Traditional Knowledge Bulletin |
- This week in review … Intangible Heritage Committee recognizes indigenous and traditional cultural practices
- This week in review … News from Durban on climate change, TK and indigenous peoples
- Resource: Land Tenure Journal thematic issue on land tenure and climate change
- This week in review … New initiative to place community mapping of African rainforests online
- This week in review … Egyptian scientists to make diabetes drug from bitter fruit
- This week in review … Indigenous knowledge sharing via smart phones in Tanzania
- This week in review … 3D animation helps preserve indigenous history
- Resource: International Forestry Review issue on forests, biodiversity and food security
This week in review … Intangible Heritage Committee recognizes indigenous and traditional cultural practices Posted: 07 Dec 2011 01:37 AM PST Bali meeting concludes with 19 new items on Intangible Heritage List BALI, INDONESIA: The sixth session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage was held from 22-29 November 2011, in Bali, Indonesia. During the meeting, 11 items were added to the List of Intangible Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding and 19 others were inscribed on the Representative List, while five best safeguarding practices were selected. Among the items in need of urgent safeguarding are Yaokwa, the Enawene Nawe people's ritual for the maintenance of social and cosmic order (Brazil); the secret society of the Kôrêdugaw, the rite of wisdom in Mali; and Eshuva, Harákmbut sung prayers of Peru's Huachipaire people. Among the items on the representative list are the traditional knowledge of the jaguar shamans of Yuruparí (Colombia); and the cultural practices and expressions linked to the balafon of the Senufo communities of Mali and Burkina Faso. To date, the List of Intangible Heritage in need of Urgent Safeguarding includes 27 items in 10 countries. The Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage counts 232 items from 70 countries. Eight best safeguarding practices have been registered. The next meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee will take place in Grenada in 2012. Read the release … Visit the meeting's webpage … Further information on items added to the list … |
This week in review … News from Durban on climate change, TK and indigenous peoples Posted: 07 Dec 2011 01:35 AM PST Declaration of Indigenous Peoples at Durban Climate Change Talks DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA: Indigenous peoples' representatives participating in the Durban Climate Change Conference have released the Declaration of Indigenous Peoples of Abya Yala demanding that their rights be respected, protected and fulfilled. The Declaration highlights their rights to self-determination, particularly territories and natural resources, full and effective participation, recognition of the contribution of traditional knowledge and the need to restructure the conception of "development" currently based on the accumulation of wealth. Other points address technology transfer, noting that any assessment of mitigation and adaptation options must reflect indigenous knowledge subject to free, prior and informed consent. The need for structural reorganization of REDD+ is also highlighted, to ensure indigenous peoples' rights and the customary governance of forests. Read the declaration … Social safeguards: Protecting the rights and interests of Indigenous Peoples and forest-dependent communities in REDD+ DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA: Discussions in this event focused on the capacity-building needs for implementing REDD+ safeguards, the importance of land tenure security and the challenges to effectively design and implement REDD+ safeguards while ensuring the continued traditional use of forest resources. The book Traditional Forest-Related Knowledge: Sustaining Communities, Ecosystems and Biocultural Diversity, which constitutes the final report of IUFRO's Task Force on Traditional Forest Knowledge, was also presented at the event. The report concludes that neither the importance of forest-related traditional knowledge nor its role in development of more effective and equitable approaches for facing the challenges posed by climate change have been adequately recognized. The effective engagement of forest-dependent local and indigenous communities as well as the effective incorporation of traditional forest-knowledge in forest management will determine the success of REDD+. Read IUFRO's press release … Visit the website of Forest Day 5 in Durban … Read IUFRO's traditional knowledge reports … UN Climate Forest Conservation Spawns "Carbon Piracy" in Peru DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA: REDD+ is undermining the rights of indigenous peoples in Peru leading to "carbon piracy" and land conflicts, finds a new report issued by Peruvian indigenous organizations and an international human rights group. Published by AIDESEP, FENAMAD, CARE and the Forest Peoples Programme and released in Durban, the report The reality of REDD+ in Peru: Between Theory and Practice – Indigenous Amazonian Peoples' Analyses and Alternatives shows that REDD project developers are trying to convince indigenous peoples and local communities to enter into REDD deals with promises of millions of dollars in return for signing away their rights to control their land and forest carbon. Deals are being written using strict confidentiality clauses and with no independent oversight or legal support for vulnerable communities. The report concludes that unless underlying legal and political reforms are made in Peru to address unresolved land and territorial applications and uphold the legal obligations of the Peruvian state to respect indigenous peoples' rights, then REDD+ strategies will not only fail to reduce emissions but will undermine these rights and lead to social conflict. The solution lies in promoting indigenous peoples' alternative proposals for protecting forests that prioritize the recognition and demarcation of indigenous territories as well as support for their own systems for the sustainable use and protection of forest resources. Read the article … Download the report [pdf] … |
