While IK research originally emphasized indigenous technical knowledge of the environment, it is now accepted that the concept of IK goes beyond this narrow interpretation. IK is now considered to be cultural knowledge in its broadest sense, including all of the social, political, economic and spiritual aspects of a local way of life. Sustainable development researchers, however, have found the following categories of IK to be of particular interest:

• resource management knowledge and the tools,

• techniques, practices and rules related to pastoralism,

• agriculture, agro-forestry, water management and the gathering of wild food;

• classification systems for plants, animals, soils, water and weather;

• empirical knowledge about flora, fauna and inanimate resources and their practical uses;

• and the worldview or way the local group perceives its relationship to the natural world.