Indigenous people often exclusively depend on the natural resources available within the ecosystems where they live, and commonly manage their resources sustainably. They have developed, and continue to develop indigenous knowledge systems which encompass sustainable management of natural resources. This study compares indigenous knowledge of natural resource management developed by two different communities in two different environments-Maori in the temperate environment in New Zealand and Dusun in the tropical environment in Brunei Darussalam, and comparatively evaluates the role of indigenous knowledge in sustainable resource management in three categories of knowledge such as spatial and seasonal distribution of natural resources, sustainable harvesting, and habitat management. The comparison reveals that despite the differences in environment and the great geographical distance between the two communities, there are remarkable similarities between the two knowledge systems in concepts, principles, strategies and technologies used in natural resource management.

Sustainable development is emerging as an alternative to conventional development, which has apparently failed to alleviate poverty in the 'Ihird World countries. Sustainable development links the maintenance of ecosystem directly witb the sustainab~lity of resources. Therefore, any inhgenous knowledge that helps people to deal with their environment over centuries has potential value for the sustainable development l b s study explores the Sri Lankan paddy farmers' indigenous knowledge of pest control, and points out its relevance to sustainable development. It also suggests that modem technology should be integrated with the indigenous knowledge. This approach should lead to environmentally sound, economically viable and effective technologies that could form the basis of sustainable development.

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Fishery in the village irrigation-tanks has long played an important role as a source of food in the traditional villages in the Dry Zone comprising two-thirds of the area of Sri Lanka. Therefore, the villagers have traditionally developed various management practices which lead to sustainable utilization of fishery resources. This study is an attempt to explore such practices pertaining to fishery in the irrigation systems in the traditional villages and to investigate their relevance to designing appropriate resource-management systems leading to ecologically sustainable development. The study indicates that the traditional practices which contribute to the sustainable utilization of fishery resources are fourfold: (1) ecological, (2) technological, (3) institutional, and (4) cultural.The ecological set-up of the irrigation system of any given traditional village has evolved in such a way that it could facilitate the survival of fishes during the dry season, which is the major threat to their continuous survival. Though all small tanks dry out during the dry season, small amounts of water remain in some big tanks. As all tanks in any given catchment area are interconnected, the fishes remaining in the big tanks can migrate to the small tanks at the beginning of the rainy season and so re-colonize them. While the buffalo wallow which is located at the lower end of the paddy tract acts as a drought refugium, the natural vegetation-cover associated with the irrigation system provides food, a favourable microclimate, and materials required for the construction of nests by those fishes that make them.

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