Where the Disciplines Meet Lecture – June 22

14 June, 2022

Diversity of knowledge systems in terraced landscapes: clue for sustainability

Speaker: Hermann J. TILLMANN,  Coordinator of ITLA, the International Terraced Landscapes Alliance

General subject area : Landscape knowledge, landscape ecology, cultural landscapes, epistemologies of the South

Terraced landscapes exist as human heritage in many mountain regions in all continents. The terraces were created thousands of years ago on all continents as an optimum technology to produce food managing soils, climate, biodiversity, solar energy in mountain areas. The local conditions resulted in a diversity of knowledge systems to manage the land sustainably. Colonial invasions and western technologies have damaged the local know- ledge systems affecting the tradicional management of mountain slopes. Recovery of the traditional ecological knowledge and the review of the development concepts will lead to methods of knowledge dialogues which create a wider horizon for the reconsideration of terraced landscapes as sustainable alternatives based on local cultural cosmovisions. I will present an intercultural methodology of approaching different knowledge systems and creating spaces of co-creation with local initiatives for a frevised concept of sustainability.

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