In search of common ground: Political ecology and conservation in the development age

Srinivasan, Krithika; Kasturirangan, Rajesh

doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.04.002

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Hinchcliff (2008) asserts that political ecology should look beyond presence, inclusion or accumulation and more carefully consider "uncertainties, precautionary measures and looser forms of assemblage" [19] (p. 89). A growing body of literature addresses political ecology's anthropocentrism, and poses related questions of how the approach could be opened up to post-human geographies [20,21]. In their recent political ecology study of tiger conservation in India, Margulies and Bersaglio (2018) use myths as a conceptual tool to analyse power asymmetries.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Online and Offline Representations of Biocultural Diversity: A Political Ecology Perspective on Nature-Based Tourism and Indigenous Communities in the Brazilian Pantanal

et al. 2018

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The concept of biocultural diversity is confronted with contemporary changes that impact on local communities, such as globalization and digital transformations. Engaging the conceptual flexibility of 'biocultural diversity', we studied nature-based tourism at the intersection of indigenous communities and the digital realm. We employed a political ecology perspective to examine online and offline representations of biocultural diversity in the Brazilian Pantanal, one of the biggest wetlands in the world, and home to groups of peoples known as the Pantaneiros. Data from interviews with 48 stakeholders in the tourist sector were structured along three 'myths'-the Uncivilised, Unrestrained, and Unchanged-for which we have also constructed counter narratives. Each myth denoted the primacy of biodiversity, and ignored broader dimensions of the Pantanal as a bioculturally diverse landscape. The relationships of the Pantaneiros with their environment were found to be intricate and had clear repercussions for tourism, but ironically, reference to the Pantaneiro culture in nature-based tourism was superficial. Moreover, thriving on the myths, this form of tourism perpetuates skewed power structures and social inequalities. Lower-class Pantaneiros likely suffer most from this. We recommend stakeholder engagement with a biocultural design that facilitates the integration of other-than-biodiversity values, and that thereby promotes sustainability of the entire social-ecological system. Sustainability 2018, 10, 3643 2 of 20 and parcel of mainstream environmental discourses and initiatives [1]. Yet, despite this, the concept has received criticism too. Focusing on landscapes, species, and genetic diversity, biodiversity overlooks human and cultural components of landscapes [2,3]. As such biodiversity conservation has conceptual roots in one of the earliest institutionalised expressions of nature conservation: the National Park movement that commenced with Yellowstone in 1872. In their most stringent form, both National Parks and biodiversity protection may lead to so-called fortress conservation in which rigid boundaries between human and nature are drawn. Both in historical and recent times, indigenous communities and other local peoples have been suffering from the consequences of fortress conservation, which have included displacement, restricted land access and rights, and unfair relations of production [4].Understandings of biocultural diversity-the interrelated and co-evolved diversity of life in its biological and cultural manifestations [5]-takes a more holistic approach to natural areas and its inhabitants than biodiversity conservation does. 'Biocultural diversity' explicitly embraces the notion of social-ecological systems, in which the interrelatedness between rural populations and the natural environment are emphasised, either in a traditional setting or with regard to newer human-nature interactions [2,6]. Moreover, biocultural diversity aims to pay heed to the various cultural manifestations-such as worldviews,...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Online and Offline Representations of Biocultural Diversity: A Political Ecology Perspective on Nature-Based Tourism and Indigenous Communities in the Brazilian Pantanal

et al. 2018

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“…This debate centers around whether political ecology, in consistently levelling critiques at conservation practices rather than the broader development agendas through which conservation has emerged, fails to attend to the many kinds of lives (human as well as non-human) that often suffer as a result of uneven development (Srinivasan and Kasturirangan 2016;Menon and Karthik 2016). What concerns Srinivasan and Kasturirangan (2017) is that this anthropocentrism in political ecology seems to have produced the outcome that "conservation, and nonhuman life more generally, thus become scapegoats in conflicts between different human groups" (87). In sum, their concern is that political ecology eschews the politics of the animal in theorizing justice.…”

Section: Bringing In the Animalmentioning

confidence: 99%

The production of human-wildlife conflict: A political animal geography of encounter

Margulies

Karanth

2018

Geoforum

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This study examines how transformations of a regional rural economy have produced new geographies of encounter between agricultural communities, their livestock, and carnivores surrounding Bandipur National Park in Karnataka, India. We analyze state discourses of human-wildlife conflict alongside the perspectives of rural agricultural communities about changes in human-wildlife interactions. Our study shows how state narratives about human-wildlife conflict mask more foundational changes in the livelihood strategies of agricultural villages in response both to park management and regional economic transformations, and how these changes are inherently woven into the production of new geographies of human-wildlife encounter. Our results suggest declining tolerance for injury and death of cattle by carnivores represents the cumulative impacts of a transformation of the livestock economy and more aggressive protected area management strategies. This research also suggests how political ecology can maintain its commitments to social justice while becoming more attuned to animals as political actors.

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In search of common ground: Political ecology and conservation in the development age

Cited by 2 publications

References 9 publications

Online and Offline Representations of Biocultural Diversity: A Political Ecology Perspective on Nature-Based Tourism and Indigenous Communities in the Brazilian Pantanal

Online and Offline Representations of Biocultural Diversity: A Political Ecology Perspective on Nature-Based Tourism and Indigenous Communities in the Brazilian Pantanal

The production of human-wildlife conflict: A political animal geography of encounter

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