Environment

Indigenous Knowledge Program for Development
IK Cases	Knowledge Pack : Environment This Knowledge Pack contains Indigenous Knowledge cases and other useful information related to the Environment. The indigenous knowledge pack is a tool that provides users with quick access to synthesized information by country or selected thematic area. For more Information on the Indigenous Knowledge Program please contact: Reinhard Woytek
Global Addresses of IK Centers
Bank Projects related to IK
Other Sources
Contributions

IK Cases: Environment
Natural Resource Management	Burkina Faso: An original agro-forestry technique for soil improvement Burkina Faso: Technique for re-afforestation Cameroon: Protection of natural forests Cameroon: Knowledge of medicinal forest products Niger: Distribution of water points in arid areas Tanzania: Water management in arid regions
Conservation	Guinea: IK in desertification allows to understand landscape development Senegal: Preservation of Kër Cupaam Tanzania: Masaai pastoralism is a form of sustainable land use Zimbabwe: Spiritual control of protected land Zimbabwe: Traditional values and myths prevent contamination of sweet water springs Zimbabwe: Local school leavers monitor effluents from mining activities
Biodiversity	Eastern Africa: Use of wild plants as means of survival Tanzania: Taboos restrict felling of trees in Maasai steppe Tanzania: Use of plants and animals to determine taxonomy Tanzania: Monitoring rangeland condition through observation of flora and fauna Zimbabwe: Taboos restrict extractive use of medicinal plant species

Burkina Faso: The Mossi farmers of Yatenga’s Zaï forestry technique for re-afforestation

Summary: The zai, a micro-catchment with a diameter of 20 to 30 cm and a depth of 15 to 20 cm, is dug with a daba primarily to increase water infiltration and to reduce erosion. The farmers maintain desirable woody plants that have grown naturally in the zaï. The zai are fertilized with animal dung. The seeds used are those that have been naturally pre-treated by passing through the intestinal tracts of animals. The zaï forestier technique addresses natural resource deterioration and desertification. This technique has proven successful in reclaiming degraded land and in regenerating forest resources.

Lesson: This practice shows how farmers develop innovative approaches to deal with soil degradation and deforestation. It could be used in agricultural extension and research activities

Source: Dieudonné NIKIEMA, INADES-Formation, Envi. 3, 1781(2), décembre 1995, (Rapport de recherche), Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. - CILSS : Reflets Sahéliens, n°19, août 1993.

Contact: [email protected]

Burkina Faso: An original agro-forestry technique for soil improvement

Summary: For several decades, an eighty-year old Mossi farmer from Passoré has been using a natural reproduction method for the acacia albida tree. This farmer has succeeded in getting his plot «colonized» by acacia albida trees. To that effect, he uses a very simple method consisting of cutting the plants roots so they will propagate. These root-suckers grow and become adult trees within seven years. Then, the farmer cuts the lateral roots of those trees and other root-suckers appear.

Lesson: This agro-forestry technique is efficient, but the process is slow. It could be improved and disseminated with the assistance of development organizations.

Source: Dieudonné NIKIEMA, INADES-Formation, Envi. 3,1781(2),décembre 1995, (Rapport de recherche), Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. "L’agroforesterie en milieu rural, le cas du plateau central du Burkina Faso ", (Rapport de recherche

Cameroon: Forest dwelling Baka have intimate knowledge of medicinal and other uses of forest products

Summary: About 40,000 Baka live in the equatorial rainforest of the Southeast region of Cameroon. The Baka possess extensive knowledge of forest-based resources on which they rely solely for their livelihood. They include a variety of wild tubers, fruits, leaves, animals, fish and honey. In March 1998 we interviewed a group of Baka men and women who had left the forest and settled in Dioula village in Southeast Cameroon, to test their knowledge of forest resources. They are aware of numerous types of trees with medicinal and other uses for their leaves, fruits, wood, bark and roots. The Baka reputation as traditional healers is attributed to their intimate knowledge of forest products. Their knowledge of forest resources could be very useful to the drug and timber industries.

