Project title
Acronym
Indigenous DRR
Full project title
Indigenous DRR: Understanding the role of Indigenous practices in enhancing capacities for hydro-meteorological risks in the Rwenzori Mountains.
About Indigenous DRR
While indigenous practices are argued to be effective for flood risk and water resources management (especially in developing economies), they remain poorly documented and validated. As a contribution to addressing this challenge, this research investigates the indigenous practices relevant to flood risk and water resources management, based on the case of the Rwenzori Mountains Region. In the remote parts of RMR, flood risk and water resources management have been addressed over time using indigenous practices, which makes it relevant to understand how these practices may influence vulnerability or resilience on a temporal scale. Specifically, a qualitative research design will be supplemented by mobile GIS to investigate, on a temporal scale, the role of three core practices in flood risk and water resources management: 1/ the practices of culturally planting trees along river catchments; 2/ the traditional hydro-meteorological practices; and 3/ the traditional moral/ethical practices towards water resources to flood risk management. Although, from a biophysical science viewpoint, (some of) these practices might hardly have anything to do with flood and other water resources risks, they could provide an incentive to implement and optimise recommended scientific approaches. This study contributes to two contemporary scholarly debates that aim at 1/ finding ways to reconcile global scientific findings with local Indigenous practices as a necessity to influence action in environmental management, and 2/ ways of advancing the culture of living with water resource risks, in circumstances where water risk-prone areas are also resourceful for socio-economic development.
Principal Investigator (PI) and partners
PI: Dr. Bosco BWAMBALE
Partner: Gulu University
Funder and period:
Funder: International Foundation for Science (IFS)
Period: 2022-2024