THE ROLE OF INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE IN SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENTAL PRACTICE: A HUMANISTIC VIEW FROM SOUTHWEST NIGERIA

Abstract

Discussions about environmental crisis in Nigeria often center on science, 
technology, and policy reform. While these are necessary, they rarely engage the 
cultural knowledge systems that have shaped how communities have lived with 
their environments for centuries. This paper turns to the Yoruba people of 
Southwest Nigeria to examine how indigenous ecological knowledge continues 
to offer practical and ethical guidance for sustainability. In the Yoruba worldview, 
the environment is not a lifeless resource but a living presence deserving respect. 
Ecological values are carried in stories, proverbs, rituals, festivals, and everyday 
practices. Rivers such as Ọ̀ ṣun and sacred landscapes like the Osun-Osogbo 
Sacred Grove are not only spiritually significant; they also function as protected 
ecological spaces. Traditional farming methods, seasonal observances, and 
divinatory consultations reflect close attention to soil health, rainfall patterns, and 
biodiversity. In these ways, spirituality, morality, and environmental care are 
closely intertwined. The paper argues that Yoruba indigenous knowledge 
contributes dimensions of sustainability such as ethical commitment, communal 
responsibility, and symbolic meaning that are often missing from technocratic 
environmental discourse. Yet these traditions face serious pressures from colonial 
legacies, formal education systems that emphasises more on Western 
epistemologies, religious change, and rapid urbanisation. Adopting a humanistic 
perspective, the study calls for a more inclusive approach to sustainability in 
Nigeria one that recognises indigenous knowledge not as folklore, but as living 
intellectual heritage. It suggests that meaningful ecological renewal will require 
engaging and revitalising the cultural frameworks that have long guided 
harmonious relationships between people and the natural world in Yoruba society.