Bushcraft; Much More Than Recreation

Bushcraft skills were once more than recreation; without knowledge of plants people would have been without food, medicine, and material for construction. Without a knowledge of ecology people would have gone without food and clothing (Elpel, 2001). For those who want to pursue a career in countryside management or specialist areas such as game keeping or botany, knowledge, at least of ecology and the ability to identify plants and animals is essential.
There have been many studies abroad of how best to perpetuate this traditional ecological knowledge and wisdom (TEKW) and the skills of native peoples. In some parts of the world these skills are still very much in everyday use; but with improvements in technology, and therefore less demand on young people to learn traditional skills, the number of people in these areas who have well developed practical ‘bushcraft’ skills is declining. Particularly, according to a study of the Transmission of Environmental Knowledge and Land Skills among Inuit Men in Ulukhakatok, in specialist areas such Polar Bear Hunting (Pearce, et al., 2011), making skin clothing (Kritsch & Wright-Frazer, 2002), Fur preparation, hunting, fishing and trapping (Ohmagari & Berkes, 1997).  The links between these very specialist skills and countryside management in the UK may not be obvious but the principle is the same. Modern technology may have made many hand tools and traditional skills less efficient than modern methods but by no means have they become obsolete. For example in many parts of the world subsistence agriculture relies solely on the traditional knowledge and skills of the farmers (Beckford & Barker, 2007) (Reichel-Dolmatoff, 1990) and researchers agree that TEKW is valuable and valid even when you consider the availability of modern farming methods and improved scientific knowledge of agriculture (Agrawal, 1995) (Colorado & Collins , 1987) (Posey, 1990) (Schultes , 1988) (Hunn, 1993).

Today we are far removed from the ancient skills that would once have been used by native peoples living in the British Isles; the hunter gatherer societies of the Maesolithic (10,000-5,500 years ago) were the last people in the British Isles to operate without agriculture and would have used bushcraft as their means of survival (Darvill, 2010).  In other parts of the world primitive survival and bushcraft skills have been used by native peoples in living memory and in some places are still a way of life (Wescott, 2001). As Pearce et all (2011), Kritsch & Wright-Frazer (2002) and Ohmagari & Berkes (1997) explain, the successful transmission of these skills is a vital part of preserving the skills, traditions and way of life of surviving native peoples. Formal schools have been set up in some parts of the world to ensure these skills can be taught to younger generations such as the Samernas Utbildningscentrum (The Sami’s Training Centre) in Jokkmokk, Sweden (Samernas Utbildningcentrum, n.d), and the TePuia in Rotoroa, New Zealand (Te Puia , 2010). These types of skills have already been lost, or at least only practised by a very small minority, in the UK and to teach them now is to re-introduce them rather than to preserve them. But they can be relevant in a range of applications, from developing social skills (Guy, 2012), to influencing environmental decision making (Ellis, 2005) and applying to conservation and environmental management (Berkes, et al., 1993) (Richards , 1997) (Schultes , 1988) (Ellis, 2005). 

References

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• Guy, G., 2012. Forest School Level 3 Practitioners Award Evidence Portfolio; Discussion and Review of Current Forest School Philosophy and Aims in Light of its Recent Historical Development.. s.l.:Unpublished . (available from https://www.academia.edu/4560566/Forest_School_Practitioners_Portfolio)
• Hunn, E. N., 1993. What is traditional ecological knowledge?. In: N. M. Williams & G. Baines , eds. Traditional Ecological Knowledge; wisdom for sustainable development. Canberra: Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, Australian National University, pp. 13-15.
• Kritsch, I. & Wright-Frazer, K., 2002. The Gwich'in Traditional Caribou Skin Clothing Project; Repatriating Traditional Knowledge and Skills. Arctic, 55(2), pp. 205-213.
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