Role Of Traditional Knowledge Research Articles

The Role of Traditional Knowledge in Sustainable Development

The Role of Traditional Knowledge in Sustainable Development

The role of traditional knowledge in climate change adaptation among the Nicobarese of Central Nicobar Islands, India

The role of traditional knowledge in climate change adaptation among the Nicobarese of Central Nicobar Islands, India

From afforestation to forest landscape restoration in DPRK: Gaps and challenges

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is currently in a state of severe deforestation and forest degradation, such that it was selected a beneficiary for Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) programs run by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). This study investigates the status and gaps in the implementation of FLR actions and analyzes the key challenges to FLR implementation. To accomplish this, I visited ministries relevant to forest and landscape restoration, selected and interviewed officials and professionals, and based our research on 10 years of experiences working in DPRK. Further, I proposed a roadmap for FLR implementation. Our results indicate that there is a need for a profound shift in attitudes towards the role of local people, recognizing that local people can be the main actors and partners in forest and landscape management. The reformation of the forestry sector and policies is needed to support the transformation of local livelihoods into a forest-friendly paradigm to exit the vicious cycle of “poverty and hunger–deforestation–environmental degradation–poverty and hunger.” Future FLR policies need to focus on the decentralization of forest management, clarification of forest tenure, and improvement of multi-sectoral cooperation and multi-level collaboration. The role of traditional knowledge and customary regulations should be highlighted, and forest management needs to be integrated into socio-economic development planning and programs.

Role of traditional knowledge in the COVID-19 battle.

This article addresses the role of traditional medicine in the corona virus (COVID‐19) battle. It situates traditional medicine within the traditional knowledge and Intellectual Property discussion. The paper discusses the increased gravitation towards using traditional medicine but also identifies the existence of scepticism towards its use. Indigenous communities make up a large portion of the traditional medicine community and are therefore called upon to play their role in the fight against COVID‐19. The battle is real, the coronavirus ground is an intersecting one with multiple, plausible solutions. Traditional medicine has a role in this battle and this article advocates for collaboration. It is a clarion call for all stakeholders to join hands to fight the virus. It advocates inclusion rather than exclusion.

The Role of Traditional Knowledge in Coastal Adaptation Priorities: The Pamunkey Indian Reservation

Coastal reservations are increasingly vulnerable to hazards exacerbated by climate change. Resources for restoration projects are limited. Storm surge, storms, tidal flooding, and erosion endanger artifacts and limit livelihoods of tribes in coastal Virginia. GIS offers a platform to increase communication between scientists, planners, and indigenous groups. The Pamunkey Indian Tribe engaged in a participatory mapping exercise to assess the role of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) in coastal management decision-making and its capacity to address flooding. Priorities and strategies were spatially referenced using maps of potential sea level rise for 2040, 2060, and 2080, input into a resilience matrix to identify benchmarks for each phase of disaster resilience building, and contextualized with oral histories. Results highlight increased immediacy to protect housing and heritage sites along the shoreline as well as maintain access to the Reservation. Preferences toward structural solutions guided by and facilitating TEK options were expressed. Additional community capacities, tribal council support, federal assistance, impact assessments, and coordination would facilitate risk reduction project implementation. The screening process integrates TEK with planning and is transferable to neighboring tribes.

Beyond the material: knowledge aspects in seed commoning

Core sustainability issues concerning the governance of seeds revolve around knowledge aspects, such as intellectual property rights over genetic information or the role of traditional knowledge in plant breeding, seed production and seed use. While the importance of knowledge management for efficient and equitable seed governance has been emphasized in the scientific discourse on Seed Commons, knowledge aspects have not yet been comprehensively studied. With this paper, we aim to (i) to analyze the governance of knowledge aspects in both global and local/regional Seed Commons, (ii) to highlight disconnections in knowledge governance between the local Seed Commons and global governance of plant genetic resources, and (iii) to investigate the contribution of knowledge commoning to environmentally sustainable and culturally adapted food systems. For this purpose, we will analyze knowledge governance by the International Seed Treaty (ITPGRFA) and by two local Seed Commons, a Philippine farmer-led network and a German organic-breeding association. We take the analytical lens of commoning, focusing on social practices rather than specific resources. The main challenges include finding institutional arrangements, which fruitfully integrate aspects from both traditional and scientific knowledge systems, taking into account the complex interrelation between knowledge-related, material and cultural aspects of seeds.

