IK Monitor Editorial (7-3)

Indigenous Knowledge and Development Monitor, November 1999

Contents IK Monitor (7-3) | IKDM Homepage | Suggestions to: ikdm@nuffic.nl | © copyright Nuffic-CIRAN and contributors 1999.

Editorial

There are many ways in which sustainable development can be achieved, but this rich ecological and cultural diversity cannot be fully appreciated if we restrict our understanding to formal scientific concepts and methods. Our thinking on development must also proceed from indigenous knowledge systems and practices (IKSP). This is in line with the conclusion of the 1998 World Development Report that in the promotion of economic and social well-being, knowledge is as critical to development as are labour and capital.

Since 1993 Nuffic-CIRAN and the international Indigenous Knowledge and Development network have been active in raising the awareness of scientists, decision makers, educators, and the general public concerning the relevance of indigenous knowledge for development. There are many cases which demonstrate the valuable contribution of IKSP to locally manageable and cost-effective solutions to such problems as income generation, poverty alleviation, and simple survival. The potential contribution of IK to development has gradually been acknowledged by mainstream organizations, such as the World Bank, which launched its own Indigenous Knowledge and Development Initiative in 1998.

We are also witnessing a growing interest in indigenous knowledge on the part of scientists. Today virtually all disciplines call upon the knowledge bases of communities around the world. And these local communities in turn make use of insights drawn from the international knowledge system in their search for solutions to their development problems. This interactive flow of knowledge can reinforce efforts to come up with new paradigms for sustainable development. In this light, the news that UNESCO professionals Paul de Guchteneire and Douglas Nakashima present in their guest column is heartening indeed. The World conference on Science (Budapest, 26 June - 1 July 1999) recently established priorities for science in the 21st century, one of which is other knowledge systems. This opens the way to an era where there will be room for traditions and new insights that deserve to be taken as seriously as science, and, if proved reliable, to be implemented in the same way.

To concretize these concepts, let us look for a moment at some of the keywords in the field of sustainable development: ‘diversity’, ‘understanding’, ‘indigenous knowledge’, and ‘resource management’. It is significant that these keywords appear in the titles of the four articles in this issue. Authors Erdelen, Adimihardja, Sidik, and Moesdarsono explore biological diversity and advocate an integrated approach aimed at the sustainable use of Indonesia’s twofold wealth (see article). ‘ Understanding interactions between indigenous knowledge and scientific information’ is an interesting contribution by Oscar Ortiz from Peru, who presents a typology of cognitive interactions based on his work among potato growers in the Peruvian Andes (see article). The term ‘indigenous knowledge’ also plays a crucial role in the article by Henry P. Huntington and María E. Fernández-Giménez on the application of IK in the Arctic. Resource management is a major issue in all regions where the contribution of indigenous knowledge to sustainable development has been recognized. The Ashanti region of Ghana was selected by authors Hyma and Appiah-Opoku for their research project devoted to indigenous institutions. They show that such institutions are a promising ‘point of entry’ for local solutions designed to ensure sustainable resource management well into the next century (see article).