Re-valuing Local Knowledges: Understanding Voice, Land and Power for Climate Action in Eastern DRC

This project aims to investigate different ways of conceptualising the idea of ‘voice’ and its importance for local climate-change action and policy, producing humanities-led, policy-relevant research that can be used to develop and/or enhance participatory and collective NGO practices.
Project status
Ongoing
Departments
International

This interdisciplinary project examines the relationship between voice, land and power in different cultural and epistemological traditions in the Eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Indigenous communities are keenly aware of processes of degradation from their intimate relationship with the natural environment, and their accumulated experiences offer essential knowledge and techniques for environmental protection, climate mitigation and adaptation. However, local voices are overlooked, especially when they do not conform to Western approaches and expectations of environmental protection and land use. This project evaluates the epistemological and policy impacts of past and present scientific language and knowledge systems; and sets them adjacent to localised artistic and cultural explorations and representations of place and processes of degradation and change. It aims to promote the revaluation of marginalised voices, demonstrate the importance of Indigenous knowledge for climate action, and improve understanding of locally-specific histories and cultures of voice and knowledge.

Research Team: Dr Sarah Arens, University of Liverpool; Dr Blake Ewing, University of Nottingham; Dr Bonaventure Munganga, University of Technology Sydney and University of New South Wales; Dr Emery Mushagalusa Mudinga. Institut Supérieur de Développment Rural (ISDR)

Sign up to our email newsletters