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ASSESSING THE ROLE OF INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS AND PRACTICES IN CLIMATE CHANGE RESILIENCE ENHANCEMENT AMONG COMMUNITIESADJACENT TO FORESTS, CASE OF KAKAMEGA.
A PROPOSAL SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI IN PARTIAL/FULFILLMENT OF THE MASTERS OF SCIENCE DEGREE IN ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE
LILIAN SARAH NAMUMA KONG’ANI, BSC. KU
A60/74990/2014
WANGARI MAATHAI INSTITUTE FOR PEACE AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES.
SUPERVISORS’ NAMES:
SIGNATURES:
DATE OF SUBMISSION OF PROPOSAL 13TH MARCH, 2015
Table of Contents
i.ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS
1.0INTRODUCTION
2.0STATEMENT OF RESEARCH PROBLEM
1.General Objective:
2.Specific Objectives:
3.0SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS
4.0JUSTIFICATION
5.0LITERATURE REVIEW
1.Benefits of indigenous knowledge systems and practices
2.Important features of IKSs relevant for enhancing climate change resilience.
3.Impacts of climate change to communities adjacent to forests
6.0MATERIALS AND METHODS
1.Study Area
2.Experimental Design and Research Materials
7.0REFERENCES
8.0APPENDICES
1.Work Plan
2.Budget
i.ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS
ASALs: Arid and Semi-Arid Lands
FAO: Food and Agriculture Organization
IKSs: Indigenous Knowledge Systems
IPCC: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
IPFCC: International Peoples Forum on Climate Change
MEMR: Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources’
NCCRS: National Climate Change Response Strategy
NEMA: National Environmental Management Authority
UNDRIP: United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
UNECD: United Nations Environment and Development
UNED: United Nations Environment and Development
UNFCCC: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
1.0INTRODUCTION
The consequences of climate change are increasingly devastating for millions of people across the globe.Without the joint and concerted efforts of both the developed and the less developed countries to halt climate change, its impacts are bound to continue. This can squarely be tied to the current growth rates of the world’s population with increased demand for the already scarce forestresources and ever evolving technologies with low carbon emissions consciousness.Matthews, H.D. et al. (2012) & IPCC, (2007). High temperatures will continue to bring more droughts and the spread of heat-related infectious diseases, forest fires,change in precipitation and the resulting losses of homes, jobs and food. The poor are most hit hardest by these far reaching effects of climate change. They have the fewest resources and the least capacity to prepare for, plan for and enhance climate change resilience.
Indigenous knowledge systems and practices’contributions to enhancement of resilience towards climate change is critical and it has been documented in the scientific and grey literature in many domains although little has been done to capturethe local knowledge amongst communities adjacent to forests. Many indigenous and local communities are situated in areas where the vast majority of the world’s genetic resources are found like in the dry lands and evenforests.Where they have cultivated and used biological diversity in sustainable way for thousands of years.Some of their practices play important role in the way forest adjacent communities interact with their climate in many countries across the globe and have been proven to enhance and promote climate change resilience at the local level and aid in weather forecasting and preservation of vital ecosystem functions that help to buffer communities against climate change impacts.
Indigenous knowledge can be understand as the institutionalized local knowledge that has been built upon and passed on from one generation to another orally,Osunade, M.A. (1994). It is the basis for local level decision making in many rural communities and those adjacent to forests. Indigenous knowledge systems has value that goes beyond the culture in which it evolves to scientists and even planners striving to improve conditions in rural localities and also enhance resilience to climate change among forest adjacent communities Warren, (1991). The knowledge set is influenced by the previous generations’ observations and experiment and provides an inherent connection to one’s surroundings and environment. Theyare thereforetransferable and provides relationships that connect people directly to the environments and the changes that occur within it, including climate change, Woodley, E. (1991).
Integrating indigenous knowledge systems and practices into climate change resilience enhancementprograms/policies can lead to development of effective adaptation strategies that are cost-effective, participatory and sustainable, Hunn, E. (1993) & Robison, J. et. al. (2001). Climate change resilience among communities adjacent to forests refers to their capacity to dynamically and effectively respond to fluctuating climate impact situations while continuing to function at an acceptable level. This may also simply mean their ability to survive and recover form effects of climate change which include; the ability to understand potential impacts and taking appropriate actions before, during and after a particular effect to minimize negative consequences and maintain the ability to respond to changing conditions Parry, M.L. et al. Eds. (2007).
IKS and practices therefore plays critical role in enhancing climate change resilience among communities adjacent to Kakamega forestthrough its ability to enable them adopt efficient environmental resources management practices such as selective harvesting of trees to preserve young ones, ability to identify and protect trees with medicinal values, collection of dry woods for fuel wood and even jealously guarding sacred trees and dependence on non-wood forest products for livelihoods inter lia.
