Indigenous knowledge and land use planning [Elektronische Ressource] : an example from a mountainous region in rural northern China / vorgelegt von Karin Janz

Indigenous Knowledge and Land Use Planning An Example from a Mountainous Region in Rural Northern China vorgelegt von Dipl.Ing. Karin Janz aus Berlin von der Fakultät VI - Planen, Bauen, Umwelt der Technischen Universität Berlin zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Doktor der Ingenieurwissenschaften Dr. Ing. genehmigte Dissertation Promotionsausschuss: Vorsitzende: Prof. Dr. Christine Kulke Berichter: Prof. Dr. Johannes Küchler Berichterin: Prof. Dr. Sabine Hofmeister Tag der wissenschaftliche Aussprache: 28.01.2000 Berlin 2010 D 83Introduction ii Introduction "To know you do not know is best. Not to know that you know is a flaw." Lao -Tzu: Te-Tao Ching, 4th Century B.C., translated by Hendricks (1989) The idea of doing research on indigenous knowledge in China was born in 1985, when I spent several months in a village in North China to study local approaches and the implementation of ecological agriculture (shengtai nongye). With the support of the Beijing Municipal Institute of Environmental Protection, the people in the village had developed several activities to carry out ecologically sound agriculture. They used less pesticides, the application of biogas was integrated into the farming cycle, and they had developed new ways of animal raising and new patterns of cropping.