Lesson: This method of making cheese can be integrated into the operations of mini dairies and cheese making factories. As a source of additional income, cheese making can be useful to local communities when there is a seasonal surplus of milk. This cheese is considered a good source of protein.

Source: Prof. C.N. Ngwasiri; CIKO

Contact: [email protected]

Cameroon: Traditional Kwifon rules protect natural forests and regulate their use

Summary: The Kilum Mountain Forest, which is host to some endemic bird and animal species, is one of the few surviving mountain forests in West/Central Africa. Sixteen villages of the Oku chiefdom, which lie adjacent to the forest, appropriate its resources for their sustenance. Medicinal plants are harvested in the forest and exported to Europe and the USA. Since settling in the area over a hundred years ago the Oku people have managed the resources of the forest according to rules crafted and implemented by a traditional institution called Kwifon. Kwifon makes rules that govern access to the resources of the forest, their appropriation and conservation. The chief communicates rules in public announcements. Kwifon is based in the chief’s palace. It has a security network through which it is informed about everything that happens in the chiefdom. The people of Oku attribute its ability to detect those who flout its orders and injunctions to omnipresent mystical powers.

Lesson: Indigenous NRM methods are effectively conserving and regulating the use of natural forests through without publicly imposed regulations.

Source: C.N. Ngwasiri,

Contact: [email protected]

East African Region: Traditional societies in East Africa use wild plants for different purposes and means to survive.

Summary: East Africa, and especially Tanzania, has one of the richest Flora in tropical Africa. Lowlands, highlands, inland lakes and a variable climate produce a multitude of biotopes: (semi-) deciduous or humid forests, Savannah and steppe, Miombo forests, all contribute to that exceptional bio-diversity. Some of the species have considerable economic value for the rural population. They are used for medicinal, dietary or cultural, construction or artesanal purposes. Local communities market some of these plants on local level. However, commercialization beyond local communities takes place only in rare cases.

Lesson: Studying the various uses and commercial value of underutilized plants could generate income for rural communities.

Source: MARECIK N. Ole-Lengisugi; F. Ole-Ikayo

Contact: [email protected]

Guinea: Indigenous knowledge in desertification allows to understand landscape development

Summary: Since the first French occupation in 1893, the authorities of the Republic of Guinea have been convinced that forest patches are the last relics of an original forest which once fully covered the landscape. Researchers adopted a different approach to understanding this phenomenon by tracking land use history from historical sources, using history to understand landscape rather than landscape to understand history. Historical sources combined with detailed research into local land use knowledge and practice, showed how forest islands found in savanna owed their existence to inhabitants who let them grow around their settlements. Forest islands were not relics of a landscape half empty of forests, but forest outposts in a landscape half full of them. Evidence which scientists and policy makers had been taking to indicate vegetation degradation actually indicated landscape enrichment by people. To get to know more about changes in vegetation quality and what it had meant for the local inhabitants' livelihoods, researchers relied on the oral testimony of elderly men and women. It was in relating how their ancestors had arrived and founded settlements, a common genre of village oral history, that elders often made reference to the planting of foundational cotton trees and the establishment of vegetation-based fortification. It was through discussion of settlement history and patterns with villagers that researchers came to understand other central aspects of landscape development: how habitation and home gardening created super-fertile soils with woody vegetation, for instance; and how in some places, the multiplication of closely-spaced villages and forest islands served to exclude fire and initiate the conversion of intervening savannas to forest.

Lesson: Understanding environmental phenomenon often requires to be aware of indigenous knowledge in the matter.

Source: Rethinking Environmental Change in West Africa's Forest Savanna Mosaic: The Case of Kissidougou, Guinea "Tracking Change: Escaping the deforestation mythology". ILEIA Newsletter. December 1996. Volume 12 No. 3, P. 6-7

External Link: IDRC (International Development Research Centre)

Contact: [email protected]

Zimbabwe: Traditional values and myths prevent contamination of sweet water springs.

