Local knowledge for resource and environmental management: An exploration in the Lower Mekong Basin, Laos (Cirrhinus microlepis)

Two contrasting views exist in contemporary literature about local knowledge (LK): modernization and populist. Modernists consider that science is a priori knowledge but LK is unscientific and wrong. In contrast, populists consider that LK is scientific, and thus, a priori knowledge. But both views neglect LK's provisional nature—its subjective, bodily and tacit aspects; and its context—particularly, the place and timing for LK creation and transformation. Thus, this thesis has proposed a hypothesis for a third view about LK: (1) LK is mainly the tacit judgment, wisdom and skills of local people based on their sense and experience to judiciously act in the right place at the right time; and, (2) LK is always being created and transformed from tacit to explicit (and vice versa) through interactions among local peoples and between local peoples and outsiders. This hypothesis has been examined by field work conducted in the Lower Mekong Basin, Laos on LK about the kairotopos (right timing and place) of breeding of a Mekong fish, Cirrhinus microlepis.; Related literature notes that, due to the Gestalt (or human psychological) principles of proximity, continuity, and prior orientation, an outside researcher can make errors about LK if he/she focuses only on the explicit part of LK but omits the tacit component. Thus, initially being an outside researcher, conducting this field work was challenging for me in terms of how to collect tacit LK, as well as how to deal with tacit local systems and norms. However, literature also suggests that such errors about LK can be overcome by establishing a bridge between the tacit part of LK with the explicit part for which relevant prior experience and knowledge are essential. Thus, although the field work formally started in November 1998, its strategies and contents continued from my previous research experience beginning in 1987 regarding the Mekong fish and fisheries and relevant LK systems in Laos.; The field work revealed that particular experienced local fishers and female live-fish traders on the Mekong, referred locally as local experts or “spiders”, possess significant intuitional judgment about the right timing and places (kairotopos) of breeding of C. Microlepis and other Mekong fish. This intuitional judgment of local experts is developed from their relevant proficiency and skills, gained through lifelong day-to-day experience and accumulated from similar experience of peers and previous generations, and is based on their unique mental models and schemata built on local culture and religious beliefs, but not on scientific theory or reasoning. It became apparent that only a small portion of LK can be shared as explicit information in a numerical sense, and that such explicit knowledge is only the “tip of the iceberg” of LK held by informed local people. The balance of LK emerged in the form of tacit knowledge through ambiguous statements to me when I was a new outsider, having a little or no knowledge about local language, culture, norms, beliefs and socio-political systems. Conducting scientific investigation, such as RRA or even PRA, only was helpful to tap the explicit portion of LK but not the tacit part. The tacit technical knowledge behind the seemingly ambiguous statements of the local experts became apparent only through my long (for several years) participant observation and PAR, first, by developing personal and close relationships with the local experts and experiencing with and immersing in their livelihoods, and then, by bridging the relevant tacit meanings to their seemingly ambiguous statements, based on my understanding and knowledge about local Lao language, culture, norms, beliefs and systems, as well as about local fisheries and relevant science.; Further analysis revealed that LK is created and transformed, by the cre...