A village elder in the Himalayan foothills would watch ants carrying their eggs uphill. To a hurried visitor, it was an ordinary sight. To the elder, it was a warning: heavy rain was approaching. For generations, his community had learned to read such signs ~ the movement of insects, the behaviour of birds, the flowering of particular plants and changes in the wind ~ to anticipate changes in weather. What appeared to be folklore was, in fact, a sophisticated body of environmental knowledge accumulated through centuries of close observation.

This small anecdote captures the essence of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS): knowledge born from lived experience, transmitted across generations and deeply embedded in a community’s relationship with nature, society and culture. Today, as the world confronts climate change, biodiversity loss, food insecurity and ecological crises, such knowledge is receiving renewed attention. UNESCO has increasingly recognised that indigenous and local communities are not merely custodians of cultural traditions but important holders of knowledge relevant to some of humanity’s most urgent challenges.

Indigenous knowledge is often described simply as “traditional knowledge”, but the term encompasses much more. It includes agricultural practices, medicinal knowledge, water management, architecture, weather prediction, biodiversity conservation, food preparation, craftsmanship, oral traditions, languages, rituals and systems of social organisation. Crucially, it is living knowledge.

It changes as communities respond to new circumstances and environmental conditions. UNESCO’s Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (LINKS) programme, established in 2002, seeks to facilitate dialogue between indigenous and local knowledge holders, scientists and policymakers. The programme emphasises that indigenous knowledge can contribute to ecological understanding, environmental policy, biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. The importance of this approach has grown as conventional models of development have come under scrutiny.

Modern science has enormous explanatory and technological power, but it does not possess a monopoly over knowledge. Indigenous communities have often conducted centuries-long experiments in particular ecosystems ~ without laboratories, computers or sophisticated instruments, but through observation, memory and collective experience. Few countries demonstrate the diversity of indigenous and local knowledge as vividly as India. From the Himalayan mountains to the deserts of Rajasthan, from the forests of central India to the coastal communities of Kerala and Odisha, countless communities have developed practices adapted to their particular ecological and cultural environments. Indian agricultural traditions provide numerous examples.

Traditional farmers have developed knowledge of seed preservation, mixed cropping, crop rotation, natural pest management and climate-sensitive cultivation. In the dry regions of Rajasthan, traditional systems of harvesting........

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