INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE FOR ECOLOGICAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

It has been well recognized that ecological resource management is a valuable endeavour to provide information relating to the status and condition of ecological resources the people use those for meeting their multifarious needs. We often mistakenly formulate policies for conserving and restoring the ecological sites by ignoring the local people’s skills and traditional conservation techniques. But there is no denying the fact, that these traditionalists around the ecosystems possess more valuable indigenous wisdom to nurture the natural resources in undoubtedly effective ways. Typically, the indigenous people have their own experience and knowledge to exploit surrounding ecological resources. This knowledge is learned through practical experiences and very often it is transmitted from one generation to the next through unwritten and oral communication. The hidden value of indigenous knowledge is yet to be explored and utilized as a sustainable development component by the academicians and development practitioners. In many places around the world, the indigenous people possess valuable traditional environmental knowledge through interacting with their proximate ecosystem. Unfortunately, however, many such people are now repressed and exterminated by discriminatory laws and policies formulated in the name of development. They are disappearing very swiftly as are the endangered species and habitats, which now require the holistic approach of ecological resource management. For these reasons we should integrate the indigenous knowledge with that of scientific ventures to ensure environmental development in the real sense of the term. Sociologists should work with the natural and social scientists, along with the policy makers and development practitioners, to help evolve a sustainable model for ecological resource management. Accordingly, this session invites proposals from the academicians of different disciplines, and also people from different regions of the globe, to encourage diversity within ecological resource management initiatives. This session is wedded to receiving qualitative and/or quantitative and/or mixed approaches of finalizing the ecological essays aptly dealt with the indigenous knowledge the people usually utilize in ecological resource management.