Is the Integration of indigenous knowledge with

modern methods of forest conservation effective?

How might we measure this?

Indigenous knowledge has been passed down from generations

to generation, over a long period not only the information was
refined but because of natural selection, only knowledge that
was effective and useful was passed down. The very existence
of indigenous people is evidence that the indigenous knowledge
in their possession played a crucial role in their survival. Also
considering the amount of dependence of humans on forests and
nature as well as their possible negative impact on these forests,
it is simply a fact that their indigenous knowledge regarding
forest conservation was effective.
Modern methods of forest conservation are also effective as
proven by numerous studies but they are still not perfect.
Humans themselves are responsible directly or indirectly for the
loss of forest which is not effectively controlled by modern
methods of forest conservation. Indigenous methods of forest
conversation often reduced the negative impact of humans on
the forest to preserve them, often by regarding the forest or
nature as a holy place. One example can be the indigenous
knowledge of Ashantis from the Ashanti region of Ghana who
would refer certain elements of nature as to specific deities who
should not be troubled or harmed or the wrath of gods would be
upon them. Legends and tails were believed to be true and thus
those people were restricted from harming nature.
Although the integration of such tradition and orthodox methods
with modern methods would be hard, their result would include
the years-long knowledge modified by the current science,
limiting human harm while preserving current forests.
Limitations would indeed occur for example the indigenous
knowledge prohibits harming forests because of their belief in
deities, this may be not be accepted by a sceptical person or one
driven by economic benefits from deforestation. However, at the
same time, a possibly integrated system would preserve more
forest as they could prevent people from deliberately destroying
forests, for example, some of the bushfires in the recent
wildfires in Australia were deliberate. If the people had been
introduced to an indigenous system of forest preservation their
chance of arson would be reduced.

To measure their effectiveness, rather then implying the system

and observing results which could take a long time, areas under
indigenous people using indigenous methods of forest
conservation can be observed and their history can be analysed
to check if their methods were effective which can than be
compared to modern methods of forest conversation.
Citations :
Asante, Eric Appau, et al. “The Use of Indigenous Cultural Practices by the Ashantis for the
Conservation of Forests in Ghana - Eric Appau Asante, Stephen Ababio, Kwadwo Boakye
Boadu, 2017.” SAGE Journals, 1 Jan. 2017,
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2158244016687611.

Börner, Jan, et al. “Emerging Evidence on the Effectiveness of Tropical Forest Conservation.”
PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, 2 Nov. 2016, journals.plos.org/plosone/article?
id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0159152.

Team, Reality Check. “Australia Fires: Is Arson to Blame?” BBC News, BBC, 17 Jan. 2020,
www.bbc.com/news/world-51125898.