Indigenous Environmental Knowledge Research Articles

Becoming octopus: Indigenous ways of knowing and green leadership

On 30 June 2014 we (a small group of academic women) opened our first Green Leadership School, an experiment in decolonising the classroom, exploring indigenous environmental knowledge, and creating a space of healing and love. This paper documents the process of healing and rejuvenating the lives of activists, government officials, trade unionists, and university students. Similar to the concept of Deleuze and Guattari’s (2004) “becoming animal” and “becoming wolf”, we represented the school as “becoming octopus” – a creature with green blood (becoming green), the highest brain-to-body ratio of any invertebrate, many slithering arms to twist and escape oppression and slide away from toxic spaces, and three hearts for the three-hearted practices of love, bodily integration, and mind-spirit awareness. Therefore, the pedagogical experiment focused on transmutation – connecting with the environment through merging human with animal, ritual and magic, gardening, yoga, storytelling, music, and art alongside more conventional lectures such as understanding climate change through South African vernaculars, ‘land grabs’ in Africa, pollution in South Durban, and environmental communication. Damaged by apartheid and post-apartheid wounds and worldwide ruptures in the socius – the participants experienced psychic healing. This paper discusses the role of joyful pedagogies in decolonising education.

Indigenous Education System and Environmental Conservation Initiatives for Sustainable Development: Experiences from Nyamwezi in Uyui District, Tanzania

For centuries, African communities in their localities have co-existed with their natural environment in a harmonious manner leading to sustainability of both, the humans and the natural resources base. This co-existence is enabled by what is referred to as the indigenous environmental knowledge system. Indigenous knowledge has always been transferred from one generation to the next through norms, stories and cultural practices. This paper explores Indigenous Education systems and their implications to the conservation practices of the environment in Uyui district in Tabora region. The paper dwells on both primary and secondary data to provide insights on how Indigenous Education Systems embedded with traditional, initiation and local religious affiliation, have been used since time immemorial as one of the indirect initiatives of preserving, protecting and managing natural catchment forests. Random, Snowball and purposive sampling techniques were used to get a total of 120 respondents for this study. The study revealed that local communities in Uyui district have their system of knowledge affiliated with traditions, rituals and taboos which have been used to protect environmental and natural resources since the pre-colonial era up to the post-colonial epoch in Tanzania. The majority of respondents argue that the indigenous knowledge system was practical in protecting the natural resources in the local areas as it was embedded in the taboos, traditional rituals and religious beliefs. Failure or abandonment of the indigenous traditions has led to mismanagement of forest resources and other natural resources. The paper recommends both local and central government incorporate Indigenous knowledge and experiences in their endeavors of protecting and preserving the Environment in Uyui district in Tabora region for sake of sustainable development in Tanzania.

A social-cognitive model of climate change behavioral adaption in Tonga: Relationships among indigenous knowledge, social media use, norms, values, and spiritual beliefs

This study develops a social-cognitive model of climate change behavioral intention in the Kingdom of Tonga in the South Pacific. Tonga ranks as the third most vulnerable nation in the world to climate change. Warming ocean temperatures due to climate change are intensifying the destructive potential of cyclones, adversely impacting marine ecosystems, and raising sea level which threatens low lying islands and coastal communities. The model considers the relationships among indigenous knowledge, climate change knowledge, social media use, social norms, values, and spiritual beliefs concerning protecting the environment with climate change behavioral intention. The participants represent a community sample of 335 people (183 women, 152 men; age: M = 37, SD = 14) on the island of Tongatapu who completed surveys assessing the constructs. Structural equation modeling shows four pathways to climate change behavioral intentions. In the first pathway, indigenous environmental knowledge, social norms, values, and spiritual beliefs each were associated with climate change knowledge, and climate change knowledge was associated with climate change behavioral intentions. The second, third, and fourth pathways show social media, values, and social norms were each directly associated with behavioral change intentions. The findings support and extend a psychological model of climate change behavioral adaptation. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Integrating indigenous environmental and scientific knowledge for ecosystem-based adaptation of Muro Practices on Lembata Island

Previous studies argued that indigenous environmental knowledge was only part of local wisdom and tended to pay attention to the threat of its extinction. Indigenous environmental knowledge has not yet received recognition as an alternative perspective in dealing with the complexities of environmental management and climate change, along with the dominance of the western paradigm and current knowledge systems. This study aims to assemble the indigenous environmental knowledge systems of fisheries from communities along the coast of Lembata Island to assist in the conservation of marine ecosystems. Desk studies were used for information gathering, and the results were analyzed within the Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) framework. Our results indicate that local communities in Lembata island have Muro as a temporary closure measure to manage coastal resources initiated by indigenous people that are valuable for the local people and simultaneously benefit the coastal ecosystem, including biodiversity. The results have implications for considering indigenous environmental knowledge to maintain the balance and continuity of coastal ecosystems and the main foundation in natural resource management.

