Unasylva 231/232, Vol. 60, 2009 70 A fter the December 2004 tsunami off the coast of Indonesia, calls multiplied for high-technology solutions (installation of early warn- ing systems using cutting-edge satellite and ocean buoy technologies) to prevent similar disastrous occurrences. Mean- while news began to circulate about how indigenous communities had escaped the tsunami’s wrath by using their traditional knowledge (Box below), drawing atten- tion to the importance of this form of knowledge to natural disaster prepared- ness and response. Traditional knowledge – the wisdom, knowledge and practices of indigenous people gained over time through experi- ence and orally passed on from genera- tion to generation – has over the years played a significant part in solving problems, including problems related to climate change and variability. Indi- genous people that live close to natural resources often observe the activities around them and are the first to identify Using traditional knowledge to cope with climate change in rural Ghana B.A. Gyampoh, S. Amisah, M. Idinoba and J. Nkem Benjamin A. Gyampoh and Steve Amisah are in the Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana. Monica Idinoba is with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Johnson Ndi Nkem is with CIFOR, Bogor, Indonesia. A survey of rural communities in value of blending traditional and for coping with climate change and variability. and adapt to any changes. The appear- ance of certain birds, mating of certain animals and flowering of certain plants are all important signals of changes in time and seasons that are well understood in traditional knowledge systems. Indi- genous people have used biodiversity as a buffer against variation, change and catastrophe; in the face of plague, if one crop fails, another will survive (Salick and Byg, 2007). In coping with risk due to excessive or low rainfall, drought and crop failure, some tradi- tional people grow many different crops and varieties with different susceptibility to drought and floods and supplement these by hunting, fishing and gathering wild food plants. The diversity of crops and food resources is often matched by a similar diversity in location of fields, as a safety measure to ensure that in the face of extreme weather some fields will survive to produce harvestable crops. Adaptation to climate change includes all adjustments in behaviour or economic Just before the Indian Ocean tsunami struck in 2004, numerous people were attracted to withdrawal. Not the Moken and Urok Lawai peoples of Thailand’s coasts and islands, the Ong of India’s Andaman Islands and the Simeulue community of Indonesia; they all knew to head rapidly inland to avoid the destructive force of the sea. The small villages of the Moken and Ong were completely destroyed, but their inhabitants escaped unscathed. Even more striking was the displacement of more than 80 000 Simeulue people beyond striking in its contrast with the frightening losses suffered elsewhere in Indonesia, was acknowledged by the granting of a United Nations Sasakawa Award for Disaster Reduc- tion to the Simeulue people. Source: Elias, Rungmanee and Cruz, 2005. Indigenous knowledge saves lives