30 Indigenous Knowledge for Disaster Risk Reduction Bardiya, Chitwan, Syangja and Tanahu Districts, Nepal Indigenous Knowledge on Disaster Mitigation: Towards Creating Complementarity between Communities’ and Scientists’ Knowledge M an B. Thapa, Youba Raj L uintel, Bhupendra Gauchan and Kiran Amatya Abstract Nepal is prone to several natural disasters, including landslides, floods, earthquakes, fire and droughts, due to topography, unplanned development and rapid population growth, among other causes. As a result, many remote and isolated communities have made use of different indigenous mitigation and preparedness practices to minimize the negative impacts of disasters to life and property. Systematic and in-depth studies on indigenous knowledge for disaster management are rare in Nepal. Nonetheless, the experiences of the U NDP-supported project Participatory Disaster M anagement Program on indigenous knowledge for disaster management focuses on landslide mitigating techniques that exist and are practiced in the districts of Bardiya, Chitwan, Syangja and Tanahu in Nepal. The project aims to encourage policymakers to incorporate a diverse range of indigenous knowledge in the disaster management initiatives of the country. Background The Participatory Disaster M anagement Program (PDM P) was implemented in 2000 in eight villages spanning four districts of Nepal. The targeted villages included Bhandara and Kathar of Chitwan District, Risti and Kyamin of Tanahu District, Kahule and Oreste of Syangja District and Guleria and Padnaha of Bardiya District. The program, based on the experience of a similar earlier program called U pgrading Disaster M anagement Capacity in Nepal, aims to combine modern knowledge and indigenous knowledge in disaster preparedness and mitigation with the goal of building community capacity in a participatory, sustainable and cost-effective manner.