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New List: Indigenous Knowledge



                               INDKNOW

                   INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS LIST

      The world has suffered and continues to suffer from a profound loss
   of indigenous peoples and rural groups and their knowledge about
   the natural world constructed from their intimate ties to land and
   place. This loss has been accompanied by neglect and the
   marginalization of their practices and beliefs, often figured as
   inferior forms of knowing to be replaced by universalized knowledge
   derived from the Western scientific tradition.

      While the latter tradition has great beauty, power and utility,
   attempts to apply it universally without regard for traditional
   knowledge systems has in many cases led to failures in sustainable
   resource use and the erosion of biological diversity. The imposition
   of scientific management regimes without the participation of local
   communities and the incorporation of their knowledge systems has
   also contributed to the weakening and destruction of traditional
   religious, political and social structures with great beauty, power
   and utility in their own right. This has prompted debate on whether
   the neglect of traditional knowledge violates human rights, civil rights,
   and indigenous rights.

      In recognition of these issues, there is a dramatically growing
   national and international interest in incorporating indigenous
   knowledge systems (IKS), including traditional ecological
   knowledge (TEK), into truly participatory approaches to
   development. Communities are recording their knowledge for use in
   their own educational systems and planning processes, grassroots
   networks of indigenous and rural communities for promoting IKS are
   emerging, national institutions are now regarding IKS as an
   invaluable national resource, and the development community
   designs development projects that emerge from problems identified
   and assigned priority by the beneficiaries themselves, and that build
   upon and strenghten community-level knowledge systems and
   organizations.

      INDKNOW is a forum for discussing issues associated with 
   indigenous knowledge systems and traditional ecological knowledge. 
   INDKNOW will carry notices about
   publications, projects, ideas and questions of individuals and
   groups working to understand, validate and apply indigenous
   knowledge systems and traditional ecological knowledge; to
   promote the use of indigenous knowledge as complementary to the
   scientific tradition; to expedite the obligations of States to support
   IKS under provisions contained in Agenda 21, the Biodiversity
   Convention, and other international agreements and conventions
   applying to indigenous peoples; to work for protection of IK and
   just compensation to communities for their knowledge; to support
   the international Indigenous Knowledge and Development (IK&D)
   network consisting of more than 2500 participants in 106 countries
   worldwide; and to facilitate the growing number of formally
   established indigenous knowledge resource centers.

       Appropriate discussions on INDKNOW include the scope of
   intellectual property rights or other property rights regimes
   concerning the protection of traditional knowledge, methods for
   compensating peoples for sharing their knowledge and for
   protecting them against unfair exploitation, the relation
   of traditional ecological knowledge to the preservation of cultural
   and biological diversity, failures of traditional practices to maintain
   ecosystem health and meet human needs, methods and ethics for
   investigating indigenous knowledge, the role of community
   involvement in using indigenous knowledge for sustainable
   development, the relationships between traditional knowledge
   and the Western scientific tradition (e.g.: ethnomedicine, ethnobiology,
   ethnobotany; ethnozoology, ethnoecology, agroecology, natural forest
   management; etc.) and their complementary use for planning and
   decision-making, the use of indigenous knowledge in sustainable
   development, the close involvement of local communities with
   development planning, the development of formal and non-formal
   education systems for the transmission of traditional knowledge,
   and strategies for empowering local communities and indigenous
   peoples to strengthen and incorporate their own belief systems
   into their self-determined development.

      The investigation of indigenous knowledge is contentious because
   it involves local belief and knowledge that may be sacred or belongs
   privately to a particular group. It is not the intention of this list to
   reveal such knowledge and, as such, subscribers should not post
   details of practices that are not already published or are generally
   known, that are sacred or private, that involve potentially patentable
   or commercially exploitable concepts, or that are offered without the
   informed consent of the originators of such knowledge until
   generally acceptable methods of compensation are worked out.

      Furthermore, the list should not be used for notices about
   indigenous and rural political struggles, action alerts for halting
   human rights abuses or for the discussion of primarily spiritual
   beliefs. While the ability to practice traditional practices and beliefs
   closely relies on land rights and cultural rights, these issues are
   covered in detail by NativeNet (a set of electronic conferences
   sponsored by the South and Meso American Indian Information
   Center (SAIIC) and Gary Trujillo carried on the APC network, as an
   electronic mailing list, and as a Usenet list. Contact Gary S. Trujillo,
   gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us) and in conferences on the APC network (for
   information, send a blank e-mail message to econet-
   info@igc.apc.org). We encourage people to subscribe to and follow
   the important discussions there.

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   [for subscription information see previous article]
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      This list is facilitated by the Center for Indigenous Environment
   and Development (CIED), Seattle, Washington, USA; the Center for
   Indigenous Knowledge for Agriculture and Rural Development
   (CIKARD); the Center for Traditional Knowledge (CTK), Ottawa,
   Ontario, Canada; the Centre for International Research and Advisory
   Networks/Netherlands Organization for International Cooperation in
   Higher Education (CIRAN/NUFFIC), The Hague, The Netherlands;
   Cultural Survival (CS), Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA; the Society
   for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and
   Institutions (SRISTI) and the Honey Bee Network, Ahmedabad, India;
   and the University of Washington Chapter of the Society for
   Conservation Biology (SCB-UW), Seattle, Washington, USA.
   Facilitators help maintain INDKNOW as an open forum for discussion,
   and do not necessarily subscribe to all of the views expressed on the
   list. Other IKS networks are invited to become facilitators to
   INDKNOW.

   For more information contact:

   Prof. Anil Gupta Chairperson, SRISTI and Honey Bee Network
   c\o IIM Ahmedabad 380015
   India
   Fax: (91 272) 427 896
   E-mail: anilg@iimahd.ernet.in

   Preston Hardison, List Manager
   CIED and SCB-UW
   4224 University Way Seattle, WA 98105
   USA
   Tel: (1 206) 547 2361
   Fax: (1 206) 547 1666
   E-mail1:cied@u.washington.edu
   E-mail2: pdh@u.washington.edu

   Julian T. Inglis
   Center for Traditional Knowledge
   Canadian Museum of Nature
   P.O. Box 3442, Station "D"
   Ottawa, ONT K1P 6P4
   Canada
   Tel: (1 613) 998 9890
   Fax: (1 613) 952 9693
   E-mail: wcswt8@ccs.carleton.ca

   Dominique Irvine
   Cultural Survival - West
   106 West Dana Street Mountainview, CA 94041-1223
   USA
   Tel: (1 415) 964 5086 Fax: (1 415) 964 5087
   E-mail: cswest@igc.apc.org

   Michael Warren
   CIKARD
   318 Curtiss Hall
   Iowa State University
   Ames, Iowa 50011
   USA
   Tel: (1 515) 294 0938
   Fax: (1 515) 294 1708

   Gerard van Westrienen
   International IK and Development Network
   CIRAN/Nuffic
   P.O. Box 29777
   2502 LT The Hague
   The Netherlands
   Tel: (31 70) 426 0325
   Fax: (31 70) 426 0329
   E-mail: gerardW@antenna.nl