scholarly journals Documentation of Indigenous Traditional Knowledge (ITK) on Commonly Available Plants in Koira Range, Bonai Forest Division, Sundargarh, Odisha, India

2021 ◽  
pp. 83-95
Author(s):  
Sanath Kumar N ◽  
Sweta Mishra ◽  
Sanjeet Kumar

Mining activities are an important source of revenue for the development of the nation. However, it creates lots of social and ecological imbalance. The major remarked problem is that the local communities of mining areas losses their Indigenous Traditional Practices. Keeping this in view, an attempt has been made to document the indigenous traditional knowledge on commonly available plants in Koira Range, a mining impacted areas of the Bonai Forest Division, Odisha, India. Twenty nine villages of 4 sections are selected for present survey works. The results revealed that about 63 plants are commonly used by the local communities for different purposes. The practices are documented through present study. The present work will provide a baseline data for conservation strategy and biological activities including value addition of available plant wealth.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graziela Dias Blanco ◽  
Rafael Barbizan Sühs ◽  
Escarlet Brizola ◽  
Patrícia Figueiredo Corrêa ◽  
Mari Lucia Campos ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Mining activities have environmental impacts due to sediment movement and contamination of areas, and may also pose risks to people's food security. In Brazil, the majority of coal mining activities are in the south, in the Santa Catarina Carboniferous region. In this region, previously mined areas contaminated with heavy metals, frequently occur nearby inhabited zones. Mining is part of the daily life of local communities and its environmental impacts are visible in the landscape; however, plants with medicinal and food use from these areas can be still consumed. Heavy metals are contaminants that do not have odor, color, or taste, and are therefore difficult to detect. We aimed to verify whether people use plants from contaminated mine areas, and understand which factors can influence the use of these resources, even from areas visibly impacted. Methods: We conducted 195 semi-structured interviews with residents from 14 areas nearby abandoned mines in the main municipalities of the Santa Catarina Carboniferous region. We asked each interviewee about the length of time they lived in the region, their perception of the quality of the environment, and what plant species were used and for what purpose. We constructed generalized multivariate linear models to verify which variables can affect the group of species mentioned and generalized linear models to verify which variables can affect the total number of citations. We estimated the frequency of citing species collected using the Smith index.Results: From all interviewees, 127 (65%) reported collecting plants for medicinal and food use, directly from contaminated mine areas. Long-term residents, as well as those who noticed more environmental changes (positive and negative), cited more plants used and had more detailed knowledge of plant use in their communities. When asked if they were aware of the possible contamination of mined areas, 85% said they knew about it. However, only 10% associated negative health effects with the use of plant species collected in contaminated mined areas. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates that people living nearby contaminated areas use and consume locally sourced plants, e.g., people know little about the danger of this contamination in their food and the risk of these contaminants to their health. These results also reveal a lack of information about contamination, as well as a lack of actions that include local communities in contaminated area restoration strategies. This situation poses a risk to the food security of the people living nearby former coal mining areas.


2021 ◽  
pp. 11-22
Author(s):  
Sanath Kumar N ◽  
Sugimani Marndi ◽  
Sanjeet Kumar

Aim: To document the common medicinal plants used by the local tribal communities of mining areas of Barsuan Range, Bonai Forest Division, Odisha, India Background: From ancient times, medicinal plants are playing vital role in human health care systems. Nowadays, medicinal plants are less used by urban &  rural areas but they are still used by tribal communities. From them, the valuable knowledge needs to be documented for future reference, particularly from mining areas where lot of threats are observed on them. Methodology: Keeping the threat and importance of traditional knowledge, an attempt has been made to document the most common medicinal plants of Barsuan Range, Bonai Forest Division, Odisha through field survey using Passport Data Form. Results: A total 50 common plant species were recorded having medicinal values and used by the local communities. Conclusion: In this modern era, the conservation of traditional knowledge is important. The present study highlights the some common medicinal plants of mining impacted areas which could be the raw materials for future herbal formulation and can create livelihood option.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 156-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nasirudeen Abdul Fatawu

Recent floods in Ghana are largely blamed on mining activities. Not only are lives lost through these floods, farms andproperties are destroyed as a result. Water resources are diverted, polluted and impounded upon by both large-scale minersand small-scale miners. Although these activities are largely blamed on behavioural attitudes that need to be changed, thereare legal dimensions that should be addressed as well. Coincidentally, a great proportion of the water resources of Ghana arewithin these mining areas thus the continual pollution of these surface water sources is a serious threat to the environmentand the development of the country as a whole. The environmental laws need to be oriented properly with adequate sanctionsto tackle the impacts mining has on water resources. The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedure needs to bestreamlined and undertaken by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and not the company itself.