Regional environmental governance of protected natural territories in the European North: Russia, Finland, and Norway, and the case of Pasvik-Inari Trilateral Park

This article explores how international organizations (IOs), national governments, and regional actors interact in the field of nature conservation in the European Arctic, focusing on Russia. I also reveal the unequal role of Indigenous communities, which are stakeholders in protected nature territories in the Arctic but receive limited attention in research.I present the case of the Pasvik-Inari Trilateral Park, which in 2008 received Europarc Certification as a result of long-term international cooperation dating back to the 1990s. The park consists of five protected natural areas: three in Norway, one in Russia and one in Finland. The areas have different organizational forms and restrictions on human activities, and the efforts of IOs such as the Europarc Federation to increase cooperation and coordination among them in conservation projects, research initiatives, and international travel for tourists, have had only partial success.I apply insights from regional analysis to discuss how governance at international, national, and local levels shape the practices and ideas of nature conservation in the different parts of Pasvik-Inari. The article also addresses the role of Indigenous environmental knowledge and nature use in protected natural territories in the Arctic. The paper contributes to the special issue on regional environmental governance by expanding the regional focus toward Russia and by stressing the significant relations between Indigenous communities and nature that should be taken into consideration in Arctic environmental governance.

Sengwer Indigenous Environmental Knowledge and the Management of Cherang'any Forest Resources, Elgeyo-marakwet County, Kenya

Globally, forests supply important environmental benefits within and across ecosystem boundaries and despite institutional management, forest ecosystems are subjected to land-use changes which diminish their role. In Kenya, the current institutional management instruments are largely in place but there is a continuous reduction of forest cover presently estimated at 5.7% of the national land area as opposed to the desired > 10.0%. The integration of indigenous ecological knowledge into forest management may provide a much-needed bridge between indigenous communities and institutional understanding of sustainable forest management. Thus, the study examined the role of IEK in the management of forest among the Sengwer community living next to the Cherang’any forest, Elgeiyo-Marakwet County, Kenya. The study targeted older community members who were purposely sampled as key informants. The study used focus group discussion as the main instruments for data collections and thus qualitative analysis was more appropriate. The output was presented in thematic format. The study established that the Sengwer indigenous forest management techniques are compatible with institutional techniques applied in the management of the forest to the extent that institutionalized methods are more pervasive in the management of the forest. Based on the discussions, the study concluded that the indigenous conservation practices need to be formalized and integrated with the modern forest management practices. IEK can be included in the sustainable conservation of forests if the socio-economic status of the community is improved through economic empowerment. Further, the study recommends that Kenya’s Forest Conservation and Management Act of 2016 provides a basis for the integration of IEK into modern forest management techniques.

Weather Magic as Environmental Knowledge in Southern Vanuatu

This paper presents weather magic practices from the islands of Tanna and Aneityum, in southern Vanuatu, and highlights how this phenomenon is a critical domain of Indigenous environmental knowledge, particularly knowledge involving plants. Recent literature suggests that diverse cultural systems, such as music, can be viewed as domains of environmental knowledge, and we propose that magical systems should be afforded the same recognition. Although anthropological work in Melanesia has historically featured various magical practices, relatively little has been said about how these have been used to influence or understand the weather, and even less has been presented directly by Indigenous weather magic practitioners, who are co-authors on this paper. In this contribution, we intersperse anthropological and ethnobotanical commentary with verbatim narratives provided by three local experts in weather magic from southern Vanuatu, including oral histories, contemporary narratives, and the results of ethnobotanical surveys. The detailed knowledge that weather magic practitioners on these islands hold regarding their local environment represents an important means of transmitting not only cultural heritage, but also botanical knowledge, the maintenance of which may be critical for current and future conservation efforts. This research documents rich cultural traditions of local and global significance which are worthy of the attention and preservation afforded to other forms of Indigenous environmental knowledge. The goals of magic and those of science are not necessarily inherently opposed, and we show that magical practice can indeed involve and even preserve a detailed and powerful mode of knowing the environment.

