September 29, 2004

The Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative. "Combining science and stewardship, we seek to ensure that the world-renowned wilderness, wildlife, native plants, and natural processes of the Yellowstone to Yukon region continue to function as an interconnected web of life, capable of supporting all of the natural and human communities that reside within it, for now and for future generations."
posted by homunculus 20 years ago
  • Conservation Refugees "A worldwide increase in protected areas may sound like an awesome achievement, but the indigenous peoples who were evicted as a result don't see it that way."
  • Abiezer - had never thought about the issues that site brings up. The decrease in bio-diversity in areas where indiginous people were excluded has a certain ring of intuitive truth for me. But the rain forest decrease due to slash and burn agriculture makes me wonder where "indiginous" stops, and where,"leaving the undeveloped human communities to stew in their own juices" begins. Is it better to let seemingly happy primitive tribes live their traditional lives, or to aggressively educate them so they fit into the modern world? I could go either way on this one.
  • I enjoyed the article precisely because it tackled those issues path. I was vaguely aware of the problem and have seen similar schemes that try to make sure local communities are the first beneficiaries of conservation efforts - one called RUPES ("Rewarding the Upland Poor for Environmental Services") springs to mind. I think it certainly stands to reason that if a human community has been living in an area for hundreds of years or even millennia, and that area remains a haven of unspoilt biodiversity worthy of designation as a national park, then the local people aren't the problem. Another example I'm aware of is a scheme to fence off grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau which blames nomads for the degradation, despite the fact they've lived there sustainably for generations. I would agree the issues get cloudier when you're talking about farming or changes over time, but I guess what I took away from it most of all is that you can't have a 'one size fits all' stance and really need to consult properly before enacting these kinds of programmes. Development is full of fine talk about participatory approaches and stakeholder analyses but as the author shows, outcomes often fall far short of it.