The Ogiek Peoples’ Indigenous Knowledge: A pathway towards Sustainable Natural Resource Management in the Mau Forest, Kenya.

Abstract

This paper attempts to explore if indigenous knowledge (IK) has the potential to manage natural resources, and offer a new pathway towards sustainable natural resource management practices in the Mau Forest (MF). By looking into the cultural and historical resource management practice of the Ogiek tribe in the MF, natural resource managers can incorporate traditional ecological knowledge and bring a sense of responsibility, accountability, respectability and communality into resource management practices on-and off protected natural resource landscapes. IK-based natural resource management practices were sourced from interviews conducted with the Ogiek elders/opinion leaders, and natural resource managers at the MF, and qualitatively targeted three sustainability themes; cultural preservation, socio-economic viability and ecological integrity, besides government intervention. Cultural preservation (41%), ecological integrity (32%), social-economic viability (18%), and government intervention (09%) were ranked as most important thru least important respectively. The study concluded that IK can serve as a valuable tool for natural resources management practice, and if mainstreamed, it holds potential to move politically connected tribes who are the main beneficiaries of the unsustainable harvesting of natural resources towards a positive ‘cando’ future for sustainability. The study recommended that a national policy or framework on IK systems be developed in order to preserve, protect, and promote IK values for a more balanced and effective natural resource management practice for a sustainable future.

Keywords

• Indigenous knowledge
• natural resource management
• sustainability
• Ogiek people
• Kenya