Indigenous People “Vis-à-vis” Participatory Natural Resource Management (original) (raw)

Environmental Conservation: Espousing Indigenous Knowledge System as a Model for Caring for the Earth

2012

The earth is presently experiencing dramatic changes in both social and physical environments; consequent upon this, the human race is faced with grave environmental problems and challenges. Towards the resolution of these grave environmental problems, indigenous knowledge has been cited as an important approach for shaping value, orientations, social action and in mobilizing people (including indigenous peoples), to be interested in our environment, to learn about it as well as taking action to protect and preserve it. This is because indigenous people and their communities have an historical relationship with their lands and are generally descendants of the original inhabitants of such lands. As a result, they have developed over many generations a broad knowledge of how to live sustainably. In this paper, efforts are made to establish the potentials of indigenous ways of knowledge as a coherent and potent approach towards promoting sustainable living and environmental sustainabil...

Conservation Links and Gaps between Scientific Knowledge and Indigenous People

2015

Biodiversity provides immense economic benefits to humans. Conservation of biodiversity to meet the aspirations of the present and future generations is a basis for sustainable development. Due to rapid industrialization in the 20th century, the damage to biodiversity and the potential strategies to reverse the trend was worked by ecologists and conservationists. Yet, the means to reverse the degradation of natural heritage way is still lacking, and the way to reverse and sustain biodiversity conservation is challenging. Hence, such challenge requires collective and urgent efforts at local, national, regional and international levels. Effective local participation between communities and governmental agencies provides a unique possibility for achieving long-term sustainability of conservation activities. Indigenous people participation enables local knowledge, skills and resources to be mobilized and fully employed. Local people play very important role in conservation of biodiversi...

The role of Indigenous peoples and local communities in effective and equitable conservation

Ecology and Society, 2021

Debate about what proportion of the Earth to protect often overshadows the question of how nature should be conserved and by whom. We present a systematic review and narrative synthesis of 169 publications investigating how different forms of governance influence conservation outcomes, paying particular attention to the role played by Indigenous peoples and local communities. We find a stark contrast between the outcomes produced by externally controlled conservation, and those produced by locally controlled efforts. Crucially, most studies presenting positive outcomes for both well-being and conservation come from cases where Indigenous peoples and local communities play a central role, such as when they have substantial influence over decision making or when local institutions regulating tenure form a recognized part of governance. In contrast, when interventions are controlled by external organizations and involve strategies to change local practices and supersede customary institutions, they tend to result in relatively ineffective conservation at the same time as producing negative social outcomes. Our findings suggest that equitable conservation, which empowers and supports the environmental stewardship of Indigenous peoples and local communities represents the primary pathway to effective long-term conservation of biodiversity, particularly when upheld in wider law and policy. Whether for protected areas in biodiversity hotspots or restoration of highly modified ecosystems, whether involving highly traditional or diverse and dynamic local communities, conservation can become more effective through an increased focus on governance type and quality, and fostering solutions that reinforce the role, capacity, and rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities. We detail how to enact progressive governance transitions through recommendations for conservation policy, with immediate relevance for how to achieve the next decade's conservation targets under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.

Issue paper on indigenous peoples prepared by the indigenous peoples task force to the Global Environment Facility (GEF)

2011

Twenty years ago, the GEF was established to provide grants to developing countries and countries with economies in transition for projects aimed at the protection of the global environment and to promote environmental sustainable development. Following the successful United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, often referred to as the ‘Earth Summit’ held in 1992 at Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, the GEF was restructured and made the funding mechanism for the different conventions arising from the Rio conference. This issues paper presents for the GEFSEC and the GEF council both: (a) the principles on which such an indigenous peoples’ policy could rest, including the key protections and aspirations proposed to be contained in the policy document and; (b) the required mechanisms to ensure its effective and smooth implementation across the wide diversity of GEF projects and agencies. This paper also provides references to additional guidance documents that exist and which shoul...

Promoting Indigenous Knowledge Systems for Sustainable Environmental Resources Management

2017

Though population changes have been noted to have effects on the state of the environment; the initiatives adopted to mitigate these eco-imbalances are still not in tandem with sustainable environmental development. This is reflected in the lack of significant eco-behaviour change by the populace, which at the same time has revealed strong attachment to their environment reflected in different cultural practices that were pro-environmental. This suggests that the ills of climate change are not foreign to different inhabitants, but rather they are historical phenomena that communities constantly struggled to mitigate. The paper argues for the employment of indigenous environment protection methods as the only sustainable solution to the ever complicated eco-challenges. Also, it advocates for the need of specific environmental projects/programmes to be organised in such a way as to suit specific geographical locations so as to accommodate the necessary indigenous environmental knowled...

Environmental management within the indigenous perspective

Masyarakat, Kebudayaan dan Politik, 2018

The environment (nature) is one of the most important aspects of life that needs to be considered when referring to and regarding sustainable development. This article aims to describe environmental management based on local knowledge using the case study conducted focusing on Mbatakapidu. The environment, which is a space for people to create a sustainable livelihood, is increasingly being disturbed by the acts of humanity itself. However, we cannot deny that in addition to these conditions, there are still local communities that always strive to create a balance between human and the environment. One of them is a local community in Mbatakapidu. This study used a qualitative approach with a case study perspective. The data collection was done by conducting in-depth interviews with the informants. The six informants were determined purposively. The results of this study show that people of Mbatakapidu trust that there are spirits who inhabit the springs and forests. This is a form o...