DOCSLIB.ORG

Conserving Natural Areas Without a Trail of Tears

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Conserving Natural Areas Without a Trail of Tears Conserving natural areas without a trail of tears Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation. Author: Andy White In 1864, one hundred and fifty years ago, idyllic Yosemite Valley in California was set aside by the US as one of the world’s first park reserves. What isn’t celebrated is the military campaign 13 years earlier that cleared out the Indigenous Peoples who lived in the valley. The history of the United States National Parks system is replete with tragedies like this, full of bloodshed and forced migrations. Consider Yellowstone, the first preserve managed as a national park. Yellowstone had been the home of small bands of Eastern Shoshone who gave up their lands in a treaty that was never ratified. The only part of the treaty that was enforced was the removal of the Eastern Shoshone. The controversy surrounding the announcement of Yellowstone National Park had nothing to do with the treatment of the Indigenous Peoples that called it home, however. Instead, the largest outcry was from those who wanted to tap the new Park’s natural resources, and the biggest debates were over enforcement. Now that the Indians had been removed, who could patrol the more than 2.2 million acres and prevent the natural beauty from being despoiled? The solution to this dual set of problems proved elusive for the first several decades of the U.S. National Park system. The U.S. army was deployed until Congress established the National Park Service in 1918, setting a precedent for the militarization of protected areas for decades to come. The truth is, however, when the Eastern Shoshone were forced out of Yellowstone, the Park lost its natural protectors, a people whose lives were invested in the region’s upkeep. If the land thrived, they thrived. But when they were removed, money had to be spent protecting the area. The same story played out across the American West: the Blackfoot were removed from Glacier National Park, the Paiute removed from Zion National Park, and the Ute removed from Mesa Verde, to name just a few. Sadly, the U.S. model for national parks and protected areas was largely upheld and propagated across the world in the 20th century. The term “conservation refugee” was coined for the uncounted numbers of indigenous peoples and local communities across Africa, the Americas, and Asia that were forced from the lands they tended when parks were created. It was in this light that Martin Saning’o, a Maasai leader from East Africa, declared that they were “enemies of conservation” in 2004. Nothing could be further from the truth, however. The Maasai took great care of their portion of the Serengeti and maintained their livestock in harmony with the land. The year before Saning’o’s declaration, the World Parks Congress, which met in Durban in 2003, produced an accord which committed conservation agencies and organizations to securing and then respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities when protected areas were established. This commitment was further enshrined at the 2004 United Nation Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. However, as the next World Parks Congress gathers in Sydney, Australia this week, many countries still fall far short of respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples in protected areas. Despite high-level commitments in Durban, few reforms have occurred since. Where reforms were enacted, with the exception of Venezuela, they did not focus on restitution of lands to Indigenous Peoples and communities, but rather on enabling co-management or provisions for communities who already own land to include their lands in national protected-area systems. LACK OF CONSULTATION The situation unfolding in Nepal illustrates this disconnect perfectly. The Chure region in the south of the country, also known as the Siwalik Hills, has long been under pressure from many competing interests: logging, mining, and gravel quarries wreaked havoc on one of the country’s most important biodiverse areas. In response, though, Nepal’s government, supported by international environmental organizations, declared the entire region to be a conservation zone—without consulting the communities that live within the region. While past research has shown that secure land rights preserve Chure’s forests, the government considers more than half of the historic community residents to be "illegal settlers" and thus without rights. It is time to realize that the 19th century U.S. model for conservation—to forcibly remove all Indigenous Peoples—is a gross violation of human rights and should stay in the 19th century. It has no place today. For a successful approach, governments should look to Australia, which has restored protected area ownership to its Aborigine peoples and established effective co-management between the conservation agencies and the local communities—under the communities’ leadership. Or the Philippines, where the government has restored legal ownership of land and resources within the national parks, and are now at work negotiating new models of conservation. And there are positive shifts in the US, even if some 150 years late. In South Dakota, the South Unit of Badlands National Park has been co-managed by