Summary: There are various indigenous ways of protecting water sources in central and eastern parts of Zim-babwe and western Mozambique. One of them is to prohibit members of a community to indis-criminately use their household utensils to fetch water from a source. It is not allowed to use pots, cups, or buckets from the users’ homes. Rather, members of the community use a special gourd (mukombe) which is permanently kept at the spring for only this purpose. Mukombe has a very long handle, which safely prevents the hands or fingers (of the person fetching water) from dipping into the spring, thus avoiding a potential contamination hazard. Taboos and customs enforce compliance.

Lesson: Ownership of water and sanitation programs may increase if project planners acknowledge and appreciate existing customs that work in favor of sustainable use and maintenance of such facilities.

Source: ZIRCIK.

Contact: [email protected]

Niger: Distribution of water points in arid areas

Summary: A 1984 Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) "deep tube well project", in the Touareg area of Niger had to be reconsidered at the request of the Touareg herders, after the sinking of a deep tube well. Indeed, the new water points were attracting the herds, overgrazing the land and consequently increasing the desertification process. It was found out that the Touareg approach in distributing their shallow water points in wider areas was the right approach.

Lesson: The Touareg approach of distribution of shallow water points in wider areas is adapted to the local arid environment.

Source: Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)

External Link: CIDA

Contact: [email protected]

Senegal: Communal and public efforts reclaim a nature preserve of Kër Cupaam and contribute to bio-diversity

Summary: Flora and fauna of the Natural Reserve of Popenguine, a shelter along the migratory route of numerous birds that follow the Atlantic coast of West Africa, had been severely damaged by the ef-fects of drought, increased grazing, and firewood harvest. To reclaim the reserve a group of women created the Association of Women of Popenguine for the Protection of the Environment. The asso-ciation raised green firebreaks around the entire perimeter, replanted native species furnished by a nursery established at the same time, and trained young volunteers from neighboring urban areas in nature conservation who eventually performed much of the physical labor. The women not only succeeded in re-stimulating local biodiversity and restoring the natural vegetation of the area but their efforts also apparently contributed materially to the reappearance of animal species not seen in those parts for years: porcupines, mongoose, pata, jackals, civet cats, etc. During the following eight years, the RFPPN used first its own resources and then additional ones provided by donor organizations. The restoration of the reserve's ecology attracts the sort of tourist activity that would genuinely benefit the local population, as opposed to earlier tourist traffic.

Lesson: Taking ownership of natural resources through the local community helps to preserve indigenous bio-diversity and provides additional income.

Source: University of Florida, IK-Notes

External Link: IK Notes No. 8

Contact: [email protected]

Tanzania: Use of plants and animals determines their taxonomy.

Summary: The Maasai and Barabaig learn names of the animals and plants, their behavioral patterns and eco-logical factors under which they flourish. They acquire knowledge of the phenology of plants, edaphic and topographical factors that influence their distribution/location are described. They keep inventory of species and records of those, which disappear. They assign names to new plants and animals. The taxonomy reflects the use of plants for medicinal, social, economic or cultural useful-ness or other determining characteristics, as in the case of poisonous plants. Sometimes biological or ecological features of the species are reflected in the names. This taxonomy of important species is then incorporated into cultural/ religious beliefs, taboos, legends or myths.

Lesson: A taxonomy that is based on utilization of species can help in the determining conservation requirements.

Source: MARECIK N. Ole-Lengisugi; F. Ole-Ikayo

Contact: [email protected]

Tanzania: Maasai pastoralism is a form of sustainable land use in a fragile environment.

Summary: The Maasai have roamed the East African rangeland for more than two millennia. Husbandry techniques, environmental observation, land use as well as transhumance patterns are reflected in the culture of the Maasai. Labor division according to gender and age, music, legends, language, rituals, decision making and interaction with neighboring communities are interwoven with the requirements of their primary economic activity – cattle keeping. Despite of constant external pressures (slave trade, colonialism, villagization following Tanzania’s independence and "Westernization") the Maasai have preserved a conspicuously different day-to-day culture. This culture has assisted them to sustain their livelihoods. However, as population grows in Tanzania and Kenya various pressures may eventually endanger their style of life: expansion of cultivated land, requirements of wild life preservation, cultural pressures and modernization. Time will show whether the Maassai’s distinct culture will have endowed them with the flexibility and adaptability to cope with the new conditions without losing their identity.

