15 Ecosystem Services and Sustainable Use Ecosystem services on which humanity relies have become the benchmark for the success of local and global environmental governance. Studies provided by the RCEs demonstrate how ecosystem services contribute (or could potentially contribute) to the well-being of the communities. Interestingly, among the RCE partners, it is traditional knowledge and the holders of such knowledge that demonstrate the direct link between ecosystem services and food, health or other human needs. By being able, even in the absence of efforts for valuation of ecosystem services, to show the critical role of the ecosystem services on local resilience, the TK perspective reaffirms its own value. The contribution of TK becomes especially evident in cases where on going economic and financial struggle is combined with socio-political circumstances that eliminated or severely diminished knowledge of traditional practices (by either emphasising other forms of knowledge or eliminating TK as an inferior form of knowing). Rekindling TK related to food security, health of populations and livelihood production dependent on ecosystem services becomes not only an opportunity but an urgent need. Management of ecosystems and their services in the context of multistakeholder initiatives, such as RCEs, and through co-engaged learning, provides an important opportunity for developing new, more flexible and adaptive approaches. Such approaches appear to be most suitable for engagement with complex systems in the situations of quick change, uncertainties and limited resources. RCE Cebu works in Campo Siete (Camp 7), Minglanilla, which is an area included in the Central Cebu Protected Landscape (CC PL). Spanning an area of 29,062 hectares of adjoining forestlands and watersheds located in the middle of the island-province, this area is home to several endemic species, ecological resources including springs, rivers, caves, and a watershed. Communities in the nearby area are dependant on this forest for livelihood including timber and non-timber produce, agricultural land, or activities such as eco-tourism. RCE Cebu has done extensive biological resource and traditional knowledge mapping in this area through interactions with local healers. They have documented patterns of use of resources for food and medicine. Livelihood initiatives are being supported through cultivation of medicinal plants and promotion of their sustainable use. Once biodiversity-rich and today mostly densely populated floodplains and deltaic, Bangladesh suffered massive loss of biodiversity especially during the times of the Green Revolution. RCE Greater Dhaka is involved in restoring the biodiversity and management of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna floodplains with appropriate crops diversification strategies. It has started a study on crop diversification, traditional multiple and multistory cropping culture and also engaged graduate students to study the local indigenous rice varieties which are in culture in different parts of Bangladesh. The RCE creates awareness through programmes for youth and women that highlight the importance of biodiversity and the genetic resources for food and nutrient security as well as to protect the region from environmental degradation. The RCE also works on coastal area and mangrove conservation.
Traditional Knowledge and Biodiversity
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