02 Contents Frame
Local knowledge of the environment
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40 2019 ND-CP 413905
| Local knowledge of the environment
Since the early 1980s scholars from various fields have debated the essence and value of tribal and rural people’s localized, contextual knowledge (Brokensha et al., 1980). They also fervently argued over the most appropriate adjective for describing these place- anchored knowledge systems. The terms: “local, indigenous, indigenous technical, insider, traditional, traditional ecological, and folk” have all been used. Among these terms, indigenous, traditional, and folk have been criticized as being improper due to their presumed connotations of backwardness or underdevelopment. The term local knowledge was found to lack negative social connotations and to highlight the distinction from more generalized scientific knowledge (Talawar and Rhoades 1998); it will be used throughout this document. There is growing interest at national and international levels in the role of local knowledge in sustainable agricultural and rural development (UNCED 1993; Warren et al., 1995; Farrington 1996). Local knowledge pertaining to land resources and environment is based on experience and experimentation, and provides the basis for local decision-making (Thrupp 1989). Therefore, the way local people define and classify phenomena in their environment, such as soils, is increasingly included in sustainable land management projects (Habarurema and Steiner 1997; Pretty and Shah 1997; Norton et al., 1998; WinklerPrins 1999; Gobin et al., 2000; Payton et al., 2003). Following the definition of Williams and Ortiz-Solorio (1981), the science of ethno-pedology encompasses local perceptions of soil properties and processes, local soil classification and taxonomy, local theories and explanation of soil properties and dynamics, local soil management, local perceptions of the relationships between soil and plant domains, comparison between local and technical soil science, and an assessment of the role of other behavioural realms. Reports exist of rural societies possessing a substantial knowledge of soil management that has led to long-term conservation (Sandor and Furbee 1996), maintenance of soil fertility (Niemeijer and Mazzucato 2003; Sillitoe 1998a), intensive agricultural practices such as irrigation (Kundiri et al., 1997) or even reclamation of mine land (Alexander 1996). Many examples exist of local knowledge related to other aspects of the environment, such as water-harvesting techniques (Reij et al., 1996), land use and land cover (Bronsveld et al., 1994), forest management in Nigeria (Ite 2003), Mexico (Monray- Ortiz and Monroy 2003) or Kenya (Kaudia 2003) and conservation of biodiversity, including plants of medical interest (Malaisse 2001, Ravishankar 2003). tải về 0.57 Mb. Chia sẻ với bạn bè của bạn:
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