Transcript 5. IK Presentation_Ole-Ngoc_Eng - Climate Change

Local / Indigenous Knowledge as a resource for
disaster risk reduction and climate change
adaptation in North-Central Vietnam
Presentation by
Luu Bich Ngoc
Ole Bruun
Background
Since the 1960s, many international scholars have emphasised the value of local
and indigenous knowledge for
* protecting the livelihoods of vulnerable people and communities
* finding solutions to development problems based on local experience
* focussing on local conditions and local needs in development
* enabling the participation of local people in development projects
* adapting to weather and climate induced disasters
International development organisations have adopted 'best practices' of
integrating indigenous knowledge whenever it is relevant
Indigenous Knowledge in Vietnam
For Vietnamese scholars, particularly environmental and climate change
issues have at led to a reassessment of local knowledge, such as for,
* traditional highland agricultural methods
* traditional forest management, protection and products
* replanting mangrove forests
* production of Green and alternative foodstuffs
* local climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction
In recent years, participatory methods and local community
development have also become objectives of state policy making
What is local or indigenous knowledge?
* it is mostly unique to a given culture or local society
* it may contrasts with scientific knowledge and with knowledge
promoted through formal education.
* it is cumulative, maintained and developed by local people with
extended histories of interaction with the natural environment
* it includes understandings, interpretations and meanings that draw on
a broader cultural complex and worldview
* it is dynamic and subject to internal creativity as well as to ongoing
exchange with external sources
* it may be used in agriculture, food preparation, natural resource
management, health care and other activities in rural communities
Indigenous Knowledge is human capital
* any kind of valuable knowledge will contribute to human capital
resources, understood as a broad collection of knowledge, abilities,
skills, experiences, creativity etc.
* any local society comprises different strands of knowledge and
rationality, representing coexisting avenues of thought and reflection
(cognitive pluralism)
* local knowledge may contribute to the cognitive skills of rural people
in the way of navigating between expert knowledge and external
policy making on the one hand, and alternative ways of knowing and
acting in a local context on the other
Agricultural knowledge
*
Since the East Asian type of irrigated agriculture has been the main livelihood
in these villages for generations, a profound knowledge exists on the
biological processes of plant growth, cross-fertilization and exploitation of all
organic materials
*
It is put to use in growing rice and vegetables, raising pigs and chickens, and
exploiting water resources in fields, canals and ditches for breeding ducks
and fish or for collecting various sources of protein
*
Interaction between local and state-promoted agricultural techniques is a
basic characteristic of Vietnamese agriculture. Most households were still
found to have a unique range of both general and particular knowledge, used
to make the most of their resources and to ease stresses in farm life.
Animal husbandry
* Traditional techniques and advise relate to the breeding and protection of
livestock under adverse conditions. Particularly during floods, when humans
must often struggle to survive, saving livestock needs simple solutions.
* Simple techniques include the construction of elevated platforms to save the
most valuable domestic animals, primarily oxen and cows, during severe
floods, and floating platforms for smaller animals such as chicken.
* Another strand of knowledge aims at how to help domestic animals survive
after flooding. Overflowing latrines and polluted water are a great challenge
to people and animals; it is imperative to secure clean drinking water and
avoid infections. The wise will keep chicken and small animals in cages to
avoid their contact with polluted water, only letting them out after the
flooding has retreated and the ground has been rinsed by new rainfall.
Weather and flood predictions
* Hundreds of popular sayings and an abundance of traditional omens and flood
prediction methods are found.
* They reveal a holistic approach to the natural world which has much in
common with traditional cosmology and medicine, evolving around the basic
idea that qualities of the greater cosmos are embedded in every living thing.
* A ‘correlation’ or ‘resonance’ thinking induces people to look for analogies and
signs in all kinds of things, such to look for changes in the appearance or
behaviour in plants and animals or to look for signs in the sky.
* Many such make use of natural 'signifier' fruits, crops and wild herbs around
the village, including bamboo, water banana trees, torpedo grass, bermuda
grass, jackfruit tree and countless others. Similar correlations draw on
signifiers among insects and animals, watching their behaviour as
premonitions of floods and disasters
Disaster prevention
* A large body local knowledge and techniques relates to the protection of people,
crops and assets from natural hazards like typhoons, extraordinary floods,
droughts and pests. In particular, the potentially devastating impact of
typhoons and floods in coastal areas has induced local people to prepare
themselves and to mitigate damages throughout history.
* Traditional house-building techniques include the construction of lofts or
elevated platforms under the roof, to which people can retreat during high
floods. Simple wooden platforms are now mostly replaced by concrete-built
lofts in modern-style houses
* The flooding season necessitates preparation of foodstuffs, water, fuel and
medicine in advance, and traditional knowledge advices people to prepare in
July when the land is rich. Good packaging and use of suitable containers are
essential
Environmental sensitivity
*
*
*
*
Indigenous knowledge also provides people with a strong awareness of
environmental and climatic changes.
Some interesting comments were made on the continued relevance of
traditional flooding predictions, for instance: 'Old people know these things
best, and basically they are right, but now the flooding comes much faster
than before!'
Flooding and typhoon patterns have changed significantly in most riverside
villages, and local people are keen observers of changing patterns in natural
hazards from typhoons, floodings and droughts. They present new challenges
for local farmers.
Many local residents are also acutely aware of the impact of retreating forest
cover, hydropower and reservoir construction, extensive dyke construction,
large-scale establishment of shrimp ponds needing brackish water, and at
times adverse water management practices.
Relevance: at the practical level
* At the practical level, local knowledge may be shared to provide mutual
inspiration among villagers to protect their livelihoods and try out new
economic activities.
* As a consequence of economic reforms, both the provision of basic livelihoods
and the responsibility for climate change adaptation and disaster risk
reduction are being pushed back onto individual households.
* Especially the most vulnerable population segments would benefit from the
backing of non-state actors, which may mediate between local and central
forms of knowledge and at the same time promote locally rooted development
priorities. These may include social programs, simple techniques for typhoon
resistant housing, protection of crops, tools and assets, and experimentation
with both traditional and alternative livelihoods for the sake of finding
At the participatory level
*
Locally generated knowledge underlines local perspectives on development and may
bring them to bear on broader village and district issues. Presently, 'communities' are
weak in rural Vietnam and 'social capital' relations are vertical rather than horizontal to
the effect that local organising around goals of vulnerability reduction and livelihood
protection is weak.
*
There is an obvious need for external, non-state partners to assist in increasing social
bonding and building new cooperative institutions, at the same time providing a suitable
framework for recording, ordering, and disseminating local knowledge.
*
External partners may further work with local media and adopt new digitalized
technologies such as Participatory Information Systems (PIS) to provide coherence and
leverage to local knowledge, and possibly integrate it with common disaster risk
reduction education and livelihood training programs.
Thank You!