The Role of Traditional Knowledge in the COVID-19 Battle

This article addresses the role of traditional medicine in the race to find a cure for the corona virus (COVID-19). It situates traditional medicine within the traditional knowledge and Intellectual Property discussion. The paper discusses the increased gravitation towards using traditional medicine but also identifies the existence of scepticism towards its use. The paper calls on the African and indigenous communities who make up a large portion of the traditional medicine community to play their role in the fight against COVID-19. The battle is real, the coronavirus ground is an intersecting one and the solution is out there, but we do not know for sure where the solution would come from and what quarters it will come from. It could be traditional medicine, medical science, or a curious combination of both. This paper advocates for collaboration, it advocates that we join hands to fight the virus. It advocates inclusion rather than exclusion.

The Role of Traditional Knowledge in Indian Management Education

This paper investigates various roles that traditional knowledge can play in Indian managerial education. As it is shown in previous studies, Indian management schools in general and Indian MBA programs in particular lead Indian prospective entrepreneurs toward different sorts of entrepreneurial activities. Although new managerial education in post-cold-war India which mostly endorses entrepreneurship are not bounded to bureaucratic and industrial capitalism, Indian management education is still largely influenced by western and particularly American management schools’ structures and syllabuses. According to such scientific management, unlike modern knowledge which is highly entrenched in rational modes of production, traditional knowledge has been confined to pre-capitalist modes of production and distribution of commodities. Still, new movements for reintegration and revival of traditional knowledge in Indian managerial education pretend that India can largely benefit from its traditional treasures for economic boosts. Thus, the conjunction point of modern managerial education and Indian traditional knowledge remains in new types of leadership as well as genuine entrepreneurial skills which are raised and developed by some of Indian managerial scholars. These novel ideas implicate the need for what is called “spiritual leadership” as well as tradition-based projects in Indian entrepreneurship. As such, I will explain in this paper, the ways by which Indian traditional knowledge can intrigue Indian managerial education in numerous ways, both in elite and popular levels.

Evaluating resilience for the management of social–ecological production landscapes and seascapes in Lefke Region of North Cyprus through adaptive comanagement

The purpose of this study is to evaluate resilience for the management of social–ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS) in Lefke Region of North Cyprus through adaptive comanagement (ACM). To this end, the following key attributes of ACM within the context of resilient landscape management were evaluated: diversity of social learning approaches, stakeholders and social networks, the role of traditional knowledge in management, effectiveness of the existing institutions for landscape conservation and management and potential policy responses for building and strengthening the landscape resilience. The method of the study comprised: development of an ACM evaluation framework for the SEPLS, exploration of the potential indicators for assessing the resilience, data collection with the semi-structured interviews and data evaluation. The collected data were evaluated based on a 1–5 Likert scale. The result of the evaluation revealed that the current governance of the SEPLS is far from being successful. The average relative value of the key attributes of the resilience for the management of the SEPLS seems to change from moderate to a very low degree. However, it is argued that the mechanism of ACM can be built particularly based on collaboration and power sharing, among the key stakeholders operating at different levels. Finally, a set of policy-oriented responses were recommended to contribute to the resilient landscape management in the region. It is expected that the results of this study can help policy makers, resource and landscape planners to establish and strengthen the resilient landscape management in Lefke Region and elsewhere.

Decolonial Gestures in Canada’s Settler State: Contemporary Indigenous Writers Jordan Abel and Leanne Simpson

This paper discusses the ways recent texts by two Indigenous Canadian writers, Jordan Abel’s collection of conceptual poetry Un/Inhabited and Leanne Simpson’s short stories and poems Islands of Decolonial Love, engage in what Walter Mignolo terms ‘decolonial gestures’ to expose the workings of contemporary settler colonialism and counter their effects. The theoretical section explains the specificities of settler colonialism that make decolonization in the sense of regaining freedom from the colonizers impossible; it then discusses the possibilities for decolonization that exist in settler countries, particularly those that refer to cultural and artistic practices. The analytical section focuses on the different strategies Abel and Simpson use in their work to enact what Mignolo calls ‘epistemic disobedience.’ Abel resorts to decolonial violence in appropriating selected texts of the genre of the Western and erasing from them to undo their loaded ideological messages. Simpson’s work, marked by explicitly confrontational rhetoric, focuses on Indigenous characters and communities, foregrounding their colonial traumas and the role of traditional knowledge and cultural practices in healing them. The paper argues that the decolonial gestures Abel and Simpson undertake work to reject the mainstream rhetoric of reconciliation, inviting Indigenous people to recognize the workings of settler colonialism and look for ways of extricating from them.

