adminWhen captured and effectively applied, indigenous knowledge could significantly alter the way that nations deal with the impacts of climate change and global warming.
In Zimbabwe’s case, this marginalisation is worsened by poor information dissemination, which weakens awareness and climate change responsiveness, from the individual.
Often regarded as unimportant in policy formulation, indigenous knowledge could play a critical role in tackling the effects of climate change.
Indigenous knowledge may refer to that ingenious, hands-on expertise gained through observation and passed on orally from generation to generation without adequate documentation.
When fully integrated, this unique and irreplaceable knowledge is capable of shaping policy development in a manner that positively affects future local action on climate change.
Traditional knowledge is a cheaper option, and will be handy in face of deepening world challenges to fund climate change mitigation and adaptation actions in developing countries.
The UN is currently struggling to raise US$100 billion every year until 2020 to finance a paraphernalia of climate change programmes. For effectiveness, however, the individual must be groomed via a targeted and deliberate awareness campaign, into an active participant on the frontlines of climate change mitigation and adaptation.
That means climate change strategy must be dusted and freed from bureaucratic government office shelves before being rapidly sent down to the poor communal farmer in drought-prone Chivi, as a working example.
It means policymakers, and other interested parties must provide timely and regular information to the Chivi farmer, and others to increase awareness on climate change and global warming. The information must be clear, simple and unambiguous.
It should be able to educate the farmer convincingly on the importance of good farming practices, climate change and effects, etc, and call for local input to address the challenge. Similar strategies may be employed for those living in urban areas.
Climate change action could achieve more when implemented from the bottom up. After all, poor people at the community or household levels are first on the firing line when climate change hits. The bottom-up approach may be very crucial for Africa where poverty is widespread, with at least 17 Africans living off the income of a single average American. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report released in 2007 made interesting findings.
It noted that knowledge from indigenous people was “an invaluable basis for developing adaptation and natural resource management strategies in response to environmental and other forms of change”.
In 2010, the IPCC reiterated that “indigenous or traditional knowledge may prove useful for understanding the potential of certain adaptation strategies that are cost effective, participatory and
sustainable”. For many years indigenous societies have employed effective ways of managing their environs and other changes in climatic conditions, with measurable success.
For example, in Zimbabwe people from different tribal backgrounds are prohibited from cutting or killing certain tree and animal species such as the pangolin or python for traditional reasons. Over time,
the practice, and several others have managed to maintain some credible balance in ecology and improve environmental governance.
In farming, small communities could lead the charge in sustainable agriculture through applying various modern and traditional practices such as mandatory preservation of grazing lands.
The war on climate change might as well be won through effective communication targeting the “masses”, much more than at international conferences.
Zimbabwe’s war of liberation in the 1970s would have failed without support of the people or masses. Leaders of the armed struggle understood this. First, they ensured the people were mobilised and prepared for war, explaining the rationale and expected benefits, before striking.
The importance of such groundwork cannot be overemphasised, as the war eventually gained active support from the people. The war was, therefore, fought from many fronts of equal importance, and won. Similar people-centred strategies could be employed in the fight against climate change and global warming.
As indicated earlier, the provision of accurate, simplified and regular climate change information to the ordinary people will be indispensable in mitigation and adaptation. The current gulf between awareness and action is unsustainable.
The recent Harare to Mutare walkathon, an eco-centred walking race where everybody wins, is a brilliant idea aimed at raising grassroots awareness on the importance of trees. Through a dedicated media campaign, the event encouraged everyone to plant trees, and preserve the same for the good of the environment.
The walkathon recognised the importance of including everyone from primary school-going children to parliamentarians in Zimbabwe’s efforts of planting 10 million trees in 2011. It understood that a sufficient number of trees would not be planted in offices and by executives only.
Neither will endless, long and boring environmental or climate change conferences do the job. Inclusiveness was the key. It understood that the media was a major inseparable partner in the fight against climate change. Obviously, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Management does not think people deserve to know the outcome of the Durban climate change talks, an important summit that decides the future of climate change action in the world, Africa and Zimbabwe. Having sent officials to Durban who spent two weeks enjoying taxpayers’ money, the ministry has remained silent on the conference outcome, long after its conclusion.
Efforts to get ministry officials to comment were fruitless. As a result, Zimbabweans have been kept guessing on the input the country made at Durban, how it will be affected by the outcome; or from the silence, we conclude the officials were just warming the benches before others decided our future on their behalf.
God is faithful.
Online Reporter