Learning About Tree Management in Rural Central India: A Local-Global Continuum

Earlier writings on indigenous environmental knowledge have promoted a dichotomous view of knowledge and culture as being either (indigenous) or (scientific). Utilizing case studies drawn from a study of village tree management in Madhya Pradesh, India, this paper argues that the local and the global actually comprise a continuum of knowledge systems that hybridize at multiple levels, from the abstract conceptual level down to the level of concrete practices. Where individuals fall along this knowledge continuum depends upon a number of historical and socioeconomic factors as well as personal initiative, which together determine how much of which types of knowledge sources a person can access. Finally, this paper illustrates that personal knowledge of environmental management is continually under construction at a local scale, contingent upon local opportunities for hands-on experience and observation, an understanding that holds important implications for development.