The Role of Traditional Knowledge in Building Adaptive Capacity for Climate Change: Perspectives from Vanuatu

Abstract There is increasing recognition of traditional knowledge as an important store of information and practices for building adaptive capacity for climate change in the Pacific. However, empirical research and documentation of how Pacific Islanders experience climate change, identify relevant adaptation options, and mobilize their adaptive capacity, including traditional knowledge, remains limited. Given this context, indigenous islander perspectives on traditional knowledge and its role in building their adaptive capacity are examined in this article. The author draws on research with the Nakanamanga-speaking peoples of Tongoa Island, Vanuatu. This research documents traditional knowledge relating to weather and climate observations; resource use and management; social networks; local leadership; and values and beliefs in these indigenous communities and reveals differing perspectives about its potential to enhance local adaptive capacity. It highlights indigenous concerns about self-reliance, cultural continuity, and how the transition to a cash economy, the valorization of Western education and lifestyles, and rural–urban migration have had adverse implications for traditional knowledge and its retention. It further reveals potential trade-offs for indigenous communities on Tongoa Island, where traditional governance, tenure systems, and values enable flexibility and collective action that build adaptive capacity but can also promote conservative attitudes and limit uptake of new information and practices.

Role of Traditional Knowledge in Conserving Biodiversity: A Case Study from Patal Bhuvneshwar Sacred Grove, Kumaon Himalaya, India

Role of Traditional Knowledge in Conserving Biodiversity: A Case Study from Patal Bhuvneshwar Sacred Grove, Kumaon Himalaya, India The paper deals with the inventory of sacred groves and its phytodiversity from Kumaon Himalaya. These groves are well recognized in the world in terms of biodiversity conservation. Kumaon Himalayan region comprises many sacred groves, different ethnic cultures, traditional way of conserving biota. Realizing the importance, the study was conducted in Patal Bhuvneshwar sacred grove conserved by Rawal, Bhandari and Guro local communities. This grove provide excellent micro-climatic habitat for the luxuriant growth of flowering and non-flowering taxa and covered by dense forest of Cedrus deodara. Total 65 species under 61 genera and 47 families of both flowering and non-flowering plants were recorded. In which, lichens are represented by 13 species, bryophytes (8 species), pteridophyte (7 species) and gymnosperm (1 species). 43 species belonging to 38 genera and 28 families are ethnobotanically used by local communities for various purposes. Although the grove is conserved on religious beliefs, but facing several threats such as anthropogenic pressure and socio-economic pressure.

Using Licensing Contracts to Protect Holders of Traditional Knowledge Related to Genetic Resources: A Reflection on ICBG Projects

During recent decades, role of traditional knowledge (TK) in biotechnology development has become increasingly important. The benefits resulting from TK exploration can be tremendous. Due its significant economic and healthcare contribution society, owners of TK (local and indigenous communities) should be sufficiently compensated for use of their knowledge and their rights on TK should also be properly protected. Contracts are considered be one of major means ensure fair benefit-sharing based on mutually agreed terms between TK users and holders. Contractual agreements are not novel in transactions involving access genetic resources and benefit sharing. The most famous and earliest case was Merc-INBio agreement. TK has always been only part of such agreements - usually mentioned under prior informed consent - or else it has simply been omitted. Indigenous peoples (or their representatives) have seldom become a party such contracts. Still, history of TK exploration revealed several more or less successful cases, where TK holders acted as rightful parties associated transfer of genetic resources. The International Cooperative Biodiversity Group (ICBG) Program was established in 1992 by National Institute of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF) and U.S. Agency for International Development (later replaced by Department of Agriculture (USDA)) run multidisciplinary projects addressing drug devlopment, biodiversity conservatio and economic growth. More than a dozen projects in 18 countries in Aisa, Africa and Latin America have been supported under Program. Seven International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups (awards) are currently being financed. The source of funding in ICBG projects can be from both public and private sectors. Another essential goal of Porgrams is to develop models for sustainable and equitable commercial use of biodiversity-rich ecosystems. According collaboration agreement, bioprospectors obtain access biological material (including genetic resources) and are required share benefits derived from use of these resources and associated TK with biosuppliers and TK holders. A critical point of ICBG Program is the development of ethically sound partnerships among diverse collaboration agreement is verified comply with principles of prior informed consent (PIC), access and benefir-sharing (ABS) and a number of intellectual property rights issues. Each project under ICBG is a kind of bridge or a collaborating forum that brings together interested parties for formulation of an agreement and provides a mechanism for negotiations. The ICBG Program ensres a relatively integrated and successful international licensing scheme of collaboration between indigenous communities, research institutions and private entities (U.S., international or multinational), which assists development of creative potential solutions for anti-biopiracy and efficient exploitation and sustainable use of biological resources and associated TK. An ICBG project usually involves a multinational pharmaceutical coporation, a nongovernmental organization, a reseach university and collaborating partners from source country (research institute, indigenous communities or their representatives). ICBG projects are characterized by direct involvement of TK holders, or their legal representatives in contractual agreement as rightful parties. Prior infromed consent and associated measures are a mandatory part of all ICBG projects. Nevertheless, this article points out difficulties TK holders and their representative may envounter and how they can overcome limitations in a contractual arrangement, such as an imbalance of bargaining power and difficulties in enforcement. In following section, we will address general structure and main features of ICBG progects. In second part of this article, we will discuss three contractual agreements of ICBG projects, including Peru-ICBG, Maya-ICBG and UIC-Vietnam-Laos-ICBG, and address their mechanisms of TK protection. In third part, we will summarize thes three programs. In fourth part, we will discuss advantages and flaws of contractual arrangement with regard TK protection. Finally, we will present our suggestions and solutions.

