The December workshop will continue the work of the indigenous knowledge network in Bangladesh. For those working with IK in Bangladesh, it offers an excellent opportunity to get together and discuss current activites, priorities for future work, and the future direction of the network. Participants are asked to give 15-minute presentations on their findings. There will also be a session at which participants will make recommendations for future IK research in Bangladesh on the basis of experiences within their own organizations. These presentations will be no longer than five minutes. And finally, participants must submit a written summary of their findings for publication in the workshop report. This should be no longer than 3000 words. Anyone wishing to take part should register and send in their papers as soon as possible.

For more information, please contact:
BARCIK, Integrated Action Research and Development,
3/7 Block-D, Lalmatia,
Dhaka-1207,
Bangladesh.
Tel.: +88-02-91 32 372.
Fax: +88-02-815 548.
E-mail: iard@bdonline.com

Workshop on ethnoveterinary practices is rescheduled
The international workshop on ethnoveterinary practices in sub-Saharan Africa which was to take place in Zaria, Nigeria, on 12-16 December 1999 has been postponed. (See the July 1999 issue of the Monitor, pages 24-25.) Professor Jerome O. Gefu writes that so many workshop participants have expressed serious concern about possible problems with flight schedules as a result of a millenium bug, that it became imperative to move the workshop date further away from the change to the new year. The new date for the workshop is now 13-17 February 2000. ‘Our apologies for any inconvenience,’ says Professor Gefu.

For more information, please contact:
Professor J.O. Gefu,
National Animal Production Research Institute,
Shika, Ahmadu Bello University,
P.M.B. 1096,
Zaria, Nigeria.
Fax: +234-62-235 048.
Tel.: +234-69-550 300.
E-mail: jogefu@abu.edu.ng
Please, use e-mail, fax, courier (DHL is preferred) or personal delivery as much as possible. This is because regular mail can be greatly delayed.

Medicinal plants, traditional medicines and local communities in Africa:
Challenges and opportunities of the next Millenium
Nairobi (Kenya)
16-19 May 2000
The Environment Liaison Centre International (ELCI) in collaboration with other organizations is planning to organize a four-day international conference on the promotion and development of medicinal plants and traditional medicine in Africa in Nairobi, Kenya. This conference will be organized in parallel to the Fifth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP - 5) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) which is to be held also in Nairobi, from 15-26 May 2000.

At the global level, the Convention on Biological Diversity provides a legal framework for the conservation of biological diversity including access to and exchange of genetic materials and for bio-diversity prospecting. Also at the global level, the World Health Organization (WHO) has earmarked the year 2000 as the year which all should have access to health. This is a laudable goal which is still far from being achieved in Africa. A number of international organizations now have started to support projects and programmes within Africa which are drawing on the cultural acceptability and economic accessibility of safe and effective traditional medical practices.

The conference will review current initiatives in promoting the development of medicinal plants and traditional medicine in Africa. It will examine how medicinal plants and traditional medicine in Africa is far more relevant, valid and useful than had been supposed. The conference will explore medicinal plants, traditional medicine and its organization. Among the issues to be addressed by the conference are:

For more information, to register or to submit abstracts, please contact:
Ernest Rukangira, Environment Liaison Centre International,
P.O. Box 72461,
Nairobi, Kenya.
Tel.: +254-2-5620 22 / 576 114.
Fax: +254-2- 5721 75.
E-mail: erukangira@iconnect.co.ke

PAST

Environmental services and land use policy
Bridging the gap between policy and research in Southeast Asia
Chang Mai (Thailand)
30 May - 2 June 1999
This workshop on methodology was organized by the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF), sponsored by the Asian Development Bank, and hosted by Chang Mai University. The workshop assembled researchers, policy-makers and resource managers from around the world to discuss the issues surrounding sustainable agricultural systems in Southeast Asia. Researchers presented their findings on topics ranging from fire management to biodiversity assessment and watershed management. Sessions were structured to encourage an exchange of ideas between the audience and the speakers.

A number of presentations described attempts to use indigenous knowledge (IK) as an empirical tool for policy development. One of the featured projects involved using what local people know about birds in order to assess biodiversity and predict the impact of habitat alteration on overall diversity. As presented, this technique could be very useful for involving indigenous peoples in ‘wildlands’ conservation, and should be of interest to researchers working on people and parks issues.

