LOCAL KNOWLEDGE IN THE ASSESSMENT OF RESOURCE SUSTAINABILITY - CASE-STUDIES IN HIMACHAL-PRADESH, INDIA, AND BRITISH-COLUMBIA, CANADA

The knowledge of local resource users and managers about the biophysic al, socioeconomic, and cultural-historical elements of their immediate environment plays a significant role in determining the long-term sus tainability of those resources. This paper reports on the results of t wo case studies from high mountain areas, one in the Upper Beas River watershed of the Indian Himalaya, and the other in the Arrow Lakes are a of the Canadian Cordillera. Specifically, this paper describes susta inability indicators which were enumerated by local people in two diff ering cultural-historical, but environmentally similar, contexts. Thes e indicators may be reflective of local, indigenous knowledge about th e environment and therefore may be of significance in impact assessmen t and monitoring environmental change. Results from the Upper Beas wat ershed reveal a highly discriminated set of indicators which may be gr ouped as: forest cover indicators; forest-linked indicators; forest ma nagement indicators; agricultural livelihood indicators; and socioecon omic indicators. Local people demonstrated a very precise knowledge of the state of the biophysical resources of their village use areas. Sp ecific indicators identified include: forest cover area (decreasing), forest species diversity (some species such as deodar decreasing), for est tree density (decreasing), consistency of water flow (decreasing) and frequency of avalanches and slides (increasing). These are all ind icators which can be measured and verified independently of local know ledge. All suggest declining sustainability. Residents in the Arrow La kes area demonstrated much less precise knowledge of biophysical indic ators of sustainability. They enumerated a set of indicators which emp hasized institutional arrangements for forest and resource management. For example, few respondents identified the extent of forest cover as important whereas the majority identified forest/land use rules in pl ace as being important indicators of sustainability. in both case stud ies, people mentioned a number of socioeconomic factors as being impor tant indicators of sustainability.