Indigenous people are the custodians of the biodiversity across the world. Many indigenous communities live in isolated and often highly biodiverse areas, where living in balance with nature is crucial for survival. As keen observers of their environments, indigenous peoples often possess knowledge linking various phenomena to ecosystem change changes in weather patterns, for example, or the impacts of new species coming into their territories. This knowledge is also used to make seasonal forecasts and predict weather patterns. The pastoralists in Transmara in Narok county are able to predict when and where the rains will fall just by observing the flowering patterns of trees, and the behaviours of insects and birds. These biological indicators are observed by scouts roaming the landscape, to determine where and when the cattle herds should move. This indigenous knowledge is constantly being enriched to include knowledge of new phenomena that affect the environment. Indigenous knowledge systems include values for managing the relationship of humans with biodiversity. In their conception, nature often includes animals, plants, birds and insects and the relationship of all these supports the existence of human beings which means without them their lives cannot be successful. Just to mention a few, traditional medicine as a product of biodiversity which helped the indigenous people in treating different diseases because majority of them reside in rural areas where health facilities were not available. The increase in population has led to mass destruction of the biodiversity where people wanted to create space for settlement and agriculture. The two practices are threats to the environment because people have cleared natural forest including those with medical value and for now they are depleted. Indigenous knowledge systems include values for managing the relationship of humans with biodiversity. For some indigenous communities, animals are believed to present themselves as gifts to hunters, gifts to be respected and cherished through rituals. The meat is shared with other community members and animals, as seen notably in communities. A complex system of customary institutions, regulations and taboos serve to inform and regulate their relationships with their environments. However, today indigenous peoples globally find themselves on the front lines of environmental and social change. Agriculture, logging and industrial development increasingly damage or destroy highly biodiverse areas, and ancestral lands are often seized or invaded and converted to farms and monocrop plantations e.g. sugarcane which covers 50% of agricultural land in Transmara. These interventions are sometimes accompanied by violence. Waters are increasingly polluted, and animals and plants are harvested at unsustainable rates, leaving little for indigenous communities to eat, and disrupting traditional livelihoods. Efforts to integrate indigenous populations into national societies also threaten their way of life. Formal education with teachers in classrooms can reduce opportunities to learn on the land with elders. Parents from the community are now taking it at as personal responsibility during the holiday to train their children about their lands, territories and their cultural practices that promotes environment conservation in their areas. The indigenous people from Transmara are now calling upon the women, men, youths, NGOs, government and other stakeholders to join hand and move from statements to action towards restoring back the biodiversity. By Stephen lemayian
