Indigenous Practices & Natural Resources

By Zahra Hussain & Fatima Hussain

The depletion of natural resources has far reaching consequences if sustainable environmental management are not revived or exercised by rural and urban settlements. Situated in the South of Asia, Pakistan’s major issues consist of deforestation, waste management systems and clean water availability. The sustainable environmental management needs to be contextualized in light of the local indigenous knowledge systems, as the western scientific model, which is predominant in such literature, is not always fit for this region. The local realities and situations are quite regional when it comes to indigenous management of natural resources. This workshop aims to map out traditional and indigenous practices of Neelam Valley inhabitants that help preserve natural resources and the current threats to it in order to see effective ways of preserving these practices for the challenging future. AVC required participants to work in groups for preparing field research forms, each group focused on investigating the how cultural practices affect or interact with natural resources. This assignment helped participants to interact and exchange their research strategies. This research was carried out in Taobat, Kel and Aran Kel.