Inheritance and application of Satoyama farming knowledge in Nan'an tribe

Overview

The Nan'an community is an indigenous tribe (the Bunun) located on the outskirts of a national park surrounded by forests and rivers. Colonization and modernization forced Bunun migration to the foothills 50 years ago, altering their relationship with nature and leading to the use of pesticides and fertilizers to increase agricultural yields and thereby increase income. In addition, farmers' income has become overly dependent upon a single crop, which is vulnerable to market movement or climate change. Despite challenges, Bunun elders preserve Satoyama wisdom in home gardens, and over 20 species of landrace legumes are grown, but are not available in the market. Home gardens safeguard crop diversity, the richness of food culture, and local biodiversity. It is urgent to pass the knowledge and wisdom down to the younger generation.

The overall aim of the project was to preserve and utilize the knowledge of traditional farming, pass it to the next generation, and share it with the public. The project had the following objectives:
1. Improve the resilience of the local food system through safeguarding local heirloom and landrace seeds.
2. Teach the younger generation traditional ecological wisdom by practicing farming with elders.
3. Integrate the knowledge and technology of Bunun's Satoyama into school curricula through collaboration with local primary schools.
4. Improve the biodiversity of the production landscape by introducing traditional ecological wisdom.

To achieve the objectives, the following activities were conducted:

• Setting up a community seed bank to preserve the seeds of traditional crops.
• Setting up a learning farm, organizing farming activities, and inviting elders as mentors to guide the younger generation.
• Developing innovative food and agriculture education programs of Bunun Satoyama.
• Inviting the elders, local schools, visitors, and ecological experts to practice habitat improvement in a paddy field.

Key achievements

• Through the seed bank, seed exchange activities among tribal people and between tribal people and other seed conservationists have been revitalized.
• Through activities on the learning farm, elders gained confidence in traditional wisdom, and young generations increased their recognition of traditional culture.
• School children learned about tradition and experienced food culture and field ecology.
• Biodiversity on farmland has also been improved.

Lessons

• Since it is not easy for groups to get together, and farmers are very busy dealing with their daily lives, we need to be careful about how often we mobilize farmers and avoid forcibly mobilizing them and demotivating them to participate.
• We need to be particularly careful to avoid internal conflicts in the distribution of income from activities.
• Through appropriate transformations, including linking traditional wisdom to modern schooling and the eco-tourism market, and creating mentorships, Satoyama agricultural knowledge can be passed on from generation to generation, perpetuated and linked to contemporary life and livelihoods.