- Abdullah Rubaet Chowdhury received the SES Elodie Sandford Award for a research expedition to Nepal’s Himalayan Mustang region.
- The project documents the Bönpo community’s ancient relationship with nature to address contemporary environmental and climate crises.
- Using photography and film, researchers will collaborate with locals to develop community-led biodiversity conservation indicators and maps.
- Results will be shared with UN biodiversity organizations and the Nepalese government to integrate indigenous knowledge into modern conservation policies.
London/Kathmandu: Bangladeshi social scientist and anthropologist Abdullah Rubaet Chowdhury has received the SES Elodie Sandford Award from the UK-based Scientific Exploration Society (SES) for a research expedition to Nepal’s Himalayan Mustang region.
The award will support a year-long project to document the traditional knowledge of the Bönpo community and explore how its centuries-old relationship with nature can offer lessons for dealing with today’s environmental and climate challenges.
Chowdhury and his team plan to work closely with Bön spiritual leaders, young people and local communities in the Mustang region, particularly around the Kali Gandaki Gorge. The area is known for its distinctive landscape, biodiversity and rich cultural traditions.
At the centre of the research is a simple but important question: how have local communities living in a challenging Himalayan environment continued to understand and live with nature as the climate changes?
“Our expedition is particularly interested in learning how Bönpo practitioners, placed at the forefront of the climate crisis, have maintained a strong kinship with nature and natural entities driven by their ‘living knowledge’ to face these challenges,” Chowdhury said.
The Bön tradition is considered one of the world’s oldest continuous knowledge traditions, with roots stretching back thousands of years. Much of this knowledge is closely connected to the natural environment, including local landscapes, plants, animals and spiritual beliefs.
Rather than simply collecting this knowledge and taking it away for academic study, the research team says it will involve the community throughout the process. Bön leaders and young people will work with researchers to document local practices and identify ways in which traditional knowledge can contribute to biodiversity conservation.
The team plans to use photography and other participatory methods to record community knowledge. It will also work with local people to develop biodiversity conservation indicators and maps showing important environmental and cultural areas. A field film will also be produced and owned by the community.
The researchers hope the project will help create a stronger link between Indigenous knowledge and modern efforts to protect biodiversity. They also want the research to ensure that local people remain the owners of the knowledge and materials shared during the expedition.
The findings are expected to be presented to organisations involved in implementing the UN Global Biodiversity Framework, including the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The team also plans to share its findings with Nepal’s Ministry of Forests and Environment.
The research will later be presented through exhibitions and academic programmes, including at Heidelberg University’s ethnographic museum and institutions in Nepal.
For Chowdhury and his team, the expedition is not only about documenting the past. It is also an effort to understand how an Indigenous community’s long relationship with nature could contribute to the search for practical responses to a rapidly changing climate.
The Scientific Exploration Society, a UK-based organisation, supports expeditions that combine scientific research, exploration and conservation. The SES Elodie Sandford Award supports projects that advance knowledge through field-based exploration and research.
