Local ecological knowledge (LEK) can play an important role in ecological restoration by guiding landholder decision‐making towards more ecologically oriented land management. Silvopastures are a promising option for restoring ecological function to degraded landscapes because they increase tree cover and diversity, moderating the impacts of cattle production on ecological processes. Some silvopastoralists possess considerable LEK that can shape silvopastoral tree communities, but little is known about the temporal trends of this knowledge base. We followed up on a survey of workers, managers, and owners of silvopastoral farms in the Colombian Andes 6 years later and found that the ability to identify native trees and describe their uses, and interest in tree planting, were significantly lower. Importantly, the likelihood that an individual would plant a species was linked directly to the number of uses they listed for that species. Furthermore, the utility of species became more important for influencing the probability of planting native trees over time, as general interest in planting trees declined. We show that knowledge about the uses of native trees is critical for promoting cultivation of diverse tree species in silvopastoral systems, and that multipurpose trees are most likely to be planted. Moreover, our results suggest that the socio‐economic changes driving declines in ecological knowledge elsewhere, including outmigration and limited transmission of knowledge to younger generations, appear to erode LEK among Colombian silvopastoralists. Preserving LEK is therefore a critical factor for ensuring silvopastoral and other agro‐ecosystems can contribute to efforts to restore ecological integrity to degraded landscapes.

中文翻译：

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哥伦比亚安第斯山脉当地生态知识的下降可能会限制森林牧草树木的多样性

本地生态知识（LEK）通过引导土地所有者的决策朝着更加生态化的土地管理方向发展，可以在生态恢复中发挥重要作用。Silvopastures是恢复退化景观的生态功能的有前途的选择，因为它们增加了树木的覆盖率和多样性，减轻了牲畜生产对生态过程的影响。一些林牧师具有相当大的LEK，可以塑造林牧树的群落，但对该知识库的时间趋势知之甚少。六年后，我们对哥伦比亚安第斯山脉的农牧业农场的工人，管理人员和所有者进行了一项调查，发现发现原生树木并描述其用途的能力以及对植树的兴趣明显降低。重要的，个人种植某种物种的可能性与他们为该物种列出的用途数量直接相关。此外，随着人们对种植树木的普遍兴趣下降，物种的实用性对于随着时间影响种植本地树木的可能性变得越来越重要。我们表明，有关原生树用途的知识对于促进牧草系统中多种树种的栽培至关重要，而且多用途树最有可能被种植。此外，我们的结果表明，导致其他地方生态知识下降的社会经济变化，包括移民和知识向年轻一代的有限传播，似乎侵蚀了哥伦比亚林业牧民中的列克族。