Beware the animals that dance: conservation as an unintended outcome of cultural practices

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Parks Congress of 2003 and the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) of 2004 call for the recognition and support of Community Conserved Areas, with the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas committing countries to take action by 2008. Both within protected areas and in the matrix of land beyond reserves, customs and beliefs of indigenous and local communities can yield conservation benefits. Identifying an intention to conserve by the custodians of customary conserved areas can be challenging as customary practices are embedded within a myriad of cosmologies and worldviews. However, the definition of Community Conserved Areas does not require an expressed intention to conserve nor does it specify the mechanisms by which nature or natural resources can be conserved. Thus, conservation as an unintended outcome of cultural practices is included within the scope of community conservation. Fieldwork was conducted in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, from October 2010 to April 2011. Data for the case study of Gumantong comes from an interview with Porodong Mogilin,!Native Chief Representative of Matunggong Native Court in Bavanggazo, Kudat and meetings of community leaders from the 13 villages surrounding Gumantong. This paper 1) employs the case study of Gumantong in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, to highlight the distinction between communities expressing an intention to conserve and conservation as an unintended outcome of cultural practices and 2) considers the implications of this distinction for the process of recognizing and supporting Community Conserved Areas

Sacred groves: potential for biodiversity management

Existing global protected area networks have two shortcomings: they do not cover certain habitats, and local people often resent their formal management. Here, we show that communities around the world traditionally protect natural sites that are dedicated to ancestral spirits or deities. Such sites cover a wide variety of habitats and are often located in biodiversity rich regions. Case studies on sacred groves show that these small forest patches play an important role in biodiversity conservation. Furthermore, natural sacred sites are maintained through traditional methods of community based conservation that do not require governmental involvement. Incorporating these sites into conservation networks could enhance the effectiveness of protected areas by covering a wider variety of habitats and by harnessing the support of local people. In this article, we discuss current threats to sacred groves that need to be addressed through management approaches. More research on the ecology and underlying socioeconomic mechanisms of natural sacred sites is required to fully reveal their potential for biodiversity conservation

Tropical agricultural production, conservation and carbon sequesteration conflicts: oil palm expansion in South East Asia

Agricultural expansion remains one of the leading causes of deforestation, biodiversity losses and environmental degradation across the world, especially in the tropics (Angelsen et al., 1999 and Norris, 2008). From 1961 to 1993, the world population increased by 80% (Goklany, 1998). Due to the rapidly expanding human populations large increases in the supply of agricultural products are required, which may lead to the transformation of many landscapes (including biodiversity-rich tropical rainforests) to agricultural landscapes (Ewers et al., 2009). The quest for further land for agricultural production has already caused significant habitat loss and fragmentation, posing substantial threats to the world’s biodiversity, forests and ecosystems (Goklany, 1998). According to Matson and Vitousek (2006), many involved in conservation believe that the twin goals of increasing agricultural production and conservation are fundamentally incompatible. Indeed representatives of developing countries (where the tropical forests and majority of the world’s biodiversity reside) argue that their developmental needs are partially met by deforestation, since it provides arable land and timber export revenues (Leplay et al., 2010). Further, agricultural revenues accrued from cultivating plantation crops, such as timber, palm and coffee, are significant drivers of deforestation in many parts of the tropics (Kaimowitz and Angelsen, 1998)

Availability of Pulses in Rural Karnataka: Need to Use District-level Data

In a response to "Making Pulses Affordable Again"(EPW, 7 January 2017) by P K Joshi, Avinash Kishore and Devesh Roy this article aims to bring to the fore the importance of using district-level data on nutritional levels and pulse production, that can better inform public policy and help improve human development indicators

Going beyond hunger: Linking food supplies to global malnutrition

International food security and nutrition studies focus mainly on hunger rather than dietary diversity and the nutritional requirements essential for a productive life. The authors present a method that processes Food and Agriculture Organization food supply data into World Health Organization food groups to determine whether national food supply satisfies nutritional requirements for medium energy intake (i.e. c.2200 calories per day) rather than minimum energy intake. They employ a modified version of the International Food Policy Research Institute’s 2013 Global Hunger Index to group nations for comparison. The results show that most nations have a deficit in at least one of four required food groups. However, many developed Mediterranean nations with low levels of hunger display an adequate supply of all food groups. The positioning represents a successful model for managing the nutrition transition from plant-based diets to the consumption of animal protein, oils, fats, and sugars and other carbohydrates. Additionally, the results suggest that health risks associated with overweight and obesity may increase with societal development. Accordingly, the authors conclude that information on medium energy requirements should be combined with complementary socio-economic analysis to inform food and nutrition research and policy

