IK Monitor Websites (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.

Related websites

Biodiversity, traditional medicine and plants
Links to interesting websites on biodiversity, traditional medicine and the use of medicinal plants can be found on the IK pages of Nuffic-CIRAN. For biodiversity, click first on 'topics', then on ‘biodiversity’, and then on ‘environment.natural resources’. For medicinal plants and traditional medicine, click first on 'topics', then on 'biology.food.health'. http://www.nuffic.nl/ik-pages/

IK and western science
An article well worth reading is called ‘MMS (Minerals Management Service) works to combine traditional knowledge and western science’. The article describes its efforts in Alaska to incorporate traditional knowledge into federal policy documents. http://www.mms.gov/alaska/native/tradknow/tk_mms2.htm

Potatoes
The website of the International Potato Center (CIP) offers a good starting point, with information on projects, resources, databases, publications and training—all related to growing potatoes. A Spanish version is also available. http://www.cipotato.org/ciphome.htm

Potatoes are a staple crop in the Peruvian Andes, a region characterized by several different altitude zones and considerable agricultural diversity. Farmers in the region have a long history of growing potatoes. This crop is cultivated during the rainy season on valley floors and hillsides, and during the dry season under irrigation. Peru is the focus of ILEIA research, which is featured on the website. The short description of a project by Marielle Dubbeling is especially interesting. http://www.oneworld.org/ileia/newsletters/13-4/13-4-36.pdf

IPM
Articles on pest control and integrated pest management (IPM) can also be found in the ILEIA newsletters.
Vol. 13, number 2: ‘Rejuvenate local knowledge’ http://www.oneworld.org/ileia/newsletters/newsl132.htm
Vol. 13, number 4: ‘Fighting back with IPM’ http://www.oneworld.org/ileia/newsletters/newsl134.htm

IK in the Arctic
CAFF, the Program for the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna, falls under the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy, which is directed towards conserving species and habitat, and is committed to integrate indigenous peoples and their knowledge into this effort. The work of CAFF is described here. It is grouped under several main themes, including habitat conservation, species conservation, and biodiverstity conservation in the Arctic region.
http://www.grida.no/caff/

The Inuit are the indigenous peoples of the Arctic region. The Inuit Circumpolar Conference was held on 15-17 November 1996. It brought together hunters, elders, researchers and resource managers to discuss the documentation and application of local knowledge. Recommendations were made for integrating the two ‘ways of knowing’: traditional indigenous knowledge and scientific knowledge.
http://www.grida.no/caff/n5_41i.htm
or http://www.inusiaat.com/tek.htm

Gateway to the Arctic, the International Arctic Environment Data Directory, provides an efficient and up-to-date service for locating and assessing sources of data and information about the Arctic environment.
http://www.grida.no/add/index.htm

Indigenous institutions and resource management
This is a very large bibliography of indigenous knowledge and institutions, which was compiled by Charlotte Hess. It has 1123 citations, fills 78 pages when printed, and is almost 293 KBytes to download. It contains no abstracts or links, and is dated December 1998. Although it is perhaps weak on Africa, it is interesting for a first start. http://www.indiana.edu/~workshop/wsl/indigbib.html

COMPAS: Intercultural dialogue on cosmovisions and agricultural development
This project focuses on the world view or 'cosmovision' of local communities. It studies how communities have organized themselves, and how they learn, experiment and adjust their way of life. In the first phase, local organizations studied the cosmovisions of farming communities in Ghana, amongst others.

http://www.nuffic.nl/ciran/ikdm/4-2/articles/haverkort.html

Soil and water conservation
On the IK pages of Nuffic-CIRAN, you will find websites on soil conservation and water conservation. Click on ‘topics' and then on 'environment.natural resources'. http://www.nuffic.nl/ik-pages/

Eldis is a gateway to online information on development in countries of the South. Its web pages on water deal with social, economic, political and environmental issues related to this resource. Eldis offers links to selected organizations, networks, full-text and bibliographic databases, discussion lists, directories of www resources, and regional sources. It also offers statistics, and lists of dams and rivers.
http://nt1.ids.ac.uk/eldis/water/water.htm

Agro-ecology
Agroecology Home is a website maintained by the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, a research and education group at the University of California, Santa Cruz. It is an information resource for developing sustainable agro-ecosystems. The Center emphasizes international training and research, and the application of agro-ecological science for solving real world problems. Interesting features on the website include case studies of agro-ecology in the field, a textbook on agro-ecology, and announcements of seminars and courses. The site also offers a search possibility and is available in Spanish. http://www.agroecology.org/