A case for Indigenous Knowledge in Environmental Management

Benji Gyampoh during a research on IK in climate change Adaptation

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a report (January 2014) titled “A Decade of Tribal Environmental Research: Results and Impacts from EPA’s Extramural Grants and Fellowships Programs”. This report caught my attention as soon as I heard of it. It highlights the accomplishments and impacts of more than a decade of supporting Tribal Environmental Research. The report is available for download at www.epa.gov/ncer/tribalresearch.

The findings of this report, once again, confirms the importance of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) in Environmental Management. I have constantly advocated the need for more research into IK in climate change adaptation and I am happy that this report also makes a very strong case for IK in environmental management.

Dr James H. Johnson, Jr., Director of the National Center for Environmental Research, Office of Research and Development of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency observes that “American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities have been tied inextricable to their environments for millennia. Because of their reliance on natural resources to maintain traditional diets, life ways, customs and languages, there is a unique need for tribal-focused research to identify the impacts of pollution, dietary exposures, cumulative risks and climate change, as well as to inform decisions to reduce health risks in these areas.”

The US EPA established the Tribal Environmental Health Research Program in 2000 through the Science To Achieve Results (STAR) grants and fellowships programs. This is the kind of primary research that is very commendable and many countries must take a cue from this. A people can only truly develop scientifically when they master the knowledge already around them. Since its inception, the Tribal Environmental Health Research Program has funded 10 STAR grants for tribal environmental health research, many of which are conducted on tribal lands by researchers from tribal colleges and universities. 

EPA’s STAR tribal research can be categorized by five themes:

1.         Cultural practices, language and traditional ecological knowledge.
2.         Subsistence foods and water resources.
3.         Community-based participatory research (CBPR) and community outreach and education.
4.         Risk assessment and incorporating sensitive populations.
5.         Impacts on regulations and management plans.

This highly commendable programme by the US EPA has yielded key data, tools, products, methods and knowledge. The use of such knowledge discovered can help to better define and reduce the health risks faced by tribal populations, protect natural resources essential to cultural and spiritual practices, and supports ecological knowledge and tribal practices for protecting and preserving the earth for future generations.

One important lesson to take from this report, “A Decade of Tribal Environmental Research: Results and Impacts from EPA’s Extramural Grants and Fellowships Programs” teaches is the importance of using research data in making informed decisions. It is not just enough to put money in research because there is a cry for investment in research and development. It is crucial that the knowledge discovered or produced from such research is used for the benefit of the society. According to the EPA report, “results from STAR grants and fellowships have influenced State and tribal regulations and management plans. For example, the states of Washington and Oregon have used STAR data to reexamine and revise their state water quality standards. These revisions offer greater protection of tribal populations whose cultural practices and traditional lifeways could result in higher exposures to water contaminants. The Cherokee Nation used results from research by a STAR fellow to design its Tribal Integrated Resource Management Plan for natural resource planning and management on Cherokee lands.

This is a way to go!

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INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE

"Upon the whole I am inclined to think that the far greater part, if not all of those difficulties, which have hitherto amused philosophers, and blocked up the way to knowledge, are entirely owing to our selves. That we have raised a dust, and then complain that we cannot see" -- George Berkeley

After the December 2004 tsunami off the coast of Indonesia, calls multiplied for high-technology solutions (installation of early warning systems using cutting-edge satellite and ocean buoy technologies) to prevent similar disastrous occurrences. Then news began to circulate about how indigenous communities had escaped the tsunami’s wrath by using their traditional knowledge. This drew attention to the importance of traditional knowledge to natural disaster preparedness and response. Unfortunately, this knowledge system is still not being utilized very much in adapting to climate change.

Traditional knowledge (TK), indigenous knowledge (IK), traditional environmental knowledge (TEK) and local knowledge generally refer to the long-standing traditions and practices of certain regional, indigenous, or local communities. It is "a cumulative body of knowledge, know-how, practices and representations maintained and developed by peoples with extended histories of interaction with the natural environment. Indigenous people that live close to natural resources often observe the activities around them and are the first to identify and adapt to any changes. The appearance of certain birds, mating of certain animals and flowering of certain plants are all important signals of changes in time and seasons that are well understood in traditional knowledge systems. Why are we not tapping this useful knowledge?

Whilst encouraging efforts at ensuring efficient and effective early warning systems, in data and resource poor areas with low technology and infrastructure for early warning systems, the role of traditional knowledge in building the adaptive capacity of vulnerable groups is crucial. Societies are governed by norms, values and belief which, to a large extent, determine the kind of adjustments made in natural and or human systems in response to actual or expected climate stimuli. Various studies (check http://www.fao.org/docrep/011/i0670e/i0670e14.htm) reveal that in the absence of modern scientific knowledge, traditional communities, with their substantial understanding of what goes on in their environment, have always made adjustments to ensure sustenance of their livelihoods using local indicators for predicting weather such as flowering of plants, animal sounds and movement, birds and insects.

A recent study I was involved in in Ghana showed that indigenous knowledge plays significant role in coping/adaptation strategies of the local people. Despite a wider awareness of scientific weather forecasts by the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet), most farmers did not plan their activities based on the weather forecast; the major reason being that they found the GMet forecasts to be less reliable and also too general, rather than being tailored to their specific communities. Rather, they relied on their own knowledge for predicting the weather. This underscores the usefulness of traditional knowledge in weather prediction and preparation for any unfavourable condition.

I must admit that some of the indigenous knowledge seems weird on first hearing but it works for the people! Trying to understand the science behind some of the indigenous knowledge will be a great step towards unraveling some of the mysteries surrounding them. I suggest that to build the adaptive capacity of such rural indigenous vulnerable communities to climate change will need long term studies to validate the traditional knowledge and incorporate them into scientific knowledge systems for effective adaptation strategies. The traditional knowledge systems are widely accepted by the people and it offers readily available and significant opportunities for integration into climate change adaptation programmes. Could the weather forecasts from the Ghana Meteorological Agency which some indigenous rural farmers consider too general and as such unreliable be downscaled using the validated indigenous knowledge? This is surely a step in the right direction.

"To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge" -- Henry David Thoreau

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