Role of traditional knowledge in marine bioprospecting

The “marine world” is endowed with diverse life forms. The life under the oceans is bestowed with a unique gene pool and characteristics owing to extreme conditions such as high salt concentration and temperature variations. The marine biodiversity is an extremely rich resource for the development of a wide array of applications in food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics. Various forms of traditional knowledge, including traditional medicinal knowledge, have been silently developing over the centuries, with the coastal tribes in nations across the globe. Unfortunately, marine traditional knowledge has been underestimated both commercially and legally. It has still not gained its due importance at the international platform for sustainable use and development. An attempt has been made in the present study to collate information on marine traditional knowledge based medicine. Recent trends of marine bioprospecting by various nations including India have been discussed, followed by the study of legal provisions dealing with marine bioprospecting that aim at conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity and associated traditional knowledge. Convention of Biological Diversity, United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas and World Intellectual Property Organization are the major international legal instruments that discuss the concepts of Prior Informed Consent, access and benefit sharing with regard to biopiracy and provide guidelines and limits for conducting marine scientific research.

The role of traditional knowledge and access to genetic resources in biodiversity conservation in Southeast Asia

The article examines international treaties linking trade and environment, their governance models and implementation in the context of Southeast Asia. Particular attention is being paid to the role of intellectual property concepts, customary law and traditional knowledge as incentives for biodiversity conservation and to difficulties in defining the subject matter and communities of knowledge holders. Indonesia’s regulation of traditional knowledge and access to biodiversity is discussed as example. The article concludes that national development goals and interests in royalty collection frequently dominate the discussion and that key concepts are still insufficiently defined to avoid overlaps and conflicts. Genuine local support for the conservationist aims of the models will depend on whether a benefit flow to communities can be ensured and their original role to act as incentives can be realised. International collaboration is important to avoid disputes concerning biodiversity related knowledge held across borders.

Role of traditional knowledge in the explanation of childhood nutritional deficiency by indian mothers

This study examines the role of indigenous knowledge in the explanation of the cause and treatment of childhood nutritional deficiencies by schooled and unschooled Indian mothers, born and educated in India, but living in Canada. The mothers were interviewed and the explanations of childhood diseases were verbally recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using cognitive methods of analysis. The explanations of unschooled mothers related to the interpretations of the traditional Ayurvedic system of health and disease practiced in India. Among mothers with formal education, explanations with respect to traditional theory prevailed, along with the emerging, naive biomedical knowledge. However, the traditional and the biomedical knowledge are not integrated into a coherent structure. The implications of the findings, in relation to child nutrition and health education, are discussed.

Religion and Authority in a Korekore Community

Opening ParagraphIn her lucid and persuasive Henry Myers Lecture on ‘The power of rights’ (Man, 1977), Professor La Fontaine argues that since the Gisu themselves cite transition from one status to another as the purpose of their initiation rites, this transformation cannot logically explain them. Taking up Maurice Bloch's idea that religion is concerned with inequality and hierarchy (1974; 1977), La Fontaine argues convincingly that the explanation of Gisu initiation rites lies in their functions of validating traditional knowledge and of maintaining traditional authority. The relationship between religion and political power had been noticed before but it had not previously been applied to the field of rites of passage nor had the mechanism of the supportive role of traditional knowledge been so clearly analysed.