Linking Local Knowledge to Global Markets: Livelihoods Improvement through Woodcarving in India

Abstract

"Role of traditional knowledge for the conservation science is acknowledged but the evidence related to its direct contribution to livelihoods and household income is often overlooked. Recent importance to woodcarving in India provides opportunity to explore if, and under what conditions, traditional knowledge on woodcarving contributes to livelihoods improvement and household incomes. There is a paucity of good studies on woodcarving in India but the preliminary information provides inference that a comparatively much better policy and governance, good infrastructure and a growing tourism play vital role in supporting local artisans and entrepreneurs to use their traditional knowledge for generating large household incomes. Although it seems plausible that local knowledge can support livelihoods improvement with suitable interventions, robust studies are urgently required to provide operational models for linking livelihoods and conservation through trade in woodcarving. Suitably designed action research is likely to provide insights for supporting livelihoods through woodcarving as well as promoting the tree-growing in agroecosystems to supply raw material for woodcarving enterprise."