:. .:( _____ [INVENTORY OF TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE TO COMBAT DESERTIFICATION] _____):. .:TRADITIONAL TECHNIQUES ICONOGRAPHIC SYSTEM IPOGEA


INVENTORY OF TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE TO COMBAT DESERTIFICATION

T R A D I T I O N A L   K N O W L E D G E   I N V E N T O R Y

TRADITIONAL - TECHNIQUES - ICONOGRAPHIC -  SYSTEM - IPOGEA

Traditional knowledge consists of practical (instrumental) and normative knowledge concerning the ecological, socio-economic and cultural environment. Traditional knowledge originates from people and is transmitted to people by recognizable and experienced actors. It is systemic (inter-sectorial and holistic), experimental (empirical and practical), handed down from generation to generation and culturally enhanced. Such a kind of knowledge supports diversity and enhances and reproduces local resources.

Traditional and local knowledge are part of a complex system, therefore they cannot be reduced to a mere list of technical solutions and restricted to a series of different applications according to the results to be attained. Their efficacy depends on the interaction between several factors. These should be carefully considered in order to understand the historical successes achieved by the use of traditional knowledge and to use its internal logic to find modern solutions.
Each traditional practice is not an expedient to solve a specific problem, but always a studied and often a multifunctional method involved in an integrated approach (society, culture and economy) closely linked to a concept of the world based on the careful management of local resource.

Traditional knowledge and techniques were identified by carrying out surveys and studies on field as well as by collecting photographs and current or in progress projects documents. An iconographic system has been elaborated to show and easily identify the techniques and their use. Each technique matches its related icon.

Each single technique is linked to information about photographs, charts and drawings, accomplished and in progress projects, bibliographical documents and analysis of exact references and geographic and chronological dissemination maps. All this information is divided (in clusters of competence and) in the following categories:

A
WATER MANAGEMENT