Proposal for research funding: Formal representation and use of indigenous knowledge of agroforestry

Research objectives:

• to obtain, from a community, local knowledge about interactions occurring in agroforestry practices and to represent this knowledge in a form in which it can be tested;
• to establish the extent to which the recorded knowledge system is mechanistic and robust, and therefore useful in allowing successful adaptation of the production system to external change;
• to identify gaps in the local and scientific knowledge about interactions occurring in agroforestry practices and integrate both types of knowledge within the same expert system; and
• to construct a set of general recommendations on the integration of local and scientific knowledge to solve problems, and the most appropriate balance between the two in research and development.