Volume 31, January 2016, Pages 49–58
Highlights
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- Spatial analysis of indigenous farming using traditional Māori knowledge and agroecology
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- Multi-criteria analysis used to model intangible local and botanical domain knowledge
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- Local cultural values addressed by GIS for positive environmental and economic impact
Abstract
In
Aotearoa New Zealand Māori land is often owned by communities and
managed by trusts. Under communal ownership, trust managers are expected
to provide for their communities in culturally responsive ways, using
alternative land-related paradigms. In the context of Māori trust rural
land management, geographic information systems (GIS) are seen as a
beneficial resource to plan and support important decisions that have
community-wide implications. For example, it is much easier to
demonstrate visually the putative outcomes of spatial change to large
numbers of people with the help of a GIS than it is to verbalise the
effects of change. This paper reports on one aspect of such an
application to a Māori trust-owned South Island farm, where a GIS-based
multi-criteria analysis of terrain and proximity was conducted using
also local botanical knowledge input to indicate optimal areas of growth
for traditional medicinal plants. The analysis yielded very useful
results, with positive feedback received from the local community. As
well as the need to verify the approach empirically, there are plans
underway to apply GIS in this way to other similarly-managed farms in
Aotearoa New Zealand. However, in order to build a more comprehensive
decision support resource for farm management, further plant species
need to be modelled, and informed by a wider data set that includes
detailed soil data.
Keywords
- Indigenous farming;
- Agroecology;
- GIS;
- Medicinal plants;
- Rongoā
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