Lesson: The Pastoral Maasai culture is at a crossroad to succumb to or survive modern cultural influences.

Source: MARECIK N. Ole-Lengisugi; F. Ole-Ikayo

Contact: [email protected]

Tanzania: Monitoring of rangeland condition through observation of fauna and flora.

Summary: Pastoralist Maasai practice everyday monitoring of their resource base to determine the trend of range condition and to detect early signs of deterioration. To ensure reliability of evaluation they have developed various sampling and surveying techniques. They observe forage types, quality, quantity and condition as used by livestock and wildlife. Common indicators used are: daily milk yield, animal coat texture and color, consistence of cow and wildlife dung, and the extend of bush encroachment. None of these indicators is used in isolation, rather a combination of all of them provides the experienced pastoralist with early indications of the condition of the range land and its likely changes. Based on the observations, the herders decide how to manage the situation or to apply coping strategies in case of an impending drought.

Lesson: Pastoral indicators in rangeland monitoring can be used as part of early warning systems not only for the range land but also for food security.

Source: MARECIK, N. Ole-Lengisugi, Indigenous Knowledge and Skills in Combating Desertification and Drought (1998)

Contact: [email protected]

Tanzania: Water management in arid regions

Summary: Water scarcity in the arid and semi-arid regions of Africa poses a grave threat to the well-being of rural people. The conventional approach to this problem has been to emphasize northern technologies over indigenous forms of water management, without seriously considering the potential benefits of the latter, which have evolved with the local environment and are specifically adapted to local conditions. IDRC (International Development Research Centre), a public corporation created by the Canadian government to help communities in the developing world find solutions to social, economic, and environmental problems through research, has designed a project to address this oversight by supporting an in-depth study of the efficacy of traditional methods of water management, and promoting, as appropriate, their continuance or revival. This project includes 3 pilot projects located in Djibouti, Egypt and Tanzania. The work carried out by local NGOs, and coordinated by the International Secretariat for Water (ISW), will seek to document, evaluate and improve upon traditional and contemporary water management schemes, and disseminate the value-added traditional systems both locally and to other regions. Knowledge related to traditional water management will be elicited through participatory techniques such as interviews and meetings with local experts, as well as literature reviews. Workshops will be organized to bring together local innovators and outside experts to investigate promising technologies, and the results will be disseminated through seminars and meetings with local communities. Lesson: The involving of indigenous people, and there knowledge of local conditions and techniques, can be used to protect dwindling resources.

Source: IDRC: Traditional Water Management in Africa

Tanzania: Taboos restrict felling of trees in the Maasai steppe.

Summary: To fell trees at random is a taboo in the Maasai culture. Only a ritual of prayers prior to cutting a tree as a sign of love/intimacy with the tree would avoid the implications of violating the taboo. The ritual would not be performed unless a dire need was established in advance. Trees being rare in the steppe ecology are not only providers of tools, building material, shade, fodder, and medici-nal use, they are also recognized in their association with other plant species and interaction with the environment. They serve as indicators of water sources, cattle routes, aptitude of physical con-ditions, and as hosts of favorable fauna. Over years the Maasai have learned – and integrated this experience in rituals - how to judiciously use their natural resources by preserving their environ-ments.

Lesson: Cultural attitudes towards plant (species) help preserving bio-diversity.

Source: MARECIKN. Ole-Lengisugi; F. Ole-Ikayo

Contact: [email protected]

Zimbabwe: Taboos restrict extractive use of medicinal plant species

Summary: Development workers often dismisses beliefs and social behavior as superstitions and overlook their intrinsic values and functions. In many cases, the superstitions (e.g. a taboo) are not meant to convey ‘scientific’ facts but to shape thinking, and to control behavior. Taboos are ‘social’ rules engrained through the socialization process. Fear is meant to develop owing to the belief that vio-lation causes infliction of punishment. Taboos "regulating" the extraction medicine from plants have the function of preserving medicinal species. For instance, the bark of a tree for use as medi-cine should be removed from the sides facing the East and West of the tree only. Extracts from other sides of the tree are believed to be ineffective because of braking this rule. The tree survives the extraction and is thus managed in a sustainable fashion.

