Biodiversity and recipe Contests: Innovative socioecological approaches to capture ecological knowledge, related livelihoods and conserve biodiversity in eastern Himalaya, Arunachal Pradesh.

Abstract

In recent years, erosion of local indigenous biodiversity knowledge has been seen as one of the major global threats to biodiversity. Government and various developmental agencies have been trying to articulate ways of preserving biodiversity and its associated knowledge systems through education and knowledge documentation. Organizing “biodiversity contests” among younger generations of indigenous and local people, and recipe contests of uncommon forest plants and field crops among rural women are two important methods to reduce erosion of indigenous biodiversity knowledge. In view of the importance of such approaches, the National Innovation Foundation (NIF), Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India has been organizing biodiversity knowledge contests and recipe contests from 2003 onwards among Adi tribal members, especially school children and rural women, respectively in selected schools and villages of East Siang district of Arunchal Pradesh. The villages in which to hold recipe contests were selected purposively based on forest cover, ethnicity, remoteness and people‟s livelihood dependency on forest resources. Initially, the projects were explained and rapport established with participating schools and villages around the district. Different events including radio talks, public meetings, contact with key individuals, circulation of posters and pamphlets and group discussions were organized. In second phase, individual schools and villages were contacted to set up the biodiversity and recipe contests. We found that school children demonstrated encouraging results by presenting systematic herbaria of local plants, including uses, ecology and source of information. The children from rural backgrounds were found to be more knowledgeable than those from more settled areas, and were able to contribute more than 100 forest and semi-forest plants in their collections. Creation of vertical knowledge networks created by the school children through contest was evolved. These group contests resulted in revealing more knowledge about local biodiversity as compared to individual participation, reflecting synergism. In the case of the recipe contests, Adi women showed a sound knowledge of local biodiversity, presenting as traditional foods more than 50 indigenous forest based plants, many of which are locally uncommon. Significantly, the Gaon Burha (village headman) further helped to diffuse the knowledge network created from this activity. We found that creating a platform on which local knowledge systems can inform, interact with and transform formal knowledge systems in a collaborative and cooperative way, as in these biodiversity contests ultimately can contribute to conserving biodiversity more effectively.