Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Riparian Functional Assessments to Inform Cumulative Impacts to Tribes

<p dir="ltr">Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) is the accumulated knowledge and understanding of American Indian and Native Alaskan Villages’ homelands and can help confirm, support, or further define scientific research for the benefit of the environment and human health. Cumulative impact (risk) assessments (CIAs) need to integrate ecological and human health, especially to support tribal sovereignty and lifeways, however TEK is often missing from cumulative impact assessments that account for both chemical and non-chemical stressors. This product is responsive to multiple and direct requests from EPA Tribal partnership groups and tribes for ORD to consider and demonstrate how TEK can be woven into its research, including considerations for the confidentiality and sensitivity of TEK information. To directly respond to this call, this product builds on ORD supported research over the last eight years utilizing the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) Proper Functioning Condition (PFC) for Riparian Assessment Framework which leverages multi-disciplinary teams to combine both quantitative and qualitative information into assessing the suitability of riparian areas to support Tribal water quality management and related lifeways. The next step in this research is to better understand the synergistic and cumulative effects that can impact Tribes and their members exponentially by stifling cultural practices, contaminating cultural ecological resources, and adding social and economic stressors. Ecological function-based risk assessment provides a scaffolding for exploring methods that can incorporate TEK into tribal cumulative impact assessments that can consider single or multiple sources with a spatial assessment in order to support tribal decision making on tribal lands.</p>