From ipbn@web.net Thu Feb 11 18:35:15 1999 Received: from mxu2.u.washington.edu (mxu2.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.9]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.2+UW99.01/8.9.2+UW99.01) with ESMTP id SAA15302 for ; Thu, 11 Feb 1999 18:35:14 -0800 Received: from chaski.unsaac.edu.pe (chaski.unsaac.edu.pe [200.37.188.10]) by mxu2.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.02/8.9.3+UW99.01) with SMTP id SAA19977 for ; Thu, 11 Feb 1999 18:31:27 -0800 Received: from default (unverified [200.37.188.73]) by chaski.unsaac.edu.pe (EMWAC SMTPRS 0.83) with SMTP id ; Thu, 11 Feb 1999 21:36:19 -0500 Message-Id: X-Sender: ipbn@pop.web.net X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.0 Demo Date: Thu, 11 Feb 1999 20:12:50 -0500 To: indknow@u.washington.edu From: "Indigenous Peoples' Biodiversity Network" Subject: Winkels+Flemming Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: From: George Woolston Subject: Winkels+Flemming Agroforestry and forest management are not my fields, but in my work on traditional wooden architecture in Finland I have come across much traditional ecological knowledge of forestry. Some ethnographic material which is now over one hundred years old, has recently been uncovered and analysed in Finland. Several researchers here are currently working on contemporary applications of this historical knowledge. About IK promotion and transfer, as mentioned by Alexandra Winkels (INDKNOW recently), I see the mixing of practical indigenous knowledge and its transfer between Nations as potentially useful. Peoples developing their own building technologies in similar climates and even with similar material resources, did not always come up with the same solutions. I understand that an organisation called Craterre in Grenoble, France, has collected from various parts of the world e.g. earthfast building construction methods and experimented with them. In Peshawar, Pakistan, I have seen African earth building methods advocated and demonstrated at a building technology centre for housing Afghan refugees. Could Nielsen Flemming (on INDKNOW recently) provide me with a reference for Chambers, whom he mentions as "perceiving the recognition of IK as a paradigm shift" ? Flemming also says that the present situation is that rhetoric about IK is loud but the empirical base very thin. I agree, and am trying to improve some of the empirical base to my work on the human ecology of a traditional habitat, using an intensive case study of one river valley. Flemming wrote: >To what extent can IK be generalised. Some researchers describe IK as very >site-specific and highly adapted to local biological and cultural niches. If >this is the case, can we then expect to gain anything from transferring IK >from one location to another. A related question is to what extent IK can be >de-contextualised and still make sense. To this I can only comment that it depends... and each case is different. Flemming continues: >- Problems of translation when IK is translated into Western/scientific >representation and back again by non-indigenous people. This issue has some >bearing on the R&D strategies, e.g. advantages/disadvantages of participatory >approaches and the employment of indigenous experts in R&D projects. This is a vital issue. Western/scientific experts should respect and deal gently with these precious sources of new knowledge, avoiding the dilution of their content to suit commercial industrial interests. In my case, can the issue of intellectual property rights be said not exist, since we are "mining" historical peasant knowledge, no longer used by anyone? George Woolston ___________________________________________________________ The Indigenous Peoples' Biodiversity Network (IPBN) is an association of indigenous peoples and indigenous peoples'organizations working towards the common goal of nurturing biological diversity for the benefit of indigenous communities and humankind as a whole. The IPBN is active in issues of indigenous knowledge, intellectual property and benefit sharing and works closely with indigenous communities around the world to strengthen their capacity to maintain and benefit from their own knowledge, innovations and practices, which includes having a voice in national,regional and international policy development. Indigenous Peoples' Biodiversity Network (IPBN) P.O. Box 567 Cusco, Peru Tel: 51 84 232 603 Fax: 51 84 245 021 e-mail:ipbn@web.net .