2022; Root-Bernstein et al., 2023).”

“…present a framework adapted from extensive scholarship (e.g., Chambers et al., 2021; Chapman & Schott, 2020; Claw et al., 2018; Hudson et al., 2020; Tengö et al., 2014, 2017) to illustrate our approach to building research partnerships for a culturally significant species in Te Waipounamu,…”

“In recent years, social learning and knowledge co-production are also being promoted by using participatory processes in ecosystem management [78,81].”

“Part-nerships with HFP, PUHA and multiple academic institutions bring together traditional, local, experiential and Western scientific knowledge (sensu Tengo et al. 2014).”

“…an integral part of knowledge coproduction, which emphasizes the importance of investigating contradictions rather than concealing or overlooking them (Huntington et al. 2004, Moller et al. 2004, Gagnon and Berteaux 2009, Gearheard et al. 2010, Etienne 2013, Klein et al. 2014, Tengö et al. 2014).”

“In sustainability science, innovative perspectives such as the Multiple Evidence Based approach have recognised that there is no such a thing as a neutral objective standpoint and take the position that each knowledge system should be accepted with its own logics of validation (Tengö et al., 2014; 2017).”

“The multiple evidence base (MEB; [35]) approach allows the complementarity of knowledge systems as equally valid in generating evidence for changes in the environment.”

“Conservation professionals should also consider that creating interactions between knowledge systems requires the development of functioning tools for valid, transparent, and valuable ways of integrating knowledge (Tengö et al. 2014; Grimble and Wellard 1997).”

“An enhanced understanding by considering both in situ and ex situ perspectives can support the development of more effective adaptation and mitigation strategies and potentially strengthen the entire SES’s resilience (Gómez-Baggethun et al. 2013).”

“…in SES research, scholars have focused efforts on how to better integrate and honor different knowledge systems, e.g., western scientific and non-western knowledge systems (Lam et al., 2020; Tengö et al., 2014), and how this presents numerous ethical risks (Klenk & Meehan, 2015; Turnhout, 2019).”

“It is also important to better connect insights from various knowledge systems, as emphasized by Bodin (2017) and Teng ¨ o et al. (2014).”

“Further work on SLR and coastal change is needed that draws on the insight of science and that also actively engages with and is led by actors and organizations that produce and represent local knowledge (Tengö et al., 2014).”

“Such actions range from direct engagements between scientists and local communities (Tengö et al. 2014) or transnational corporations (Österblom et al.”

“…systems therefore requires the creation of settings for exchange of multiple ) The three phases of a MEB approach: joint problem formulation, generating an enriched picture with contribution from multiple sources of evidence and joint analysis and evaluation of knowledge (Tengo¨ et al., 2014).”

“In addition to connecting local and indigenous knowledge systems (Tengö 2014), it is essential to create more pathways for ecological information to enter the conversation in non-indigenous policy and praxis contexts.”

“Another framework set out by Tengö et al. (2014, 2017), and further detailed by Malmer et al. (2020), is the Multiple Evidence Base framework developed collaboratively with the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).”

“4 It is important in the MEB that an open and collaborative process of problematisation (i.e. goal definition) takes place prior to the bridging of knowl-edges.”

“Further, researchers have identified dialogue-based processes for integrating diverse knowledge systems that allow participants to share power and work towards mutual understanding for equitable solutions (Daigle et al. 2019; Tengö et al. 2014).”

“Instead managers can learn to embrace the complexity of these diverse forms of knowledge as opportunity for adaptive management (Tengö et al., 2014).”

“Here we assume that various knowledges and perceptions can be viewed as legitimate within their own context (Berkes 2012; Bixler 2013; Sillitoe 2007), and interrogate them "primarily within rather than across knowledge systems" (Tengö et al. 2014: 579).”

“The collaborative production of new knowledge through various agents and their communication is important (Tengö et al. 2014).”

“For example, TD researchers are embracing the multiple frames produced by diverse knowledge systems through limited forms of integration, weaving together multiple frames to develop an enriched picture while maintaining their individual integrity (e.g., Martin 2012; Tengö et al. 2014).”