The Ethnoecology and Biodiversity Lab serves as a venue for collaboration between natural and social scientists, locally and internationally, on research focusing on recognition, allocation, and use of natural resources.  The goal is to understand human-environment interaction in terms of the relative cognitive salience of environmental components such as plants, animals, water, and soils for different groups of people.  While Western science provides one set of perspectives and models that contribute to this understanding, those of the local people are equally valid and fundamental.  The mission of the Ethnoecology and Biodiversity Lab is to incorporate local perceptions, classifications and "objective" or "detached" scientific ones in explaining and influencing resource management practices and policies.  These practices and policies may impact on biodiversity, agricultural sustainability, and environmental conservation.