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descriptions, like ‘we used to live here till the village flooded. We still
go back to harvest fruits and visit graves’, or ‘this area is sacred to us
and should not be entered without our permission’. Mapping guided
our fieldwork and helped us in discussing land management across
the village lands and beyond. We left the maps in public areas and
would often find people discussing them and adding details. People
took pride in their knowledge, and the maps became valued products
which we left with each community. These maps played an important
role in discussions about future land use, among themselves and
with outsiders.
Asking local people makes better conservation
Knowledge of what is important to local people can guide more
effective conservation planning and actions. That is particularly so
when synergies exist between local needs and aspirations and global
conservation aims. But it is also better to know incompatibilities
in advance, so that at least some conflicts can be avoided and
compromises sought.
The people of Mamberamo regency, West Papua, are fiercely protective
of their land. Large tracts of undisturbed forest remain; only small
areas have been cleared for growing crops. Customary regulations and
taboos to protect sites and resources are still respected. The people
consider themselves rich because they can find all they need in the
natural environment. They also welcome some recent developments
and a school and health centre in the village. But they do not want
to lose control over their land, they do not want to see their forests
disturbed, and with it their children’s options for the future.
Spending sufficient time with local people helps to build the
trust needed for conservation efforts to be possible and effective.
When Conservation International announced they had found
several hitherto undescribed species on an expedition to the Foja
Mountains of West Papua in 2005, those discoveries would have
been impossible without permission and participation from the
local communities, who consider the mountains sacred and protect
them from any incursion by outsiders.
We found in West Papua that our attitude ‘local people are the
experts: ask them what is important to them’ made people proud
and confident. Sharing some things from our perspective, like
showing pictures of Birds of Paradise or Tree kangaroos and
explaining that they are found only here, nowhere else in the world,
raised their interest.
Asking is the right thing to do
Asking local people what is important to them, and giving their
priorities due weight in democratic decisions about conservation, is
ethically the right thing to do. Far too often, it is the local people who
suffer most from forest degradation and destruction, and yet they are
not consulted before logging, industries or even conservation projects
take over their traditional forests.
One example from my own experience is the history of Bwindi
Impenetrable National Park, Uganda – now a well-protected UNESCO
World Heritage Site, known for mountain gorilla trekking and bird
viewing. However, when the park was created in the early 1990s, the
Batwa forest dwellers who still lived in the forest and depended on
hunting and gathering were expelled. Most of them have become
landless squatters, cut off from their traditional livelihoods, living in
destitute conditions and dependent on charity and tourist hand-outs.
Such sacrifices for conservation should not be expected from anyone:
no charity or compensation can make up for the loss of identity. We
need ways to achieve conservation that do not harm local people and
turn them into conservation victims.
Workingwith local people is a process that will necessarily have different
outcomes in different places. We need to understand and engage with
local needs and priorities to be able to make site-specific choices. We
need to accept that there is no ‘one size fits all’ plan– and that may
require an attitude shift on the part of conservation practitioners.
