Learning from Local Knowledge

    When an Environmental Justice issue arises amongst a community, often times the members of that community feel like they do not have a strong enough voice to make a difference. At the same time, the experts and professionals who speak to these community members communicate through technical/statistical jargon that does not meet the concerns of those who are affected the most. Local passiveness can be a by-product of seemingly politically-oriented discussions that overshadow the importance of local knowledge, therefore communities have a difficult time expressing themselves with the knowledge that exists amongst themselves.  From a more global perspective, it is important to note that not all countries are at the same level of economic development and no set of rules can apply to all. That's why it's vital to include the perspectives of local knowledge systems.

    We might note that Western ideologies, although they may work for our society, may not work for a totally different system of political and economic ideologies. A simple example exists in the article "Learning from African Knowledge" in the form of a contest. The International Fund for Agricultural Development held an international contest of grassroot innovations in 70 countries in the hopes to illustrate to the experts out there who only listen to statistical data that place-based local knowledge should be strong considered when dealing with EJ issues.

    The winner of this contest, Auta Gravetas, is a farmer from Uganda who discovered that lantana camara leaves help to maintain the shelf-life of sweet potato slices, a stable food for those who do not have a lot of money. The author emphasizes the importance: "Neither lantana camara was indigenous nor had the knowledge been transferred by one generation to another over centuries. The way of knowing was traditional - by observing an odd phenomenon, discriminating, abstracting, hypothesising, testing and developing a robust rule or technology." This traditional knowledge that led to an agricultural award for Auta, exists as a proven low-cost solution to a common problem that traditional institutions could not solve, "the knowledge developed by an individual and/or by a community over a long period of time or in recent past at grassroot-level is something that we need to learn from." Auta and his award should be a good example of how local knowledge is just as important as statistical knowledge and should be strong considered as development is a "two way street."

For the complete article click: http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column_learning-from-african-knowledge-and-innovations_1658361