the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the U.S. National Parks Service since 1976. This unit—two areas within the Oglala Sioux’s Pine Ridge Reservation— had been forcibly taken by the US government to establish a bombing range during World War II. The Oglala Sioux have helped the natural area recover, and are also working to re-incorporate traditional economic uses. This includes transitioning from grazing cattle on the grasslands to raising buffalo, with an eye towards returning an icon of the Sioux heritage back to their lands. The two governments are now working to turn this location into the first U.S. tribal national park. It is now past time for the world’s environmental agencies and organizations to fully embrace indigenous peoples and local communities, and help them to continue to maintain the world’s most important natural resources. This week’s World Parks Congress can serve as a rallying call to put lofty words into concrete action. After all, if Australia and the US, with bloody histories of wars against their native peoples, can find a path to this important goal, any nation can. Andy White is the coordinator of the Rights and Resources Initiative(@RightsResources). Andy has a PhD in Forest Economics and an MA in Anthropology from the University of Minnesota. .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Conservation Refugees and Environmental Dispossession in 21St Century Critical Geography / Refugiados De La Conservación Y Desp
    Boletín de la Asociación de Geógrafos Españoles, 84 eISSN: 2605-3322 How to cite this work: Hoefle, S. W. (2020). Conservation refugees and environmental dispossession in 21st century critical Geography. Boletín de la Asociación de Geógrafos Españoles, 84, 2895, 1–34. https://doi.org/10.21138/bage.2895 Conservation refugees and environmental dispossession in 21st century critical Geography Refugiados de la conservación y desposesión ambiental en la Geografía crítica del siglo XXI Scott William Hoefle [email protected] Departament of Geography Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) Abstract This study explores the relevance of the concepts of conservation refugees and environmental dispossession for steering a middle course between unjust bio-centric conservation and anti- environmentalism of extreme right “populism”. Historical geographers have recently taken up these concepts from contemporary Environmental History, and when with allied to the concepts of environmental ethics from Radical Ecology and Environmental Studies and nature enclosures from Political Ecology, a novel critique is produced of the role of full conservation units in debates surrounding global climate change. This kind of nature reserve is steeped in bio-centric environmental ethics which distill nature and dispossess native peoples and poor peasants. The latter are considered to be anthropic agents who are criminalized, removed and turned into conservation refugees in order to cleanse the landscape of (poor rural) human presence. Drawing on research undertaken on nature enclosures in three threatened biomes of Brazil, hybrid views of society-nature and actor-network assembly from Relational Geography are used to GUEST AUTHOR Published: 15.03.2020 Published under the terms and conditions of an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license.
    [Show full text]
  • Conserving Plants Within and Beyond Protected Areas - Still Problematic and Future Uncertain
    Conserving plants within and beyond protected areas - still problematic and future uncertain Article Published Version Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 Open access Heywood, V. H. (2019) Conserving plants within and beyond protected areas - still problematic and future uncertain. Plant Diversity, 41 (2). pp. 36-49. ISSN 2468-2659 doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pld.2018.10.001 Available at http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/84565/ It is advisable to refer to the publisher’s version if you intend to cite from the work. See Guidance on citing . To link to this article DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pld.2018.10.001 Publisher: Elsevier All outputs in CentAUR are protected by Intellectual Property Rights law, including copyright law. Copyright and IPR is retained by the creators or other copyright holders. Terms and conditions for use of this material are defined in the End User Agreement . www.reading.ac.uk/centaur CentAUR Central Archive at the University of Reading Reading’s research outputs online Plant Diversity 41 (2019) 36e49 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Plant Diversity journal homepage: http://www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/plant-diversity/ http://journal.kib.ac.cn Conserving plants within and beyond protected areas e still problematic and future uncertain Vernon H. Heywood School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AS, UK article info abstract Article history: Against a background of continuing loss of biodiversity, it is argued that for the successful conservation of Received 23 August 2018 threatened plant species we need to ensure the more effective integration of the various conservation Received in revised form actions employed, clarify the wording of the CBD targets and provide clearer operational guidance as to 15 October 2018 how they are to be implemented and their implementation monitored.
