KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE
TOOLS
Measuring tree growth in Selva Maya. (Photo: Chuck Peters)
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.
Forest inventory still life: clipboard, compass, transect rope. (Photo: Chuck Peters)
Potting Trema seedlings. San Pablito, Mexico. (Photo: Citlalli López)
Table with alebrijes in Arrazola, Oaxaca, Mexico. (Photo: Chuck Peters)
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.
People and Plants International (2024) Knowledge Exchange and Education. Lessons learned from environmental, biocultural, ethnobiological, and other knowledge exchange programs over the last 30 years.
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Knowledge exchange is a wide and diverse field of activity, and difficult to generalize, but in this document we present some key lessons learned by People and Plants partners around the world, to provide general guidance and thoughts for consideration as groups plan their programs.
Making Science Accessible and Useful
Extractive Reserve along the River Ouro Preto, Brazil
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
Webinars
