People of the forest

Question 1

Importance of anthropology in biodiversity conservation, that document local knowledge and practices of indigenous/local communities, and give a voice to these stakeholders, also clarifying definitions of biodiversity for these groups and conservationists.

Answer 1

Orlove & Brush 1996

Question 2

Alliances between indigenous peoples and conservation organisations worldwide have resulted in the official recognition of ~1m km2 of land.
Where indigenous peoples have claim over territory, the preservation of biodiversity in that area rests on their use of its resources and knowledge of alternatives.

In the Kayapo amazon example here, the egalitarian common-property resource management and incentives/partnerships with conservation organisations can achieve this.

• So when dayak have official claim over their forest similar things can be achieved?

Answer 2

Schwartzman & Zimmerman 2005

Question 3

Increased market integration induces bolivian amazon communities to deforest more and farm more intensively

Answer 3

Vadez et al 2004

Question 4

Indigenous communities enjoy ownership rights to some of the worlds biodiversity hot spots.

Answer 4

Laird 2002

Question 5

Nice review with plenty of examples of local collaboration - Examples show that local people can be trained to be effective parataxonomists, greatly assisting efforts to document and assess tropical biodiversity. Tropical biologists need help as the workforce simply isn’t strong enough to document & investigate species before many of them go extinct. Local collaborations also offer promising ways with which to improve natural resource management and conservation. There are a number of reasons why collaboration doesn’t happen more, covered here.

Answer 5

Sheil & Lawrence 2004

Question 6

Affect of logging on NTFPs - Competition, conflict, facilitation, indirect results (light-loving species do well, e.g. rattan)

livelihood value of the forest

Answer 6

Rist et al. 2011

Question 7

Decentralisation of forest governance

• Tendency toward increased forest destruction
• Low power of villages to do deals with logging companies, usually get ripped off (estimated 1.4% of potential timber value of land goes to local communities)
• Marginal groups particularly at a disadvantage
• But increase in incidences of local communities speaking out against government/companies
• Ethical bias in government (96% of Kenyah feel listened to compared to ~50% of other groups)

Answer 7

Moeliono et al. 2009

Question 8

• Only groups with long-term view and reliance on forest will act in interests of biodiversity & sustainability (usually state or traditional communities like setulang)

Answer 8

Wollenberg et al. 2006