Land use transformation in the mountainous Kurdistanand the role of indigenous knowledge and skills in forest management

the mountainous Kurdistan that contains the region’s largest remaining tropicalforest. Thepeople living in the forested mountains, who belong to a diversity ofethnic minority groups, possess awealth of local knowledge and skills in forestmanagement. With rapid decrease in forest area,implementation of forest conservationpolicies, improved access to market and replacement of shiftingcultivation withpermanent cropping, land use and management in the region has been rapidlychanging.Some indigenous knowledge and technology in forest management willinevitably continue to be lost inthe process, but not all.Method: This paper shows how local forest management systems have beenadapted todeal with the change, with specific focus on deployment and adaptationof indigenous knowledge andskills. First background on the region and itstraditional land use systems will be provided. Result: Cases drawn from studiesin the region will illustrate how deployment ofindigenous technology not onlyhelps the farmers to improve their productivity but can also provideservicesin forest regeneration and biodiversity conservation. It will also beshown that farmers’ knowledge and skills are not static, but continually revised andintegrating moderninputs as well as transfer of new ideas and innovations.

کلیدواژه ها:

Forest management ، Shifting cultivation ، Indigenous knowledge