Indigenous knowledge in disaster management and climate change adaptation

Mohammad Tareq HasanIndigenous knowledge refers to the local and traditional knowledge used by the people of a particular geo-physical setting for agriculture, natural resource management, fisheries, livestock, healthcare practices, disaster risk reduction and other activities. Since the start of exploration how indigenous knowledge and institutions could contribute to human development most attention was laid upon issues related to agriculture and environmental practices. However, the world and its populace have started to face the impacts of global climate change in the form of global food insecurity, hunger, poverty, etc. The situation has deteriorated further in the face of increased frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, cyclones, and storm surges. In this context, it is now pertinent to identify and mainstream indigenous knowledge for adaptation and survival against the serious local impacts. The significance of indigenous knowledge lies in the fact that it is developed through a process of innovation and adaptation of a variety of coping strategies and techniques that are fine-tuned to the local environment, economy and socio-cultural system. The major natural climatic disasters that periodically visit Bangladesh include cyclones, tornadoes, tidal bores, floods, river erosion and droughts. People living in the disaster-prone areas are believed to have developed their own perception and prediction strategies against natural disasters and effective survival strategies. These inherited, time-tested experiences of generations have been internalised by subsequent generations through a process of socialisation. Originated within communities, based on local needs and specific to the local culture and context, such knowledge capitals has helped in building the community resilience and enhance disaster affected people's coping mechanisms to natural disasters. The coastal belt of Bangladesh is vulnerable to recurrent cyclones. Indigenous communities, living in the coastal areas for centuries with unique cultural identity, are an indispensable part of nature. Rakhains, the most populous indigenous community, have been living on the coastal belt for centuries. They have their own adaptive strategies for pre-, during-, and post-disaster periods of cyclones. Their community-level preparedness includes the structural adjustment to reduce cyclone damage (planting tree around homesteads), specific forms of housing pattern, etc. The Rakhains were found to use several indicators to anticipate and predict a cyclone: wind direction, heat of the wind, weather condition, behaviour of certain fish in the sea, sound of the sea and absence of the sound of lightening, colour and shape of cloud, behaviour of insects, bitter taste of rainwater, amount of water in the rivers and sea, colour and temperature of water, quantities of fish catch in rivers and sea, etc. Given their extreme vulnerability, the Rakhains living on the coastal belt have developed some short-term as well as long-term adaptive strategies to cyclones. For the short-term, i.e. during or just after any disaster, adaptive strategies involve dismantling the floor of their houses and opening the windows during cyclones, so that, wind and water can pass through without obstruction; thus, the main structures of the house remain stable. Holding on to, and binding the houses to trees or logs, looking for more dependable places like embankments, using floating items such as timber, roofs of thatched houses, bunches of coconuts are also some good examples of adaptation technique. On the other hand, long-term structural adjustment includes building eco-friendly houses, built upon a higher structure; which give them a better opportunity to survive during tidal surges. The practice of planting trees around their households also saves their house from strong wind and storm surge. Floods are very frequent in Bangladesh. However, people of the flood-prone areas have keen power of observation by which they can predict the nature of the floods that might occur in a year. For instance, in the flood affected areas, it is believed that, if the monsoon rain is abundant and the water flow of the rivers is clean and has a current, there are chances of onset of floods. Thereby, people take several initiatives for reducing risk and damage and survival. During the flood, inhabitants of the char areas take different measures, such as plastering the plinth of the house with a paste of mud, jute fiber and husks. It protects the plinth from the direct impact of the rain drops. Furthermore, people place fence around the plinth also, so that running water cannot hit the plinth directly and thus, erosion is minimised. Moreover, bamboo fence is also placed surrounding agricultural fields so that water hyacinth remain away from crop fields. Bangladesh is a live delta and most of its rivers regularly change course. However, people in the erosion-affected areas of haors, for instance, people of the Sunamganj district, plant a variety of grass locally known as 'Chailla', on and around their homesteads in order to halt the wave action that continuously erodes the land on which houses are built. The survival patterns of people inhabiting a haor are unique in the sense that they have learnt from nature how to live in a hostile environment. Moreover, people of the riverbank erosion affected area can also foretell erosion by analysing various indicators. These include nature of the current of river water, depth of the rivers, size and number of whirlpool in river water, crack in the river bank, wind direction, color of the water, etc. The indigenous predictive indicators enable people to better prepare and thus, reduce potential risk and manage disastrous situation in a better way. With just one per cent tree cover in the Barind area of Rajshahi division, Bangladesh faces creeping desertification. Better management of droughts and desertification can help alleviate associated problems. Local communities have over the years developed a range of strategies to combat it. One traditional adjustment that farmers usually practise if drought occurs during early kharif (March-April) is the conservation of the soil moisture, provided by occasional showers. After each shower, farmers quickly plough or handweed their fields. This practice reduces moisture loss by evaporation and prepares the soil to absorb the next shower quickly and deeply. Though we cannot prevent all natural disasters, we can reduce the number of causalities and losses. Furthermore, as some of the disasters can be managed, we need to find ways and means to better tackle them in the pre-, during and post-disaster phases. Disaster management involves preparing for disasters before they occur, disaster response as well as supporting and rebuilding society. It has been found that certain indigenous perception and prediction strategies, possessed by local people, always help them to anticipate and take necessary precautions and also to survive post-disaster situations. Here only a glimpse of indigenous knowledge in disaster management has been portrayed. Therefore, the coping strategies of people in disaster-hit areas should be documented extensively for their potential utilisation in other parts of the country with similar geo-physical setting. In recent times, when community-based preparedness and adaptation is considered to be the most effective strategy to face the impacts of climate change, such local indigenous knowledge must be acknowledged and documented. However, it is a matter of regret that research on 'indigenous knowledge of disaster management' still remains scanty. However, one issue should be taken into account in mainstreaming indigenous knowledge. It is that traditional indigenous knowledge is locally varied; therefore, this knowledge cannot be generalised. The writer is an anthropologist and may be reached at e-mail: tareqhasan99@yahoo.com