Lesson: Communities could consider developing new taboos for the management of natural resources that have become scarce.

Source: ZIRCIK, Gelfand M. 1979, Growing Up in Shona Society, Mambo Press, Gweru

Contact: [email protected]

Zimbabwe: Spiritual control of protected land

Summary: African traditional customs and religious belief systems provide ways of environmental conserva-tion by reserving vast areas for natural growth and activity. Marambatemwa (literally “places that resist cutting”) are ecological reserves whose boundaries are defined by the spirit mediums of the land. In addition, the manner of conduct of individuals who enter them are set by these spirits The rules usually restrict human disturbance of the natural processes in these areas. Even hunted ani-mals when dashing into these zones are considered to have taken refuge and are protected by the ancestral spirits of the land. Fruits are to be eaten on site and not to be carried home for they need to feed other animals there. No trees are cut. It is not even allowed to comment on apparently odd structures of natural objects. These rules are enforced with punishments against perpetrators by ancestral spirits of the land. Punishments include getting lost and failing to go back home, or being attacked by wild animals.

Lesson: Ecological zones which are preserved in this way are often better maintained than game reserves administered through statutory law and bureaucratic procedures.

Source: ZIRCIK, Association of Zimbabwe Traditional Environmental Conservationists (AZTREC)

Contact: [email protected]

Zimbabwe: Local school leavers monitor effluents from mining activities.

Summary: In communities surrounding the Cap Mine in Zimbabwe, local researchers have experimented suc-cessfully with schemes involving young school leavers as water quality monitors tasked with as-sisting community residents in tracking seepage and direct effluent discharge into waterways af-fected by mining activities. Farm populations demonstrated a great interest in gaining better under-standing of the effect of mining activities on local reservoirs and water supplies and the resulting study had a marked impact on improving supervision of environmental impacts of the industry.

Lesson: Involving school leavers in environmental monitoring is cost effective and creates a local pressure group to influence private and public action. Also, the youth begin to understand their local environment.

Source: University of Florida, IK-Notes (to be published)

Contact: [email protected]

Global Addresses of IK Centers

Addresses of IK Centers (PDF)

Link to the Addresses of Other IK Centers and CIRAN's IK-Pages
Nuffic/CIRAN IK Development Monitor and Addresses of Other IK Centers

Bank Sources

Indigenous Knowledge for Development Link to the Homepage of the Indigenous Knowledge for Development Program of the Africa Region

Database of Indigenous Knowledge and Practices Link to the Database of Practices of the Indigenous Knowledge for Development Program of the Africa Region

IK Notes Newsletter Link to the IK Notes of the Indigenous Knowledge for Development Program of the Africa Region

An Introduction to the Microfinance Institutions Contact List

External Sources

Register for Best Practices in Indigenous Knowledge Link to the database of Best Practices of UNESCO

Nuffic/CIRAN IK Development Monitor and Addresses of Other IK Centers Link to the Addresses of Other IK Centers and CIRAN's IK-Pages

Please send feedback or comments to [email protected]

Should you know of other indigenous knowledge practices that have helped or may help to improve Bank programs, please share them with us. We will enter your contribution into the IK-Database.

Bank Projects with IK

Transfrontier Conservation Areas Pilot and Institutional Strengthening Project

The Trans-Frontier Conservation Areas (TFCA) project is a Bank supported initiative to promote natural resource management in southern Africa. The goal of this project is to assist the government to create enabling policies, activities and institutional framework for rehabilitating, conserving and managing its unique biodiversity and natural resource endowments in three transfrontier conservation areas. The project will contribute to poverty reduction by assisting local communities inside and around the conservation areas, through capacity building. Land and natural resource security measures and small scale conservation and development activities.

