We envision Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) as a living practices of the communities we partner with, to understand the ecosystems people depend on.
This approach grew out of the Lab's foundational work with traditional fishing communities at Deepor Beel, a Ramsar wetland on the edge of Guwahati. There, the Lab spent time understanding how fishing communities read seasonal water cycles, fish behaviour, and wetland health — knowledge systems built through generations of close observation — and how the community had devised a management plan ensuring sustainable fish availability for 800 families across all twelve months of the year, while actively conserving the Beel. In 2000, this community-managed wetland system was declared a Wildlife Sanctuary, and in 2002 a Ramsar Site, in recognition of the rich bird fauna it supports and its role as a wetland facilitating winter migration of birds. This work shaped how the Lab now approaches every landscape it enters: by first listening to the people who already know it best.
The Lab now carries this method into the Kamrup Khasi landscape, the Garo Hills, and the high pastures of Merak-Sakteng — supporting the ETHNO Research Programme by grounding its science in the rearing knowledge of local silk-farming households.