Ecological knowledge and sustainable planning in Nigeria: a reflection on the Yorubas of South-Western Nigeria

Abstract

In pre-colonial times, African people survived by acquiring and preserving community knowledge of the environment and the relationships between human and non-human elements. The paper is based primarily on secondary data, and examines the relationships between African people, especially Yoruba people of southwestern Nigeria and the land and how understanding this relationship can help our quest for a more effective and sustainable regional planning. The study investigates the indigenous Yoruba Ecological Thoughts and Beliefs and how these affected the ways people have interacted with the environment. The result shows that there is a lot that modern planning can gain from the culture-environmental relationships of the indigenous people. Indigenous knowledge is the cornerstone of several convergent trends in social science thinking and development administration practice. With the failure of grand theories of development, social sciences focus on middle-range theories that are site – and time-specific (indigenous knowledge). Both traditional knowledge and modern science and technology should be complementary in the development process and should be properly integrated. People are the subject of development. Development is supposed to suit the people and not the people to suit development. If Africa does not learn this lesson now, all our efforts at the development will be in vain, because Africa is ultimately only as strong as its communities are.

Authors and Affiliations

Oladayo Ramon Ibrahim

Keywords

Related Articles

Use of the theory of central places for the improvement of the administrative-territorial device of the Kharkiv region

The article applies the provisions of the theory of the central places of V. Kristaller for constructing a model of the system of settlements of the Kharkiv region with the aim of increasing the efficiency of the existin...

Social and geographical research of the trading sphere of Kharkiv region based on indicators of system development

The article characterizes population trading service in Kharkiv region. The brief analysis of the previous human-geographical research on trading sector was given. The system approach in human geography was emphasized, t...

Problems of territorial communities’ formation in Ukraine

The article analyzes the implementation of the first stage of administrative and territorial structure of Ukraine, which began with the formation of communities, which should be the main link of the new system of the cou...

Architectural dominants in landscape of Tri-City

Article presents brief description of dominants' role in landscape of cities, definitions used in research. Main goal was to present mentioned objects, their spatial distribution and role performed in landscape. Article...

Features of the territorial planning of the sea coastal zone

The coastal zone in Ukraine is likely to undergo the most profound change in the near future. Already more than 65 percent of the Ukrainian Black Sea region population lives within 30 km of the coast. Consequently, unles...

Download PDF file
  • EP ID EP268029
  • DOI -
  • Views 85
  • Downloads 0

How To Cite

Oladayo Ramon Ibrahim (2017). Ecological knowledge and sustainable planning in Nigeria: a reflection on the Yorubas of South-Western Nigeria. Часопис соціально-економічної географії, 23(2), 45-48. https://europub.co.uk/articles/-A-268029