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Ecological knowledge and sustainable planning in Nigeria: a reflection on the Yorubas of South-Western Nigeria
Abstract
In pre-colonial times, African people survived by acquiring and preserving community knowledge of the environment and the relationships between human and non-human elements. The paper is based primarily on secondary data, and examines the relationships between African people, especially Yoruba people of southwestern Nigeria and the land and how understanding this relationship can help our quest for a more effective and sustainable regional planning. The study investigates the indigenous Yoruba Ecological Thoughts and Beliefs and how these affected the ways people have interacted with the environment. The result shows that there is a lot that modern planning can gain from the culture-environmental relationships of the indigenous people.
Indigenous knowledge is the cornerstone of several convergent trends in social science thinking and development administration practice. With the failure of grand theories of development, social sciences focus on middle-range theories that are site – and time-specific (indigenous knowledge). Both traditional knowledge and modern science and technology should be complementary in the development process and should be properly integrated. People are the subject of development. Development is supposed to suit the people and not the people to suit development. If Africa does not learn this lesson now, all our efforts at the development will be in vain, because Africa is ultimately only as strong as its communities are.
... Furthermore, traditional resource management (TRM) refers to managing environmental uncertainty to optimize sustainable resource extraction [10]. The TEK and TRM practices help better manage ecosystem services and understand socio ecological and adaptive management systems [11]. Nonetheless, studies conducted recently mainly focus on rice productivity and surrounding watershed issues rather than sustainability issues. ...
Despite the fact that rice was only recently brought to Ethiopia, the Ethiopian government has dubbed it the “millennium crop” because of its importance as a food security crop, as well as a source of revenue and job possibilities. Rice production is being practiced on wetland areas and floodplains; however, no attention has been given to the sustainability of these wetlands, or to the integration of different previous indigenous activities, such as livestock rearing and farming of different crops in the area. This study aims to investigate the impact of rice expansion on traditional wetland management in the Fogera floodplain wetlands of the Lake Tana basin. Data were generated via interviews and the application of GIS and remote sensing. The survey questionnaire was administered to 385 rice-producing farmers. The respondents (87%) confirmed that increases in the price of rice encouraged them to shift from the cultivation of conventional crops to rice farming. Subsequently, between the years 1973 and 2014, wetland areas have been reduced from 3114 ha to 1060 ha, accompanied by a high rate of expansion in rice production in the area. Major activities being pursued in the wetlands of the study area do not consider environmental impacts. As a result, the diverse ecosystem services available in the past have been compromised through time. Sense of ownership of wetland resources and their benefit shall be communicated to reduce abusive utilization. Therefore, the policies, strategies, and development activities implementation need to consider environmental issues in rice production enhancement endeavors.
Researchers have developed several indices to estimate the significance of plant species for humans. We build on previous methods in ethnobotany and anthropology to develop a new way to value plant species along three dimensions: cultural, practical, and economic. We used interview and observational data on the use of wild plants by the Tsimane’, a foraging-horticultural society in the Bolivian Amazon. We calculated the cultural, practical, economic, and total values of 114 plant species from 46 families. We found a low correlation between the practical and the cultural values of species: some species rarely used were frequently mentioned in interviews, whereas some species frequently used were rarely mentioned in interviews. Indices of cultural, practical, and economic value measure different dimensions of the importance of plant species to society. The combination of the three indices offers a more comprehensive valuation of the significance of plants for humans than the use of only one index.
The study throws light on the challenges and complexities in the protection and promotion of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in a semi-arid tropical forest area of South India. The community perception was used to examine the TEK patterns, drivers of change, and the components and interrelations of human well-being. Appropriate data was collected through semi-structured, open-ended questionnaire method and focus group discussions in eight villages. The study revealed that the TEK is playing a vital role in the livelihoods of local people in the study area. Regrettably, the present trend of drivers such as modernization, policy interventions, threat from invasive species, migration and occupation change, had a greater impact on TEK and pertinent traditional practices than ever before. An evaluation of the connections between TEK and components of human well-being showed that both the change in TEK and the drivers of change, affects six basic needs of human well-being of the local communities. The study has developed a conceptual framework, which will help to detect and minimize the drivers of change in TEK. The study outcome also helps policy makers and forest functionaries to manage the forest in sustainable manner by incorporating TEK.
