Traditional Knowledge Systems for Biodiversity Conservation :

Traditional knowledge is vital for sustainability of natural resources including forests, water, and agroecosystems across landscape continuum spanning from households through farms, village, commons and wilderness. Humanity faces exceptional challenge of eroding natural resources and declining ecosystems services due to a multitude of threats created by unprecedented growth and consumerism. Also imperilled is the biodiversity and sustainability of the essential ecological processes and life support systems in human dominated ecosystems across scales.

Traditional Knowledge for Sustainability :

To avert the threats, natural and social sciences have helped by acquiring and applying knowledge about ecosystem conservation and restoration and by strengthening the policy and practice of sustainable development. Scientific research on human-environmental interactions is now a budding sustainability science .The concept recognises that the well-being of human society is closely related to the well-being of natural ecosystems. The intellectual resources on which the sustainability science is building on need to take into account the knowledge of local people as well. 

Local knowledge systems have been found to contribute to sustainability in diverse fields such as biodiversity conservation and maintenance of ecosystems services, tropical ecological and biocultural restoration, sustainable water management, genetic resource conservation and management of other natural resources. Local knowledge has also been found useful for ecosystem restoration and often has ingredients of adaptive management.

Traditional Knowledge on Biodiversity Conservation :

In order to be effective, efforts on biodiversity conservation can learn from the context-specific local knowledge and institutional mechanisms such as cooperation and collective action; intergenerational transmission of knowledge, skills and strategies; concern for well-being of future generations; reliance on local resources; restraint in resource exploitation; an attitude of gratitude and respect for nature; management, conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity outside formal protected areas; and, transfer of useful species among the households, villages and larger landscape. These are some of the useful attribute of local knowledge systems. Traditional knowledge on biodiversity conservation is as diverse as 2753 communities and their geographical distribution, farming strategies, food habits, subsistence strategies, and cultural traditions. Bisnoi is the one of main community of Rajasthan which completely against the biodiversity degradation.

In State as well in India these systems can be classified in several ways :

Religious traditions : temple forests, monastery forests, sanctified and deified trees
Traditional tribal traditions : sacred forests, sacred groves and sacred trees
Royal traditions : royal hunting preserves, elephant forests, royal gardens etc.
Livelihood traditions : forests and groves serving as cultural and social space and source of livelihood products and services.

Traditional knowledge Cultivation of Medicinal plants : 

There are numerous examples of medicinal plant cultivation by local people in State. Socio-culturally valued species find place in home gardens and courtyards. For example, Around the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve in the western Himalaya, the Bhotiya community, whose livelihood is depends on local natural resources, practices seasonal and altitudinal migration and stay inside the buffer zone for only 6 months . A survey in 5 villages in Pithoragarh District, found that Bhotiya people cultivate medicinal plants on their agriculture fields. Of a total of 71 families, 90% cultivated medicinal plants on 78% of the total reported cultivated area. Around 12 species of medicinal plants were under cultivation. Survey also found that a family earned about Rs.2423 +/- 376.95 per season from the sale of medicinal plants in 1996 (Rs.38 = US$1 in 1996). Thus, supporting medicinal plant cultivation at high altitudes in the Himalayas may help to generate additional support to people as well as conserve the species in the wild .Among these, Angelica glauca and Allium stracheyi are narrow range endemic and Allium stracheyi, Picrorhiza kurrooa and Nardostachys grandiflora have been recorded in the Red Data Book of Indian Plants. Interestingly, the annual production of medicinal plants has been found to be comparable with the annual production of traditional crops. Thus, cultivation, and harvesting can help in livelihood security and in situ conservation of these species.

Traditional Knowledge for Water, and Biodiversity :

Simple local technology and an ethic that exhorts "capture rain where it rains" have given rise to traditional village tanks, ponds and earthen embankments that harvest substantial rainwater in 660,000 villages in and encourage growth of vegetation in commons and agro ecosystems. Rainwater harvesting have been found to be scientific and useful for rainfed areas.

                                                            Traditional knowledge may indeed complement scientific knowledge by providing practical experience in living within ecosystems and responding to ecosystem change. Indic traditions and local knowledge have often paved the way for many discoveries in science.  Since local knowledge systems in India are still being practiced among the masses, they can contribute to address the challenges of forest management , sustainable water management ,biodiversity conservation, and mitigation of global climate change. Ecological consequences of climate change require that we access all stocks of knowledge for mitigation strategies.