It would perhaps have been fitting to start this first issue of Volume 6 of the Indigenous Knowledge and Development Monitor with a black page, as a symbol of our feelings of deep regret at the untimely death of Dr D. Michael Warren. Mike Warren was struck down by thrombosis and died suddenly on 28 December 1997 in Ara, Nigeria. Mike was an inspiring member of the Editorial Board and we will all miss him. We pay tribute to the man and his work on behalf of the global indigenous knowledge network.

Otherwise, the hard copy is again a colourful issue. We have chosen blue as the support colour for this year's issues, a reflection of the bright new things we will be offering you. Starting with the most conspicious change: you will see that the back cover no longer carries a list with the names of the IK Resource Centres. With the ever growing number of centres, we have run out of space, and the addresses will now appear on the inside, in the section 'Communications', sub-section 'IK Resource centres'. We hope you will like the new set-up, in which they are arranged by continent and then country. In addition, you may appreciate seeing the reports of the individual centres published directly beneath the address and particulars.

We proudly present our new guest column: each issue will feature a new guest columnist from somewhere in the global IK network. The first is Mr Huseyin Polat, ILO-INDISCO Programme coordinator, Geneva, Switzerland.

And inside this bright blue issue you will find a number of fascinating contributions from all around the world.

Ning Wu paints a vivid picture of yak breeding as practised by nomads in the western part of Sichuan, China.The author adds a touch of local colour, illustrating the conditions prevailing on the eastern extension of the Tibetan Plateau; he then explores the traditional strategies and indigenous knowledge of the yak herders living there. Focusing on details as well as the 'big picture', Ning Wu highlights the essence of the breeding patterns and provides insight into the generations-old, living knowledge of the people, for whom the breeding and rearing of yaks is intextricably linked to daily life. That knowledge must be assessed at its true value, and put to maximum use.

A.K. Bandyopadhyay and G.S. Saha explore indigenous methods of seed selection and seed preservation on the isolated tropical Andaman and Nicobar Islands in India. Their original research refers to an article published three years ago in the Monitor: R.K. Samantha and M.V. Prasad, 'An indigenous post-harvest technology'. Interestingly, of all the 'requests' submitted in 1997 to the Monitor-on-line, this article has proved to be among the three most popular pages. For your information, the site was visited more than 50,000 times in 1997: an average of 140 visits a day. Most visitors requested the table of contents, and an overwhelming number of those who requested an article were interested in S. Rajan & M. Sethuraman, 'Indigenous folk practices among Nilgiri Irulas', published in 1993. This piece presents ethnobotanical and ethnomedical knowledge in a broader framework , whereby it is linked to both health development workers and the local population. This was the Internet top scorer during 1997. But it will come as no surprise to learn that the provocative contribution by Arun Agrawal in the December issue of 1995, which triggered an interesting public debate in the subsequent three issues of the Monitor, also attracted a great deal of interest.