The environmental knowledge frontier: transects with experts and villagers

Knowledge of the environment has often been associated with ‘expert’ or professional interpretations. The knowledge and views of villagers have consequently been obscured and underused. Comparisons of ‘expert’ and local perspectives in the field are rare. Local knowledge is gaining wide recognition in Western social science, but is often still not accepted in other disciplines or other societies. This paper explores one knowledge interface between ‘experts’ and ‘locals’ on environmental issues. It focuses on the interface between official policy and local everyday life of the rural population, by presenting findings from transects conducted with separate groups of villagers and ‘experts’ in Nyando Division, Kisumu District, Kenya. The transects were used both for basic evaluation of the environment and as a forum to elicit opinion from ‘experts’ and ‘locals’. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.