Ethnoecology, Resource Use, Conservation And Development In A ...

analysis is DeWalt’s thesis concerning the complementary nature of scientific and
local knowledge systems. This maintains that the site-specificity and theoretical
flexibility of local knowledge contrast productively with the general applicability and
theoretical rigidity of western science, such that a synergistic combination of the two
is possible (DeWalt 1994). The context within which this assessment takes place is
that of the cultural ecology of the host community, of which a fairly extensive
qualitative description is given. A systems perspective is employed consistent with
the analytical framework provided by Berkes and Folke (1998a), in which the focus is
on the interactions among ecosystem, people and technology, property rights
institutions, and local knowledge. By making current subsistence activities and their
ecological effects its central focus, this thesis thus aligns itself with the trend
towards increasingly grass roots approaches in development. The perspective differs
from the conventional one in that the major agents of planned social and
environmental change - whether political, financial, industrial, social or
environmentalist in orientation - are considered as external actors affecting the
context within which the focal population seek to maintain their livelihoods. The
particular research questions I seek to address are all concerned, ultimately, with
these people’s prospects for continuing to maintain control over their lifestyles and
livelihoods in the face of changes they will inevitably encounter in the near future.
1.2.1 Is the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem function of
importance to the people of the South Rupununi?
A major positive change in the global political landscape over the past thirty years
has been the rise in attention given to the causes of indigenous peoples. Direct
representatives and non-indigenous advocates have achieved unprecedented levels of
influence within both the UN and the NGO sector, and the issues they promote are
finally being given due attention in many of the higher echelons of power (Wilmer
1993; but also see critique of Wilmer’s thesis in Benjamin and Tiessen 1993). A key
factor in this has been an alliance with western environmentalists based on a
perceived common interest in the conservation of natural ecosystems.
Environmentalist causes seem able to inspire far greater levels of concern and action
among first world publics than purely humanitarian ones, a point which indigenous
activists have been quick to appreciate and act upon (Posey 1990: 48-9; Conklin and
Graham 1995: 698; Fisher 1994).
The major point of unison has been the support that has been available for
indigenous land claims: environmentalists have often considered indigenous