Author(s):  
Christine Cheng

In Liberia’s diamond sector, the dynamics of the BOPC Group show how diamond mines remain vulnerable to takeover long after war has ended. From mining to taxing to exporting, West African governments have long struggled to control the supply of diamonds within their territories and the physical and social isolation of diamond mining areas has meant that they effectively govern themselves. This geographical buffer gives extralegal groups room to grow, develop organizational structures, and build up local networks of influence. Yet their claims to legitimacy are ultimately rooted in whether their mining activities are classified as legal or illegal, formal or informal, legitimate or illegitimate. Characterizing artisanal diamond mining as an “illicit” activity also feeds into the international community’s desire to sanitize the industry—even at the expense of miners’ livelihoods. This chapter demonstrates that these categorizations are not simply claims of law, but claims of power.


Author(s):  
Maria Alejandra Hernandez Marentes ◽  
Martina Venturi ◽  
Silvia Scaramuzzi ◽  
Marco Focacci ◽  
Antonio Santoro

AbstractChagras are complex agroforestry systems developed by indigenous populations of the Amazon region based on shifting agriculture, as part of a system that includes harvesting of wild fruits and plants, hunting and fishing. During the centuries, thanks to their traditional knowledge, indigenous populations have developed a deep relationship with the surrounding environment, as, living in remote places, they must be self-sufficient. The result is the chagra, a system whose cycle is based on seven basic steps to establish a successful and sustainable system, starting from place selection and ending with the abandonment of the plot after harvesting of the products. After the abandonment, the forest starts to grow again to allow the agroecosystem to recover and to take advantage of the residual vegetal material to avoid erosion. The paper takes into consideration the Indigenous Reserve of Monochoa in Colombia as an example of how traditional knowledge can support a rich biodiversity conservation. Moreover, differently from other parts of the world where there is a growing contrast between indigenous communities and protected areas, in the Indigenous Reserve of Monochoa local communities have been recognized as the owners of the land. Results highlighted the crucial role of the indigenous communities for biodiversity conservation. The preservation and adaptation of traditional knowledge and practices, a decentralized autonomous governance system demonstrates that local communities not only can be part of ecosystems with unique biodiversity, but that they can represent the main actors for an active conservation of biodiversity. Agroforestry systems based on traditional forest-related knowledge can therefore be an effective alternative to biodiversity and ecosystem services conservation based on strict nature protection where humans are perceived as a negative factor.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Dickson Adom

Biodiversity management in Ghana has been largely driven by scientific conservation models. The time-tested and useful traditional conservation ethos in the Ghanaian cultural and artistic elements such as festivals, proverbs, cosmological belief systems and taboos are often watered down by conservationists in biodiversity conservation schemes. This is due to conservationists’ lack of clear-cut guidelines on how to effectively utilize the traditional knowledge systems in complementing the scientific conservation models they are well versed. The developed traditional biodiversity strategy was based on the findings from a robust phenomenological study conducted among purposively and randomly sampled key stakeholders in biodiversity management in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The document aims at offering comprehensive information and guidelines to conservationists on effective ways of implementing traditional knowledge systems in biodiversity conservation issues in Ghana. It ultimately aims at filling the dearth in traditional knowledge systems that have been an age-long problem for the conservation ministries and agencies in Ghana. The informative directions in the developed traditional biodiversity strategy would offer another lens to addressing conservation issues in Ghana while acting as a viable complement to the scientific models. This would ultimately maximize and enrich the conservation strategies for managing Ghana’s biodiversity.


