The cultural context of biodiversity conservation - Oapen

Local expressions of indigenous knowledge
local maize species have been exposed to fragmentation as the communities have undergone
changes and lost their social cohesion under the impact of external forces. As
initially outlined, Guatemalan farmers cultivated more than 600 maize varieties in the
past. This variety has been widely replaced by high-yield species introduced through
programmes intended to intensify agricultural production. While Siebers (1994) observed
in the 1990s that few Q'eqchi' would use these hybrid seeds, our investigation
revealed that the cultivation of such varieties has become common practice and that
many traditional crops have disappeared. The next chapter will explore some of the
causal constraints that lie behind this process.
5.3.3 Origins of knowledge fragmentation
209
Memory is the most important resource of any rural producer. (Toledo 1992: 10)
As Zent (1999) states, few scientific studies concerned with indigenous knowledge
and resource management systems have focused explicitly on knowledge loss. He argues
that it makes little sense to attempt to conserve knowledge without first attempting
to analyse the local patterns of knowledge loss itself. Accordingly, there is a need
to identify specific causal variables underlying the transformation and fragmentation
in order to develop strategies to achieve the protection of knowledge systems as
claimed in article 8(j) of the CBD. The loss of knowledge is not a natural and inevitable
process, since it is largely of social and political origin. If indigenous knowledge is
disappearing, it is, according to Agrawal (1995), primarily because processes of modernisation
and cultural homogenisation threaten the lifestyles of indigenous people.
In the present case, there is no single explanatory variable to be presented but
rather numerous socio-economic determinants that each have their effects on the
modes of Q'eqchi' livelihood across dynamic spatial and temporal scales. On the whole
it can be assumed that the integrationist policy towards the indigenous population in
the past has been influential in the transformation of traditional notions and customary
practices. Of major significance have been the implications of the civil war, which
has been accompanied by considerable political and socio-cultural change for the indigenous
communities throughout the country. When talking about the causes that
provoked the widely perceived loss of knowledge, a staff member of ADICI, a local
NGO working in rural areas of Alta Verapaz, referred to the determining role played
by la violencia. He emphasised a process of alienation in terms of oral traditions and beliefs
associated with agricultural activities that was provoked by the death of the elders
of communities (personal communication, 2002). This observation is shared by Julio
Morales, one of the biologists engaged in the co-management of the Laguna Lachuá
Park. In a lecture given about Q'eqchi' hunting practices, he stressed the striking
knowledge repertoires of the people he had been working with. He further assessed
cultural upheavals communities in the area had to go through, which together implied
a traumatic break with the past. Among these changes, he differentiated two major is-