Traditional, local, and Indigenous knowledge systems must be prioritized and valued ; according to the World Bank , communities that rely on traditional, local, and Indigenous knowledge systems, steward an estimated 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity . Institutions, ranging from non-governmental organizations, government institutions and universities should also be included in the diversity of voices at the proverbial table of translational ecology. The components structuring the communication and engagement dimension of my research was rooted in network building and linguistic competency. My research evolved from communication and direct engagement with various entities, which began from my own network – the Ukrainian-American community in Washington D.C. It was through this network that I was put into contact with a friend of a friend who was as Fulbright scholar, Yurij Bihun. His guidance and mentorship connected me to individuals at the Ukrainian National Forestry University which later served as my host institution during my Fulbright student award . Once in Ukraine, I spent 4 months grounding myself in this new context, meeting new people, and establishing key contacts. I met the head of the World Wildlife Fund Ukraine , Dmytro Karabchuk. He invited me to attend various conferences sponsored by WWF-Ukraine and I had an opportunity to edit WWF-Ukraine’s illegal logging assessments. It was also during this time that I had an opportunity to travel extensively throughout the Hutsul and Zakarpattia regions with the facilitation and guidance of Yurij Bihun to meet with NGOs, like FORZA,4×8 grow table with wheels and key scientists at the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve before the start of my research process.
Many professors at UNFU connected me with his own contacts in the Hutsul Carpathian Mountains. It was through these various contacts that I found a place to live in the Carpathian Mountains, providing a base point to build relationships with other community members throughout the region as well as park at the Verkhovyna National Nature Park and the Hutsulshchyna National Nature Park. Those first four months were pivotal, where I relied on previously built networks , to expand and make new networks , Ukrainian National Forestry University, Verkhovyna National Nature Park, Hutsulshchyna National Nature Park which greatly aided in the research process and connecting with village community members. The building of these relationships was in many ways contingent on my linguistic fluency of Ukrainian and my understanding of worldview, culture, and day-to-day life. It is through language that culturally distinctive values, knowledge, meanings, and world views emerge . My ability to speak and understand Ukrainian was a starting point to many discussions with new colleagues and collaborators, which created an opening and opportunity to share my personal story. In many ways, engagement and collaboration was the first step in trust-building, and this was brokered by linguistic competency. However, when I first arrived in Ukraine, the shift to my daily routine to speaking primarily in Ukrainian presented its own set of challenges. I had to learn how to distinguish the type of vocabulary I knew versus the one I would need to learn . This learning curve extended its way to living in Hutsul villages for over the course of a year, where elder generations spoke a mix of Hutsul and Ukrainian. Hutsul is a unique dialect that is endangered due to socio-economic pressures . In many instances, Hutsul is indistinguishable from Contemporary Standard Ukrainian . This mutual intelligibility created an opportunity to learn Hutsul vocabulary and connect with community members in their language, grounded in their place.
My goal was to amend my research questions and methodologies to address and include Hutsul TEK as a central part of the process. Engagement occurred at multiple levels – from community members from various villages, national parks , educational institutions , and international institutions . I lived with families in Hutsul villages, where I was able to spend time talking to families that I was living with, asking about their community needs and day-to-day life. Additionally, I spent time speaking to a range of scientists at the Hutsulshchyna National Nature Park and Verkhovyna National Nature Park about illegal logging issues and community development goals. This would include formal meetings, but mostly hiking trips, discussions over tea, and various field trips. This engagement continued throughout the interviewing process. Before beginning interviews, I worked with key Hutsul experts to refine specific interview topics and improve question framing. I gathered over 70 interviews throughout two field seasons, and in the field season of 2019, Hutsul mycologist, Mariia Pasailiuk, greatly aided me, actively interviewing prominent community members with me. Various trips with scientists at the Hutsulshchyna National Nature Park occurred throughout 2017-2018, assessing old growth forests. Maintaining continual dialogue with people included visiting their homes, making phone calls, and providing open avenues of discussion and availability. These connections and continual active engagement were pivotal in the research and collaboration process .The main goal behind the translational approach is to produce policies based on transparent co-production of knowledge by all stakeholders impacted by those same policies .