Kakamega forest is the country’s main rainforest which is distinguishably rich in biodiversity which are threatened by agricultural encroachment and other forms of human activities. Over 50% of the forest has been occupied by the surrounding community in the last decades of the 20th century although the forest was officially gazetted for protection in 1933, Kokwaro (1988).The communities adjacent to Kakamega forest not only depend on it as their sources of sustenance and livelihoods but also as basis of their identities, cultures, knowledge systems, practices and social organizations which enables sources of resilience to climate change.
2.0STATEMENT OF RESEARCH PROBLEM
The importance of indigenous knowledge has been realized in the design and implementation of sustainable development projects but little has been done to incorporate this into formal climate change resilience strategies. It has how been recognized that IKSs and practices are critical in ecological resource management and are valuable to generating information vital to understanding the conditions ecological resources and particularly forests that enables communities adjacent to them to buffer from the impacts of climate change.
It is however, regrettable that often IKSs and practices have been ignored while formulating policies for conserving and restoring the ecological sites and most importantly into climate change resilience enhancement policies which have potential of leading to development of effective adaption strategies that are cost effective, participatory and sustainable, Hunn, E. (1993) & Robison, J. et. al. (2001).
It is common to overlook that the traditionalists and communities around forest ecosystems possess more valuable indigenous wisdom to nurture natural resources in an effective way and inturn buffer themselves from effects of climate change. IKSs and practices provide experiences and knowledge to exploit and enhance climate change resilience.
The hidden value and role of IKSs and practices in enhancing climate change resilience among communities adjacent to forests has little been explored and utilized as a sustainable development component by academicians and development practitioners. They are unfortunately being exterminated by discriminatory laws and policies formulated in quest for development. They are now disappearing swiftly as the populations continue to skyrocket with increased competition and overreliance on the endangered forests and overlooking what is perceived as barbaric means for survival.
Besides, while there is a growing knowledge about the impacts of climate change on species and ecosystems, the understanding about the potential impacts of climate change on livelihoods and cultures of communities adjacent to forests is fragmented.Furthermore, there is a lack of recognition of the importance which IKSs and practices may play in enabling communities adjacentto forests’ future enhancement to climate change resilience. This is well demonstrated in the case of Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC Working Group II, (2007) on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability in that there is little mention of the role and situation of IKSs and practices in the context of adaptation to and mitigation of climate change and enhancing resilience. The vulnerability of forests to climate change is also already becoming more evident hence IKSs and practices in managing forests is thus a key factor in tackling adverse climatic impacts and enhancing resilience among communities adjacent to forests.
1.General Objective:
- It is on the basis of these issues that the general objective of this study is to understand the role of indigenous knowledge systems and practices in enhancing climate change resilience among communities adjacent to forests, case of Kakamega.
2.Specific Objectives:
- To identify indigenous knowledge systems and practices among communities adjacent to forests.
- To determine the potential climate change impacts on the communities adjust to forests.
- To analyze the role and impacts of indigenous knowledge systems and practices in enhancing resilience to climate change among communities adjacent to Kakamega forest.
3.0SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS
This study will seek to use both primary and secondary data to identify indigenous knowledge systems and practices that communities adjacent to Kakamega forest have generated, held and passed on from one generation to another and how they have used the same in adaption, mitigation and enhancing climate change resilience. The target group may be extended to key stakeholders working closely with communities adjacent to the forest in its management thus contributing towards enhancing climate change resilience. The results from the sampled population may be used to inform development of the climate change resilience policies or programs. The study may encounter constraints such as eroding indigenous knowledge systems and practices considering that human population is growing at a neck breaking speed thus increasing demand for the already scarce forest products thus inhibiting maximum application of IKSs and practices. The communities adjacent to forests are however, highly dependent on it for sustenance and therefore must be using some local knowledge to meet this goal in turn contribute towards enhancing climate change resilience.
4.0JUSTIFICATION
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report published in early 2007 confirmed that global climate change is already happening. It established that the communities who live in marginallands and whose livelihoods are highly dependent on natural resources are among the most vulnerable to climate change. This includes the indigenous peoples and communities adjacent to forest resources. These people have however, been long exposed to many kinds of environmental changes and therefore nurtured indigenous knowledge systems and practices as their strategies for coping with, mitigating and enhancing resilience to natural disasters including climate change.
According to Macchi, M. et al. (2008), these knowledge systems and practices are however threatened considering that the potential impacts of climate change on the livelihoods and cultures of indigenous and communities adjacent to forests remain poorly known thus undermining their role in enhancing climate change resilience.
The United Nations declaration on the Rights of indigenous peoples is a significant development as it affirms the importance of the role of indigenous knowledge systems and practices held by the indigenous people and definitely communities adjacent to forests.Much attention and focus has always been in enhancing climate change resilience in the arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) and it is therefore in the interest of these dynamics that this study seeks to identify and analyze the role of IKSsand practices in enhancing climate change resilience among communities adjacent to forests.
