It should be noted that most community members have limited experience with participation and participatory research methods and time will need to be allocated to empower community members to actively participate in PRA activities. In addition, PRA should not be thought of as merely about tools that would lead to some initial form of community analysis about their problems and issues. PRA, more than anything else, is about the shared experience of the researchers and communities in a cycle of reflection and action. It is not just doing research with local people; it is part of a much broader goal of people empowerment (Brzeski et al., 2001).
Good RRA and PRA are characterized by behaviour and attitudes that build rapport with local people, avoiding putting people in uncomfortable situations, learning from people not lecturing to them, creativity, checking and rechecking the validity of the information obtained, listening and probing, being patient, engaging in conversations that have two-way exchange of information, being trustworthy, and being open and friendly (Jackson and Ingles, 1995).
increase cultural pride and thus motivation to solve local problems with local ingenuity and resources (Boxes 7.9, 7.10 and 7.11).
As with scientific knowledge, however, IK has its limitations, and these must be recognized. IK is sometimes accepted uncritically because of naïve notions that whatever indigenous people do is naturally in harmony with the environment. There is historical and contemporary evidence that indigenous Box 7.8. Fisheries Assessments: What can be Learned from Interviewing Resource Users?
The body of information held by fishers has an important role to play in fisheries assessment. When this body of information matches scientific assessments, uncertainty is reduced and assessments become more convincing to resource users. When the two sources of information diverge, information from both sources needs to be re-examined.
Yet while this body of information has a role to play, there remain practical impediments to its use. Scientific terms do not match the terms that fishers use to organize their knowledge. The geographic range of information from each fisher is limited. Knowledge is unevenly distributed among fishers, being more concentrated among older fishers and skippers. It is largely oral, rather than written, and subject to the effects of memory loss.
Interviews with fishers can be used to obtain large amounts of information on fish behaviour and fishing patterns. Local knowledge of the dates when fish are caught in fixed-gear location can provide information on seasonal and directional fish movements.
Fishers can provide information pertaining to stock structure. Fishers can provide information on movement patterns (through catch patterns), spawning grounds (presence of female’s ripe and running condition), juvenile habitat, and spatial patterns in fish morphology. This information is useful in conjunction with genetic information, tagging experiments and morphometric studies used in identifying stocks. Catch rate data obtained from fishers have the potential to reflect local changes in fish abundance.
Source: Neis et al. (1999).
Box 7.9. The Uses of Indigenous Knowledge in Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands.
As in other strongly maritime-oriented Pacific Island societies, an extensive body of environmental knowledge underpins the impressive array of Marovo fishing methods.
Decisions on fishing are made based on this knowledge, while taking into account the constraints of marine tenure regulations, which indicate what fishing grounds and fishing technologies may be legitimately used. The local classification of fish habitats includes more than 40 terms for district reef features, water depths and bottom types. The migration paths of crabs, crayfish and molluscs are known. There are gender differences in these fields of indigenous knowledge. Men, for instance, pride themselves on understanding fish spawning behaviour to the extent that, for many food species, they can accurately predict its occurrence. Women hold extensive knowledge of daily, lunar and seasonal rhythms in the abundance and distribution of molluscs and crustaceans.
Source: Hviding and Baines (1996).
peoples have also committed environmental mistakes through over-fishing, over-grazing and over-hunting.
A critical assumption of IK approaches, for example, is that local people have a good understanding of the natural resource base because they have lived in the same, or similar, environment for many generations, and have accumulated and passed on knowledge of the natural resources and
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Box 7.10. Mataw Fishing in Batanes, Philippines.
Mataw fishing involves the traditional capture of seasonal flying fish in Batanes Island, Philippines. Mataw fishermen are organized as associations of users of vanua, the natural access ways for a boat allowing transit between land and sea. The Mataw associations have their own economic arrangements, observe local laws and perform rituals for the vanua. Without any external support, the Mataw associations have locally negotiated the uncertainties of fishing, the hazardous environment personified by invisible spirit beings, and the competition from fellow fishers, through the observance of taboos, rituals and laws. For example, the rights to fish and use the vanua safely are gained by conducting an exchange through ritual sacrifice with the anitu or invisible spirit beings.
The vanua becomes a sacred area for the duration of the fishing season. Mataw organizations regulate access and exploitation of resources within the vanua and traditional fishing grounds, under the leadership of the ideal fisherman who makes the first fishing trip for the season and who possesses the power to ritually set precedents for the season. With the present innovations in technology and other historical trends, mataws, both as individuals and as members of associations, are seen to creatively negotiate the conflicting interests of fellow fishermen in the face of the opposed values of the indigenous world view and dominant modernizing paradigm.
Source: Mangahas (1993).
Box 7.11. Using Indigenous Knowledge.
The use of IK in a programme can be evaluated through a five-step process:
1. Identify the problem or issue for which information is sought.
2. Working together with community members, record and briefly document all IK available in the community relating to the problem, including what has been done in the past and what is done now. If no IK exists, it might be necessary to test, adapt and promote scientific knowledge.
3. If relevant IK does exist, local people and field workers can together discuss and screen their findings, looking for the most relevant IK information. Understand the reasons behind a particular practice or belief.
4. Test whether the IK can be improved. It may be possible to blend IK and scientific knowledge.
5. The improved IK can be promoted through information exchange and extension.
Source: IIRR (1998).
conditions. In some cases, local people may be recent migrants from other areas and may not have accumulated much indigenous knowledge about their new environment. It is important to evaluate the relevance of different kinds of indigenous knowledge to local conditions. Most observers, in fact, suggest that a combination of both IK and science be used.
In order to utilize IK, it must first be documented, and researchers must be aware of the ethical and methodological issues associated with doing research in local communities. The methods of participatory rural appraisal, for example, are now accepted as a means of effectively involving local people in the research process. Researchers must also be sensitive to the issue of intellectual property rights over knowledge. Local people have become concerned that knowledge is being ‘stolen’ and used without their awareness and without a share in any economic benefits that may result from the development of related commercial products. This knowledge must, therefore, be protected (Langill and Landon, 1998). The ethics of IK also require that those with and who provide the knowledge be asked first whether they will share that knowledge and be acknowledged for doing so.
Older people have different types of knowledge than the young. Women and men, net fishers and spear fishers, educated and uneducated people all have different types of knowledge. Common knowledge is held by all people in a community (e.g. how to cook rice). Shared knowledge is held by many but not all community members (e.g. seasonal fishing activities). Specialized knowledge is held by a few people who might have served an apprenticeship (e.g. location of fish aggregations). The types of knowledge held by people is related to their: age; sex; education; labour division in the family, enterprise or community; occupation; environment; socio-economic status; experience and history.