Local soil knowledge: Answering basic questions in highland Bolivia

Excerpt

Local and peasant farmers offers environmentally sound contributions toward economic development (4, 6, 10, 14, 16, 20, 24). Lacking or insufficient consideration of local soil management, on the other hand, can undermine these goals. Today, several gaps remain in understanding major features of local soil management (or ethnopedology). One of these gaps concerns the nature of local knowledge associated with soil management. In this study, local soil knowledge of peasant farmers in highland Bolivia and its significance for “conservation-with-development” are examined. It includes a survey of insights from analogous studies dealing with plants and local plant knowledge (or ethnobotany).

Two aspects of local soil knowledge are addressed, including, What is the relation between local soil knowledge and science; and, Does management based on local soil knowledge mimic nature? Both questions have been highlighted in recent discussion of local soil knowledge, although they have not been examined systematically (4, 14, 16). In contrast, the two questions have been extensively examined with regard to local plant knowledge (1, 5, 17). Research in this latter field is shown to aid in understanding the local soil knowledge of peasant farmers in highland Bolivia.

In the case of the first question …