permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>]

http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/07/unesco-sets-up-international-traditional-knowledge-database.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2Fkrisdedecker%2Flowtechmagazineenglish+%28Low-tech+Magazine%29

UNESCO sets up online Traditional Knowledge Database

International traditional knowledge databaseThe freshly launched 
"International Traditional Knowledge Institute" (ITKI) is an ambitious 
effort to preserve, restore and promote the re-use of traditional skills 
and inventions from all over the world. It includes an online 
encyclopaedia of low-tech know-how, though it will take many years 
before it is completed.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lewis Mumford wrote in 1970:

    "The great feat of medieval technics was that it was able to 
promote and absorb many important changes without losing the immense 
carryover of inventions and skills from earlier cultures. In this lies 
one of its vital points of superiority over the modern mode of 
monotechnics, which boasts of effacing, as fast and as far as possible, 
the technical achievements of earlier periods."

The Traditional Knowledge Institute writes in 2010:

    "Today, traditional knowledge is in danger and its disappearance 
would not only cause the loss of people's capability to keep and pass on 
the artistic and natural heritage, but also of an extraordinary source 
of knowledge and cultural diversity from which appropriate innovative 
solutions can be derived today and in the future."

Unesco7 The idea to set up a data bank of traditional knowledge was 
launched by Italian Pietro Laureano, architect, town planner, author and 
UNESCO consultant on arid areas, Islamic society and endangered 
ecosystems. Laureano worked in the Sahara desert for eight years and 
coordinated pilot projects in Algeria, Jordan, Yemen and Ethiopia. "We 
want to pick up the thread of tradition again", he said in an interview 
with French newspaper Le Monde earlier this week. "Cultural heritage is 
not only to be found in monuments and galleries. It is also in the works 
and the landscapes of man."

Traditional Knowledge Database



Agriculture iconsAt the moment, the project exists entirely on paper, 
except for a physical site currently in ruins (the Gualchiere di Remole, 
a medieval walled town in Italy which will house the headquarters of the 
organisation), and a prototype of the "Traditional Knowledge World Bank" 
 - which looks very promising.

Take a look at the icon page, for example. It reads like a "to-write 
list" for Low-tech Magazine, and in fact some of the topics are in the 
making.

Icons settlementsHowever, it is a "to-write list" for the UNESCO as 
well, because the data bank is mainly an empty box. Behind most of the 
icons there is only fragmentary information or no information at all. 
Most data now available deals with water management in arid areas.

Dozens of experts will need many years to archive, study and publish 
traditional skills from all over the world, said Laureano in the 
interview. The headquarters, which will be a showcase for traditional 
technologies, would be finished earlier, in 3 to 4 years.
Mission statement

Unesco 3From the summary of the project:

    "The Traditional Knowledge Institute gathers and protects 
historical knowledge and promotes and certifies innovative practises 
based on the modern re-proposal of tradition as well. Using traditional 
knowledge does not mean to reapply directly the techniques of the past, 
but rather to understand the logic of this model of knowlegde. It is a 
dynamic system able to incorporate innovation subjected to the test of 
the long term and thus achieves local and environmental sustainability."

The Institute is also an economic actor: "Companies that reintroduce 
traditional techniques in innovative ways or who look for appropriate 
solutions will be selected". The initiative is aimed at poor and 
developing countries, and that's for now my only criticism: I think the 
first world needs exactly the same kind of thinking and technology.

Irrigation traditional knowledge database The work is supported by 
UNESCO, the UNCCD, the Italian Ministry of Environment, and the Regional 
Government of Tuscany. There is more information to be found at the 
Research Centre on Local and Traditional knowledge (IPOGEA, created in 
1993) and at The International Centre on Traditional Knowledge (IKTNET, 
created in 2007). Both organisations will be responsible for the 
development of the database. On IKTNET is another database prototype to 
be found, which looks and feels like a blog.

Reader Thierry Caminel brought us the news. Thank you, Thierry !
Related articles & links :

    * The Museum of Old Techniques: hand tools
    * How to make everything yourself: online low-tech resources
    * Lost knowledge: ropes & knots
    * Tiles as a substitute for steel: timbrel vaulting
    * Hoffmann kilns: rings of fire
    * Primitive technology: short posts
    * Temporocentrism: looking down on our ancestors
    * Whole Earth Catalog