The cultural context of biodiversity conservation - Oapen

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The cultural context of biodiversity conservation
This insight points to the importance of religious worldviews as an effective part of
ecological systems. A deepened understanding of ecology needs to combine with an
understanding of religions that, in Sullivan's words, »form the rich soil of memory and
practice, belief and relationship where life on earth is rooted« (2001: xiii). This is one
of the major features I have intended to demonstrate. It is highly important to recognise
that the biodiversity generated in the local agro-ecosystem is a product of biophysical
and social processes, just as the land use system combines the material and
spiritual maintenance of resources. The latter involves a set of rituals the peasants
have developed that answer fundamental questions about how humans should behave
towards the environment. In this way, the Q'eqchi' peasants constantly create and recreate
their culture in order to adjust to external pressures, reinforce their relationship
with the local landscape and cyclically repeat collective dramatisations as a way of expressing
and renewing their identity. Despite profound dislocations and social disruptions
the Q'eqchi' have experienced in the past, the worship of the guardian spirits is
still carried out and rituals are still practised individually and collectively to restore
productivity and fertility, to strengthen social relations and to retain the belief in the
sacred power associated with the natural elements.
It has been claimed that understanding the natural world as a sacred realm invoked
by spiritual beings does not necessarily call for an ethic of environmental protection.
However, the worldview of the Q'eqchi' emphasises the need for balance within the interdependent
web of relationships between humans and the natural environment. Indigenous
ethics with respect to the physical world is a matter of reciprocal appropriation
in which humans invest themselves in the landscape and at the same time incorporate
the landscape into their most fundamental experiences. In this sense, the indigenous
knowledge of the peasant farmers is to be understood as the capacity to
maintain the equilibrium and the relationship of reciprocity, which is seen as the recreation
of life. The entire milpa process is a reciprocal activity, which is intimately
bound to cultural identity. The symbolic perception of land and the rituals related to
the land's fertility are fundamental elements of the indigenous culture. At its heart lies
the perception that all parts of the universe are interrelated. A central tenet critical to
the formation of environmental values is that the cosmovision is non-human centred.
There is no distinction made between secular and sacred realms of life. Despite the influence
of the Christian Churches, these beliefs have constantly been redefined and
still form the basis of spiritual life. The cosmovision itself forms an essential dimension
of indigenous knowledge to be considered within development and conservation
initiatives. According to Hatse and De Ceuster (2001a), it is one of the aspects most
often ignored or denied in the fields of development cooperation and scientific research.
For an endogenous and sustainable approach applied in agricultural communities,
however, it is indispensable to know and value the indigenous worldview as an
explanatory frame that gives meaning to human life. It integrates the natural and the
social world into a whole and addresses the need for respect for all that exists as well
as the need for transformational change to regain balance and harmony in the cosmos.