IK Monitor Websites (9-3)

Indigenous Knowledge and Development Monitor, November 2001

Contents IK Monitor (9-3) | IKDM Homepage | Suggestions to: ikdm@nuffic.nl | © copyright Nuffic-CIRAN and contributors 2001.

Websites

In this feature we recommend websites that deal with the subjects treated in this issue of the Indigenous Knowledge and Development Monitor. CIRAN's information specialists have searched the Internet for relevant, useful pages. Sometimes the sites offer background information, other times the information is supplementary.

Indigenous hydrological knowledge

Ethiopian Wetlands Research Programme This site describes the University of Huddersfield's research programme on wetlands.
http://wetlands.hud.ac.uk/ewrp.htm

The Convention on Wetlands was signed in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971. It is an intergovernmental treaty which provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.
http://www.ramsar.org
The Ramsar site offers guidelines for establishing and strengthening local communities' participation in the management of wetlands: http://www.ramsar.org/key_guide_indigenous.htm. It also offers a handbook called Establishing and strengthening local communities' and indigenous people's participation in the management of wetlands. The handbook has an annex: Case Studies on Local and Indigenous People's Involvement in Wetland Management.
http://ramsar.org/wurc_handbook5e_cases.htm

Zambezi Basin Wetlands The Zambesi Basin Wetlands Conservation and Resource Utilization Project (ZBWCRUP) was mounted in response to recognition on the part of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) that widespread deterioration of wetlands has occurred which is harmful both ecologically and economically. The project to improve resource management practices is now in its second phase. The site describes the major achievements up to 2000. Among other things, 55 communities in the pilot areas have adopted improved practices that incorporate indigenous knowledge.
http://www.iucn.org/themes/wetlands/zambezi.html

Communal rangelands of Namibia

New project by one of the authors: The value of indigenous knowledge for range management development in pastoral livestock systems. A case study on the Borana lowlands in Southern Ethiopia. The site contains details and related literature on this new project of Sabine Homann, of Göttingen University.
http://www.gwdg.de/~uatr/productn/prod48en.htm

The hidden gifts of nature Online version of the book by Sigrid Leger (1997). The site and the book offer descriptions of the current use of plants in West Bushmanland (Namibia). There is an entry for silver terminalia (Terminalia sericea), but not for Boscia albitrunca.
http://www.sigridleger.de/book/index.html Website with brief information about the value and various uses of shepherd's tree (witgat in Afrikaans) (Boscia albitrunca), plus a thumbnail image of an original oil painting by the artist Louw Pretorius.
http://www.louw.co.za/witgat.htm

Living with uncertainty New directions in pastoral development in Africa. Book edited by Ian Scoones (1994). In the last few years there has been a major rethinking of some of the hallowed assumptions of range ecology and range management practice. This book examines the implications of this new ecological thinking for policy related to pastoral development in dryland areas. The book can be ordered online.
http://www.styluspub.com/books/book2683.html

Farmer's local knowledge in extension, research and development

Uluguru Mountains Agricultural Development Project (UMADEP) The further development of indigenous technologies generally suffers from a weak link between the documentation of useful knowledge and practices and the dissemination of that information to farmers. To fill the gap, the UMADEP has been working with local farmers first to document their knowledge of natural crop protection and then to spread this knowledge to other farmers in the Uluguru Mountains. The project makes use of interesting, locally relevant educational materials and includes training workshops led by farmers.
http://www.fao.org/sd/2001/PE0404a_en.htm

Local knowledge utilization in the 21st century

Accessing information on IK via the Internet Various online databases contain useful information. A first step towards finding many of them is to visit Nuffic's IK Pages, which offers links to relevant information on indigenous knowledge.
http://www.nuffic.nl/ik-pages/

The World Bank's Database of Indigenous Knowledge and Practices provides quick access to a collection of indigenous or traditional practices. The site is interactive, offering possibilities to contribute new cases and to make comments. All practices are summarized, but references to more detailed descriptions of the practices are given for those who want more information.
http://www.worldbank.org/afr/ik/datab.htm

Database of Best Practices on Indigenous Knowledge The Centre for International Research and Advisory Networks (CIRAN) has established this database in cooperation with UNESCO's Management of Social Transformations Programme (MOST). It is part of the MOST Clearing House database of Best Practices http://www.unesco.org/most/bphome.htm, which concentrates on poverty alleviation. The IK best practices are examples of successful projects that have used indigenous knowledge for the development of cost-effective and sustainable survival strategies. The practices are from Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. The database features geographical and thematic indexes and an index of institutions. Best Practice number 8 has resulted, among other things, in a database of the indigenous food plants of Kenya.
http://www.unesco.org/most/bpik8.htm

Ethnobotanical Resource Directory. This site is maintained by the Centre for International Ethnomedicinal Education and Research (CIEER), a non-profit organization which aims to establish a focal point for the exchange of ethnomedicinal knowledge and to establish an international network of ethnobotanical researchers. The resource directory offers more than 150 links in 12 categories and provides access to the ethnobotanical research and documentation available on the Internet. http://www.cieer.org/directory.html

Data Bank "PRELUDE" Traditional veterinary medicine. Bilingual (French/English) online database
http://pc4.sisc.ucl.ac.be/prelude/sommaire_ang.html

Local curriculum development in Thailand

'Emergent Design and learning environments: Building on indigenous knowledge', by D. Cavallo. Paper based on a two-year project to bring new learning environments and methodologies to rural Thailand. Pilot projects were mounted outside of the education system, with the specific purpose of breaking 'educational mind-sets' that have been identified as blocks to educational reform. An example of such a mind-set: the assumption that the population and teachers of rural areas lack the cognitive foundations for modern technological education.
http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj/393/part2/cavallo.html

'Can participatory land-use planning at community level in the highlands of northern Thailand use GIS as a communication tool?' Paper presented by Oliver Puginer at an international conference in Chiang Mai, 6-7 June 2001. Natural resources were classified and mapped at village level through a participatory process conducted in three villages of Mae Hong Son province. The ultimate aim was to improve the sustainable use of land, water and forests; to rehabilitate watershed catchment areas; and to achieve intensified agricultural production on suitable land.
http://www.iapad.org/participatory_landuse_planning_in_northern_thailand.htm