Strengthening Indigenous Knowledge for Sustainable Livelihoods, Resource and Social Change

1. Strengthening Indigenous Knowledge for Sustainable Livelihoods, Resource and Social Change XU Jianchu, PhD & Executive Director Center for Biodiversity and Indigenous Knowledge (CBIK) Http://www.cbik.org/ or http://cbik.ac.cn/

2. Outline • Introduction • Why IK Matters? • The roles of IK • Constraints • Creating space for IK

3. Why IK? • Cultural Diversity • Human Rights • Social Capital

4. What is CBIK? • CBIK is Chinese NGO, registered in 1995 with more than 25 staff • CBIK is dedicated to • Applying IK and technical innovations for resource governance • Access to biodiversity for sustainable livelihood • Intercultural dialogue and communication

5. CBIK Structure • IAB + Local board • Executive directors • Watershed governance program • Community livelihood program • IK and education program • Capacity building • Communication • Institutional development

6. Yunnan: the Roof of MMSEAFTA: China + ASEAN Elevation Zones

7. Yunnan: the Poor in the Paradise Yi

8. Introduction of Issues Know-How: • Dynamics, diversity and complexity as human-ecology processes • Indigenous people: objects or citizens in mountain regions? • Social justice: common earth but uneven ground CBIK: What roles are there for NGOs and civil society? CBIK as a learning institution growing with civil society

9. What is IK? • Comovision (world views)– indigenous ways of understanding the universe • Linguistic knowledge and technical practices • Knowledge transfer and adaptation mechanisms • Customary institutions Hani’s comovision about ‘community’ CBIK Issue: How to understand other ways of seeing and doing? CBIK Action: Small Grants Program for indigenous researchers

10. Why IK Matters (1): Adaptation IK: • Complexity of upland resource dynamics and livelihoods • Importance of subjective understandings in explaining why people do, what they do, how they do • Different ways of knowing relate to different ecological and social niches CBIK concerned Issue: What other options for promoting sustainable livelihoods can we see? CBIK Action: Promoting organic farming in upland communities

11. Why IK Matters (2):Social and Environmental Justice • IK is largely collective • IK is culturally embedded • Dialogue with IK systems can help to avoid socially undesirable outcomes, toward socially desirable outcomes (local sanction, equitable access, etc.) CBIK Issue: How can we promote social inclusion? CBIK Action: Developing community-led eco-tourism models Workshop on Dams and Sustainable Development, Oct.9-10, 2003

12. Why IK Matters (3): Efficiency • Sustainable Livelihoods depend on: • Biodiversity (natural capital) • Indigenous Knowledge (social capital) • Technical innovations (re-adaptation) • Knowledge transfer mechanisms (learning process) • Values and Consent, and (local governance) • Enabling environment (policies and markets) CBIK Issue: What is the contemporary relevance of IK? CBIK Action: Participatory technology development with indigenous community members, e.g. rattan cultivation

13. Why IK Matters (4):Linking local and global Globalization is not new • Local: upland vs. lowland • Regional: the “Southern Silk Road” in 122 B.C. • International: Zhen He, Voyages in 1405-1433 A.D. • Trade, Migration (e.g.: MMSEA), Expedition What is new? • Global scale of interactions and their impacts • The prospect of irreversible changes • Global governance systems (unfair trade & partnership) • CBIK Action: • Training program on International Trade Law, Environment and Sustainable Development (IISD, IUCN, CBIK in collaboration with SEPA) • Translating IDRC Book “Beyond Property Rights” • Traditional Resource Rights Network (China, MMSEA)

14. The Roles of IK: local level • Customary Authorities • Indigenous experts>> (usually old) actor>>power>>decision-making for local accountability • Statutory Authorities (state nomination or local election) • “Educated” >>(young) actor>>power>> decision-making for outside accountability • Can they work together? CBIK Issue: How does knowledge link to power structures & decision-makings? CBIK Action: Research on village elections and resource governance

15. The Roles of IK: Local - Outside interaction Competing knowledge systems or conflicting objectives? • People’s actions are driven by their objectives • Knowledge is brought to bear on the implementation of those objectives CBIK Issue: How to facilitate effective dialogues? CBIK Action: Providing training in participatory methods for dialogue, e.g. Xishuangbanna Vocation Training School

16. What prevents IKfrom being exercised? • IK linked to local objectives • Local objectives conflict with outside objectives • Conservation vs development • Capacity of the state (state lacks of knowledge, skills and interest) • Spatial scale conflicts (small v.s big) • Fine scale of knowledge in mosaic landscapes and mountain ecosystems • Temporal scale conflicts of interests • Profit maximization versus sustainable livelihoods (e.g. “Upland Conversion Program” in China) CBIK Action: Official and Vernacular Identifications in the Making of the Modern World

17. Uneven Playing Field • Who make the laws? • Who has powers? • Who make the decisions? • Whose agenda accounted? • Nationality “Autonomy” Law in China: rhetoric or practice? CBIK Issue: How can NGOs help address macro-level constraints? CBIK Action: Policy research, e.g. YEDP-PRICA

18. Creating Space for IK • Representation: powers, capacities, accountability relations • Resilience, re-adaptation and ‘invisible hand’ mechanisms • Leveling the playing field • IPRs of indigenous knowledge • Traditional resource rights • Eco-and-fair trade • CBNRM>>>Community-based education CBIK Action: Agro-Pastoralist Livelihoods Project

19. Agro-pastoralist Livelihoods • Improving understanding of agro-pastoralist livelihoods • Participatory Technology Development • Institutional innovation, and • Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation

20. Major Events by CBIK • “Yunnan Initiative”: Version and actions for enhancing cultural and biological diversity, from Culture and Biodiversity Congress 2000 • III MMSEA Conference: Mountain festival with more 150 indigenous peoples For policy document: Yunnan Initiative and III MMSEA proceedings, please download from website: http://www.cbik.ac.cn/resources

21. Shangri-La: The Way Ahead Thanks!