COMMUNICATIONS - RESEARCH

Management of rural knowledge systems
Top-down planning in Sahelian Africa has failed to promote effective natural resource management at the local level. Recent decentralization reforms in Senegal have given local rural government units (Conseils Ruraux) greater powers and more responsibility, thus providing local populations and their elected representatives a greater voice in natural resource management.
The research project 'Management of rural knowledge systems for natural resource management in Senegalese rural communities', funded by the Netherlands-Israel Development Research Programme (NIRP), concentrates on three questions:

• to what extent local knowledge and traditional land use patterns are incorporated into natural resource management planning and projects at the local level;
• whether the local rural government units are an effective instrument for the management of land use and natural resources in the areas under their jurisdiction; and
• what measures can be taken to improve the effectiveness of local rural governments units in national resource management planning and to make greater use of local rural knowledge in natural resource management planning.

Yam peels in traditional ruminant nutrition
In Ghana, only research institutes raise ruminants on established pastures. The traditional method of ruminant production allows the animals to range freely on natural grazing lands. Some urban dwellers keep sheep, goats, and other small ruminants in cages in their backyards, supplementing their diet with the peels of yams, cassava and plantains. In rural forest areas, local people leave their animals to roam about and eat any palatable thing they come across, but in the evening, when the animals return to their cages, they too are fed on yam, cassava and plantain peels collected from the household. In some cases, peels are dried before being fed to the animals. Studies have indicated that dried yam peels contain between 6% and 11% raw protein, and provide as much as 3.7 calories of energy per gram of dry matter. The same studies show that yam peels could be used as a substitute for maize in concentrated feed for ruminants. It appears that feed containing 20% yam peels is ideal in dietary terms, and also reduces the cost of feeding ruminants.
For more information, please contact:
Dr S.O. Apori, GHARCIK, School of Agriculture, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana. Tel: +233-42-2240-9/2480-9. Telex: +233-42-2552 UCC GH.

Integrated coastal fisheries management
A pilot project for the integrated management of coastal fisheries in the Gulf of Paria is being carried out by the Fisheries Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Marine Resources in Trinidad. This project is part of a larger international project financed by the UNDP and executed by the FAO. Other components of the project include sites in The Gambia and The Philippines.
The Gulf of Paria is a semi-enclosed estuarine sea between Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela in northeastern South America. On the Trinidad side it supports the country's most important traditional coastal fisheries and is also the site of the country's main industrial activity, which is hydrocarbon and petrochemical processing. The coastal area contains valuable wetlands and supports agricultural activity as well.
The project involves collecting information on various topics: the diverse, multi-sectoral uses of the coastal zone, the socio-economic and cultural characteristics of the population as regards the management of coastal fisheries, the impact of pollution, and habitat destruction.
The project methods include making participatory surveys of coastal communities, strengthening coastal organizations, and developing a coastal geographic information system (GIS). The community surveys deal with gender issues, traditional knowledge of resources, and traditional fisheries management, among other things. The project also has components for raising awareness in coastal communities and government agencies, and for integrating these sectors into the national decision-making process regarding coastal resource management. For more information, please contact:
Boris Fabres, Fisheries Division, Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Marine Resources, St. Clair, Port of Spain, Trinidad, West Indies. Tel: +1-809-634 4505. Fax: +1-809-634 4488.

Ayurveda
The indigenous system of medicine in Sri Lanka is based on Ayurvedic doctrine and has existed for at least 2000 years. Ayurveda utilizes natural products, thereby minimizing side effects, injurious by- products and accidental contamination-related risks. The system is primarily concerned with the preservation of the ecological balance.
Up to now Ayurveda has not been recognized as a scientific system of medicine. Preliminary investigations to explore the scientific aspects of this system have disclosed, however, that:

• prednisolone is an indigenous drug of Sri Lanka;
• there are local methods to cure cancer; and
• the translation of Ayurvedic doctrine into modern scientific terms can provide the key to curing diseases that have no remedies now.

• to establish the scientific truth of Ayurvedic doctrine by identifying 'the humours', or tridosha, in modern scientific terms, thereby unlocking the secrets of the etiopathology of disease;
• to establish and confirm that prednisolone is a native drug, and to study the proper methods for administering it;
• to gather information about indigenous methods of curing cancer and to make this information accessible to scientists.

