The cultural context of biodiversity conservation - Oapen

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The cultural context of biodiversity conservation
Causes of progressive environmental degradation like deforestation, erosion, degeneration
of soils and loss of wildlife habitat are commonly traced back to rates of population
growth, pressure on scarce resources, extractive activities or even to ignorant attitudes
of rural peasants being incapable of coping with external changes (Banuri &
Apffel Marglin 1993: 4). Nevertheless, field-based research findings give evidence that
in most cases, environmental degradation based on unsustainable resource use patterns
are more likely to be traced back to social conditions such as inequality rather
than to structural factors such as population pressure (Bodley 2002).
In her discussion on Socioeconomic Root Causes of Biodiversity Loss as crucial step in
developing effective conservation strategies, Stedman-Edwards (1998) asserts that it is
essential to understand what lies behind the mentioned proximate causes in order to
understand why such an extensive environmental degradation is occurring. As a complex
overlay of political, economic and social factors on a local, regional, national and
international scale driving environmental change, she emphasises the need to take a
broader look at these multi-layered conditions causally related to the process of biodiversity
loss. Even in isolated areas, where the erosion of natural diversity is occurring,
a number of circumstances beyond the local level are likely to be at work. Consequently,
it is necessary to step back and look at the broad range of influences on local
resource use in order to find successful conservation strategies that could reduce the
pressure on biodiversity. The deforestation process in the tropics, for instance, is conventionally
attributed primarily to the increased practice of shifting agriculture among
other human activities such as the establishment of plantations for cash crop cultivation
or the use of cleared forested areas for cattle ranching (Jackson & Jackson 1996).
A closer examination, as argued by Stedman-Edwards (1998), reveals much
broader categories of root causes that need to be taken into account. Above all, these
include factors such as demographic change, inequality and poverty, public policies,
macroeconomic policies and structures, social change and development biases. According
to Slikkerveer (2000: 17), the loss of cultural diversity in many countries is due
largely to »unbalanced historical processes« of acculturation in which traditional and
indigenous societies have been dominated by knowledge and technology from the
›West‹. 14 The underlying mechanisms of forest degradation have also been assessed
critically by Laird (2000) in terms of broader socio-economic conditions and political
impacts. More precisely, she points to the failure of governments and other institutions
to recognise and respect the rights of forest-dependent peoples to their territorial
lands and other resources. She also mentions the increasing problem of landlessness
among impoverished peasants due to inequitable land tenure patterns and policies
of state and private agencies that are geared to exploit natural resources for economic
profit (2000: 354).
14 In anthropology, the term acculturation was originally used to refer to changes in cultures as they
came into contact with each other. It later became synonymous with the idea that indigenous cultures
went into decline after contact with industrial ones (Gardner & Lewis 1996: xiv).