Knowledge is power

Despite the skyrocketing use of communication technologies throughout the world, access to information continues to be unequal and this is a barrier to equitable and sustainable social development. 

Amidst today's complex and interconnected social and ecological problems, local people need to effectively assess, revalorize and mobilize their own knowledge, skills and traditions, and to adapt these by incorporating other forms of know-how.

Too often, top-down scientific and corporate processes prevail, marginalizing those who intimately know and manage natural resources. Instead, a process of exchange - among local groups as well as between local people, scientists, government, and others - is essential for communities to respond creatively and effectively to social and ecological change.

Bridging Divides and Sharing Experiences

People and Plants has a long history of developing innovative knowledge exchange tools to catalyze productive exchanges between individuals, communities and other groups. We create and support knowledge networks which bridge disciplines, sectors and cultures, and bring people together to share experiences, knowledge and skills relating to natural resource use, trade, and management, health and wellbeing, and land and resource rights. 

Making Science Accessible and Useful

Scientific knowledge can help communities adapt to change, set priorities, and enhance management practices for conservation and well-being. However, research is often designed, generated, and distributed by academic and research institutions which are geographically and intellectually far-removed from the people and places where research is conducted.

Research results are rarely communicated to local groups, and if so likely not in ways that are useful to them. We produce innovative materials that communicate scientific results in accessible formats, and undertake intercultural training programs that make scientific findings directly useful to local groups, ensuring research processes and products are relevant to, and respectful of, local people. 

We also work to make science accessible to government. Rapid scientific and technological advances are poorly understood by most policy-makers, as are the links with conservation and equity. People and Plants works to make these developments more accessible to policy-makers and other stakeholders in order to promote equitable and environmentally sound policies.

The Tools