The Centre for Innovation in Science and Social Action (CISSA) is offering schoolchildren an exposure to traditional knowledge in various sectors.
A programme is being organised at the Science and Technology Museum here on Saturday in connection with the World Environment Day.
The event titled “Let Us Talk Biodiversity,” will have three sessions—Forest Knowledge (Kattarivu), Sea Knowledge (Kadalarivu) and Local Knowledge (Nattarivu). Tribal folk and fish workers who possess abundant knowledge and experience on the subject will share their experiences with the students.
The programme is supported by the Science and Technology Museum, Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment, Environment Management Agency, Kerala, Kerala State Biodiversity Board and Agrofriends Cultural Association.
Minister for Food and Civil Supplies C. Divakaran is scheduled to inaugurate the programme. R.V.Varma of the Kerala State Biodiversity Board will deliver the keynote address.
The Kattarivu group include Lakshikutty, Valakkudy Chandran and E.M. Sivaprasad and the scientific validation and co-ordination will be done by S. Rajasekharan of the Tropical Botanical Garden and Research Institute.
T. Peter, John J.T., Joseph Lopez and M. Ambros will lead the Kadalarivu team and A. Biju Kumar will co-ordinate the discussion. Nattarivu group is represented by Mahoharan Nair, Peringavil Sali, Gauri Kani, Malakhi Nadar, Divakara Panikkar and Selva Raj and this group will be led by C.R. Rajagopal, Director, Nattarivu Padana Kendram, Thrissur.
A press note issued by the organisers here said biodiversity and traditional ecological knowledge were increasingly being sought by academics, agency scientists, and policymakers as potential source of ideas for emerging models of ecosystem management, conservation biology, and ecological restoration.
The United Nations Convention on Biodiversity calls for recognition, protection, and utilisation of the traditional ecological knowledge. New directions in applied biology that have direct parallels and precedents in traditional knowledge include ecosystem management, medicine, pharmacology, agro-ecology, wildlife, fisheries, and animal behaviour. Biological research is moving to explore these approaches, yet acknowledgment or understanding of the traditional ecological knowledge is rare in the student community.
The traditional ecological knowledge is being recognised as having equal status with scientific knowledge and has been termed as the “intellectual twin to science.”