The current study aims to explore the local community knowledge on the uses of Wild Edible Plants (WEPs) and assess their aid to the food security; dietry diversity and revenue of households in Malai Madeshawara (MM) Hills reserve forest. A comprehensive inventory of ethno-botanical knowledge of the forest dependent communities in MM Hills Reserve Forest has been documented. Data were composed through: (1) A survey of 120 households aimlessly chosen from a total of 355 households in four villages. (2) Focus group discussion and personal observations. Ninety-two plant species were found to be used as source of supplementary food, medicine and beverages. Fourteen of the WEPs were collected by 95% of the households. WEPs are as important as farm produce in the annual food supply. Eighty-nine of the WEPswere collected only for their own consumption. Of the ninety two WEPs, 58 species (62%) are collected from the forest and the remaining is found as weed in agricultural lands. Commuity discerns that use of WEPs is declining due to the intervention of social and food security schemes, driven dietry shift and lifestyle change. The results revealed that WEPs are of high importance to the local commuities in terms of food security, dietry diversity and cultural identity. The findings suggest further investigation of nutritional profiles, cultural values and conservational study of the reported wild edible plant species.
Disasters and environmental degradation create serious problems all around the world. They are inherently linked, but little attention is paid to their interaction, particularly at local levels. The degree of integration of disaster management and risk analysis with environmental management programs in relation to human vulnerability has been examined in Thua Thien Hue Province, Central Viet Nam. Unsustainable agricultural practices, and inappropriate development programs have contributed substantially to the increase of disaster risks. On the other hand, disasters damage natural resources and reduce environmental quality, indirectly contributing to increasing poverty which in turn, adds to the vulnerability of both natural and human systems, so further increasing disaster losses. Notwithstanding, in Viet Nam, there is a big gap between disaster and environment management policies and programs. In order to bridge the gap, an integrated approach in which environment-disaster linkage, rural–urban linkage, and poverty are brought into focus as core aspects of disaster management.
"Diversified uses of natural resources are an essential for household survival in high risk environments. We have earlier argued (Gupta 1990) that portfolio of activities which so evolves in an eco specific manner includes a combination of apparently rational and not so rational strategies of livelihood. Portfolio of activities is based on resources governed by different property right regimes on one hand and ethical and cultural norms on the other. In this paper I argue that institutions for natural resource management are a part of evolutionary cultural, religious and social experience of any community. While it is inevitable that conflicts in the access to resources or their utilization emerge from time to time. These conflicts need not erode completely the network of common property knowledge systems. The conflicts and convergence may simultaneously take place along different planes and levels of consciousness. One cannot analyze resource management institutions without understanding the conceptualization of nature and repertoire of responses that a community evolves to adjust with changes in the natural phenomena. "The incidence of drought in dry regions, hailstorm or landslides in hill areas, occurrence of plant, animal or human diseases particularly the ones which are contagious (and call for collective quarantine) and any other natural calamity creates stress on the social institutions. Folk literature including riddles, songs, proverbs, adages, stories, theater and jokes provide mechanisms for internalizing certain values which in their explicit form are either difficult to imbibe or to sustain. In our anxiety to look for rules and related order we may miss the creativity that underlies the experimental and innovative mind of peasants and pastoralists in these regions." "I present in part one a framework for looking at boundaries of beliefs, eco-sociological context and institutional images for natural resource management. In part two I present instances which illustrate the creative aspect of people's indigenous eco sociological knowledge systems (IEKS). In part three, I deal with the lessons for institution building requiring incorporation of indigenous knowledge as a building block of modern institutions. Finally issues for further research are identified."
This paper takes a critical look at the project of "integrating" traditional knowledge and science. The project of integration has been and continues to be the cornerstone of efforts to involve northern aboriginal peoples in processes of resource management and environmental impact assessment over the past 15 years. The idea of integration, however, contains the implicit assumption that the cultural beliefs and practices referred to as "traditional knowledge" conform to western conceptions about "knowledge." It takes for granted existing power relations between aboriginal people and the state by assuming that traditional knowledge is simply a new form of "data" to be incorporated into existing management bureaucracies and acted upon by scientists and resource managers. As a result, aboriginal people have been forced to express themselves in ways that conform to the institutions and practices of state management rather than to their own beliefs, values, and practices. And, since it is scientists and resource managers, rather than aboriginal hunters and trappers, who will be using this new "integrated" knowledge, the project of integration actually serves to concentrate power in administrative centers, rather than in the hands of aboriginal people.
There is growing recognition of the importance of indigenous peoples' knowledge in ensuring the ecological and socio-economic sustainability of natural resources. This paper will focus on the problems associated with attempting to integrate indigenous peoples' knowledge into dominant State management systems. Within the context of Canadian resource management, these problems with 'integration' are in part a product of how traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) is understood by researchers who attempt to collect and subsequently use this knowledge. Problems with how TEK is conceptualized include: 1) TEK research does not represent all components of indigenous knowledge; 2) TEK is understood as mere 'data' which is at risk of being 'lost'; and 3) TEK is only considered relevant when validated by Western science. As a result of these factors, there are also critical problems that arise when researchers attempt to integrate TEK into Western resource management. For example, there are problems with: 1) how TEK is collected and represented; 2) attempts to harmonize disparate worldviews and incompatible notions; and 3) how TEK is incorporated into an unchanged Western resource management system. This paper concludes that there is a much greater potential to meaningfully incorporate indigenous knowledge into sustainable resource management when TEK holders have direct involvement in management processes through community-based, adaptive resource decision-making institutions.
