INTRODUCTION

Let us begin by indicating what this book is not about. It does not seek to demonstrate the superiority, or even the complementarity, of local knowledge compared with dominant global scientific knowledge in particular instances; nor does it seek to provide further empirical documentation of indigenous knowledge for its own sake, or of its applications in development and scientific contexts; nor does it seek to enter into any polemical discourse suggesting the converse. It is assumed that most readers will already be persuaded that indigenous environmental knowledge (hereafter IK)1 can hardly be ignored in development contexts and that it is an essential ingredient in any pragmatic development strategy, especially those which claim to achieve a degree of sustainability, as well as having applications in industry and commerce. And yet, equally, we suspect, most of us will also accept that the claims made for the environmental wisdom of native peoples have sometimes been misjudged and naive, replacing denial with effusive blanket endorsement and presenting an ‘ecological Eden’ to counter some European or other exemplary ‘world we have lost’.