A life style far from the real environment

I had a chance to visit a village near Nahavand (in Hamedan Province in Iran) called Tavaneh. To my surprise, it was a village of people who give more considerations to their life inside the house. There were not so many trees outside the houses, while the village was located in a very special place (enough water, good weather especially for walnut trees). I was really astonished. Why? Most of the villagers, I was told, were construction workers in Tehran where they have possibly learnt to have good houses. In one house, I saw that the yard was from cement, and I said to myself: why shouldn't there be a green space inside the house. When I asked the householder whether you have a hen and rooster, I was told that these animals are not clean ones. "We have to put time to clean the house". A teacher from the local school told me that people are forgetting their local games and children do not play local games; Most of the students take nap in the school, since they sit awake to watch TV. Cement, TV, and sleeping are taking the place of green trees, hens and roosters, and local games.

I talked to some people and warned them that the life style they are following here in nature contradicts the environment they are living in. They have to come together and think more about their future. Personally I do not like such life. I know that there are people in that village that agree with me and they do not love that too.

For such a village, where poverty is not the real risk, but the life style is threatening the collective life, the best would be village gatherings every now and then. The best would be a series of gatherings by the village council. I am sure that the council can take the initiative and hold constructive meetings with people. They can build a green village, if they would like.

I met an old lady from that village with high potentials in weaving. I was astonished why such old lady cannot act as a teacher for younger women to train them on how they can weave beautiful gelims. I am sure they can  do it, if such training can be organized.

And the last thing is the tourists, especially eco-tourists who can come to the village (which somehow will help to the economy of the village too) and find certain attractions. I think such attractions can be defined. When you look at the village from a further distance, you can easily find out that this village is located in a very special place - then why don't the village residents focus on their attractions! 

Just a report: traditional knowledge

I lost the first lecture of the second day of the forum at PICC by the Malaysia Science Academy and it was a loss. I was late and could not listen to Dr Martin Abraham, a knowledgeable leader in the field of community-based empowerment. The second talk was about Orang Asli's traditional knowledge by Dr Colin Nicholas, who is the founder and the coordinator of the Center for Orang Asli Concerns (COAC) based in Subang Jaya in Malaysia. He said that the knowledge they are using, is related to their subsistence, well-being, culture and identity, especially when it comes to medical plants, living in nature and artistic works (Orang Asli heritage). The whole knowledge is collectively owned, transmitted orally, mixed with rituals and cultural values. There are plenty of evidence to prove that "it is the knowledge" that can be considered sustainable. Reference to many books published; also reference to the Semai way of conflict resolution and the ancient wisdom (how they understand environment) transmitted orally through story-telling (reference to a book of Orang Asli animal story). What is not working is the imposition of western paradigms on their culture and power structure. As the lecturer mentioned, there seems to be a great difference between the way Orang Asli looks at the forest and the way the Western-supported attitude towards the forest. For Orang Asli, the forest is the center of the world. Also there is a challenge of the state's rights to the forests versus Orang Asli's ownership of the forest. If their habitat is touched or they are moved to another place or their life is negatively influence, depression would govern on their life. The lecturer referred to a series of threats such as policies of development and globalization.

The third lecture was presented by Margarita Naming from Sarawak Biodiversity Center about the role of local communities in conservation of useful plants. She explained about the traditional knowledge and as an activity to preserve the knowledge, she referred to community gardens, as an interesting and useful method to empower communities in Sarawak in conservation of biodiversity. The first stage is to talk about the traditional knowledge and its importance. The second is a workshop in the village to set the vision and mission. The third would be to choose methods to document the traditional knowledge. Also, people in the community are trained how to create a community garden (where they can learn more about the plants) - through in-situ conservation (there was a show case in the powerpoint slides about a garden in Long Iman in Mulu) - this creates additional income for community too through tourists visiting the community garden. However, there are challenges: traditional knowledge is fast disappearing; it is mostly orally transmitted; people in communities are highly protective of their knowledge and not willing to give it to others or next generation; at the same time, the younger generation is not interested to continue with the traditional knowledge; there is a low priority in documenting, with no monetary benefits, decreased community livelihood, and more important plant resources are depleting. In total, the programme seems to be effective, since communities under this programme, become more aware of the importance of documenting and conserving their traditional knowledge as their heritage before it is lost with the passing of the older generation.

In the Panel, there was a discussion about an action plan. Following are the points raised that I thought they were important:

Dr Colin Nicholas:
mindsets of the policy-makers have to change; words are beautiful but not understood by the people; the key to maintaining traditional knowledge is to recognize the right of the local people to their own knowledge; they do not want to be moved to another place, since it is their own traditional land;

Dr Martin Abraham:
Policies are important: Once it has been done for oil (nationalizing) why not for trees;
Mainstreaming TK is necessary; students in schools have to learn about TK;
In communities, there is no "I", there is only "we", everything is collective; they have collective rights too;

Dr Rita Manurung:
Political environment is very important in this regard (since the policies come from there)
Sarawak Biodiversity Center has been established by a government ordinance. The government feels that the communities should maintain their own traditional knowledge and that's what we have been doing during the past decade. We have encouraged communities to do so; a very recent activity, has been establishing community gardens; A data base has been set up under SBC's Traditional Knowledge Documentation Programme (the only systematic collection of traditional knowledge).

NGOs
- Mainstream the biodiversity in all sectors (more important than traditional knowledge) (it has been mentioned in action plans)
- Pressure of modernizing is tempting for communities
- Why we don't have one law for all states in Malaysia? Malaysia should guarantee indigenous people's right

Participants:

• Our local communities have more things than only traditional knowledge; do not commercialize them; it is a culture that has to be preserved. 
• Young generation is not interested; it seems that they do not care even to go to school; what would be an appropriate attitude regarding such reluctance.
• A personal experience: children do not talk in the language; they do not practice the traditional knowledge; new religion aspects; good spirits have become bad spirits; 
• Funding much needed 

There were some other discussions at the end that I am not adding here. Sorry for late publication. This report should be read with the first part of the report (that is about the first day of the seminar) and has been posted before this one.