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REPORT #451 December 2001
THE PROMISE OF COHUNE OIL EXPORTS THAT NEVER HAPPENED!
Produced by the Belize
Development Trust
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Practical, Ethical, and Social Issues in Technology Transfer
(taken from the Belize Culture Listserve)
Richard R. WILK
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A poignant example can be found in a file I have accumulated, which
documents over twenty five separate feasibility studies, project proposals,
implementation plans, and project assessments over more than a century. All
are devoted to a single project; the commercializing the production of
edible oil from the seeds of a palm tree (Orbignya cohune) which is native
to the Belizean rainforest. Attracted by the high yield of seeds per tree,
and easy access to dense stands, entrepreneurs, companies, governments, and
NGOs have all planned and conducted numerous projects to extract the oil,
using imported cracking and rendering technologies developed in tropical
palm-oil industries in other countries. One company even built a railroad
and a pressing plant employing over 600 people. Every single scheme based
on imported technology has failed, even those directly subsidized by the
government, often with drastic economic consequences. In contrast, while
imported projects come and go, household-level production by indigenous
people using a variety of simple local technologies has never stopped.
If we recognize that sustainable technological solutions must be local,
does this mean that they must be indigenous (in the meaning of locally
generated within an existing cultural/social tradition using local tools
and knowledge)? Some of the earlier writings on "Indigenous Technical
Knowledge" (ITK) suggested that indeed, in the long term, only local
indigenous technologies could be sustainable, practical, maintainable and
equitable.(8) There was a definite utopian vision behind the idea of each
society having its own local science, building a sustainable future on the
foundation of indigenous techniques, which were themselves uniformly
sustainable, productive, and environmentally benign.
While the early promise of the ITK approach has only been partially
realized, experience suggests certain aspects of indigenous technologies
that contribute to their sustainability. These can also be used as
guidelines in generating new technologies. The characteristics of
indigenous technologies which contribute to sustainability are:
-- - low capital inputs
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- use of locally available materials, skills, and tools
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- availability of spare parts, fuels, or ingredients in local market channels
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- can be maintained by existing organizations
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- closely adapted to local physical environment
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- driven by demand and perceived needs, not systems models or external
analysis
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- do not challenge or contradict fundamental cultural beliefs
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- fit existing systems of ownership, obligation, and authority
Just as the fall of modernization theory has led to a rethinking of
modernity and the unique power of highly technological science to solve
problems, so it has also led to a dethroning of the "traditional" and
primitive, from its position of primal purity and harmony with nature. This
development has taken many forms within the social sciences, not least of
which is a rethinking of colonial history, and the mythos that all
so-called primitive people live in simple balance with their natural
environment. Throughout the world most "traditional" cultures are now
recognized as the products of long-term, complex, historical encounters
between diverse local groups and colonial powers, who can barely be
considered in any way isolated, uniform, or functionally integrated (this
should not be taken as in any way attacking their rights to
self-determination, or stewardship over their own resources).(9) Without
denigrating the creativity, originality, and appropriateness of local and
indigenous technologies, it is still necessary to openly discuss the
limitations of those technologies, if only to challenge the increasingly
common perspective that only local and indigenous technologies can be
sustainable, appropriate, and suited to indigenous social and economic
environments.(10) In Belize, for example, there are now several
organizations that argue against any sort of foreign agricultural
technological assistance, on the grounds that local farmers know best, and
that foreign research always undercuts local self-reliance (given the poor
record of technology transfer, and the destructive nature of so much
imported technology, these sentiments are quite understandable).
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Maintained by Ray Auxillou, Silvia Pinzon, MLS, and Marty Casado. Please email with suggestions or additions for this Electronic Library of Belize.
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