effects on local people of giving attention to the potentialimportance of “indigenous knowledge” to environmentalmanagement has been recognised in political ecologytheory (Adams 1990; Bryant 1997), which explains thatpolitical and economic processes either generate or exacerbate environmental problems such as desertification,tropical deforestation, soil erosion, and wildlife depletion.The role of local people and the value of their management systems have been appreciated for their sustainableuse and protection of the forests that they depend on ascommon property. Eventually, while the role of the stateis reduced to only that of a regulatory authority, the communities take total management control (Hobley 1996