ILK Move Community of Practice

During the NEA Initiative’s 2023 Annual Global Workshop, discussions highlighted the importance of interweaving ILK within national ecosystem assessments, and for the NEA Initiative country partners to support each other in this endeavour. As a result, country partners established the ILK_Move Community of Practice with technical assistance from the BES-Net ILK Support Unit and the NEA Initiative. The ILK_Move is composed of experts from Botswana, The Dominican Republic, Malawi and Thailand who are supporting the inclusion of ILK into the national ecosystem assessment process in their respective countries. It aims to provide a space to share lessons learned and exchange experiences on ILK. The first meeting of the support group was held in early 2024, with subsequent meetings to be held throughout the year.

Recognising the role of Indigenous Peoples and local communities’ stewardship of biodiversity, Botswana’s launch of its national ecosystem assessment was preceded by community dialogues on traditional knowledge, held in Palapye from 21^st-22^nd August 2023. Based on these dialogues, a policy brief was developed and delivered to the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism of Botswana – paving the way for continued collaboration between local communities and the Government. In 2024, at least one community dialogue in the different regions of the country is being conducted per quarter.

In March 2023, the Malawi National Ecosystem Assessment team successfully hosted the first National BES-Net Trialogue – an event that provided a platform for an in-depth knowledge exchange between participants with diverse knowledge sets and worldviews, including policymakers, scientists, and Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Local community representatives from various regions of Malawi played a pivotal role in the event’s group discussions, sharing their knowledge, experiences, lessons, and ideas to refine the key policy questions being addressed in Malawi’s National Ecosystem Assessment. Field visits were also conducted to learn first-hand from Indigenous Peoples and local communities about community-led conservation and restoration initiatives.

One of the outcomes of the Trialogue was to provide input to Malawi’s scoping report. The scoping stage is a critical time to gather input from stakeholders and knowledge holders on the aim and scope of the assessment since it serves as the blueprint for the expert evaluation stage.

Throughout 2023 and into 2024, the Malawi National Ecosystem Assessment team has been conducting a series of walking workshops, interviews, and focus group discussions across the country to gather ILK to feed into the assessment. Some of the visited sites so far include Khulubvi sacred forest, Mt. Mulanje UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, Vwaza Marsh Wildlife Reserve, and Lake Chilwa UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

Building on the five community feedback workshops organised in 2023, the Dominican Republic National Ecosystem Assessment team organised its first capacity-building workshop for assessment authors in May 2024. The workshop helped authors improve their understanding of the value and methodology to weave local and traditional knowledge in national ecosystem assessments. It also provided a platform to create the local and traditional knowledge technical working group. Furthermore, data-gathering activities will be undertaken across the country throughout 2024 and 2025 to address significant gaps in the literature on local and traditional knowledge and biodiversity identified by the team. The activity sites include Las Dunas de Bani Natural Monument and the Jaragua-Bahoruco-Enriquillo UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

According to Thailand’s National Ecosystem Assessment scoping report, the assessment will provide answers to ways ILK can contribute to improving the understanding of coastal and marine biodiversity and ecosystem services in Thailand. Consequently, the ecosystem assessment will support Thai policymakers in formulating policies informed by long-term observations of nature and ecosystems, as well as the real-life experiences of Thailand’s ethnic and local communities.

In January 2024, a three-day capacity-building event was held in Phuket, Thailand, focusing on the Trialogue approach to equip the Thai National Ecosystem Assessment team with the necessary tools for effective multistakeholder engagement.

A key component of the workshop was the direct engagement with ethnic and local communities and stakeholders, particularly during the field visit to the Ao Kung community. This allowed participants to gain firsthand insights into ILK, conservation efforts and challenges, thereby grounding the emerging dialogue within real-world contexts.

Click on the link below to learn more about the workshop.