The role of informal protected areas in maintaining biodiversity in the Western Ghats of India

Although it is widely believed that an important function of protected areas is to conserve species that are unable to survive elsewhere, there are very few empirical studies in which a comparison is made between biodiversity of protected areas and that of the cultivated landscape surrounding them. We examined the diversity of trees, birds, and macrofungi at 58 sites in three land-use types in a tree-covered landscape in Kodagu district in the Western Ghats of India. Ten forest reserve sites in the formal protected area, and 25 sacred groves and 23 coffee plantations in the neighboring cultivated landscape were sampled. A total of 215 tree, 86 bird, and 163 macrofungus species were recorded. The forest reserve had a large number of trees that were restricted in their distribution, and the sacred groves had a large number of macrofungi. We observed that deciduous trees and non-forest-dwelling birds increased, and evergreen trees and forest-dwelling birds decreased with increasing intensity of land management. We found that trees having non-timber uses and macrofungi useful to the local people, as well as those with medicinal properties, were abundant in sacred groves. We found no significant differences in the distribution of endemic and threatened birds across the three land-use types. Although endemic trees were more abundant in the forest reserve than in sacred groves, threatened trees were more abundant in sacred groves than in the forest reserve. We attribute the high diversity in sacred groves to the native tree cover in shade coffee plantations. We conclude that informal protected areas are as important as formal ones for biodiversity conservation in Kodagu. We recommend that a conservation strategy that recognizes informal protection traditions is essential for successful biodiversity conservation in regions where formal reserves are surrounded by a matrix of cultivated land

The Idea of Climate Change as a Belief System: Why Climate Activism Resembles a Religious Movement

The idea of climate change has been enforced by its similarities with belief systems. It may come as a surprise to scientists, the media and climate activists participating in climate change discussions that they are unconsciously following models rooted in belief systems. These models include an emphasis on existential anxiety and the public expression of commitments. The discussions around the severity of climate change and individual sacrifices through everyday moral choices, however, show that addressing climate change may require a shift of focus from political leadership to more grassroots activism

Fire in the Swamp Forest: Palaeoecological Insights Into Natural and Human-Induced Burning in Intact Tropical Peatlands

Tropical peat swamp forests are invaluable for their role in storing atmospheric carbon, notably in their unique below-ground reservoirs. Differing from terra firme forests, the peat-forming function of tropical swamps relies on the integrity of discrete hydrological units, in turn intricately linked to the above-ground woody, and herbaceous vegetation. Contemporary changes at a local, e.g., fire, to global level, e.g., climatic change, are impacting the integrity, and functioning of these ecosystems. In order to determine the level of impact and predict their likely future response, it is essential to understand past ecosystem disturbance, and resilience. Here, we explore the impact of burning on tropical peat swamp forests. Fires within degraded tropical peatlands are now commonplace; whilst fires within intact peat swamp forests are thought to be rare events. Yet little is known about their long-term natural fire regime. Using fossil pollen and charcoal data from three peat cores collected from Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, we looked at the incidence and impact of local and regional fire on coastal peat swamp forests over the last 7,000 years. Palaeoecological results demonstrate that burning has occurred in these wetland ecosystems throughout their history, with peaks corresponding to periods of strengthened ENSO. However, prior to the Colonial era c. 1839 when human presence in the coastal swamp forests was relatively minimal, neither local nor regional burning significantly impacted the forest vegetation. After the mid-nineteenth century, at the onset of intensified land-use change, fire incidence elevated significantly within the peatlands. Although fire does not correlate with past vegetation changes, the long-term data reveal that it likely does correlate with the clearance of forest by humans. Our results suggest that human activity may be strongly influencing and acting synergistically with fire in the recent past, leading to the enhanced degradation of these peatland ecosystems. However, intact tropical peat swamp forests can, and did recover from local fire events. These findings support present-day concerns about the increase in fire incidence and combined impacts of fire, human disturbance and El Niño on peat swamp forests, with serious implications for biodiversity, human health and global climate change