    [Show full text]
  • Historic Peasants Versus Public and Private Conservation Units of the Paraguay River in the Pantanal Wetlands
    Belgeo Revue belge de géographie 4 | 2016 Sustainability of rural systems: balancing heritage and innovation Nature enclosures: historic peasants versus public and private conservation units of the Paraguay River in the Pantanal wetlands of western Brazil Le combat des pêcheurs-fermiers traditionnels contre les responsables de la préservation des réserves naturelles bordant le fleuve Paraguay dans les marais du Pantanal (Brésil occidental) Scott Hoefle and Ana Maria Bicalho Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/belgeo/19677 DOI: 10.4000/belgeo.19677 ISSN: 2294-9135 Publisher: National Committee of Geography of Belgium, Société Royale Belge de Géographie Electronic reference Scott Hoefle and Ana Maria Bicalho, « Nature enclosures: historic peasants versus public and private conservation units of the Paraguay River in the Pantanal wetlands of western Brazil », Belgeo [Online], 4 | 2016, Online since 30 December 2016, connection on 01 May 2019. URL : http:// journals.openedition.org/belgeo/19677 ; DOI : 10.4000/belgeo.19677 This text was automatically generated on 1 May 2019. Belgeo est mis à disposition selon les termes de la licence Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. Nature enclosures: historic peasants versus public and private conservation u... 1 Nature enclosures: historic peasants versus public and private conservation units of the Paraguay River in the Pantanal wetlands of western Brazil Le combat des pêcheurs-fermiers traditionnels contre les responsables de la préservation des réserves naturelles bordant le fleuve Paraguay dans les marais du Pantanal (Brésil occidental) Scott Hoefle and Ana Maria Bicalho Research funded by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq - Brazil) and the Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ – Brazil).
    [Show full text]
  • Rhino Poaching and the “Slow Violence”
    Geoforum 101 (2019) 275–284 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Geoforum journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/geoforum Rhino poaching and the “slow violence” of conservation-related T resettlement in Mozambique’s Limpopo National Park ⁎ Rebecca Wittera, , Terre Satterfieldb a Department of Sustainable Development, Appalachian State University, Living Learning Academic Building, ASU Box 32080, Boone, NC 28608-2080, USA b Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability, University of British Columbia, AERL Building, 417-2202 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: Over the past decade, South Africa’s Kruger National Park has become embroiled in a rhino poaching crisis. In Slow violence response, state authorities are applying military logics, personnel, training, and equipment to protect en- Rhino poaching dangered black and threatened white rhinos. Many suspected poachers are Mozambicans, including those who Poverty are resident in Mozambique’s Limpopo National Park (LNP). Based on a sequence of fieldwork conducted in the Dispossession LNP between 2003 and 2016, we examine the relationship between this extremely tense and armed clash and the Mozambique thousands of already socially and economically marginalized LNP residents targeted for resettlement as part of Limpopo National Park conserving rhino habitat. As they await relocation, the basic human security of residents has become deeply undermined by decreased access to services and environmental resources and the criminalization of their li- velihoods. While much of the critical scholarship on anti-poaching focuses on the spectacular forms of violence that characterize rhino poaching, beneath this a more structural and “slower” form of violence persists. Seeking to develop an understanding of violence that extends beyond the spectacular, we argue that the cumulative losses and instability that have followed conservation created the conditions under which rhino poaching un- folded in the LNP.
