<P> In many cases, traditional knowledge has been orally passed for generations from person to person . Some forms of traditional knowledge find expression in stories, legends, folklore, rituals, songs, and laws . Other forms of traditional knowledge are expressed through different means . </P> <P> A report of the International Council for Science (ICSU) Study Group on Science and Traditional Knowledge characterises traditional knowledge as: </P> <P> "a cumulative body of knowledge, know - how, practices and representations maintained and developed by peoples with extended histories of interaction with the natural environment . These sophisticated sets of understandings, interpretations and meanings are part and parcel of a cultural complex that encompasses language, naming and classification systems, resource use practices, ritual, spirituality and worldview ." </P> <P> Traditional knowledge typically distinguishes one community from another . In some communities, traditional knowledge takes on personal and spiritual meanings . Traditional knowledge can also reflect a community's interests . Some communities depend on their traditional knowledge for survival . This is particularly true of traditional environmental knowledge, which refers to a "particular form of place - based knowledge of the diversity and interactions among plant and animal species, landforms, watercourses, and other qualities of the biophysical environment in a given place". An exemplar of a society with a wealth of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), the South American Kayapo people, have developed an extensive classification system of ecological zones of the Amazonian tropical savannah (i.e., campo / cerrado) to better manage the land . </P>

Traditional indigenous knowledge and its implication for the environment