Although these traditions remain valuable, their future is not guaranteed.
- Generational change: Younger people may have fewer opportunities to learn traditional skills when migration, schooling, and changing livelihoods reduce contact with knowledge holders.
- Environmental degradation: Deforestation, soil erosion, biodiversity loss, and changing rainfall patterns can undermine the natural resources on which traditional practices depend.
- Limited documentation: Knowledge transmitted orally may disappear when elders and specialist practitioners pass away without opportunities to teach others.
- Commercial pressures: Crafts and cultural practices may be simplified or misrepresented when market demand takes priority over community meanings and standards.
- Insufficient recognition: Traditional practitioners may receive little financial or institutional support, even when their knowledge benefits wider society.
- Risks of appropriation: Knowledge shared for research or commercial development may be used without appropriate consent, attribution, or benefit-sharing.
Preservation should not mean freezing culture in the past. Indigenous communities must have the freedom to decide which practices they wish to maintain, adapt, share, or keep private.