A Comprehensive Strategy for Popularization of the Documented Farmer Innovations and Re-Inventions

Farmer innovations and re-inventions is a subject that is increasingly making people sit up and think. At the very least it underpins a refreshing new approach to indigenous environmental knowledge that goes further than just passive admiration. At the most it is a potentially important new direction for research and extension wherever else the conventional approaches have failed to deliver. To highlight the value of this rich resource and to develop mechanisms for local innovations and re-inventions to find their way into the formal research and development system, documentation of farmer innovations and re-inventions is necessary to give the real picture of its wealth. Scientific enquiry into the documented practices would make it to a status of formal knowledge base and studying extent of adoption of these practices by the farmers will give the real picture of farmers innovations and re-inventions. Finding out the various constraints and analysis of the innovation development process will fetch a base to develop a comprehensive strategy which can be utilized by scientists, extentionists and user system. In this study 216 farmer innovations and re-inventions were identified in different farming situations of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states through informal interview with innovative farmers who were identified for the purpose of giving information on farmer innovations and re-inventions in the selected 3 districts and also from non sample area through secondary sources. Based on the various constraints faced and suggestion given by the innovative farmers a comprehensive strategy was developed which includes identification of farmer innovators, recognition of farmer innovators, documentation of farmer innovations and re-inventions, testing of farmer innovations and re-inventions for scientific rationality and validity, commercialisation of the innovations and re-inventions, networking of farmer innovators, providing farmer innovation support fund, monitoring and evaluation of the farmer innovator network groups, farmer innovator to farmer innovator cross visits and popularisation of farmer innovations and re-inventions. Strategy suggested in the study will help different agencies in promotion of farmer innovations and re-inventions and gives a brief comprehension and hence, it can be effectively utilised in promotion of these technologies through different agencies.

Climate Change Adaptation in The Gambia: The Role of Kanyeleng Communication and Performance

AbstractTraditional communicators known as kanyeleng have increasingly taken on roles in climate change adaptation in The Gambia. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted from 2018 to 2019, McConnell and Jallow show that kanyeleng performers contribute to disseminating information about climate change adaptation while also creating the social conditions necessary for citizens to hear and respond effectively to that information. Understandings of climate change in The Gambia intersect with broader concerns about loss of traditional and religious values. Through their performances, kanyeleng work as mediators to resolve tensions associated with climate change adaptation and integrate Indigenous environmental knowledge and climate science.

The Politics of Indigenous Environmental Knowledge in Vietnam

The Politics of Indigenous Environmental Knowledge in Vietnam

SCARRED TREES AND BECOMING-WITNESS

What happens when the landscape looks back? How is it that the landscape sees? This essay goes in search of material-semiotic signs of Australian Indigenous Country, overlooked and actively unseen through the history and enduring violence of European invasion. Whether in the form of eel traps, fishing weirs, remnants of stone huts, scarred trees, or else discovered in the notebook sketches of early explorers who wondered at the park-like composition of the landscape they were newly encountering, such evidence offers testimony to an Indigenous environmental knowledge we are in great need of today, grappling as we are with the concatenating effects of the climate crisis. The acknowledgement of sites of Indigenous significance across Australia, often threatened by mining interests and infrastructural projects, is discussed here in relation to the cultural and ritual artefact that is the scarred tree. This article explores the entangled act of witnessing via the more-than-human becomings of the landscape, or what Indigenous custodians call “Country,” and through the protean figure of the becoming-witness. Drawing on the theories of feminist ethnographers and philosophers while paying crucial heed to the voices of Indigenous scholars, I situate myself as a non-Indigenous scholar between the fields of architecture and philosophy. Venturing into the deceptively mundane suburban hinterlands of Melbourne, Australia in search of scarred trees, I attempt to broach a careful dialogue between Indigenous and non-Indigenous modes of what Deborah Bird Rose and Thom van Dooren call “Storying” as a process of learning with Country.

Routledge Handbook of Critical Indigenous Studies. Brendan Hokowhitu, Aileen Moreton-Robinson, Linda Tuhiwai-Smith, Chris Andersen, and Steve Larkin, eds. Milton Park, UK: Routledge, 2020. 632p, 32 B/W illustrations. $250.00 (ISBN 978-1138341302).

For better or worse, Routledge has a long history of publishing content on Indigenous peoples and has recently published handbooks on Indigenous people’s rights, Indigenous peoples of the Arctic, Indigenous environmental knowledge, and, most recently, Indigenous well-being. The Routledge Handbook of Critical Indigenous Studies was published in late 2020; it asserts that it is “ambitious in scope, ranging across disciplines and national boundaries, with particular reference to the lived conditions of Indigenous peoples in the first world.”