Researchers primarily concerned with agroforestry issues will be interested in the latest version of WinAkt, the Agroforestry Knowledge Toolkit for Windows, which was demonstrated at the conference. This knowledge-based systems software was developed by the University of Wales in Bangor in order to facilitate the acquisition and use of indigenous ecological knowledge.

The organizers of the conference should be commended for facilitating an interdisciplinary forum that that not only exposed the gaps between research and policy, but enabled the participants to access the individuals who are engaging the issues surrounding sustainability throughout the world.
(Dr William H. Thomas, USA)

ICRAF expects that an edited volume of the proceedings will follow.
For information contact:
Dr David Thomas,
ICRAF Thailand,
P.O. Box 267,
CMU Post Office,
Chang Mai 50202,
Thailand.
Tel.: +66-53 357 906.
Fax: +66-533-57 908.
E-mail: D.Thomas@cgiar.org

or: Dr Thomas Tomich,
ICRAF Indonesia,
P.O. Box 161
Bogor 16001,
Indonesia.
Tel.: +62-251-625 415.
Fax: +62-251-625 416.
Email: T.Tomich@cgiar.org

Medicinal plants as important products of Caribbean agriculture
St. Croix, US Virgin Islands
14-16 June 1999
This second international workshop on herbal medicines in the Caribbean was held at the University of the Virgin Islands, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. It had four sponsors: the Cooperative Extension Service and Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of the Virgin Islands in St. Croix, the Virgin Islands Department of Agriculture, the Caribbean Network for Integrated Rural Development (CNIRD), and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).

Workshop participants came from most of the English-speaking Caribbean countries, plus Suriname, Haiti, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, the USA, Canada and Malaysia. The presentations covered a range of issues, including a holistic approach to herbal medicines and discourses on alternative medicine, the variety of uses and benefits to be derived from medicinal plants, and the production and marketing of common medicinal and culinary plants. The aim was to create a greater awareness of the value of the traditional healing practices in the context of a world dominated by conventional science.

The Caribbean Association of Researchers and herbal Practitioners (CARAPA) had been formed in 1998 at the first international workshop on herbal medicines in the Caribbean. CARAPA is concerned about deepening public awareness of herbal medicines so that indigenous knowledge will be appropriately valued and practitioners will derive recognition and economic benefits. CARAPA’s vision is to promote responsible bio-prospecting and the appropriate use of indigenous Caribbean herbs, based on sound information about their properties and their therapeutic effectiveness. CARAPA says that its mission can best be realized if herbalists and practitioners of alternative medicines are organized into groups. These groups can lobby at the national level and ultimately at the regional level, urging Caribbean governments to institute policies and legislative measures that bring alternative and herbal medicines within the realm of conventional medicines.

In line with this vision and mission, CARAPA sees it as an opportunity in 1999 to start involving the agricultural sector in the production and commercialization of medicinal and culinary plants. At the international workshop in St. Croix, CARAPA representatives of Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Belize, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines expressed the intention to pursue activities leading to the formulation of national policies. They decided that such policies should address at least three issues: the maintenance of plant biodiversity through the conservation and use of indigenous plant materials, the development of technologies for the effective and profitable production and marketing of medicinal and culinary plants, and the appropriate use of medicinal plants.

At this second workshop it was agreed that the third international workshop on herbal medicines in the Caribbean should be held in 2000 in Jamaica.

The proceedings of the second workshop are being published by the University of the Virgin Islands Cooperative Extension Service. Copies will be available either from this service at Kingshill, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands 00810, or from CNIRD, 40, Eastern Main Road, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago.
(Nerle Robertson, Director, CNIRD and Chairperson of CARAPA)

For more information, also about membership of CARAPA, please contact:
CNIRD, which is the secretariat for CARAPA:
40, Eastern Main Road,
St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago.
Tel.: +1-868-662 6473.
Fax: +1-868-662 26612.
E-mail: cnird@carib-link.net

Collecting and safeguarding oral traditions
Khon Kaen (Thailand)
16-19 August 1999
Oral traditions are an important basis for an understanding of cultures and social traditions throughout the world. Today’s technologies give us the means to collect and preserve original oral renditions of stories, music, recollections, sacred traditions and personal histories. In many societies without a written tradition, oral heritage provides a vital link from the past, through the present, to the future. But also for societies with well-established documentary traditions, oral heritage enhances the written record with its rich texture and direct link to history.

