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Despite its well-known role in food security, ethno-culture also provides essential ecosystem services for sustainable living especially in small island communities. This paper is based on a review of articles on social-ecological approaches in an effort to build principles concerning food security as an eco-tone between traditional and modern science knowledge. The review reveals that local communities have comprehensive ethno-cultures of food security management in the form of cumulative deposits of knowledge, experiences, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings and religions. Unfortunately, modern life is greatly influenced by western science that tends to marginalize ethno-culture as the heritage of the past and it is therefore often neglected. While destruction of local food management systems due to globalization and modernization is not only endangering food selfsufficiency, it may also cause negative risks to the balance of ecological, economic and social ecosystem services. It is suggested here that the term eco-tone can be used to develop a western science conceptual base for bridging a wide gap between ethno-culture and modern science through local food eco-literacy. As a transition area, an eco-tone is not purely the sum of both knowledge, but is really a new social-ecological approach and partnership in social learning. It can be constructed by using principles of conservation (save it, study it and use it) and sustainable living (interdependency, energy flow, ecological cycles, partnership, flexibility, sustainability, co-evolution and diversity). Education programs in eco-literacy are an excellent starting point for bridging local and western knowledge systems.

Despite its well-known role in food security, ethno-culture also provides essential ecosystem services for sustainable living especially in small island communities. This paper is based on a review of articles on social-ecological approaches in an effort to build principles concerning food security as an eco-tone between traditional and modern science knowledge. The review reveals that local communities have comprehensive ethno-cultures of food security management in the form of cumulative deposits of knowledge, experiences, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings and religions. Unfortunately, modern life is greatly influenced by western science that tends to marginalize ethno-culture as the heritage of the past and it is therefore often neglected. While destruction of local food management systems due to globalization and modernization is not only endangering food selfsufficiency, it may also cause negative risks to the balance of ecological, economic and social ecosystem services. It is suggested here that the term eco-tone can be used to develop a western science conceptual base for bridging a wide gap between ethno-culture and modern science through local food eco-literacy. As a transition area, an eco-tone is not purely the sum of both knowledge, but is really a new social-ecological approach and partnership in social learning. It can be constructed by using principles of conservation (save it, study it and use it) and sustainable living (interdependency, energy flow, ecological cycles, partnership, flexibility, sustainability, co-evolution and diversity). Education programs in eco-literacy are an excellent starting point for bridging local and western knowledge systems.