Main description:

The 1990s have seen a growing interest in the role of local ecological knowledge in the context of sustainable development, and particularly in providing a set of responses to which populations may resort in times of political, economic and environmental instability. The period 1996-2003 in island southeast Asia represents a critical test case for understanding how this might work. The key issues explored in this book are the creation, erosion and transmission of ecological knowledge, and hybridization between traditional and scientifically-based knowledge, amongst populations facing environmental stress (e.g. 1997 El Nino), political conflict and economic hazards. The book will also evaluate positive examples of how traditional knowledge has enabled local populations to cope with these kinds of insecurity.

Contents:

List of Figures

List of Tables

Preface

List of Contributors

Chapter 1. Introduction

Roy Ellen

Chapter 2. Responses to Medium-term Stability in Climate: El Nino, Droughts and Coping Mechanisms of Foragers and Farmers in Borneo

Rajindra K. Puri

Chapter 3. Kasepuhan Rice Landrace Diversity, Risk Management and Agricultural Modernization

Rini Soemarwoto

Chapter 4. Responses to Environmental Stress in the Baduy Swidden System, South Banten, Java

Johan Iskandar

Chaptert 5. Innovation, 'Hybrid' Knowledge and the Conservation of Relict Rainforest in Upland Banten

Johan Iskandar and Roy Ellen

Chapter 6. A Comparison of Traditional and Innovative Subsistence Strategies on Buano during Periods of Socio-environmental Stress, 1980-2003

Hermien L. Soselisa

Chapter 7. A Tradition of Change in Minahasan Agricultural Strategies, North Sulawesi

Simon Platten

Chapter 8. Cycles of Politics and Cycles of Nature: Permanent Crisis in the Uplands of Palawan

Dario Novellino

Chapter 9. The Tobe and Tara Bandu: a Post-independence Renaissance of Historic Forest Regulation Authorities and Practices in Oecusse, East Timor

Laura S. Metzner Yoder

Chapter 10. Perceptions of Local Knowledge and Adaptation on Mount Merapi, Central Java

Michael R. Dove

Index