Indigenous knowledge for disaster risk reduction: good practices and lessons learned from experiences in the Asia-Pacific Region

Abstract

After the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, two success stories emerged, bringing new interest to the concept of indigenous knowledge. The Simeulueans living off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia and the Moken, living in the Surin Islands off the coast of Thailand and Myanmar both used knowledge passed on orally from their ancestors to survive the devastating tsunami. While these two cases stole the limelight in recent years, there are many less conspicuous examples of communities who have also used indigenous knowledge to survive disastrous events and cope with difficult environmental conditions. These communities’ use of indigenous knowledge to reduce risk, cope and survive recent natural disasters provides many lessons for practitioners and policy makers on the value of indigenous knowledge for disaster risk reduction.