Sustainable and Non-Sustainable Use of Natural Resources by Indigenous and Local Communities

Abstract

By now it is sufficiently well understood that any attempt to preserve primary forest in the tropics is destined to fail if the interests and use claims of the local population are not at the same time, and in the long term, taken into account. Therefore, in addition to strict protection of the forests, an integrated concept of nature conservation and sustainable land use development needs to be sought (e.g. Ellenberg 1993). The DFG research project presented here will figure out the extent to which traditional ecological knowledge and indigenous biodiversity management strategies can be made available for a long-term land use development. The project chose to use a specialized approach, namely the investigation of indigenous/local knowledge systems as part of the ethnoecological methodology (e.g. Münzel 1987; Posey and Balée 1989; Warren et al. 1995; Müller-Böker 1999; Nazarea 1999). In biodiversity-rich places local people usually have a detailed ecological knowledge e.g. of species, ecosystems, ecological relationships and historical or recent changes of them. Numerous case studies have shown how traditional ecological knowledge and traditional practices serve to effectively manage and conserve natural and man-made ecosystems and the biodiversity contained within (e.g. Posey 1985; Toledo et al. 1994; Berkes 1999; Fujisaka et al. 2000; Pohle 2004). In ongoing interdisciplinary and integrative research projects like BIOTA AFRICA (Biodiversity Monitoring Transect Analysis in Africa, German Federal Ministry of Education and Research), STORMA INDONESIA (Stability of Rainforest Margins in Indonesia, German Research Foundation, Collaborative Research Centre 552) or within the interdisciplinary programme of the National Centre of Competence in Research North-South implemented by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), investigations on traditional ecological knowledge and biodiversity management are an integral part.