8 EDITO RIAL Traditional Knowledge and Biodiversity within Regional Centres of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development Unnikrishnan Payyappallimana Zinaida Fadeeva Rob O’Donoghue RCEs, Traditional Knowledge, Biodiversity & ESD Regional Centres of Expertise (RCEs) were developed as sites for participatory learning and action within the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD), opening up more collaborative and inclusive learning spaces towards more just and sustainable ways of life now and in the future. Some of the contours of these emergent education processes of collaborative learning-to-change are reviewed as they relate to traditional knowledge (TK) and biodiversity, and are developing in many RCE contexts today. This editorial takes particular note of how RCE processes that include traditional knowledge practices are emerging to address biodiversity loss within a social-ecological perspective across heritage, local issues and the current state of our environmental knowledge. It also discusses how multistakeholder, cross-sectoral initiatives such as RCEs open new opportunities for various knowledges, especially traditional knowledge, to interact on a new and equal footing, for the benefit of (sustainable) development. The RCE cases examined in this publication are characterised by local expertise being brought together in open-ended, practical and co-engaged approaches to social and transformative learning. The RCE approaches reposition the available expertise in collective learningto change endeavours where a grasp of what is changing and producing risk is practically deliberated across what is known and what might be done about the problems that are confronting a society. The local heritage of traditional knowledge practices and patterns of valuing in relation to biodiversity have not always been read within an open-ended bio-cultural diversity perspective such as this. The development and learning within the RCEs that recognises the often plural and yet integrated nature of the inhabitants of modern social-ecological systems is often possible as the RCEs are governed by the ESD principles that recognise a need for multiple perspectives in learning while acknowledging the complexity of working across sectoral and disciplinary boundaries – challenges that are addressed in this book. Bio-cultural Diversity and Sustainable Development In its broad sense the term bio-cultural diversity denotes an inseparable link between the diversity of life forms, their ecosystems and environments on the one hand and the array of human-made expressions in relation to these. In totality, this view has come to encompass genes, species, ecosystems, landscapes, and seascapes to worldviews, belief systems, knowledge, morals, values, norms, languages, rules, artistic expressions, artifacts and institutions of a region that have generally been passed on through an intergenerational transmission process and shared by a group (Haverkort et al 2006; Ibisch et al. 2010). A social-ecological approach here reiterates the inherent, dynamic relationship between nature and humankind and hence a biological and cultural diversity perspective for development towards a sustainable future. From a utilitarian point of view, bio-cultural diversity impacts on human well-being through ecosystem services as well as cultural resources in sectors such as agriculture, health, food security, environmental protection, purification of air and water, climate regulation, natural resource management, land use, livelihoods, disaster management, arts and culture among many others. Consider, for example, the case of traditional knowledge in the realm of medicine: The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that traditional medical practices cater to a major percentage of (in some regions) up to 70-80% of the world population’s health requirements especially in developing countries (WHO 2008). As described in several case studies in this volume, the inherent link of community-specific knowledge with local ecosystems is obvious in the usage of plants, and animal and mineral/ metal derivatives that are primarily locally available and easily accessible in traditional health cultures. Upholding and revitalising such knowledge is seen as an important mechanism for affirming identity and social cohesion and has a vital role in local livelihoods and socioeconomic and cultural systems. In mega-diverse countries that are experiencing rapid economic and social transition, bio-cultural diversity holds major untapped potential for poverty alleviation and local development in multiple sectors (Ibisch et al. 2010).
Traditional Knowledge and Biodiversity
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