Lake Malawi/Nyassa Environmental Management Project

The objective of the lake Malawi/Nyassa environmental project is to contribute to country’s efforts to improve the economic livelihood of stakeholder communities living in the shore and catchment of the lake. This project is expected to demonstrate practical self-sustaining environmental management, while simultaneously building capacity of local institutions for ecosystem management. This includes: (1) optimizing the benefits of the lake to riparian communities from fisheries; (2) improving management of soils, forests, wetlands and other resources within the basin to generate food, employment and income; and (3) sustaining the ecosystem from which these benefits arise. A pilot study is underway to garner baseline data and identify strategic contribution of local communities’ indigenous knowledge, experiences and practices in managing the lake Malawi/Nyassa ecosystem for the preparation of the first phase of this environmental project.

Local communities partner with government to stop illegal deforestation

In 1993, illegal felling of timber trees on farms soared due to the opening of a new roundlogs market in the Far East. The Forestry Department responded by setting up a Working Group comprised of community chiefs, farmers, foresters, and timbermen (as representatives of the public and private sectors, and of the local communities) to analyze the situation and devise a new system to regulate timber harvesting on farms. A radical new set of "Interim Measures", based on new rules for timber felling, were formulated to regulate timber production. This enabled the Forestry Department, with the help of farmers, to monitor the movement of logs from stump to port.
The results: illegal logging has been almost totally stopped; farmers and landowning communities are now able to rightfully collect token fees and compensation payments at time of felling; the timber industry is performing better as the legal timber operators have gained a measure of job security, and log prices have increased; the resource base has been protected as timber production fell to levels considered to be sustainable; Government revenue collection from timber royalties quadrupled.
Full report: Full Text Document.

Cape Peninsula Biodiversity Conservation Project

The objective of the Cape Peninsula Biodiversity Conservation Project is to ensure rehabilitation and sustainable protection of the globally significant flora and related fauna of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa including surrounding marine ecosystems. To achieve this objective, the project will help establish and strengthen initial management of a new Cape Peninsula National Park by accelerated clearing of invasive alien species (acacia and pine trees) and annual follow-up maintenance using labor-intensive techniques that facilitate natural regeneration of indigenous species; environmental education; enhanced fire management; improved tourist infrastructure and information; capacity building among contract labor; a pilot-type marine protection program; and a knowledge management component comprising monitoring and evaluation and conservation activities for the entire Cape Floral Kingdom.

IK Contribution Format

Should you know of other indigenous knowledge practices that have helped or may help to improve Bank programs, please share them with us. We will enter your contribution into the IK-Database.

You could structure your contribution by using the following format:

1. Country:Where is the practice applied (country and location)?

2. Domain:

In which sector is the practice applied (agriculture, health, social development etc.)?

3. Technology:

What technology (e.g. soil erosion control, childcare, institutional development etc.)?

4. Bearers of Knowledge:

By whom is the practice applied (e.g. Washambaa, local healers, women's group of a given village etc.)?

5. Source: Where can we inquire further?

Primary provider information (probably yourself or your institution)

Secondary providers of information

Add references to literature, web sites, names of individuals or organizations that can corroborate the practice.

Include addresses of primary and secondary providers of information.

6. Descriptive headline of practice:

One to two lines capturing the main features of a practice.

7. Summary:

Describe the main features of the practice and explain (not more than 200 words).

8. Lessons:

Answer three key questions related to efficacy and impact of the practice.

- Why it is important for the local community?

- Why might it be beneficial to other communities?

- Why should development organizations learn more about this practice?

9. Methods used to capture information:

How was the practice identified, recorded and documented?

NB: The IK database is an open, on-line resource for information on indigenous knowledge practices. The database acts as a referral system and does not disclose the technical details of practices or applications. Most practices in the database have been reported elsewhere in publicly accessible information sources. As is the principle of a referral database the provider of information could be asked by users of the database to provide further information or pointers as regards details of the practice. It is to the discretion of the provider of information and the inquirer to negotiate the terms of the exchange of knowledge. No information provided will be made public without the consent of the provider.