Irrigation and forest preservation among the Dais
In Xihuangbanna (China), irrigation has been the lifeline of agriculture, for without water plants cannot grow. The Dais, who live in this region, have their own wealth of experience with irrigation and forest preservation. The aim of the research project that bears the title 'Dais' traditional irrigation system and forest preservation: preserving ways in Xihuangbanna' is to describe present conditions and to sum up experience and lessons from the past. It is also meant to serve the cause of opening up and using natural resources while at the same time maintaining the ecological balance. Closer examination of traditional experiments and methods, especially when done in the light of modern science as well as practices from other cultures and geographic situations, will make it easier for local peoples to perfect their own systems of irrigation and forest preservation.
The research has three major parts:

• the general conditions in Jinghong (the political centre of Xihuangbanna): including the fundamental characteristics of the region, its natural resources, and the people who live there in the mountains and on the plains. Relevant is how their societies are organized, how they make their living, and what their lives were in the past.
• irrigation: the irrigation system, the administrative organizations involved, the methods of water distribution, the system of maintaining and repairing irrigation works, the system of inspection and control, and the written regulations or customary laws governing irrigation.
• forest preservation: including traditional views of human beings and natural ecology, traditional measures to preserve forests, and traditional techniques for irrigation and slash-and-burn agriculture. Relevant here are the written regulations and customary laws governing forest preservation, the damage caused by tree removal over the last 40 years, and the methods of reforestation and forest preservation that have proven effective in the last ten years.

Indigenous knowledge and traditional water management in arid and semi-arid regions
The International Secretariat for Water (ISW), an international NGO based in Montreal that facilitates partnerships and mutual learning on water issues, will coordinate a two-year programme entitled 'Traditional water management and competing water needs: a community empowerment approach'. The partners supporting both research and implementation include Unicef and several bilateral agencies.
Traditional water management systems represent an untapped and neglected source of indigenous know- how. Such systems ensure the well-being of local communities by supplying water, and by managing it in a sustainable way under local control. But these systems are quickly vanishing as modern systems and techniques are introduced with no concern for indigenous knowledge and indigenous learning systems, and as a result of population pressures.
The programme will document sustainable traditional water management systems, and promote them as viable alternatives that should be strengthened so that their transmission to younger generations is ensured. Its development objectives are:

• to compare know-how in traditional water management between ten selected areas of Africa, America, Asia and Central Asia;
• to develop learning methods and educational tools that are culturally-rooted, and that empower youth and women to play a critical role in decision-making and in the proper management of water. These expose them to consideration of competing water needs and modern techniques, and to relating water management to all aspects of their life;
• to involve the authorities of target countries in capacity-building and in institutional arrangements in support of the programme's objectives;
• to translate learning methods and tools based on local knowledge into strategies for indigenous communities that will sustain them and their water resources and will support institutional arrangements through which local people take part in decision-making, policy-making and management as regards water; and
• to propagate traditional systems and an integrated approach among a wider audience by creating materials that make them visual, by facilitating mutual learning between participants, and by disseminating the lessons learnt to other regions and intervening agencies.

Indigenous practices of soil and water conservation among the tribal minorities in Tao't Bato, Rizal, Palawan, The Philippines
The general objective of this study is to identify potentially useful indigenous practices of soil and water conservation among tribal groups in a specific area of The Philippines. The aim is to blend these practices with modern scientific knowledge by modifying or improving them to achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness. A further aim is to develop and apply appropriate, sustainable technologies that maintain the area's ecological balance while achieving the required agricultural productivity.
The specific objectives of the study are:

• to identify the indigenous techniques used for recognizing potential swidden farmland, and the criteria used for making choices regarding its use;
• to describe the farming and cropping systems;
• to identify the criteria and techniques used for allowing a farm to go fallow; and
• to identify methods used for planting and cultivating indigenous plants while at the same time conserving soil and water.

• participant-observation;
• a 'mapping' technique for describing the area's farming systems and agro-ecological regions, the crops and animals that are grown, and the problems and coping mechanisms associated with each; and
• interviews with key informants among the tribal groups who will be the main sources of information. If appropriate, group interviews will be conducted with the help of topic guidelines.