Abstract. Indigenous groups offer alternative knowledge and perspectives based ontheir own locally developed practices of resource use. We surveyed the international literature to focus on the role of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in monitoring, respondingto, and managing ecosystem processes and functions, with special attention to ecologicalresilience. Case studies revealed that there exists a diversity of local or traditional practicesfor ecosystem management. These include multiple species management, resource rotation,succession management, landscape patchiness management, and other ways of respondingto and managing pulses and ecological surprises. Social mechanisms behind these traditionalpractices include a number of adaptations for the generation, accumulation, and transmissionof knowledge; the use of local institutions to provide leaders/stewards and rules for socialregulation; mechanisms for cultural internalization of traditional practices; and the development of appropriate world views and cultural values. Some traditional knowledge andmanagement systems were characterized by the use of local ecological knowledge to interpret and respond to feedbacks from the environment to guide the direction of resourcemanagement. These traditional systems had certain similarities to adaptive managementwith its emphasis on feedback learning, and its treatment of uncertainty and unpredictabilityintrinsic to all ecosystems.