IPACC Smoking out Traditional Ecological Knowledge

Many a times, mainstream humanity considers indigenous peoples savages, barbarians with no idea what life is and how one can live. They assume that IPs are ignorant of everything including their own survival techniques. To the "enlightened" mainstream, IPs should be helped out of poverty, their cultures and situations. How wrong they are!

Mainstream humanity with their governments leading, do not consider indigenous knowledge worthy, they make decisions without consulting indigenous peoples and often displace indigenous peoples from their territories.

In pursuit of an easy life, mainstream humanity has flown to the moon and back severally to find the answers. They create gizmos of all kinds and often rape mother to achieve short term goals. They think an easy life means a good life. But contrary to their intentions, their quest for ease has introduced untold suffering and made more life unlivable! "Cities are being swallowed up by rising oceans, the elderly can not now enjoy the streets during summer lest heat waves suffocate them, the rain patterns is causing immense confusion threat mankind's food security, and humanity is in a state of panic!" observes Peter Kuria of Shalin Ry, a Finish NGO

The once despised indigenous peoples are now increasingly being sought out for answers. The main question is .... how do we manage to live in harmony with nature? Without disturbing it yet at the same deriving immense benefits from it?

The Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee (IPACC) is assisting us indigenous peoples from all over Africa to tell the world how we do it. "Through Participatory 3 dimensional mapping and now cybertracker technology, we will now be able to tell our story," comments Francis Kakwetin, an Ogiot from Kenya.

The two technologies will help collect and collate our traditional ecological knowledge, record it via GPS and create geospatial data that will be crucial in monitoring biodiversity and climatic changes. "The technologies will assist in packaging the TEK in a way that can be understood by mainstream scientist and their governments." comments Dr. Nigel Crawal, IPACC Director of Secretariat. "Hopefully, the decision makers will use this knowledge to formulate ecologically friendly policies. It will also stimulate the recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples." he adds.

And by bringing together a cross section of Indigenous Peoples from all backgrounds in Africa - pastoralists and hunter gatherers from both desert and forests to learn and share together with the world leading minds on cybertracker and participatory mapping technologies in a workshop in Windhoek, Namibia, IPACC is marrying the old with the new, the "primitive" and the modern to give the world what it so desperately needs to survive.

"We just hope that governments, NGO's and the business community can pause and listen" laments Mary Simat, IPACC chairperson.




By Kanyinke Sena