Many believe that opening a line of dialogue between the various communities and policy-makers could play a big role in conservation efforts. Buthaina Mizyed, from the IUCN REWARD Programme in Palestine, believes modern institutions can learn from and be “inspired” by traditional methods of water management, especially with the “increasing water demand and the shortage of current water supply to meet demands.”

Driven by necessity, traditional communities have been found to be innovative in their management of natural resources. For example, Mizyed traces the roots of the modern-day cistern back to traditional communities in Palestine and Jordan, where these were used to help in agricultural irrigation and the watering of livestock.

“How can ‘modern’ or ‘western’ science both respectfully embrace traditional knowledge systems and also strengthen them?” Ashish Kothari, Founder of India-based environment action group Kalpavriksh, asked the audience on Monday. And in their deep reverence for nature, traditional communities might hold the upper-hand over modern societies.

In a study of the indigenous Khasis community in India, Patricia Mary Mukhim, from the Indigenous Women’s Resource Centre, said that the effects of climate change have worsened because “globalisation exerts pressure” and “subverts the canon of nature”.

Kenyinke Sena, from the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee, believes that government policies also contribute to the ruin of nature. The nomadic Ogiek and Maasai tribes in Kenya, for example, had strict “taboos against interfering with the environment” and “adapted their lives to the natural environment, not the other way round”. But when the government pressured these tribes to settle down, the tribes’ long-standing eco-friendly system was destroyed, leading to inadvertent damage to the environment.

“New knowledge does not seem to have models of conservation that indigenous communities have practised,” Mukhim said. “We need to revisit and re-empower indigenous communities to take on stewardship roles with greater responsibility.”

At the same time, unlike modern institutions not all indigenous communities have the relevant knowledge when it comes to conservation and climate change.

Yohanis Goram, a member of the indigenous Papua community in Indonesia, describes an increasing awareness of the effects of climate change as a result of the exploitation of natural resources by the Papuan people, where unprecedented floods in traditional dry seasons have affected the livelihoods of the locals. Now, signs have been put up in the area, declaring: “Do not destroy the forest. Healthy forest, healthy bodies!”

While agitating for the voice of the traditional communities to be heard and not be left out of policy-making processes, there is a sense that it is the free exchange of ideas that will be most effective. “By attaching modern concepts like carbon credits, for example, to traditional methods of conservation, more can be done to help save the sacred groves in India,” said Mukhim.

For Warren Canendo, a Ngadjon traditional owner in the highlands of Queensland, Australia, whose community has seen some 97 per cent of their rainforests destroyed to make way for modernisation and the mining of minerals in the region, “a lack of consultation” with indigenous peoples by the government ranks high on the list of things that could be changed with assemblies such as the IUCN World Conservation Congress.

“If governments will not listen to the indigenous people, and don’t do anything about climate change, then what are we here for today?” he asked.

(TerraViva)