Language plays a role in the development and understanding of policy to broader audiences. The term ‘translation’ in translational ecology refers to the interpretation of meaning from one language to another, with the goal of conserving the integrity of information in addition to being open to possibilities of varying interpretations . The ability to translate science into understandable terms to various stakeholders is imperative to generating communicable policy grounded in mutual understanding. Additionally, careful attention and understanding to multi-cultural, real-world contexts in which ecological science is applied, are essential to the framing and designing of research questions, and successful implementation of policy decisions and management. For example, ecologists can advocate for science-informed policies and, depending on their research scope, follow the CARE principles for Indigenous Data Governance by ethically prioritizing TEK that community partners contribute . Otherwise, there is the real possibility of generating “paper policies”, which are written but are not fully integrated, followed or supported by communities. The status of policy making in Ukraine is tenuous, given its legacy of Soviet colonialism and corruption. Environmental policies struggle to be enforced, with illegal logging being a main regional challenge. Organized criminal networks manage illegal logging operations under the guise of semi-legitimate corporations and businesses . Minimal legal and financial penalties make these unenforced activities accessible within organized crime networks. However, local national parks and World Wildlife Fund Ukraine are using multi-time satellite images, DNA, and isotope analyses of wood, along with citizen activism, to help combat illegal logging . Starting in 2020, the WWF-Ukraine is working with local communities to protect forests, while collaborating with forest enterprises to sustainably manage forests . There is an active shift within the region to include communities in the decision-making process, and prioritize their active participation in addressing social and environmental issues. One of the ways to make meaningful policy is to form research questions that address a need or find an already existing question that needs answers. My research questions changed and morphed throughout my dissertation process, as I learned more from elders and as I built relationships with various institutions. In many cases, I had already built relationships with people before formally interviewing them later. Traditional ecological knowledge was the central theme, and conversations were open-ended. There were many days in which I spent an entire day with a community member in their home, eating, drinking,grow tray stand and talking about a range of topics. I conducted a few informal discussion groups both formally and informally regarding changes seen in the region as well as the specific gathering practices of culturally important species. Environmental changes came up continuously in discussions with park scientists, elders, community members, herbalists, and farmers. Reiterated continuously was the direct link between forest dependence on resources and proximity to habitats. This pattern of discussion helped to form my questions and guide my discussions with personnel at local national parks. One of the main efforts behind my dissertation work was to co-publish with Hutsul scientists, facilitating the dissemination of knowledge on their terms, rather than on researcher terms. Currently, the last chapter of my dissertation, which was co-created by two Hutsul scientists along with myself, is under review. It synthesizes my second chapter along with in-depth analysis of TEK to explore factors contributing to Hutsul regional resilience. Additionally, it clearly identifies coping mechanisms and adaptive strategies that maintain food sovereignty in the region. That chapter will serve as published affirmation of the importance of Hutsul ethnobotany in regional economy building. The next step after publication in English would be publication of this paper in Ukrainian and Hutsul, since it would then be accessible to populations in which aided in the publication of this work. There are various levels of translation that occurred through my dissertation process – from Ukrainian/Hutsul to English and vice versa, in addition to translating scientific terminology to understandable and relatable terminologies in both languages. These non-English publications would look very different from their current English form, given the need to translate not only the data, but also to use terms, sentence structure, and images which would be accessible, relatable, and recognizable to broader populations in Ukraine. Ample time and multiple levels of translation would occur in the making of this Ukrainian and Hutsul publications.
This translational approach would reseed organized information surrounding Hutsul TEK back into the communities of origin, helping build trust with communities and instill transparency in the research process. The publication of the third chapter will serve as basis for policy development in Hutsulshchyna; a policy document is currently being written by Hutsul scientists, Maria Pasailiuk and Oleh Pohribnyi, at the Hutsulshchyna National Nature Park, highlighting the importance of gathering and selling culturally important species .Education is a process that invites an individual to explore and build upon their prior knowledge, while actively engaging and contextualizing new information into an existing framework of understanding. This dynamic process occurs both organically and intentionally through lived experiences and reflection. Education in the research process is resilience building,by creating awareness, supporting co-production of knowledge, and encouraging integration of community-driven, evidence-based practices . The dimension of education is central to collaborative research processes, as a way to effectively communicate and address needs, world views, and priorities of multiple stakeholders. In order to address my own knowledge gaps of the region, and community needs, it was imperative to interact with community members and educate myself before the research process began. I addressed my lack of practical knowledge of landscape, day-to-day challenges in Hutsulshchyna, and current institutional culture with a three-pronged approach: 1) reading and attending lectures and conferences, 2) extending my immediate network of people to include a variety of voices, and 3) living in the region. Firstly, I attended lectures, gatherings, and conferences sponsored by the Ukrainian National Forestry University, Hutsulshchyna National Nature Park and WWF-Ukraine. These opportunities allowed me to meet people and ask questions regarding specific environmental threats and policy needs and to gain a broad perspective on the institutional work being done in Ukraine. On a local level, I gathered books on history, forestry, and ecology and spent ample time at the Kryvorivnia village library with the head librarian, Katya. Additionally, I befriended a Peace Corps volunteer, Jesus Segovia, who had already spent two years as an educator in the Carpathian Mountain region, who provided great support and extended his network to me. Lastly, I addressed my lack of understanding of day-to-day challenges for Hutsul community members by engaging with community members every day while living in various villages with community members over the course of the year. Educating myself, reaching out to people, and actively listening to others was key to beginning the collaborative process with community members, in a culturally relevant way . One of the main cultural shifts that occurred during my fieldwork season was the broadening in my understanding in how time is experienced and perceived. Within the field of anthropology, culture is noted as the learned foundation of collective and individual assumptions, beliefs, values, priorities, and behaviors within a population over time . Cultural world views are the foundations of values, beliefs, and assumptions that guide our everyday behavior. Much of this is unnoticed unless we stumble upon a situation that interjects or presents another worldview in contrast to our own worldview. I encountered many of these insightful interjections in my fieldwork experience and they were central to how I approached my research process.