    [Show full text]
  • Restoring At-Risk Communities Doing It Together and Doing It Right 1St Edition Pdf, Epub, Ebook
    RESTORING AT-RISK COMMUNITIES DOING IT TOGETHER AND DOING IT RIGHT 1ST EDITION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK John M Perkins | 9780801054631 | | | | | Restoring at-Risk Communities Doing It Together and Doing It Right 1st edition PDF Book Clin Teach. Restoration Ecology 13 2 , — Clearing of weeds and planting of suitable indigenous flora species were his main restoration techniques. European Journal of Soil Science. May be difficult to determine if a language barrier is present. HIPAA will permit the release of protected health information under certain circumstances such as suspected injury or abuse. Long-term psychological impacts must be taken into consideration when referrals for treatment of these complex trauma patients get enacted into the treatment plan. Ensure an environment where the victim can establish a sense of power and control. While there is still much that is relevant, applicable, and worthwhile, it is clearly dated and is overdue for a revision. No population is exempt from the ever-present threat of traffickers. Novacek, M. Did you find what you were looking for? One Blood, along with Dr. It has particularly negative impacts on the mental health and spiritual well-being of indigenous peoples and local communities. Some [ vague ] conservationists argue that, though an ecosystem may not be returned to its original state, the functions of the ecosystem especially ones that provide services to us may be more valuable in its current configuration Bradshaw Disturbance is a change in environmental conditions that disrupt the functioning of an ecosystem. Evaluation Recognition and Intervention Once a practitioner identifies a potential trafficked person, it is imperative to establish a private, quiet, safe place to assess the patient further, much like in cases of child or elder abuse.
    [Show full text]
  • Conservation Refugees: the Hundred-Year Conflict Between Global Conservation and Native Peoples
    Volume 29 Refuge Number 2 It is recognized that it is largely beyond the intended of life. The second case from the US explores the aftermath scope of this work to provide a more in-depth examination of Hurricane Katrina. This recent disaster has certainly of the political, economic and social conditions that work led many to call for a more thorough deliberation of how to place certain communities at greater risk while simul- certain social justice issues like the state of contemporary taneously constraining their abilities to effectively adapt race relations in this country can magnify the vulnerability to rapidly changing environmental circumstances. In their of minority residents to these environmental catastrophes. introductory chapter, the Collectif Argos writers do allude However, the brevity of the pieces featured in this work to the fact that it is often the world’s poorest populations, clearly does not allow for a deeper consideration of these whose lives are already marked by a fair amount of insecur- elements of each story. Thus it can only be hoped that the ity, that are generally the most affected by the impacts of reader becomes at least subtly aware of these critical issues climate change. They also make mention of issues of social with which we must contend if we are ever to effectively justice in the context of the unequal burden that many less engage with the full suite of problems associated with global developed nations are forced to bear as they contend with warming. the problems created by greenhouse-gas emissions that As a whole, the climate change stories presented in they themselves did very little to produce.
    [Show full text]
  • Concessionary Politics in the Western Congo Basin: History and Culture in Forest Use
    WORKING PAPER SERIES ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA CONCESSIONARY POLITICS IN THE WESTERN CONGO BASIN: HISTORY AND CULTURE IN FOREST USE by Rebecca Hardin November 2002 WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE Institutions and Governance Program Series Editors Jesse C. Ribot Peter G. Veit Institutions and Governance Program World Resources Institute 10 G Street, N.E., Suite 800 Washington, D.C. 20002 USA [email protected] / [email protected] (202) 729-7600 ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA WORKING PAPERS: WP #6 CONCESSIONARY POLITICS IN THE WESTERN CONGO BASIN: HISTORY AND CULTURE IN FOREST USE by Rebecca Hardin November 2002 EDITORS World Resources Institute Jesse C. Ribot and David Stemper 10 G Street, NE COPY EDITOR Washington DC 20002 Florence Daviet www.wri.org ABSTRACT The origin of “concessionary politics” that shape forest use and management in equatorial Africa can be traced to pre-colonial and colonial practices. Yet these political processes are constantly being re-invented, and their consequences for ecological and social systems reach far into the future. Gleaned from fieldwork among residents of a protected area and logging zone in Central African Republic, this concept relates village-level analysis to national and international adoptions of co-managed concessions for the management of tropical forests. Hardly new, the breaking of forests into mosaics of territorial control has been happening since the early days of European expansion. Protected areas were, in many cases, an extension of the concession system for the use and management of natural resources. Conservation has thus long benefited from and contributed to concessionary logics for the use of valued natural resources.