Words like ‘tradition’, ‘culture’, ‘memory’, ‘self-identity’, ‘civilization’ and ‘heritage’ were used over and over during the presentations and discussion which took place at the four-day conference on Collecting and safeguarding oral traditions in Khon Kaen, in northeast Thailand. It was organized by Mahasarakham University under the auspices of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), with co-sponsoring by UNESCO.

The conference was attended by 68 people, who came from no fewer than 36 countries and six continents! The speakers on the programme also represented an enormous geographical range: from Thailand to the Virgin Islands, from Mali to France, and from Fiji to Austria.

In his keynote address, Professor John Waiko, Minister of Education, Science and Culture of Papua New Guinea, drew attention to many aspects of the value of tradition. He referred to the tension between traditions and modern education. How, for instance, is it possible to adopt oral traditions and adapt to change without turning one’s back on cultural diversity? How can cultural competence be acquired to complement new skills, and how can scientific progress be assimilated? This is the context in which the challenges of the new information technologies must be integrated into national education systems in the next millennium.

Many speakers gave reports on the situation in their own country, region or institution. Dietrich Schüller (Austria) and Kevin Bradley (Australia) also conducted a complete course on how best to record and store sound.
(Sjoerd Koopman, coordinator of professional activities, IFLA)

The proceedings of the conference will be published on CD-ROM and can be obtained from the Academic Resource Center, Mahasarakham University, Maha Sarakham, 44000 Thailand. For more information:
IFLA Headquarters,
P.O. Box 95312,
2509 CH The Hague,
the Netherlands.
Tel.: +31-70-3140 884.
Fax: +31-70-3834 827.
E-mail: ifla@ifla.org

Land tenure models for Africa in the 21st century
The Hague (the Netherlands)
8-10 September 1999
This conference was co-hosted by the African Studies Centre (ASC) in Leiden (the Netherlands) and the World Resources Institute in Washington, D.C. (USA). It was sponsored by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Dutch donor agency HIVOS.

The aim of the conference was to bring together policy-makers and African specialists in resource management and land tenure to discuss Africa’s land problems and how they might be solved. The roughly 100 participants represented donor agencies, African and international NGOs, African policy-makers, and researchers. They talked about legal aspects, the relationship between land tenure and natural resource management, gender issues, and the resolution of conflicts over land.

In the keynote speech, John Bruce (Land Tenure Center, Madison, Wisconsin, USA) said that the previous preoccupation with degrees of private ownership has now shifted towards an interest in understanding indigenous tenure systems and then helping people to solve the problems they face. Subsequent presentations showed that policies often still follow the old prescriptive model, as a result of the paternalistic attitudes of governments or under the influence of donor agencies.

Several African researchers, including Madivamba Rukuni from Zimbabwe, reported having discovered that ‘African tenure systems are alive, not vague and romantic as we have been taught in the colonial schools.’ But, they said, there is still a need to understand traditional tenure systems better if we are to build viable new systems and draft effective legislation.

Alain Onibon (RNE-Cotonu, Benin) and Richard White (Botswana) showed that the ‘customary’ management of communal resources—a lake in Benin (based on religious rules and the authority of priests) and pastures in Botswana (based on group rules)—was at least as ecologically sustainable as management of the same resources by the state or individuals would be.

Many had to admit that emphasis on local knowledge and ‘customary’ tenure does not always solve conflicts over natural resources and may even aggravate such conflicts. Management under the authority of priests is a threat to the freedom of religion, according to Onibon. Han van Dijk (ASC, the Netherlands) argued on the basis of his research in Mali that decentralization and the official recognition of customary hierarchies sometimes encourages groups of people to emphasize their own identity and exclude other groups from resources. The Uganda Land Act of 1998, which gave recognition to customary tenure, also led to social upheaval between different ethnic groups and Rwandese immigrants.

The discussion was dominated by researchers and African policy-makers. A French-speaking representative of an NGO said: ‘I learned a lot about how researchers, donors and policy-makers think, but they still need to learn a lot about local practice. Local NGOs are at a disadvantage when trying to express themselves in an academic debate, especially if they are from French-speaking countries.’ Nevertheless, during this conference a hopeful start was made in getting policy-makers and academics to listen to what local practioners have to say.
(Dorothea Wartena, Wageningen University, Rural Development Sociology, the Netherlands)

For more information, and for a copy of the proceedings, please contact:
African Studies Centre,
P.O. Box 9555,
2300 RB Leiden,
the Netherlands
Tel.: +31-71-5273 396.
Fax: +31-71-5273 344.
E-mail: asc@fsw.leidenuniv.nl

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