Indigenous knowledge (IK), experienced in development, is a product of a set of institutions often external to where they are located. The results of the use of IK in sustainable development are another example of capitalism's capacity to configure development according to its own imperatives. Rather than being an instrument of sustainable development, IK has become a means through which the diversity of knowledge systems and the embedded cultures in which they exist are disciplined and managed according to capital's need to expand. The collaborative role played by the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in this process is obscured by their use of the seductive language of empowerment of marginalized social groups. NGOs' interventions run counter to the interests of the people they claim to serve. The challenge to work towards an alternative institutional environment that could liberate the use of IK from being determined by the ideology and institutions of capitalism.
A partir de sa collaboration dans des recherches sur les strategies de production des agriculteurs et pecheurs pauvres en zone inodee du Bangladesh, recherches financees par le Departement pour le Developpement Internationale (DFID) du gouvernement britannique, l'A. discute des problemes methodologiques pour la prise en compte des connaissances indigenes dans des projets de developpement. Mettant en evidence la necessite de depasser une conception purement technique des savoirs indigenes, conception caracteristique des modeles des sciences naturelles, il montre notamment comment les projets de developpement mis en oeuvre au Bangladesh se sont inscrits dans une approche participative visant a renforcer l'autonomie et la capacite des populations pauvres (empowerment) tout en facilitant les transferts de technologie.
The benefits of indigenous knowledge within disaster risk reduction are gradually being acknowledged and identified. However, despite this acknowledgement there continues to be a gap in reaching the right people with the correct strategies for disaster risk reduction.This paper identifies the need for a specific framework identifying how indigenous and western knowledge may be combined to mitigate against the intrinsic effects of environmental processes and therefore reduce the vulnerability of rural indigenous communities in small island developing states (SIDS) to environmental hazards. This involves a review of the impacts of environmental processes and their intrinsic effects upon rural indigenous communities in SIDS and how indigenous knowledge has contributed to their coping capacity. The paper concludes that the vulnerability of indigenous communities in SIDS to environmental hazards can only be addressed through the utilisation of both indigenous and Western knowledge in a culturally compatible and sustainable manner.
The widespread adoption of bottom‐up participation as opposed to top‐down modernisation approaches has opened up challenging opportunities for anthropology in development. The new focus on indigenous knowledge augurs the next revolution in anthropological method, informants becoming collaborators and their communities participating user‐groups, and touches upon such contemporary issues as the crisis of representation, ethnography's status with regard to intellectual property rights, and interdisciplinary cooperation between natural and social scientists. Indigenous‐knowledge studies are challenging not only because of difficulties in cross‐cultural communication and understanding but also because of their inevitable political dimensions. Contributing to development which intervenes in people's lives, these studies engage with them in novel ways.
This book examines the relationship, or more often lack of relationship, between the knowledge systems held by societies undergoing change, and the process of development i.e. induced change. The principal geographical focus is on inter-tropical Africa with a lesser focus on Latin America. Sectorally the book concerns itself mainly with agriculture and livestock production systems with a few studies of education and medicine. The work falls into three main components: a series of case studies, an assessment of techniques and approaches and, finally, an evaluation of general and theoretical issues. There is an annotated bibliography. The main thrust of the argument is that the conventional 'development' approach either disregards traditional knowledge systems (taxonomies, classifications, modes of evaluation etc) or regards it as irrelevant, primitive or inadequate. -Randall Baker
The links between climate issues and sustainable development are manifold. Given these interconnections, the lack of close integration of the sustainable development and climate change literatures is puzzling; part of the reason for this lack of connectivity may be the very different research and policy traditions out of which each field developed. This paper argues that integrating climate change and sustainable development approaches, concepts and methods may have some important benefits. To demonstrate this point, we briefly discuss recent developments in both the climate change and sustainable development fields and then turn to the question of how to integrate them. The analysis suggests several conclusions of possible relevance to climate change and sustainable development research, including the need for an approach to scenario analysis that integrates across all aspects of climate change and sustainable development research, and the critical importance of alternative development paths and the assumptions about the reference case or baseline that underlie any analysis.
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State of the World's Forests. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
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FAO (2014). State of the World's Forests. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome.
Available at: http://www.fao.org/3/a-i3710e.pdf
Traditional Knowledge
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Traditional Knowledge and the Convention on Biological Diversity
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Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems
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