    [Show full text]
  • Human Zoos, Conservation Refugees, and the Houston Zoo's the African Forest
    Human Zoos, Conservation Refugees, and the Houston Zoo’s The African Forest By Shannon Joyce Prince The Houston Zoo has proudly announced a new project, The African Forest, which is set to open December 2010 if we don’t halt it. According to the Zoo’s website, The African Forest is not just about exhibiting "magnificent wildlife and beautiful habitats. It's about people, and the wonderful, rich cultures that we all can share." Actually, The African Forest is about exhibiting and teaching inaccurate Western conceptions of African indigenous cultures in a place designed to exhibit and teach about animals. The African Forest is also about making and keeping African indigenous peoples conservation refugees. Fairs, exhibitions, and zoos that showcase, market, or teach about Africans and other non-white peoples as though they were animals are called “human zoos.” Human zoos have been condemned since 1906 by scholars, leaders, and lay people both non- white and white, and those condemnations had caused human zoos to die out almost completely decades ago. For that reason, this essay is not about arguing that human zoos are immoral in general or that this human zoo in particular must be stopped. The verdict, so to speak, has been made: human zoos are both unethical and indefensible. Yet, as Malcolm X once said, “Racism is like a Cadillac, they bring out a new model every year.” A new human zoo demands a new denunciation.i I will describe The African Forest in detail later on, but to provide you with a frame for understanding those details, I must first briefly describe the history of human zoos.
    [Show full text]
  • Ecotourism and Conservation Refugees: the Indian Scenario
    Eco. Env. & Cons. 27 (February Suppl. Issue) : 2021; pp. (S308-S314) Copyright@ EM International ISSN 0971–765X Ecotourism and conservation refugees: The Indian Scenario Anju Lis Kurian School of International Relations and Politics, Mahatma Gandhi University, P.D. Hills, Kottayam, Kerala (Received 29 September, 2020; Accepted 3 November, 2020) ABSTRACT Ecotourism has profound role particularly in emerging economies like India but the ground realities of wildlife conservation in India are quite uncertain and ambiguous. Protected areas are contentious as those are significant for conservation and these conservation initiatives diffuse fortune (for conservationists and wildlife tourists) and misfortune (for local tribal population due to livelihood jeopardy and eviction for conservation) unevenly. The mushrooming of protected areas across India creates conservation refugees who are the people displaced by the creation of protected areas; actually they are the victims of ecological expropriation. Conservation initiatives have a history of marginalizing indigenous people living in areas designated for conservation which made conservation most elusive today. The tribal communities are paying a brutal price for tailor made agendas to boost safari, create protected areas and attract tourism. Recent steps for eviction of up to nine million indigenous people in India who has ancestral link to the land and forest gains stiff opposition. Conservation initiatives that boot out stakeholder communities may preserve natural resources but denying livelihood opportunities. India as a developing nation with huge population cannot promote the scheme of pristine nature preservation initiatives due to the socioeconomic and political reverberations. In short, framing and sustaining vigorous multifaceted policies for protected areas necessitates honesty when considering its dooms and boons also there requires a readiness to share it with those who incur the costs will only has commendable outcomes.
