Tipping Points 37: Age-old ways

As emerged clearly during the 2025 Oppenheimer Research Conference, climate and conservation strategies – in Africa and elsewhere – are often undertaken without proper collaboration with local and indigenous people. When this is done, we risk overlooking invaluable inherited knowledge and insights, as well as potentially undermining the collective buy-in and ultimate efficacy of our efforts.

Join Professor Jacob Mapara as he facilitates a panel of climate change, conservation, community-based natural resource management (CBNRM), intangible cultural heritage (ICH), language, and AI tech experts in discussing the various ways in which indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) can be incorporated into and benefit our various environmental sustainability efforts. You'll hear fascinating stories from the panelists' own research as well as learn invaluable principles of engagement that can be used to enhance your own context-specific projects.

Prof. Jacob Mapara is the Director of the Institute of Lifelong Learning and Development Studies at Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) in Zimbabwe. He is also a professor at the Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Living Heritage in the same institute. He has researched and written extensively on IKS, which forms part of a people’s ICH. Between 2018 and 2022, he led a team from CUT and the Hurungwe community in a UNESCO-funded project titled “Inventorying Oral Traditions, Expressions, Local Knowledge and Practices of the Korekore of Hurungwe District in Zimbabwe”. He was also part of the multi-university project “Inventorying Intangible Cultural Heritage Assets affected by Cyclone Idai in Chimanimani, Chipinge and Buhera Districts in Zimbabwe”. He is the current Chairperson of the Zimbabwe National Intangible Cultural Heritage Advisory Committee.

Dr Olga Laiza Kupika is currently a Senior Research Fellow in Climate Change Adaptation at the Okavango Research Institute, University of Botswana. She is also an Associate Professor in Natural Resources Management, a UNFCCC-registered climate change expert, and a volunteer expert with the UNESCO Earth Network. Kupika is a task-oriented and results-focused conservationist with over a decade of experience in research, teaching, community service, and professional engagement in higher and tertiary education. Her research skills and competencies include climate change adaptation, resilience and advocacy, ethnobiology, IKS, CBNRM, biodiversity conservation and sustainable development, tangible and intangible cultural heritage preservation, disaster risk management, and agro-ecology.

Dr Zoe Jewell is a conservation biologist and the cofounder of WildTrack, a nonprofit dedicated to non-invasive wildlife monitoring using Footprint Identification Technology (FIT). With a background in medical parasitology (London University) and veterinary medicine (Cambridge University), she has published on wildlife conservation widely in both academic and popular media, focusing on developing ethical and data-driven tracking methods to protect endangered species. As an Adjunct Associate Professor at Duke University, she collaborates with global researchers and indigenous trackers to develop non-invasive monitoring methods to provide real-time landscape-scale data to inform conservation strategies. Her work integrates AI, statistics, ethics and traditional ecological knowledge to improve wildlife monitoring and promote sustainable conservation efforts worldwide.

Hebert Pikela is the founder of the Centre for Cultural Development Initiatives, which falls under the Gaza Trust Zimbabwe, an organisation that specialises in the development of grassroots community cultural initiatives. He holds a master's degree in Socioecological Systems and Development Practice from the University of Zimbabwe, and his areas of expertise include IKS and sustainable development, education and culture, and policy and rights awareness. He’s also a Tsonga language author, activist and specialist, and sits on the board of the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ).

This is the 37th episode of Tipping Points in the monthly OGRC webinar series.