Mixing the Many Ways of Knowing the Earth's Health

by Adlai J. Amor

When they were planning the most comprehensive examination of the linkages between the world's ecosystems and human well-being, the scientists, NGO leaders and government officials were faced with the problem of how to integrate traditional and indigenous knowledge into a global assessment that is essentially grounded on Western science.

Although the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) was modeled after the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it was clear to them that they had to go beyond its boundaries and create a roadmap robust enough to accommodate the various epistemologies or ways of knowing that exist in the world.

The experience of the IPCC and other assessments like the 1995 Global Biodiversity Assessment dictated that the MA should be credible, legitimate and useful. It should not be entirely based on Western science since this often ignores local knowledge, ignores cultural values, and disregards the needs of local communities. 

The assessment should not only be global in scale, but must also look at regions, river basins and even villages, otherwise a lot of the local impacts and differences would be over-looked. It should not be an assessment run exclusively by scientists and government officials; otherwise it will not be accepted by the business and the NGO communities.

The MA planners opted to use the IPCC-like standard of peer review where possible, but allowed the incorporation of other forms of knowledge provided they can be validated following new procedures they established for this problem. From 1998 to 2000, they worked on the model and with the World Resources Institute acting as the research hub, tested it. The five-volume Pilot Analysis of Global Ecosystems (PAGE) not only demonstrated the feasibility of the MA but it also showed that in many regions of the world, the capacity of ecosystems to meet human needs is rapidly being diminished.

"The jury is still out as to whether this approach will be successful in bridging the various ways of knowing, but it is clear that integrating all forms of knowledge should be included in future assessments concerning environment and development issues," said Dr. Walt Reid, MA executive director.

Although the results will not be released until March 2005, the various MA research groups have learned valuable lessons. One of the earliest stems from adapting the MA's conceptual framework -- the agreement among the assessors and the users of the study of "how the world works."

The planners originally thought that those who conducted the assessments -- whether global, sub-global or local in scale -- should use the same conceptual framework. They immediately realized that this could not be and that the sub-global assessments will need to adapt it to make it more relevant to local and regional needs and accommodate other world views.

Little of this integration of all forms of knowledge will be seen in the technical and syntheses reports of the global assessment. The volumes will report on the conditions of Earth's ecosystems, describe plausible scenarios of ecosystem change and human well-being, one will provide examples of responses to ecosystem changes, and another will include the findings of the sub-regional assessments.

It is, however, at the sub-global assessments -- in particular at the village level -- where indigenous and traditional knowledge have been significantly used. There are 16 official sub-regional assessments -- which include coastal British Columbia in Canada and Western China -- and 16 more which are affiliated to the MA (including the Arab Region and the Northern Highland Lake District of Wisconsin).

"It is apparent that Western science is not the only source of knowledge, and in the case of issues concerning the management of ecosystems in particular locales, it may not be the most valuable source of knowledge that can be applied to the problem," said Dr. Reid.
     
When completed next year, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment will have involved some 2,000 scientists, NGO, indigenous and business leaders from over 70 countries. This includes the more than 200 who participated in a conference at the Biblioteca Alexandrina in Egypt on linking local knowledge and global science. Dozens of institutions throughout the world -- including the International Council for Science, Stanford University, the Royal Society of the UK, the Third World Academy of Sciences and the WorldFish Center in Malaysia -- are contributing their expertise and support.
     
The MA has been recognized by governments as a mechanism to meet part of the assessment needs of four international environmental treaties -- the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, and the Convention on Migratory Species.

"Better information on ecosystem services provided by Western science and indigenous or local knowledge -- and the consequences of changes in those services -- could enhance decision-making concerning the management of ecosystems whether or not they are already facing serious degradation," said Dr. Reid. (WRI Features, 809 words)