Why do we need to integrate the Indigenous culture to achieve Holistic Sustainability?

Abstract

This paper proposes a vision of the re-discovery of Arabian Gulf communities’ culture and a revival of local knowledge in a bid to support, promote, and move towards a more sustainable future for the region. Information and skills about the local desert environment, formed over many years, traditional ways of doing things and methods for coping with the harsh environment, may provide invaluable insights into how the region in general, and Qatar in particular, can develop in harmony with its environment rather than against it. By championing local methods and cultural norms, natural resources can be conserved, biodiversity protected and natural environments restored. This paper explores local knowledge by referring to older local experts on some of the techniques they used to deal with environmental conditions. The study revealed that most of the old ways of dealing with natural resources take into account two basic elements: protection and support the environment to renew. These two concepts must be integrated within the goals of development projects in the region that are essentially suffering from scarcity of natural resources.