Local Knowledge And National Disaster Prevention And Mitigation

In recent years, the multiply and frequently outbroken natural disasters of WesternChina have caused tremendous impacts to the culture, life and production of minorities.What needs to be resolved urgently in current disaster research is how to forecast andmanage disasters effectively, and even mitigate the impacts of disasters,Natural disasters have caught widespread attention all over the world. The research ofdisarsters has beyonded the boundaries of disciplines. Natural disasters are not simplenatural phenomenons any long, human activities have become increasingly identified toblame for the global warming, environment degradation as well as the disaster issue.Research and practice on disaster prevention and reduction in every country are quitedifferent from each other because of the various types of disasters. International Decade forNatural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR) in1990s started the morden research of disasterreduction. At present, the international researches focuse on Disaster Management practice.After Wenchuan Earthquake, the research on disaster prevention and reduction has causedcross-disciplinary concerns and hundred schools of thought in China. However, there arenot enough operable measures and theories with Chinese characters on local strategy andapplication of Disaster Managment. Disaster study on Ethnology and anthropology has juststarted. There are few researches of disaster prevention and reduction about minorityregions. In existing research, minority regions and the general rural communities tend to betreated as those who have no defense capabilities during disasters. And there are still notenough intensive and targeted researches on Disaster Managemet in minority regions, theunderstanding of local knowledge on disaster prevention and reduction, the transition oflocal social and traditional culture caused by disasters, and the construct of the localizeddisaster reduction systerm which cover comprehensive researches on both natural scienceand social science.Nuosu Yi People are widely distributed in Southwestern China, where topography andclimate are complex and diverse. In Liangshan Mountain area of Sichuan and YunnanProvince, natural disasters happen frequently, seasonally and regionally, which have causedbadly effects. During the adaptation to nature, Nuosu Yi people of Liangshan Mountainhave formed their unique Disaster Culture, which can be found in folk beliefs, religiousrituals, life etiquettes, life and production, etc. The nature, totem and ancestor worship inNuosu Yi's folk beliefs shows their cognition about disasters, their relationship with natureand their natural ethics about harmony between heaven and human beings. The oral culturelike Erby has abundant indigenous knowledge on disaster prevention and reduction, whichreflects how Nuosu feel and use the change of climate, how to forecast and prepare for thecoming disasters. The world-originate epic and hero myths reflect how disasters impactpeople's life and culture. The disaster mitigation measures in daily life carry Nuosu'sexperiences on adapting the nature, which are hold by clan system and customary laws. Allthese unique culture matters are passed down by oral transmission way from generation togeneration, and also existing in the old-line books and Bimo Teyi in Yi language. As aresult, Nuosu Yi's Disaster Culture is actually the systerm of their local knowledge ondisaster prevention and reduction. That is one of the main points of this paper.In recent years, the ecological environment of Liangshan has been damaged a lotbecause of the growth of population and the excessive development of resources. At thesame time, Nuosu Yi People's traditional culture is suffering amomie in Great tradition,and facing the crisis of inheritance. On the one hand, according to the cases of disaster mitigation in morden Liangshan, disaster management is dominated by local government,and individual businesses bear the primary responsibilities. The stragegy of disasterprevention and reduction shows in detail as "Focus on Prevention","Avoiding DisasterReasonably" and "Fighting Again Risk", what has gained some successful experiences. Onthe whole, however, the abilities to guard against the unexpected and large-scale disastersare limited because of the unbalanced regional development, single modes on disasterprevention and reduction, lack of exploiting Nuosu Yi's disaster culture and the localtesting of disater management. On the other hand, after Wenchuan Earthquake, the projectsof participatory "community-based disaster management", which are hold in Lijiang byNGO, are proved to be helpful for raising the minority communities' capability on disasterprevention and reduction. However, for the reasons that NGO ignores the monirities localknowledge and other limitations of NGO, the projects face adverse conditions and becomehard to spread. At the same time, Nuosu Yi people suffering the double anomie on cultureand structure are carrying out their own choice along with the limited resources.What Nuosu Yi people facing in disasters and practice of disaster reduction is themicrocosm of minorities in Western China. For unique nature and climate conditions andabundant culture resources, local knowledge has irreplaceable importance on disasterprevention and reduction in minority areas, which contains ecological wisdom and survivalskills of minority people on effective using and protection of nature. The Party and thegovernment always attach great importance to community-based disaster management.However, there are even problems in government-leading disaster management such as theimperfect management system and organization, insufficient capital investment and poorcommunity ability on disaster prevention and reduction. Using and spreading the localknowledge of disaster prevention and reduction in a flexible and proper way, combiningwith the community development will play an active role in communities' disasterreduction practice. The research of this topic will be helpful for disaster prevention andreduction in minority areas, building the basic-level harmonious society, and also thefoundation of Chinese disaster reduction culture with history and reality characters, andeven minorities' wisdom. All the above are the targets of this topic.All the theories and research methods using in this paper are based on the synthesis oftheories and research methods on anthropology, philosophy, sociology, ethics, disasterhistoriography, and even, the natural science. Reviewing Nuosu Yi's traditional culturefrom the perspective of disaster prevention and reduction, this paper redefines DisasterCulture in anthropology field and formulates the concept of Local Knowledge of DisasterPrevention and Reduction according to the long-time field work for nearly half a yearabout Nuosu Yi's history, culture and one-year-long disaster mitigation projects practising.And on this basis, the paper presents the localization strategies of disaster prevention andreduction in minority areas. During the disaster prevention and reduction practice inminority areas, the localization disaster management should be put into the overall regionaldevelopment plan and the disaster management system should be promoted. Thegovernment should increase financial input, foster the grass-roots organizations, strengtheninfrastructure constructions and develop the public consciousness of disaster preventionand reduction. Community is the basic of disaster reduction in minority areas. As a result,the localization disaster management should focus on how to fully exert the community'ssubjectivity and effectively improve comprehensive capacity of local people about disasterprevention and reduction, with combining the minorities' local knowledge of disasterreduction and modern technology of disaster prevention and reduction in"community-based disaster management". Last but not least, community disasterprevention and reduction in minority areas need to integrate the government, variousnon-governmental and social resources, form a win-win development of long-term relationship, and make the cooperate formation of disaster prevention and reduction inminority regions in China.