Indigenous environmental knowledges and sustainable development in semi-arid Africa. Research Report (Summary).
Abstract
This study aims to identify and understand the ways in which indigenous environmental knowledges are constructed, mediated, and used by people living in arid environments. A key perspective is to focus on the ways in which men's and women's knowledges are constructed differently and how this might affect natural resource management. The project has the following research objectives: to identify key environmental knowledges with regard to the natural resource base; to explore and explain the ways in which such knowledges differ between male and female perspectives; to identify the ways in which such knowledges inform the management of natural resources for household reproduction and development; and to explore areas of tension and agreement between indigenous and planners' environmental knowledges in relation to natural resource management. This study largely deployed qualitative methods to investigate the contextualised and nuanced environmental knowledges of Bedouin. From September 2001 to July 2002, regular visits were made to the three main study groups in separate geographic locations around Egypt: Bedouin in downstream Wadi Allaqi; 'urban' Bedouin from around of Aswan; and Bedouin in and around the Siwa Oasis in northwest Egypt. This summary report outlines the project's background and objectives, methodology, findings and dissemination of results.
Citation
Hamed, N.; Ibrahim, H.; Mekki, H.A.; Springuel, I.; Yacoub, H.; Briggs, J.; Roe, A.; Sharp, J. Indigenous environmental knowledges and sustainable development in semi-arid Africa. Research Report (Summary). (2002) 48 pp.
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