Vol. 9 No. 2 (2010)

The Fourth World Journal is devoted to advancing the application of traditional knowledge to understanding and promoting constructive and peaceful relations between peoples; and to the examination and explanation of solutions to challenges that rankle the human condition. Each year our publication demonstrates growing improvement and expansion of indigenous sciences and their beneficial uses helping us understand better approaches to solving difficult predicaments experienced by indigenous peoples the world over as well as challenges faced by metropolitan populations. It is essential that we all understand our world and interact with all its parts with greater ease and success. To do so, requires that we draw on the best knowledge, the best scientific tools and the most effective application of both.
There are certain aspects of knowledge and scientific tools whether produced by the experiences of indigenous peoples or metropolitan peoples that stand as universal. These seem to be hardwired into all human being. Yet, there are other knowledge systems that are unique to groups of people and even localities largely defined by human relationships to each other and to the land and the cosmos. Those
unique knowledge systems can explore the mundane as well as the sublime and help explain suitable truths about living in a specific locality. When more closely examined, it is sometimes the case that the unique knowledge systems of indigenous peoples may have wider applications—utility in other places—by other indigenous peoples and metropolitan societies. Considered without bias, indigenous scientific knowledge from different localities may indeed prove to be beneficial for the security, health, happiness and/or spiritual growth of other peoples. It is also true that some scientific knowledge is really beneficial in the locality of its origin. In either case, it is a valuable to gain access to traditional knowledge and indigenous sciences and add them to the global body of knowledge and systems of thought. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat invited the Center for World Indigenous Studies (and therefore this Journal as well) to join in partnership with the Nairobi Work Program. CWIS has agreed to
contribute to the growing dialog aimed at identifying sciences and suitable knowledge to uncover strategies for climate change adaptation and mitigation. We are quite frankly pleased to join in this effort to promote traditional knowledge and indigenous sciences as a part of this critical effort. The Center for World Indigenous Studies, as a part of its efforts to address food security, climate refugees, land tenure policies and implementation of relevant parts of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples recognizes the importance of the Nairobi Work Plan. CWIS research and policy development outcomes in these and related fields are being documented and will be reported to the UNFCCC-Nairobi Work Program and shared with indigenous peoples, NWP partners as well as states' government parties, international non-governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, research institutes and the in-country private sector. The Nairobi Work Program focuses on adaptation, assessment methodologies, and the range of vulnerabilities appropriate to local, regional and international environments. The Center is uniquely positioned due to our emphasis on indigenous peoples to contribute to this
process in ways that can directly benefit indigenous peoples as well as promote constructive and
cooperative efforts to advance adaptation policies and practices with states' governments.
Our emphasis in the partnership is on the application of traditional systems and traditional knowledge as effective approaches to climate change mitigation and adaptation. We have called for the
application of traditional knowledge to constructive responses to climate change. We have emphasized the importance of identifying the mechanisms of traditional knowledge that result in effective adaptation at the level of indigenous communities. These may include governance, health, social organization, economics and cultural standards for customary regulation. In this issue of the Fourth World Journal we benefit from the considerable efforts of contributors, concerned with indigenous research, comparisons of state treatment of indigenous peoples, story telling, and recent accomplishments by indigenous peoples in the diplomatic arena. Central to this issue of FWJ, as always, is the systematic understanding of indigenous peoples’ perspectives, application of traditional knowledge and achievements in the reduction of conflict between indigenous peoples and states’ government that compete for land and resources as well as political influence in relations between nations and states.