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

avoidance by people of particular areas of forest, river and savannah (chapters 5.3-
5.5). These systems are not explicitly recognised to have conservation functions, and
it is therefore possible that any such functions could be overlooked in a transition
from customary to planned and conscious systems for managing wild resources.
Covert systems of management may for this reason be more vulnerable to disruption
by changes in belief systems and practices.
It must be stressed once more than the conservation/management functions of
the systems described are putative. Investigation of whether they do have the
functions I suggest would require the collection of data on their actual effects on
human behaviour, and of the ecological consequences of this. It would be a mistake
to assume that a system of this sort must necessarily have a conservation function in
the absence of such empirical corroboration, even if a qualitative description suggests
that this may be the case. Eghenter (2000) reports the adoption by conservationists
of such an apparent misconception concerning traditional systems of land tenure in
the vicinity of the Kayan Mentarang National Park in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, and
points out the danger in assuming that such systems have conservationist
orientations. However, in the case study provided, the system in question provided a
strong case for the consideration of indigenous rights of access in planning the
protected area, and has formed the basis of an ongoing dialogue between
conservationists and local communities. In certain socio-political contexts, therefore,
traditional practices can contribute to the resilience of the social-ecological system,
even if they did not, in fact, have any such traditional function.
Local management of natural resources is becoming an issue as a result of
ecological change that is occurring from both within and without. Unsustainable
resource use practices are an obvious threat to any subsistence system based upon
natural ecological processes. Although the present scale of resource degradation, as
recorded in the present study, is small, there is the real prospect that it may be
magnified in the face of an increasing population with greater demands, and in
particular if current methods for the exploitation of the natural environment, and for
the regulation of this exploitation, are not effectively passed on. From without there
is the prospect of the incursion of extractive industries, and the more benign though
still potentially dangerous interests of conservationists whose agenda might conflict
with that of local populations (chapter 3.1).
The present study demonstrates a measure of dependence on resources beyond
the current boundaries of titled land. Some of this is based upon direct uses such as
hunting grounds, fishing sites and sources of wild products with very local