Conservation Decision-Making in Palau: An Example of the Parallel Working of Scientific and Traditional Ecological Knowledge

Despite unprecedented knowledge of conservation science, loss of biodiversity continues on a global scale. In this study, we investigate how choices are exercised where science, local and traditional knowledge come together for conservation decision-making. Our case study is the Palau Protected Areas Network, a program established to support conservation in the Pacific island nation of Palau. We apply a framework based on the concept of knowledge governance to explore the rules and norms that shape the relationships between knowledge and decision-making across both customary and Western-styled institutional lines. The major practical implications from this study are that: (1) there are internal and external audiences for Palauan conservation, (2) these audiences are associated with different expectations around what makes knowledge a legitimate basis for action, (3) the current conservation system operates in parallel, with science informing largely external audience and local and traditional knowledge speaking more directly to internal audiences and (4) this parallel system is likely to come under increasing pressure as the audiences for conservation change.