No gods, no masters: Indigenous environmental knowledge in Mississippian art

ABSTRACT Mississippian and Woodland art and iconography is often interpreted as representing supernatural subject matter within a three-tiered cosmos. This approach, what I call the mythological-structural model, has been highly generative. However, it also reproduces assumptions rooted in a social evolutionary definition of religion as essentially “mistaken beliefs,” such that ancestral Southeastern Native American art is reduced to representations of realms and beings in excess of nature. This misconstrues Indigenous realities, including the Upper, Middle, and Lower Worlds. Building on scholarship in Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) and the ontological turn, I propose an alternative interpretive model of Indigenous environmental knowledge. I draw on community-based research with members of Pvlvcekolv, a Native American community in the US South claiming Muskogee identity, to interpret three examples of Mississippian art—the so-called “birdmen/women,” the Birger figurine, and the Willoughby Disk. These interpretations foreground the significance of environmental relationships and Indigenous philosophical traditions about the nature of life, the body, and difference that are not easily reduced to “supernatural beliefs.” An Indigenous ecological knowledge-informed framework provides a new path into the study of spirituality and political life that privileges living Indigenous perspectives and deeper dialogues with NAIS in archaeology.

Transforming REDD+ for Indigenous rights in Costa Rica

ABSTRACT : Financing the conservation of critical global carbon sinks in developing countries has been an ongoing focus in global climate change mitigation talks, with the development of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) strategy through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The importance of returning land tenure of these forests to Indigenous People is also recognised as a crucial component of forest conservation as well as fulfilment of Indigenous Rights, as outlined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). However, denunciations of REDD+ by Indigenous rights activists justify concern over transparency and accountability for governments claiming to effectively uphold Indigenous rights throughout the negotiation of their national REDD+ strategies. This case study of the KéköLdi Indigenous Territory of Costa Rica yields essential decolonial transformations for the Costa Rican National REDD+ strategy in order to support ten specific articles of the UNDRIP. These decolonial Indigenous proposals hold the Costa Rican government accountable to its legal commitments to its Indigenous People as well as recognise and respect the robustness of Indigenous environmental knowledge and cultural conservation practices. These decolonial approaches could be applied in other countries that are developing their own national REDD+ strategies while fulfilling their commitment to Indigenous rights.

Interface between Food Security and Human Health

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Food is as old as humans and is so important to the existence and sustenance of humans and other living organisms that God created food before He created the eaters. There is a subtle interplay between food security and health, this nexus interplays from availability and assess to food, to healthy lifestyle. The paper focused on connection between food security and health with the view to identifying causes of food insecurity, its effects on health and the use of Moringa Oleifera and Chanca Piedra to solve the identified health challenges. METHODS: The respondents for this study were purposively selected within Bida, Nigeria. 50 respondents were randomly sampled for interview and questionnaire administration after using the two medicinal plants to improve nutrient level and ease discomforts like headaches, diabetes, kwashiorkor and menstrual pain. The research design used is Worldview approach, which is considered suitable for situation-specific agreements in the use of cultural information, when delineating between indigenous and academic requirements. The paper incorporates Indigenous Environmental Knowledge (IEK) to ensure more people benefit from community knowledge on flora uses that differ from the academic perception. RESULTS:The study revealed an improvement in users’ health after administering the herbs. It also revealed that 78% of respondents attested to using Moringa for nutrient deficiency cases, with 4g dose, morning and evening for three months, however, 22% of respondents claimed it was not applicable to them. The study further revealed that 70% and 20% of respondents used Moringa and Chanca respectively at 5g dose morning and evening for twenty -four hours to relief migraine. CONCLUSIONS:The study recommended active citizen participation in planting Moringa and Chanca in individual homes, empty urban spaces as organised neighbourhood medicinal gardens under community self-help projects to enhance food security, improve the urbanscape, and advance the public planning issue. KEYWORDS: Chanca Piedra, Food security, Health, Moringa Oleifera, Public Planning

