The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR and World Agroforestry (ICRAF) joined forces in 2019, leveraging a combined 65 years’ experience in research on the role of forests and trees in solving critical global challenges.
Agro-ecological Knowledge Toolkit (AKT) 2017 Training Participants in Makueni County, Kenya. Photo: Genevieve Lamond-Agaba
The 2017 Agro-ecological Knowledge Toolkit (AKT) training was launched in Makueni County, Kenya, on 12 June 2017. The AKT is a systematic methodology and well established knowledge acquisition software programme primarily concerned with gathering local ecological knowledge. This refers to what people know about their natural environment, based primarily on their own experience and observation.
The two-week intensive training combines class-based exercises and fieldwork aimed at equipping participants with the skills needed to conduct independent local knowledge research using the AKT. It will primarily focus on site-characterisation, appropriate stratification of land users,followed by detailed knowledge acquisition with a small purposive sample. Field visits to the Land Restoration project sites in Makueni will also be included as part of the training.
At the end of the course, participants will have an understanding of concepts and terminology associated with local ecological knowledge systems as well as designing and conducting appropriate interviews. They will also be able to create electronic knowledge bases, generate and interpret causal diagrams derived from them and understand how to present their analysis back to stakeholders.
Led by Genevieve Lamond of Bangor University and Anne Kuria of ICRAF, the course participates partners from DRC and Comoros, PhD students at the University of Nairobi, staff from the Ministry of Agriculture engaged in the Upper Tana-Nairobi Water Fund project as well as ICRAF staff.
*The 2017 AKT Training is sponsored by the IFAD/EC-funded project, "Restoration of degraded land for food security and poverty reduction in East Africa and the Sahel: taking successes in land restoration to scale”
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