Sophisticated knowledge of the natural world is not confined to science. Societies from all parts of the world possess rich sets of experience, understanding and explanation.
The Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (LINKS) programme is a UNESCO interdisciplinary initiative that works:
- to secure an active and equitable role for local communities in resource management;
- to strengthen knowledge transmission across and within generations;
- to explore pathways to balance community-based knowledge with global knowledge in formal and non-formal education;
- to support the meaningful inclusion of local and indigenous knowledge in biodiversity conservation and management, and climate change assessment and adaptation, in particular through work with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
The LINKS team brings together expertise from the Natural Sciences, Social and Human Sciences, Culture, Communication & Information and Education.
It also involves UNESCO field offices in Apia (Samoa), Bangkok (Thailand), Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania), Dhaka (Bangladesh), Jakarta (Indonesia), Montevideo (Uruguay), Quito (Ecuador) and San José (Costa Rica).
For more information contact: links(at)unesco.org
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