Spotlighting Indigenous Knowledge: Case Study on Re-Valuing Traditional Wildfire Management Practices
To fully benefit from the positive impacts of traditional practices, it has become critical to include indigenous knowledge and integrate it into environmental policies wherever possible.
Areeba Ramzan | Marta Simonetti
As the climate and environmental crises worsen, climate action becomes more pertinent and urgent. We turn to scientific and objective knowledge to guide environmental policies and develop projects to mitigate and adapt against climate change. This top-down approach, whilst successful in some cases, overlooks other vital knowledge systems in the world that simultaneously co-exist with science-based and empirical approaches. In many places, indigenous knowledge plays an important role in disaster risk identification and management, disaster preparedness and mitigation, as well as the effective design and implementation of policies and plans to reduce the identified risks, such as wildfires, droughts or floods. Traditional knowledge has also been considered to support environmental protection and the integrity of ecosystems.
Indigenous knowledge of the environment has evolved through generations and centuries, where this hands-on experience has been maintained, perfected and inherited over time. Further, these local forms of knowledge are embedded in local traditions, norms and social behaviours, which are later transformed into local management practices. As the two examples below illustrate, indigenous knowledge should not be overlooked, as the first-hand expertise has proven to be a valuable resource in mitigating the adverse effects of climate change.
Managing wildfires in West Arnhem (North Australia) and Lomerío (Bolivia)
The indigenous tribe, Bininj, have developed their calendar of the West Arnhem land, plotting the seasonal changes and signalling plans for their burning. Their practices involve a fire-stick farming technique whereby small-scale fires are deployed to clear pathways on the forest ground and create access to complement their cultural activities, like hunting. Ultimately, this slash-and-burn technique reduces the dry built-up brush – one of the major culprits of the recent intense wildfires - and protects the mayh (small animals). Indigenous knowledge and scientific knowledge intersected through the 1997 Western Arnhem Land Fire Abatement project, which brought indigenous tribes and scientists together. Thus, burning became strategic and combined modern technology with traditional indigenous knowledge.
Similarly, in Bolivia, traditional knowledge of forest management had been abandoned through formal fire control policies, which criminalised indigenous practices of small-scale fires. More recently, new policies are beginning to emerge that meaningfully engage with indigenous voices such as the Monkoxi wildfire risk management system, which is participatory and integrates more knowledge systems through improved dialogue platforms.
Both these case studies highlight the vital role indigenous knowledge plays in fire management. Indigenous knowledge has ample scope for effectively supporting risk reduction and ecosystem conservation, although it is often undermined by ‘Western’ inherent and unconscious hierarchies in knowledge systems. Because of the local nature of certain practices and the fact that they are grounded in a traditional narrative that may not be replicated scientifically, traditional knowledge is often relegated to a secondary or alternative position vis-à-vis science.
Indigenous tribe leaders are strong stewards of the environment
Indigenous tribe leaders know their ecosystems deeply and are experts in many conservation practices, such as agroforestry, water conservation, slash-and-burn practices, and so on. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that in the development of environmental policies as well as projects, they should have a seat in the decision-making process. This should not be a mere tick-box exercise but a meaningful engagement and a form of dialogue that fosters an atmosphere of sharing and learning, as successfully seen in the fire-management strategies in both West Arnhem and Lomerío.
Our work
At Globalfields, we work with strategic, trusted partners to ensure that the re-valuing of indigenous knowledge takes place in project/programme design and in the institutional work done in the countries. This is developed, among other things, via stakeholders’ engagement plans, deep in-country missions, as well as through the design and financing of nature-based solutions and regenerative agricultural practices.
