The Role of Indigenous Management Systems, Values and Myths in Natural Resource Conservation: The Chitral Model

Abstract

Studies of the ancient civilizations of the world have revealed that thousands of years ago the concept of indigenous institutions for conducting social, economic-ecological and political affairs of the society existed. Chitral is yet another essential part of Pakistan which owns a heritage of thousands of years of social and cultural evolution. The human societies that were existent in Chitral had traditional values that, in context, exhibited as much capability and depth as any other developed society of the world. Here organizations evolved with time to accommodate the needs of the modern age yet managed to keep their original form to some extent intact. The existence of traditional systems is, therefore, not a new concept for the people of Chitral. Even in today’s era, the people of Chitral still apply a range of ancient indigenous principles in conducting the affairs of their daily lives in a better and sustained way. Today, this entire heritage, culturally and technologically, lies in tatters and no one can be blamed more for this than the number of actors. However, my research signifies a strong nexus between natural resource management and cultural diversity (especially values, myths & effectiveness of traditional management systems) and suggests that success in natural resource management is possible provided the cultural diversity is protected and conserved accordingly. It is quite clear that loss of cultural diversity is part and parcel of the same socio-ecological processes leading to natural resource management. It has been concluded that indigenous management practices, as traditional knowledge, have still a tendency to offer to biodiversity conservation provided the mechanism and systems for the reactivation and protection of this knowledge is within the context of prevailing socio-cultural and ecological setting of Chitral. However, the challenge is how to reactivate the indigenous management systems and how to institutionalize rules and values among the communities. More importantly, the importance of ecological anthropology has emerged in recent years, mainly owing to its relevance to contemporary concerns with the state of the general environment. It has the real potential to inform and instruct humans about how to construct sustainable ways of life by preserving both cultural as well as biodiversity through an adaptation mechanism. The solution to the issues will address the potential divergence between individual and collective interests. Sustainable natural resource management is a collective goal for which a holistic approach is needed on the part of the stakeholders. However, it is the role of the communities and researchers who could determine or perceive the collective goals and not necessarily the policy makers.