    [Show full text]
  • Final RP Woan-Ling
    Graduate School of Development Studies The Justifications and Dilemmas of Indigenous Community-Based Conservation : A Case Study of Sazasa Village in Taiwan A Research Paper presented by: Woan-Ling Hsu TAIWAN in partial fulfilment of the requirements for obtaining the degree of MASTERS OF ARTS IN DEVELOPMENT STUDIES Specialization: Environment and Sustainable Development (ESD) Members of the examining committee: Dr Bram Büscher [Supervisor] Dr Lorenzo Pellegrini [Reader] The Hague, The Netherlands November, 2009 Disclaimer: This document represents part of the author’s study programme while at the Institute of Social Studies. The views stated therein are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Institute. Research papers are not made available for circulation outside of the Institute. Inquiries: Postal address: Institute of Social Studies P.O. Box 29776 2502 LT The Hague The Netherlands Location: Kortenaerkade 12 2518 AX The Hague The Netherlands Telephone: +31 70 426 0460 Fax: +31 70 426 0799 ii Contents List of Tables v List of Maps v List of Acronyms v Abstract vi Keywords vi Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Problem Statement 1 1.2 Justification of the Research 1 1.3 Research Questions 3 1.4 Background and Site of Study 3 1.4.1 Natural Environment and People of Sazasa village 4 1.4.2 The Potential Development Projects and the Protectors Movement 4 1.4.3 Five Important Elements in this Case 5 1.5 Research Methods and Limitations 5 1.6 Chapter Organization 6 Chapter 2 Conceptual and Theoretical Framework 7 2.1 Conceptual Framework
    [Show full text]
  • Win-Win Ecology As Sustainable Social Policy
    Consilience: The Journal of Sustainable Development Vol. 4, Iss. 1 (2010), Pp. 119–133 Must Biodiversity Hot-Spots Be Social Not-Spots? Win-Win Ecology as Sustainable Social Policy Charles Geisler Development Sociology Cornell University, Ithica, NY Abstract Reconciliation ecology, a family of socially inclusive conservation strategies that depart from traditional protected area management, is on trial. Skeptics find it problematic for a range of reasons, faulting it for lack of evidence and calling it a "bio-diversion" from the agenda of strict protected area conservation. Supporters counter that only by re-embedding conservation in human-dominated landscapes beyond protected areas will conservation succeed. The present paper builds on the work of Michael Rosenzweig, a leading example of this latter perspective, fortifying it with information from different world regions and programs. Simultaneously, I suggest that narrow reliance on formal protected areas yields conservation refugees, environmental backlash, and set-backs to sustainability efforts. Author’s Note My thanks to Paul Gellert, Riley Dunlap, Barbara Bedford, Jason Con, and the anonymous reviewers of Consilience for thoughtful comments on early drafts of this paper. Keywords: Anthropocene, win-win ecology, protected areas, greenlining, human displacement, conservation refugees, sustainability 1. Introduction The Anthropocene is the contemporary geological era said to be replacing the Holocene era of the past 10,000 years. Its defining feature is the human- domination of nature and, to the concern of many, the risk of overstepping the planetary boundaries or thresholds upon which life itself depends. Many authorities argue that there are points of no return with respect to global soil erosion, water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, carbon dependency, and the overconsumption of renewable as well as non-renewable resources.
    [Show full text]
  • Clean Cooking in Refugee Camps and COVID-19: What Lessons Can We Learn?
    Clean cooking in refugee camps and COVID-19: what lessons can we learn? Briefing note Clean cooking in refugee camps and COVID-19: what lessons can we learn? April 2021 I Bisaga, LS To Headlines • Continued reliance on biomass fuels for cooking among displaced people has severe health, environmental, climate change and social implications • Transitions to clean cooking in displacement settings were proving challenging even before the pandemic • Rwanda, Uganda and Bangladesh offer examples of progress on the provision of clean cooking in refugee camps despite the challenges posed by COVID-19 • Strong partnerships, innovation, and environmentally and financially sustainable models are critical for the provision of clean cooking in displacement contexts • Times of shocks exacerbate the affordability challenge; mechanisms addressing it should be developed and implemented both as a short- and long-term measure MECS is funded by UK Aid through the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office. It is a partnership between researchers, innovators, policy makers, and ESMAP drawing on their expertise and relevant work from around the world to co-construct new knowledge with practitioners and the private sector. It is led by Loughborough University, UK. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the UK government’s official policies. This material has been funded by UKAid from the UK government; however the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the UK government’s official policies. www.mecs.org.uk Introduction There were 79.5 million displaced people in the world at the end of 2019 with approximately 26 million refugees, 46 million internally displaced people (IDPs), 4.2 million stateless people, and 4 million asylum seekers living in urban, peri-urban, rural and camp areas (UNHCR, 2020).
    [Show full text]