Indigenous And Local Water Knowledge Values And Practices

This book provides a knowledge base of the existing indigenous and local water knowledge, values, and practices, and how this water knowledge can be mainstreamed into the decision-making process. The book not only demonstrates the perks of using indigenous knowledge but also illustrates the barriers and gaps that should be considered while planning for mainstreaming traditional knowledge and values at a local scale. The chapters incorporate case studies from various parts of the world demonstrating how indigenous, and religious and cultural values of water have translated into water use and conservation behavior among indigenous people ensuring resource sustainability over a long period of time. There has been global attention towards combining indigenous and local knowledge with new information and innovation to attain future water security. In this regard, this book is timely, relevant, and significant as it is the first attempt, as per the best of our knowledge, to publish a book that solely addresses indigenous and local knowledge, values, and practices regarding water management, quality monitoring, use, and conservation. With increasing emphasis on the inclusion of indigenous and local knowledge into natural resource governance and conservation by international agencies like the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the proposed book will significantly contribute to the existing knowledge base and demonstrate the importance of mainstreaming indigenous water knowledge and practices into water governance and decision making. The UN SDGs, recognizing the significance of indigenous knowledge systems, emphasized its inclusion in most aspects and principles of SDGs. Apart from direct links with SDGs like zero hunger (SDG 2), no poverty (SDG 1), and climate action (SDG 13), indigenous and local knowledge system is considered to be directly connected to clean water and sanitation (SDG 6). The book will be useful to researchers and students in the field of indigenous knowledge and education, water governance, community-level planning, and water sustainability. The book can be referred to for postgraduate courses and beyond, as well as policymakers, conservationists, non-governmental organizations, development practitioners, and local government officials.

Indigenous research is an important and burgeoning field of study. With the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s call for the Indigenization of higher education and growing interest within academic institutions, scholars are exploring research methodologies that are centred in or emerge from Indigenous worldviews, epistemologies, and ontology. This new edited collection moves beyond asking what Indigenous research is and examines how Indigenous approaches to research are carried out in practice. Contributors share their personal experiences of conducting Indigenous research within the academy in collaboration with their communities and with guidance from Elders and other traditional knowledge keepers. Their stories are linked to current discussions and debates, and their unique journeys reflect the diversity of Indigenous languages, knowledges, and approaches to inquiry. Indigenous Research: Theories, Practices, and Relationships is essential reading for students in Indigenous studies programs, as well as for those studying research methodology in education, health sociology, anthropology, and history. It offers vital and timely guidance on the use of Indigenous research methods as a movement toward reconciliation.

Discover how conservation can be made more effective through strengthening links between science research, policy and practice. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Indigenous Water and Drought Management in a Changing World presents a series of global case studies that examine how different Indigenous groups are dealing with various water management challenges and finding creative and culturally specific ways of developing solutions to these challenges. With contributions from Indigenous and non-Indigenous academics, scientists, and water management experts, this volume provides an overview of key water management challenges specific to Indigenous peoples, proposes possible policy solutions both at the international and national levels, and outlines culturally relevant tools for assessing vulnerability and building capacity. In recent decades, global climate change (particularly drought) has brought about additional water management challenges, especially in drought-prone regions where increasing average temperatures and diminishing precipitation are leading to water crises. Because their livelihoods are often dependent on the land and water, Indigenous groups native to those regions have direct insights into the localized impacts of global environmental change, and are increasingly developing their own adaptation and mitigation strategies and solutions based on local Indigenous knowledge (IK). Many Indigenous groups around the globe are also faced with mounting pressure from extractive industries like mining and forestry, which further threaten their water resources. The various cases presented in Indigenous Water and Drought Management in a Changing World provide much-needed insights into the particular issues faced by Indigenous peoples in preserving their water resources, as well as actionable information that can inform future scientific research and policymaking aimed at developing more integrated, region-specific, and culturally relevant solutions to these critical challenges. Includes diverse case studies from around the world Provides cutting-edge perspectives about Indigenous peoples’ water management issues and IK-based solutions Presents maps for most case studies along with a summary box to conclude each chapter

This republished Special Issue highlights recent and emergent concepts and approaches to water governance that re-centers the political in relation to water-related decision making, use, and management. To do so at once is to focus on diverse ontologies, meanings and values of water, and related contestations regarding its use, or its importance for livelihoods, identity, or place-making. Building on insights from science and technology studies, feminist, and postcolonial approaches, we engage broadly with the ways that water-related decision making is often depoliticized and evacuated of political content or meaning—and to what effect. Key themes that emerged from the contributions include the politics of water infrastructure and insecurity; participatory politics and multi-scalar governance dynamics; politics related to emergent technologies of water (bottled or packaged water, and water desalination); and Indigenous water governance.

This book centers Indigenous knowledge and practice in community-led climate change solutions. This book will be one of the first academic books to use the consciousness framework to examine and explain humans' situatedness and role in maintaining ecosystems' health. Drawing on teachings from the Indigenous Adi-Shaiva community, the authors present up-to-date research on meanings and implications of South Asian traditional cosmic knowledge, which focuses on relationality and spirituality connected to climate change. This knowledge can create innovative climate change solutions in areas including land, water, traditional management, sustainability goals and expectations, and state development projects. Overall, this book provides an innovative framework for nonviolent climate solutions, which has its foundations in a traditional cosmic and consciousness-based context. This book, which aims to bridge the gap between Indigenous and Western perspectives by re-educating researchers and decolonizing popular climate change solutions, will be of great interest to students and scholars studying climate change, conservation, environmental anthropology, and Indigenous studies on a broader scale.

Indigenous Knowledge (IK) reviews cutting-edge research and links theory with practice to further our understanding of this important approach's contribution to natural resource management. It addresses IK's potential in solving issues such as coping with change, ensuring global food supply for a growing population, reversing environmental degradation and promoting sustainable practices. It is increasingly recognised that IK, which has featured centrally in resource management for millennia, should play a significant part in today's programmes that seek to increase land productivity and food security while ensuring environmental conservation. An invaluable resource for researchers and postgraduate students in environmental science and natural resources management, this book is also an informative read for development practitioners and undergraduates in agriculture, forestry, geography, anthropology and environmental studies.