IK Monitor Publications (8-2)

Indigenous Knowledge and Development Monitor, July 2000

Contents IK Monitor (8-2) | IKDM Homepage | Suggestions to: ikdm@nuffic.nl | © copyright Nuffic-CIRAN and contributors 2000.

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IMPORTANT NEW BOOKS:

The appearance of important new publications is reported here, and the books are briefly described. We have requested review copies, which will be sent to experts for their opinions regarding the books' practical usefulness. The reviewers' comments will be published in a subsequent issue of the Indigenous Knowledge and Development Monitor.

SNV Netherlands Development Organisation and AIDEnvironment (Advice and Research for Development and Environment) (1999) SEAN Toolbox. Contains: Booklet with theoretical background to Strategic Environmental Analysis (SEAN); Case study Strategic Environmental Analysis; Process cards * SEAN graphs. ISBN 90-802916-7-6. EUR50. Order from: SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, Bezuidenhoutseweg 161, 2594 AG The Hague, the Netherlands.
Fax: +31-70-385 5531.
E-mail: informatie@snv.nl

Strategic Environmental Analysis (SEAN) is a comprehensive and practical method for incorporating environmental issues into development processes at an early stage. The method has been developed by SNV Netherlands Development Organisation in collaboration with AIDEnvironment (Advice and Research for Development and Environment). SEAN provides the structure for a participatory process that makes the relationships between environment and development visible. There was a need for a new method that would provide a development-oriented environmental analysis on the basis of which development efforts could be designed. The new method explicitly takes into acount all three dimensions of sustainable development: ecological, economic and socio-institutional. Moreover, the new method deals with not only problems and obstacles but also opportunities.

After two years of field trials in western and eastern Africa at various levels of decision-making-municipal, district, regional, national, etc.--the SEAN method is now ready for further refinement. The toolbox presents concrete guidelines and tools that enable potential users to apply the method with less outside assistance than has been possible up to now. The strengths and weaknesses of the method are illustrated by a case study involving the development of a strategic plan for the Province of Atacora in Bénin. The toolbox is structured as a set of educational cards which practitioners can use when applying SEAN in their own situation.
The SEAN Toolbox has seven parts:

A presentation of SEAN and the toolbox (available in PDF format on the website at http://www.seanplatform.org/products/toolbox/index.html)
Educational cards on the SEAN method and its steps
Educational cards on the SEAN process phases
Educational cards on checklists
A SEAN case study
A booklet with the theoretical background to SEAN
Copies of overhead sheets that can be used during workshops.

Sillitoe, Paul (ed.) (2000) Indigenous knowledge development in Bangladesh. Present and future. IT Studies in indigenous knowledge and development. xvi + 243 pp. ISBN 1-85339-518-8. GBP15.95. Intermediate Technology Publications Limited, 103-105 Southampton Row, London, WC1B 4HH, UK.
Fax: +44-20-7436-2013.
E-mail: itpubs@itpubs.org.uk
http://www.oneworld.org/itdg/publications.html

This book is the valuable result of the first national workshop held in Bangladesh on the subject of indigenous knowledge. The workshop was organized by the Bangladesh Resource Centre for Indigenous Knowledge (BARCIK) and took place in 1998. The majority of the contributions now published were first presented at that workshop. The book has five parts, four of which reflect the rich variety of indigenous knowledge in Bangladesh: (1) Indigenous knowledge and development issues; (2) Indigenous knowledge and agroforestry; (3) Indigenous knowledge and plant resources; and (4) Indigenous knowledge and fish resources. Part 5 deals with indigenous knowledge and methodological issues. This part will be of particular interest to anyone engaged in indigenous knowledge (IK) research and extension. The editor, Paul Sillitoe, first defines terms; S.B. Naseem discusses conflicts and complimentarity in IK and agricultural research; and J.J.F. Barr with Paul Sillitoe examine the issue of databases, IK and interdisciplinary research. There are three more contributions in Part 5. The book is concluded with analysis of the Bangladesh Resource Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and its network, which was written by BARCIK director Sukanta Sen, Ben Angell, and Anna Miles.

Barrera-Bassols, N. and J.A. Zinck (2000) Ethnopedology in a worldwide perspective. An annotated bibliography. ITC Publications No. 77. 636 pp. ISBN 90-6164-1772. NLG50 plus postage and packaging. Discount for students who send a copy of their student card. (Please inquire about the exact price.) International Insititute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Sciences (ITC), P.O. Box 6, 7500 AA Enschede, the Netherlands.
Fax: +31-53-487 4400.

Ethnopedology is the study of what local people know about the soil. The aim is to understand indigenous perceptions of the soil and indigenous approaches to its classification and appraisal. The publication is an exhaustive compilation of abstracts of books and papers on the subject. It is the first bibliographic review of its kind, offering over 900 references to works dealing with how indigenous peoples and other local rural populations perceive and manage soil and land resources. It can serve as an invaluable guide to the literature for consultants, planners, researchers, extension agents, policy makers, rural populations, and anyone else interested in local perspectives on land resource management and land-use planning.

The case studies feature approximately 200 ethnic groups in over 100 countries of Africa, America, Asia, Europe and the Pacific. Most are derived from three of the most fragile ecological zones in the world: the tropical humid lowlands, the arid and semi-arid lowlands, and the cold and dry highlands.

The document is organized geographically--by continent, region, country, state, and community--but it contains five cross-referenced indexes for helping readers to find what they are looking for. The document can thus be searched by author, ethnic group or rural population, geographical location, theme or subject, and ecological zone.

Some of the main topics covered are:

soil fertility management at the local level;
local soil and land classification systems, including studies that compare local and scientific systems;
research that integrates local soil use and management for local planning;
the integration of ethnopedological surveys and soil survey for soil mapping;
the integration of local soil knowledge into rapid rural appraisals and participatory research;
the integration of local soil knowledge and land management with on-farm experimentation.