Conferences
Our Newsletter
Education Programs
Internet Resources
Eanth-L Mailing List
Publications
Syllabi
Anthropology and the Environment
September 1997
Charles J. Stevens, Contributing Editor
Interdisciplinary Research in Kayan Mentarang National Park, Kalimantan Timur
Cristina Eghenter of the Culture and Conservation Program, Kayan Mentarang Project of the World Wildlife Fund, provided the following description of the Kayan Mentarang project in Kalimantan Timur, Indonesia hoping to generate some discourse on the role and strategies of anthropological research in the contexts of conservation and development programs.
Research activities in the context of an integrative conservation and development project should be conceived as part of a multidimensional process resulting in local peoples straightening their traditional heritage, becoming full participants in the management of a protected environmental area, and maintaining a set of economic options in the exploitation of natural resources in their now protected natural environments.
By combining environmental, historical and cultural studies, the research activities under the Culture and Conservation Program of the WWF is making an important contribution to understanding the dynamics of human/environment relations in and around the Kayan Mentarang National Park. Located in the remote interior of East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo, and one of Southeast Asia's largest protected areas of tropical forest, Kayan Mentarang was recently designated by the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry as a national park. The park is home to several communities of Dayak people including Punan, Kenyah, Kayan, Saben, and Lun Daye peoples. In 1990, the World Wildlife Fund Indonesian Program initiated a collaborative project to design and implement a long-term conservation plan within the Kayan Mentarang protected area which would include a program in sustainable economic development of local communities. The Culture and Conservation Program is supported by the Ford Foundation and is committed to the integration of natural conservation and economic development in the protected area. The program was born out of the idea that a better understanding of the Dayak peoples' histories, knowledge and uses of forest resources was essential in the formulation of both ecological and legal grounds for assigning forest management and economic development roles to local indigenous populations of protected areas. In this way, the cultural and environmental diversity of the region is maintained in the contexts of locally managed economic development. Research activities are designed to collect and disseminate information on such topics as traditional tenure and management of natural resources, indigenous agricultural practices, and local oral traditions and linguistic variation (see previous newsletter reviews of Luisa Maffi's working conference on Endangered Languages, Endangered Knowledge, Endangered Environment).
The third phase of the Culture and Conservation Program began in 1995. While the scope of the project has remained the same, the research design explicitly addresses several methodological considerations based on past difficulties in translating research findings into policy recommendations. These difficulties underscored the need to develop a social science research strategy that was in concert with development and conservation policy strategies. There were three main points to be considered: (1) what kinds of research best fits the needs of the project and designing a research format that reflects these needs, (2) formulating specific research questions conducive to achieving specific policy objectives, and (3) speculation of the expected results of certain approaches. The Culture and Conservation Program established the research priorities for the project's third phase after considering the information that would be most necessary for drafting a comprehensive management plan that promoted conservation of biodiversity in the Kayan Mentarang National Park and the sustainable economic development of local communities. Current investigations have thus been geared toward the collection of information on the knowledge, use and management of natural resources to understand the environmental, social and economic circumstances influencing how individuals and communities manage environmental resources. These data provide insights into the complexities of the histories of the communities in the interior of the National Park, the changes in social relations and relations of power between these communities and the state and the changes in resource management through time. Some predictability in future resource management strategies may be gained by understanding indigenous economic decision making under different political-economic regimes in the past.
Rather than focusing solely on current trends in management and exploitation of forest products, the studies of the Culture and Conservation Program have taken an historical perspective needed to compare resource management strategies at different points in time. Understanding how people have managed and exploited resources in the past and how they have responded to changes in demand for and availability of natural resources over time is essential information in formulating policy considerations oriented toward natural conservation and sustainable use of park resources. Research activities are geared toward understanding the knowledge and experiences on which peoples base their management decisions and resource exploitation strategies.
Preliminary results indicate the necessity of formulating research methodologies that begin with communities in the interior of the park and then proceed to those indigenous communities who now reside in coastal towns formed by labor out migration decades ago. The indigenous communities in the interior maintain economic and emotional contact with their relatives for long periods and these economic ties influence decision making on resource management by people in the park's interior. The results of the research activities are expected to provide directly to design of flexible, community-based conservation and development strategies. These designs for conservation and development are based on understanding the historical contexts in which resource management decisions occur among the different people in Kayan Mentarang National Park. One ultimate objective of the Culture and Conservation Program is to train local people in the methods and techniques of field surveys to enable them to conduct research on resource management for their communities in the future. These local researchers themselves become instrumental in leading conservation and development initiatives and ensure community participation in the management of the National Park.
Comments on the Culture and Conservation Project or discussion about similar approaches in natural conservation and sustainable development can be addresses to stevens@demog.berkeley.edu and/or Cristina Eghenter at key-men@indo.net.id.
US State Department's Commitment to Global Environmental Protection
The US State Department has released a largely rhetorical document that, according to Paul Wapner of the School of International Service at the American University in Washington, DC, "signals a fundamental shift in how the US government understands security" (Wapner, April 24, 1997, communication to gep-ed@igc.apc.org).
Taken from the State Department's release on Earth Day, the opening statement by Vice President Al Gore states that "our efforts to promote democracy, free trade, and stability in the world will fall short unless people have a livable environment." The document outlines the administration's commitment to "combat serious and growing international environmental threats." The statement by Secretary Madeline K. Albright says that the State Department is building its commitment to environmental protection on three basic premises: (1) "damage to the global environment threatens the health of the American people and the future of our economy," (2) "environmental problems are often at the heart of the political and economic challenges we face around the world" and "we would not being doing our jobs as peacemakers and as democracy-builders, if we were not also good stewards of the global environment," (3) the environmental problems being faced are not the results of chaotic natural events but are the results of human actions and these problems can then be solved if the US works in partnership with other governments, NGOs and businesses that share a commitment to a cleaner world. (There was no mention of working with businesses and governments who do not share this commitment).
The remainder of the document discusses some of the fundamental environmental issues that raise potential security risks to the US, including depletion of fishing stocks, deforestation, climate change, toxic chemicals and pesticides, and loss of biodiversity. Quotations from the works of Rachel Carson, E.O. Wilson, Revelations, and Isaac Asimov are strategically placed at the head of sections discussing each of these environmental issues.
While the document may signal some fundamental shift in what the US now considers a threat to its security, there is little or no attention to specific goals or support of specific programs to reduce emissions of carbon dioxides or disproportionate consumption of resources and generation of wastes by US consumers and producers. The State Department announces that US embassies are "developing regional environmental policies that advance our larger national interests." The State Department's statement makes interesting reading, provided the reading includes observation of oblique reference and noting both the said and the unsaid in this thoroughly diplomatic document.