For the past two decades, biodiversity conservation has been an area of concerted action and spirited debate. Given the centrality of biodiversity to the earth's life support system, its increasing vulnerability is being addressed in international conservation as well as in research by anthropologists and other social scientists on the cultural, economic, political, and legal aspects of human engagement with biological resources. The concepts of biodiversity as a social construct and historical discourse, of local knowledge as loaded representation and invented tradition, and of cultural memory as selective reconstruction and collective political consciousness have also been the foci of recent critical reflection. 317 Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2006.35:317-335. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org by Indiana University -Purdue University Indianapolis -IUPUI on 10/13/12. For personal use only.If we can live in memory, we would not have to consecrate sites of memory in its name.

The development of culturally relevant indicators of sustainability and quality of life is a need frequently cited but rarely addressed in the social science literature. This article presents a method and a case study based on an applied ethnoecology approach and utilizing an adaptation of the Thematic Apperception Test. Pictures of scenes around the Manupali watershed in Bukidnon, Philippines, were used to elicit people's perceptions and assessments of different environmental features and agricultural practices. Informants' stories were scored based on dominant themes to identify indicators of sustainability and quality of life that are relevant for different ethnic, gender, and age groups. These contextually sensitive indicators, the authors conclude, differ significantly from externally defined indicators and vary systematically as a function of socioceonomic and sociodemographic parameters. Taking culturally relevant indicators into consideration can help shape development trajectories that local people can identify with and benefit from in the short- and long-term.

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