Decolonising the environment through African epistemologies

This paper examines African epistemologies of the environment as a place-based perspective that regards nature as having its inherent value, personhood, and agency. It presents the African way of relating with or living in the environment as a way of becoming one with nature beyond the discourse of the Anthropocene and environmental change. In particular, we will take African epistemological perspectives from Southern and Eastern Africa, the notions of Ubuntu and Tabot, to reflect on how the environment is traditionally perceived as sacred and part of a living community. The paper also considers how African indigenous ways of knowing and becoming one with nature have been supplanted through epistemic violence, the imposition of western views of the environment over African worldviews through systems and institutions that exclude or exploit local knowledges. Using Ethiopia as a case study, the paper demonstrates how epistemic violence is enacted by excluding indigenous knowledges of the environment from education and disseminating Eurocentric views of the environment. It shall show how the collecting and hording of Ethiopian manuscripts in western institutions has contributed to this loss of indigenous environmental knowledge. Finally, we will examine the importance of African perspectives to decolonise our ways of knowing and relating with the environment, and offer critical insights on how African epistemologies could be used to build a future that is decolonised and sustainable.

Decoding Environmental Politics: Industrialization, Indigenous Rights and Resistance Movements in India

Purpose of the study: To critically examine global discourse of development and it’s  dismissive of indigenous environmental knowledge and role of international indigenism in  giving space for debate on environmental politics. Based on case study of anti-POSCO  movement in Odisha in India, it has tried to sort out dichotomy of openness to change in  quality of life of local communities versus role of reactionary forces restricting development. Methodology: This study is a qualitative anthropological study among the tribal and local  communities displaced in three villages by the POSCO project in Odisha. Modernisation  theory of development was critically examined through the use of both primary and  secondary data; interview, observation, Focus Group Discussion of the community, policy  makers and activists and content analysis.Main findings: In India, modernization theory of development has pushed to the debate on  the way of development “development from below” versus “development from above”. The  anti-POSCO movement in Odisha reveals politics of truth; it’s just an extension of other  popular movements and anti-development. The truth is of double edged, a confrontation of  law of land versus rights of the people, and displacement of a section of population vs.  development. Applications of this study: This paper will help create positive hypothesis that the legal  industrialization can be legalised for the sake of poverty eradication and livelihood promotion  governance. Industrialization is not hegemony of developed countries rather relevance for  economic growth and reduction of poverty to meet MDGs in underdeveloped ones. Originality of this study: The theoretical issues raised are inter-disciplinary, pure economics  of industry and economic growth, anthropology of modernization and philosophy of social  facts and truth. It has also critically correlated the socio-cultural, environmental and  agricultural basis of protest to industrialization. The methodology is fieldwork-based observation, interview and focus group discussion. Results have been analysed through  dependent and independent variables in ecological anthropology.&nbsp

Indigenous Environmental Knowledge of Borana Pastoralists

This paper investigated the indigenous environmental knowledge (IEK) of Borana pastoralists in Dhas district of Borana zone in Southern Ethiopia. To select participants for key informant interview and focus group discussion (FGD), snowball sampling was used to pinpoint people who have IEK of Borana pastoralists. Results show that the customary practices of Borana pastoralists that linked to multi-dimensional natural resources management (NRM) include the taxonomy of pastureland and water resources instituted on the season of utility and gazing dimensions, range scouts, herd splitting, cattle mobility, herd diversification, and bush burning. However, currently owing to various factors the IEKs of Borana pastoralists have been facing threatening challenges that question their existence. The study incorporated the capitalization on the customary institutions that advance the IEK and cattle productivity finally improving the livelihoods of the Borana pastoralists. This research intends to help various stakeholders, predominantly pastoralist development office, ecologists and other development partners in a bid to develop Borana pastoralists, to boost their sustainability, and to promote sustainable NRM.

Indigenous Environmental Knowledge of Borana Pastoralists

Indigenous Environmental Knowledge of Borana Pastoralists

Indigenous Environmental Justice, Knowledge, and Law

This article aims to introduce a distinct conception of Indigenous environmental justice (IEJ) based on Indigenous legal orders, knowledge systems, and conceptions of justice. This is not to suggest in any way that the existing environmental justice (EJ) scholarship is flawed; in fact, the scholarship and activism around EJ have been central in diagnosing and drawing attention to injustices that occur on a systematic basis everywhere in the world. This article argues instead that such discussions can be expanded by acknowledging that concepts of environmental justice, including distinct legal orders informed by Indigenous knowledge systems, already existed on Turtle Island for thousands of years prior to the arrival of Europeans. It also suggests that environmental justice framed within Indigenous worldviews, ontologies, and epistemologies may make significant contributions to broader EJ scholarship, particularly in relation to extending justice to other beings and entities in Creation. This approach acknowledges ongoing colonialism and emphasizes the need to decolonize in order to advance innovative approaches to IEJ.