Maragia, Bosire

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The indigenous sustainability paradox and the quest for sustainability in post-colonial societies: Is indigenous knowledge all that is needed.

Maragia, Bosire. Georgetown International Environmental Law Review, 2006

This essay explores the growing popularity of indigenous knowledge as an alternative strategy for promoting sustainable development and questions the idea that abandoning science in favour of indigenous knowledge is all that post-colonial societies need for societies to eradicate poverty and environmental degradation.

The essay argues that it would be premature to conclude that these cultural, ecological and medicinal contributions imply that indigenous knowledge is capable of resolving the growing economic and environmental problems.

Sustainable development requires the successful implementation of three main categories which are economic, ecological, and social. It does not mean that achieving sustainability in one level automatically translates sustainability to the others. Sustainable development has been recognised as a fundamental principal in international environment law though its legal meaning is subject to debate.

Sustainable development seeks to harmonize environmental goals with environmental ones, with its popularity stemming from its wide range of interpretations and varied implementation. Because of different environments there isn’t just one method to achieving sustainability. This is where indigenous knowledge can be seen has being highly important to understanding the complex relationships the site posses, because of their intuitive knowledge base that they have developed.

The potential for indigenous sustainability to enhance human welfare, especially in developing countries could be overrated given that few policies exclusively tapping indigenous knowledge have been implemented and rigorously examined.

It would be premature to suggest that indigenous knowledge is capable of solving the growing economic and environmental problems, however Indigenous knowledge is a necessary ingredient but is not sufficient enough by itself to do this, it needs to be combined with new sciences and technologies because of the environments changing context.