Author(s):  
Mi-Jung Bae ◽  
Jeong-Ki Hong ◽  
Eui-Jin Kim

Mining activities are among the most long-lasting anthropogenic pressures on streams and rivers. Therefore, detecting different benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages in the areas recovered from mining activities is essential to establish conservation and management plans for improving the freshwater biodiversity in streams located near mining areas. We compared the stability of benthic macroinvertebrate communities between streams affected by mining activities (Hwangjicheon: NHJ and Cheolamcheon: NCA) and the least disturbed stream (Songjeonricheon: NSJ) using network analysis, self-organizing map, and indicator species analysis. Species richness was lowest at sites where stream sediments were reddened or whitened due to mining impacts in NHJ and NCA. Among functional feeding groups, the ratio of scrapers was lower (i.e., NHJ) or not observed (i.e., NCA) in the affected sites by mining. The networks (species interactions) were less connected in NHJ and NCA than in NSJ, indicating that community stability decreased in the area affected by mining activity. We identified five groups based on the similarity of benthic macroinvertebrate communities according to the gradients of mining impacts using a self-organizing map. the samples from the reference stream (clusters 1 and 5), sites located near the mining water inflow area (cluster 4), sites where stream sediments acid-sulfated (cluster 2), and sites that had recovered from mining impacts (cluster 3). Among the 40 taxa selected as indicators defined from the five clusters in self-organizing map, only few (Physa acuta, Tipula KUa, and Nemoura KUb) indicator species were selected in each cluster representing the mining-impacted sites. Our results highlighted that the benthic macroinvertebrate community complexity was lower in streams affected by mining activity. Furthermore, the range of disturbed areas in the streams, where conservation and management plans should be prioritized, can be quantified by examining alterations in the benthic macroinvertebrate community.


Author(s):  
Susy Frankel

This chapter situates the claims for protection of traditional knowledge in the international intellectual property (IP) context. Drawing on examples, it discusses the meaning of “traditional knowledge” and how the goals and means of protecting that knowledge do not fit within the framework of IP law. In order to address the overlap with IP and provide protection against misuse of traditional knowledge, a number of international bodies have been involved in negotiations and treaty drafting. The chapter discusses those developments, and concludes that even though international resolution looks unlikely in the short-term, the protection of traditional knowledge will continue to feature in international IP debates until a minimum level of agreement at least reached. In order to attain such agreement, there needs to be relevant national laws and, as a practical matter, sufficient investment in the innovation of traditional knowledge in order to deliver the value of protection to its holders.


<em>Abstract.</em>—The Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim Sustainable Salmon Initiative (AYK SSI) is a research program in Alaska focused on learning from the knowledge and understanding of local indigenous fishing communities. From the mid-1990s, Alaska Natives have urged that local and traditional/indigenous knowledge be recognized as a serious body of ecological insights and stewardship traditions. This paper provides a survey of milestones in Alaska, from the early definitional debates and the rise of systematic methods for documentation, to the growing body of substantive information. The discussion on local and traditional knowledge at the AYK SSI Symposium in February 2007 provided an opportunity to assess achievements and identify obstacles. Participants underscored the continuing challenges of the diverse cultural context for joint research by biologists and local communities, directing attention to foundational questions of trust and respect. Local residents celebrated the great promise for local and traditional/indigenous knowledge to contribute to our shared scientific understanding of salmon and to promote respectful and effective systems of stewardship, but they were also acutely perceptive of the barriers to improved synthesis and mutual learning. The concluding section of this paper explores implications for the on-going research agenda of the AYK SSI, particularly the need for an on-going consultative process to insure that local communities and researchers are mutually aware of methodologies available and the substantive contributions made by local and traditional knowledge research. In this way, the on-going development of research in this area can draw more fully on the struggles and accomplishments of the preceding decade.


Author(s):  
Noriko Yajima

The problems to establish equitable benefit sharing of Traditional Knowledge (TK) associated with Genetic Resources (GRs) have been one of the main discussions in international negotiations. This chapter analyses how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) could contribute to international organizations, national governments, and the private sector protecting TK associated with GRs in indigenous and local communities. This research uses the concept of the United Nations Triple Bottom Line Approach, which promotes balance among economic, environmental, and social imperatives towards sustainable development. This chapter illustrates the responsibility of international organizations by providing legally binding instruments. It also compares different national governments' responses to protect TK associated with GRs. Then, the chapter proposes that Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) could be the key to improving contradictions between legal and voluntary instruments in local communities and national and international governments. The analysis suggests that CSR is coherent with PPPs and might generate environmental, economic, and socio-economic challenges in the private and public sectors.


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