The cultural context of biodiversity conservation - Oapen

Concluding remarks
However, Hajer and Fischer (1999) remind to bear in mind that local contexts do not
necessarily fit into global discourse. Just as there is a need for biodiversity, they claim
that there is a need for diversity in human expression that reflects the particular historical,
cultural and biophysical realities that have evolved throughout the world. In
essence, diversity alludes to the idea of abundance and variety. It entails acknowledging
differences, dissimilarities, individualities, specificity and uniqueness. When referring
to diversity, the objective does not only involve recognition about the difference
of the ›other‹, but also an understanding of the entire setting, the universe as the ultimate
integration of diversity. Addressing the subject of biological diversity implies
considering life itself from all its different concepts. Conservationist efforts to formulate
global environmental ethics need to be attentive to cultural particularities and diversity,
though not in the sense of a unified worldview or a single global ethic. As to
this recognition, Shiva concludes:
The peasants who treat seeds as sacred, see in them the connection to the universe. Reflexive categories
harmonize balance from planets to plants to people. In most sustainable traditional cultures, the great
and the small have been linked so that limits, restraints, responsibilities are always transparent and
cannot be externalised. The great exists in the small and hence every act has not only global but cosmic
implications. To tread gently on the earth becomes the natural way to be. Demands in a planetary
consciousness are made on the self, not on others (1993: 154).
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