Resource: Land Tenure Journal thematic issue on land tenure and climate change Posted: 07 Dec 2011 01:31 AM PST Thematic issue on land tenure and climate change This thematic issue of the peer-reviewed, open-access Land Tenure Journal includes a series of articles highlighting the fundamental importance of tenure security, recognition of rights and strong governance structures for climate change mitigation and adaptation schemes to be effective. Articles of relevance to indigenous peoples and TK address: land tenure and implementation of REDD+ in Central Africa; customary land tenure and the management of climate change and internal migration; and governance of pastoral tenure and climate change in the Sahel. View the issue, including links to articles … |
This week in review … New initiative to place community mapping of African rainforests online Posted: 07 Dec 2011 01:29 AM PST Community mapping of African rainforests could show way forward for preservation, REDD LONDON, UK: A new initiative to place community mapping of central African rainforests online could prove key to local rights in the region, says the UK-based NGO Rainforest Foundation. Working with forest communities in five African countries, Rainforest Foundation has helped create digital maps of local forests, including use areas, parks, and threats such as logging and mining. The website MappingForRights.org builds on the results of many years' work to map the existence of forest dwellers in the forests of the Congo Basin. Read the article … Download the Rainforest Foundation press release [pdf] … Visit the Mapping for Rights website … |
This week in review … Egyptian scientists to make diabetes drug from bitter fruit Posted: 07 Dec 2011 01:26 AM PST Egyptian scientists to make diabetes drug from bitter fruit CAIRO, EGYPT: Bitter gourd, a plant long held to have anti-diabetic properties and traditionally used in Asian medicine, is to be turned into tablets that Egyptian scientists hope will provide an alternative to insulin injections. A national pharmaceutical company and the National Research Centre (NRC) signed a contract last month for the manufacture of a drug based on an extract from the fruit, which is also known as balsam pear (Momordica charantia). The deal follows research done by the Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Department of the NRC. Read the article … |
This week in review … Indigenous knowledge sharing via smart phones in Tanzania Posted: 07 Dec 2011 01:24 AM PST From smart phones to smart farming: Indigenous knowledge sharing in Tanzania ZURICH, SWITZERLAND: In this article, Eugenio Tisselli explains how mobile communications can help isolated communities create self-supporting knowledge-sharing networks. This is what Sauti ya wakulima, a group he initiated, have been doing in rural Tanzania. Whether it's figuring out the best way to grow maize or tracking changing rain patterns, mobile phones and the Internet can help those who, in one of the farmers' words, "have a lot of things to say, but no means where to talk about them". Read the article … |
This week in review … 3D animation helps preserve indigenous history Posted: 07 Dec 2011 01:22 AM PST 3D animation helps preserve Indigenous history MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA: A new venture between Monash University's Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Information Technology is striving to preserve the history of Australia's indigenous population. Through the use of state-of-the-art 3D animation technology, researchers are working to recreate the dreamtime stories of the Yanyuwa people, located on the South-West coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Currently, only a handful of elders are fluent in the language – the last custodians of ancient songs, stories and customs bound up in the vocabulary. While it is difficult to quantify the success of the project, the feedback from the Yanyuwa community indicates that it has been well-received and awareness of the cultural issues has improved. Even more encouragingly, four additional communities have expressed their interest in becoming involved in the project. Read the release … |
Resource: International Forestry Review issue on forests, biodiversity and food security Posted: 07 Dec 2011 01:19 AM PST The International Forestry Review: Special Issue: Forests, Biodiversity and Food Security This special issue contains a set of papers that explore the linkages between biodiversity, forest, food security and human nutrition, and their implications. They highlight that relationships between forests and people's food security and health are far from static. A few of the important drivers for change include: forest cover loss and environmental change from agricultural expansion; socio-cultural changes; and changes in income, market access and market integration. Several articles particularly explore social and cultural aspects of changing relationships between forests and human health. In The interweave of people and place: biocultural diversity in migrant and indigenous livelihoods around Mount Cameroon, S. A. Laird et al compare and contrast established practices of resource management and use by indigenous and other long-established populations with those practiced by migrant new-comers, in a well-endowed area in the Mount Cameroon region in West Africa. Their findings show that indigenous livelihoods draw upon management of a broader range of habitats and species that migrants, and have a much greater use of forest products in the subsistence component of their livelihoods, due to their superior knowledge of the resource. The study concludes that the managed landscapes of indigenous villages can contribute to broader conservation efforts in the region, including those associated with the newly established Mount Cameroon National Park. View the issue, including links to abstracts … |
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