The cultural context of biodiversity conservation - Oapen

Local expressions of indigenous knowledge
tion of this structure as a means of guaranteeing peace and human rights in a framework
of democracy, but the changes proposed have not been effectively addressed
and a »monocultural model« persists (Stavenhagen 2003: 8ff.). Notwithstanding, with
the movement towards decentralisation informing the post-conflict period, more participatory
processes can be expected to grow in the years to come.
By examining the environmental sector, Berger (1997: 113ff.) states that the government
has discovered that much-needed development funds may be obtained by
working the environmental angle; the environment has become an integral part of the
neoliberal economic policy and rhetoric of the state and private sectors. Thus, environmentalism
in Guatemala remains vulnerable to the perception of what ›ecology‹
means abroad. Although it is still largely an elite and urban-based movement, the division
and isolation of segments by location and projects led to a closer cooperation
with local populations. This may result in directives for research and policy being informed
by perceptions and priorities suggested by local entities themselves, especially
in cases where they are involved in resource management projects. From a different
perspective, Hallum (2003) seeks to illuminate the significance of religion for environmentalism
and to illustrate how religion may motivate environmental praxis, even
across cultures. Drawing on a comparative study among indigenous communities, she
argues in her account Ecotheology and Environmental Praxis in Guatemala that religious beliefs
have more influence in changing societal behaviour then does scientific knowledge.
Shared values and the common religious theme of ›caring for creation‹ can be a
motivational ethic even in transnational networks. As to the situation in the northern
lowlands, she writes:
One can argue that the residents of the immigrant communities in the Petén and other places in Guatemala
apparently feel less reverence for the Earth because everything is so uncertain and because it is
not the place of their ancestors who were left behind in burial mounds. When indigenous communities
and generations are torn apart by war or forced migrations due to lack of land, the ethic of treating the
religious topography with reverence also begins to unravel (2003: 65).
Although Guatemala has the best environmental laws in Central America, legal systems
and official regulations will not be sufficient for the preservation of the remaining
forests in the area if the people themselves, who seemingly have lost their traditional
religious grounding, do not feel responsible to preserve and care for the natural
resources. As many of the colonists who left their ancestral lands also left their ancestral
religions, an affirmation of beliefs in the sacredness of nature can act to override
short term interests. Without a basic environmental ethic, Hallum concludes, the laws
are clearly inadequate (2003: 61ff.). By questioning what the future of the Mesoamerican
cultures and their religious imagination might hold, Carrasco establishes that
the patterns of the future may be seen in the patterns of its past. Following his view,
both Mesoamerican cosmology and history were characterised by what he terms »eccentric
periodicities« – periods of stability interrupted by collapses, rebellions, transformations
and new beginnings (1990: 154f.).
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