Integrating Traditional Ecological Knowledge for Sustainable Environmental Management: An Eco-linguistic Analysis of Selected Kenyan Folklore

Abstract

The current global concerns around the environment have raised the importance of finding sustainable solutions to mitigate the impacts of climate change on the environment and human beings. Environmental management practices have for long relied on science-based knowledge and western models, neglecting the vast wealth of environmental knowledge and practices embedded in Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). This study employs an ecolinguistic approach to examine how TEK, as represented in selected folklore, can be incorporated into sustainable environmental management practices. The study analysed a narrative and a song purposively selected from the Kalenjin and Abagusii communities in Kenya. Ecological discourse analysis was used to identify linguistic structures that construct the communities' system of knowledge, values, and beliefs related to the environment. The findings indicate that linguistic structures such as declarative sentences, verbs, agency, emotive coercion, and lexical choices are used in the narrative and song to pass the communities’ TEK. The paper concludes that the language used has the potential to shape the community’s perceptions and influence their attitudes towards the environment, including forest protection, land use, and biodiversity protection. Consequently, incorporating TEK into environmental management practices can promote sustainability, conservation, and community participation in decision-making. The study recommends that environmental managers and policy makers should recognize the value of TEK, ensure its documentation, and incorporate it into environmental planning and decision-making processes in a complementary manner with science-based knowledge. This study contributes to the growing body of knowledge on integrating TEK into environmental conservation efforts and offers insights into the potential of ecolinguistic approaches for promoting sustainability in environmental management practices.