Land use transformation in the mountainous Kurdistanand the role of indigenous knowledge and skills in forest management

ABSTRACT: The mountainous Kurdistan that contains the region’s largest remaining tropical forest. The people living in the forested mountains, who belong to a diversity of ethnic minority groups, possess a wealth of local knowledge and skills in forest management. With rapid decrease in forest area, implementation of forest conservation policies, improved access to market and replacement of shifting cultivation with permanent cropping, land use and management in the region has been rapidly changing. Some indigenous knowledge and technology in forest management will inevitably continue to be lost in the process, but not all. This paper shows how local forest management systems have been adapted to deal with the change, with specific focus on deployment and adaptation of indigenous knowledge and skills. First background on the region and its traditional land use systems will be provided. Cases drawn from studies in the region will illustrate how deployment of indigenous technology not only helps the farmers to improve their productivity but can also provide services in forest regeneration and biodiversity conservation. It will also be shown that farmers’ knowledge and skills are not static, but continually revised and integrating modern inputs as well as transfer of new ideas and innovations.