5.0LITERATURE REVIEW
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimated in 1980 that world forests were disappearing at the alarming rate of nearly 114,000 square kilometers a year. The FAO, (1992) indicated that the rates at which forests were disappearing had increased by nearly 54% while the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992 demonstrated interest in the contribution ofIKSs and practices to enable better understanding of sustainable development, UNED (1991). The UNCED underlined the urgent need for developing mechanisms to protect the earth’s biological diversity through local knowledge. It was at this juncture that many documents signed reflected on the need to conserve the eroding IKSs and practices of the environment which the local communities that generated them were struggling to protect. The World Conference on Science in Budapest in 1999 also recommended that scientific and traditional knowledge be integrated in interdisciplinary projects dealing with links between culture, environment and development in areas such as the conservation of biodiversity, management of natural resources and understanding of natural hazards like climate change and mitigation of their impacts.
However, the verbal nature of the IKSs contributes to their invisibility to the development of communities and modern science. Indigenous knowledge has often been dismissed as unsystematic thus failure to capture and systematically store making its extinction inevitable. According to the World Bank (1997), indigenous knowledge is unique to a given community, culture or society and therefore, communities use it at the local level as basis for decision making pertaining to food security, education, natural resources management, climate change adaption, mitigation and resilience inter lia. It is however, unfortunate that there is little record of such knowledge yet it represents hugely valuable information that demonstrates how communities interact with their changing environment and its consequences. The entire globe has been rendered vulnerable to devastating threats of climate change, global warming, loss of biodiversity and desertification by unprecedented deforestation. IKSs and management practices have however, stood the test of time by embodying the knowledge of a particular ecosystem accumulated over several generations,World Bank (1997).
According to Kirsty, G.M. (2012), resilience amongst the indigenous communities is rooted in their traditional knowledge and practices which enables them adapt to environmental change based on their understanding of their surroundings. To respond, adapt and withstand the increasing effects of climate change, the communities adjacent to forest resources use their IKSs and practices in exclusive ways.Through a statement to the Conference of Parties to the United NationsFramework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the International Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IPFCC) reiterated that there was need to recognize IKSs and practices which have been used sustainably and practiced from one generation to another. This knowledge is a critical contribution towards adaption and mitigation of climate change as well as enhancing resilience and it has been reinforced by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The Declaration guarantee the rights of Indigenous peoples to enjoy and practice their cultures, customs, religions,languages and to develop and strengthen their economies and their social and political institutions.
The attachment of communities adjacent to forests plays important role in enhancing climate change resilience. IKSs and practices amongst them are locally enhanced to enable adaption and communities’ resilience to climate change.The forests not only are sources of sustenance and livelihoods for communities adjacent to them but are also the basis of their identities, cultures, knowledge systems and practices and social organizations. Thus, they continue to sustainably use, conserve and protect the forests which is like a home to them and consequently contributing towards sequestering carbon and enabling sources of resilience to climate change.
Their socio-cultural, economic and spiritual relationship with their forests are deeply rooted and attempts to displace them from these are met with severe resistance. Several have fought and continue to fight against any attempts of colonialists, nation states and corporations to expropriate their forests and extract resources found therein and convert these into grazing lands and monoculture or agriculture plantations, Wilfredo, V.A. et al. (2010).
Forest adjacent communities’ desires to ensure the forests are conserved protected and sustainably used is not solely for them and for their past and future generations but also for other living and non-living things, the deities and the unseen. Because of their IKSs and practices in managing the forest ecosystem, including its resources and services, they have and continue to contribute to climate change mitigation and enhancement of resilience, Wilfredo, V.A. et al. (2010).
1.Benefits of indigenous knowledge systems and practices
Thrupp, (1998) suggests that the incorporation of IKSs and practices into research projects has potential to contribute to local empowerment and development thus increase in communities’ self-sufficiency and strengthening of their determination. The utilization of these knowledge and practices in the research projects and management plans facilitates its validity and credibility for both the local communities and scientists thus increases cultural pride, motivations and inventiveness to resolve local issues effectively and efficiently. Building capacity of the local communities is critical in adaption, mitigation and enhancement of resilience towards climate change. It is therefore important for the researchers and development practitioners to design approaches that support and strengthen indigenous knowledge institutions.
IKSs and practices provide valuable ideas about the local environment and climate change adaption and mitigations by informing effective and efficient utilization and management of natural resources. Emergy, (1996) states that the outside interest in IKSshas been fueled by the recent worldwide ecological crisis and the realization that its causes lie partly in the overexploitation of natural resources based on inappropriate attitudes and technologies. The scientists now recognize that indigenous people have managed the environments in which they have lived for generations without significant damage to local ecologies. This is therefore well in line with the communities adjacent to forests who are dependent on it for sustenance and livelihoods and thus use their IKSsand practices to manage the forests sustainably and in turn increasing their resilience to climate change.