The cultural context of biodiversity conservation - Oapen

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5.3.4 Knowledge encounters in conservational settings
The cultural context of biodiversity conservation
People with different world-views may have a very hard time understanding each other. They may have little
or no common ground of experience, and the words of one may make little sense to the other. Different
world-views, based on different metaphors, lead people to have different experiences – actually to live in different
realities. (Schroeder 1996: 20)
From an anthropological perspective, the most crucial aspect of conservation is the
need to involve people in the protection of biological diversity. As has been outlined,
the co-management arrangement as established in the surroundings of the National
Park Laguna Lachuá is based on an integrated development-oriented conservation
scheme. Despite the participatory approach that emphasises the need to assess human
and ecosystem well-being together, the protected area represents a »contested space«,
defined by Low and Lawrence-Zúñiga as »geographic locations where conflicts in the
form of opposition, confrontation, subversion, and/or resistance engage actors whose
social positions are defined by differential control of resources and access to power«
(2003: 18). However, not only conflicting interests meet in this situation, which reflects
the collision of multiple realities and differing configurations of knowledge. The
values of people living in the surroundings of the National Park mingle with the ideological
impetus underlying protectionist management policy.
The general observation made by Howitt (2001) that cross-cultural communication
is fundamental to most resource management settings in order to realise the implications
of a multicultural definition of environment thus applies to the present case.
In the words of my research partner Sindy Hernández, the encounters between the local
population and the park management involve the fusion of distinct worldviews:
»Two worlds meet – on the one hand the concept of conservation, the governmental administration, the
scientists and all their particular interests, and on the other hand, the communities that are either homogenous
entities in terms of particular interests, experiences, expectations, practices and knowledges«
(personal communication, 2003). While people-oriented initiatives are today recognised
as being a necessity, there is still a tendency to underestimate factors that may
impair communication efforts between park agents and local residents. The conditions
under which people decide to share their knowledge and articulate their needs and
priorities require increased acceptance and respect of alternative forms of knowledge,
as well as a willingness on the part of official agents and researchers to accommodate
and integrate different modes of perception into their own paradigms. In this sense, it
has been affirmed by Nakashima and Roué that in the search for a way forward, »it is
important to come back to the question of culture and worldview« (2002: 323).
Our experience has shown that interaction between different stakeholders rarely
leads to a mutual comprehension, as the process of negotiation builds upon a number
of misunderstandings that result out of different languages, cognitions, expectations,
and attitudes. Thus, it is important to keep in mind that any negotiation on conservation
issues and natural resource management systems between state agencies and local
residents takes place within a particular historically and politically charged context. A