environment. It is mainly practical in nature and provides the basis that enables communities to make decisions about many fundamental aspects of day-to-day life.

TK is the adaptive and decision-making skills of local people, learned and transmitted through family members over generations; strategies and techniques developed by local people to cope with sociocultural and environmental changes; time-tested natural resource management practices that farmers accumulate through experimentation and innovation (Warren and Rajasekaran, 1993). Traditional knowledge related to agriculture includes information on which farmers, consciously or unconsciously, base decisions related to their production systems (Brokensha et al., 1980; Warren et al., 1989, 1995).

Traditional knowledge is dynamic, resulting from continuous experimentation, innovation and adaptation. It is difficult to determine the historical depth of traditional practices when documentation on the past is lacking or insufficient. For example, since the birth of agriculture, farmers, fishers, pastoralists and forest dwellers have been managing genetic diversity by selecting plants and animals to meet environmental conditions and food needs in the Near East, North Africa and Central Asia. Farmers transfer this knowledge from one generation to the next. People originate TK; recognized and experienced people transmit it. Such knowledge supports diversity and enhances local resources.

Traditional and local knowledge is part of a complex system; it cannot be reduced to a list of technical solutions or restricted to a series of different applications for results to be attained. Its efficacy depends on the interaction among several factors that need to be carefully considered to understand the historical successes it has achieved and to use its internal logic to find modern solutions.

Each traditional practice is not an expedient to solve a specific problem but always a studied and often multifunctional method applied in an integrated approach including society, culture and economy. It is closely linked to a concept based on careful management of local resources.

Many experts and scientists have doubts about the basis of TK and do not give it enough credence in development planning (Howes and Chambers, 1980). Thus development projects may be designed without taking into consideration the effectiveness of traditional agricultural practices.

Ethnographic studies in CWANA on traditional farming systems indicate that local farmers have detailed knowledge of their local environment. Most practices are not arbitrary, even if some farmers may not be able to explain them. In traditional sustainable systems, the cumulative experience of generations of farmers shapes a wide range of practices that contribute to crop productivity and protection in different ways. It is important to examine the range of practices in traditional systems because they are key to sustainability. The system is often designed to prevent or minimize pest and disease problems through indirect methods.

Traditional knowledge represents the accumulated body of experience of people who are well aware of their situation, physical and biological environment and production systems. They are also aware of the possible effect a change in one factor will have on the other parts of the system. The quality and amount of TK vary among community members and also depend on age, gender, social status, intellectual

capability and professional occupation (Warren and Rajasekaran, 1993).

Traditional knowledge is usually specific to locality. A good example is the agricultural calendar used by people of a region. Local farmers set the time for planting not by written schedules but by their observations of star risings and settings, the position of the sun's shadow and observable changes in the seasonal cycle, such as bird migration and the appearance of certain insects or plants. With this TK calendar the farmer determines a planting time that will provide a productive crop given the probability of rain and flooding and the menace of pests and diseases. In Yemen, for example, farmers use the local shadow scheme or local star calendars to define planting time. Those observations are rarely applied outside a specific context or local region (Serjeant, 1974; Varisco, 1985, 1993).

In recent years, working to recognize, validate and maintain traditional knowledge has been a substantial project component. Initiatives have been developed that strengthen traditional knowledge systems. The more extractive approaches of traditional ethnobotanists keep TK in context and not completely protected. In fact, the number of international forums considering how best to protect traditional technologies and knowledge has been rapidly increasing. The trend is growing toward recognizing or creating rights of control in farming communities over genetic resources and related knowledge.

Thus far TK has not been captured and stored systematically; the danger is that it may be lost altogether. Even now, TK about cultivated and wild species is rapidly being lost. Genetic information coded in wild species and traditional crop varieties could be lost as intensive monocultural production favors newer high-yielding crops. The collective knowledge of biodiversity and how to use and manage it are maintained in cultural diversity; conserving biodiversity often helps strengthen cultural integrity and values (WRI et al., 1992).

In an effort to conserve and promote a better understanding of indigenous knowledge systems, UNESCO launched the Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (LINKS) project in 2002. Since its inception, LINKS has supported several field documentation efforts. In addition to empowering communities in biodiversity governance by recognizing them as knowledge holders, the project seeks to maintain the vitality of local knowledge within communities. The key is to strengthen ties between elders and youth, to reinforce the transmission of indigenous knowledge and know-how from one generation to the next. The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (www .fao.org), already ratified by several countries in the region, recognizes the enormous contribution that farmers and their communities have made and continue to make to the conservation and development of plant genetic resources. This is the basis for farmers' rights, which include protection of TK and the right to participate equitably in sharing benefits and in national decision making about plant genetic resources. Farmers possess invaluable knowledge, including the ability to choose appropriate varieties or breed for particular agricultural ecosystems. Their contribution is increasingly being recognized, as is their right to receive more benefits, including monetary benefits.

In CWANA the number of publications on the relevance