Where Traditional Knowledge is Invaluable
Although the topic has been the subject of great debate
over previous years, climate change and global warming have lately become much
more accepted in the scientific world as a startling actuality. In fact, much of
the scientific has come to forecast severe warming and possible global disaster
by 2060. It’s quite a scary thought that we could be just at the cusp of a
worldwide, ecological cataclysm.
But, much of the scientific community is also in agreement that there is still
plenty of hope, if we get going now. So where exactly is the biggest impact-zone
– where would organized efforts begin? What can be done? As it turns out, the
exact location that is home to much of the planet’s most marred face is one of
the best hopes of any possible, regenerative, cataclysm-stopping hopes out
there: South America.
South American rainforests have long been a set of planetary organs, if you
will, for Planet Earth. The rainforests – home to countless plants and animals,
also acts as the planet’s lungs, maintaining CO2-oxygen balances. They have also
served as a thermostat, maintaining worldwide temperature and ecosystem balance.
In addition, the rainforests have also served as pollutant-reducers, filtering
the rest of the world’s air.
But thanks largely to deforestation alone, the precious rainforests have
dwindled startlingly. This is “ground-zero” for those fighting to turn the tide
of impending planetary doom. This is the epicenter of the future’s hope.
Here, among tree stumps and barren fields where once mighty rainforests stood,
modern efforts are hard at work reforesting. The Nature Conservancy’s Atlantic
Forest Restoration Pact, the Open World Foundation, and several other groups are
here, replanting forests and a future’s hope. But, contrary to what one might
think, it’s not actually technological prowess, corporate entities, or
modernized teams going around regrowing the lost rainforests; it’s the locals
and their knowledge of the land.
The locals and natives of the old rainforest lands are some of the best at
understanding an ecology needing rebuilt. These people, their traditional
knowledge of the land, environment, soils, water, area life cycles and more, are
physically performing the work needing done. This is how rebuilding, regrowth,
and rainforest reforestation are taking place here.
The entire operation could be seen as a cooperative. The large organizations
leading the efforts from above offer financial incentives based on reforestation
progress, and the locals and their traditional knowledge in-turn replant and
maintain the regrowth of the lands. In essence, the local, traditional ways are
being paid and tasked directly to stand against deforestation and administer the
regrowth of their own native land – the rainforests.
In a broader sense, such an arrangement is one to glean an example from. Perhaps other
realms of planetary improvement have something to learn here. In South America,
it is from the ground-level of tradition and the knowledge of locals that hope is springing back.
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