CONSERVATION AND COMMUNITY
ANTH 8500
Spring 2005
Instructor: Peter Brosius
Office: Baldwin 256
Tel: 542-1463
Office Hours: T-Th 11:00-12:00 or by appointment
Email: pbrosius@uga.edu
Course Description
At the beginning of the 21st century, as g lobal environmental change is occurring at an unprecedented pace, conservation has emerged as a central element in the civic and political debates in the nations of both the North and the South. We are witnessing a rapid proliferation of efforts to strengthen the links between environmental science and management and a transformation of the institutional landscape in which conservation is shaped and debated. Accompanying these shifts, new forms of conservation practice are emerging. Some years ago we witnessed the proliferation of bottom-up models under the rubric of community-based conservation. More recently we have seen an increasing emphasis placed on top-down models under rubrics such as ecoregional planning, ecosystem management, and transboundary protected areas. All the while, conservation paradigms, practices and policies have become a focus of research by anthropologists, geographers, and others, and the relationship between conservation practitioners and academics has at times been difficult.
The goal of this course is to examine a series of issues related to the study of contemporary conservation initiatives through attention to specific case studies. Four sets of themes will guide reading and discussion throughout the course:
(1) Fundamental questions: How is it that certain environmental concerns come to be recognized as risks or problems that demand state and/or NGO intervention? To what extent do conservation practitioners take account of local land use practices as well as the broader historical/political/economic contexts that shape those practices? How are images of local communities woven into environmental crisis narratives and are there alternatives to how we write them in?
(2) Questions of agency: How do we take account of the role played by different sets of agents -- local communities, indigenous social movements, the state, transnational NGOs, donors, banks and corporations -- in the shaping and implementation of conservation initiatives? How have conservation initiatives been shaped or manipulated to fit larger political/institutional interests?
(3) Paradigms and practices: How and where do parks and reserves get made? What are some of the paradigms and practices that shape contemporary conservation initiatives, including community-based conservation, ecoregional planning, transboundary protected areas, and ICDPs? What technologies of visualization (GIS, rapid ecological assessment, GAP analysis) are used to make natural and cultural communities legible? What kinds of social research are being done in relation to specific conservation initiatives and in what ways are these problematic?
(4) Anthropological contributions: What sorts of analytical perspectives (historical ecology, political ecology, for instance) can anthropologists and other social scientists contribute to the shaping of conservation policies and practices that are both more effective and more just? What kind of relationship should we seek with the conservation community? Should we shape our research strategies to the needs of conservation practitioners, or are we more effective to the extent that we maintain analytical distance?
Students taking this course will be expected to read extensively from sources listed in the syllabus. Course grade will be based on four requirements: (1) a one page written commentary on each week's readings, (2) a 15 page research paper, (3) a bibliographic project that contributes to the Advancing Conservation in a Social Context project, and (4) class participation. All assignments must be completed on time in order to receive a passing grade in the course.
Required Texts:
Adams, J. & T. McShane. 1992. The Myth of Wild Africa . Berkeley : University of California Press.
Oates, John. 1999. Myth and Reality in the Rain Forest . Berkeley : University of California Press.
Russell, Diane & C. Harshbarger. 2003. Groundwork for Community-Based Conservation . Walnut Creek : Altamira Press.
COURSE OUTLINE
Conservation and the Cultural Politics of Nature
January 12: Introduction
January 19: Representing Natural Nature
January 26: Nature Defiled or at Risk
February 2: Configurations of Power, Regimes of Governmentality
Conservation and the Politics of Scale
February 9: Participation, Livelihoods, and Community-Based Approaches to Conservation
February 16: Resurgent Protectionism
February 23: Ecoregional Approaches to Conservation
Forms of Agency and Articulation
March 2: The State: Political Cultures and Legal Codes
March 9: Donors, Banks, Corporations and Transnational NGOs
March 23: Local Social Movements, Indigenous Mobilizations and Transnational NGOs
March 30: Communities and the Production of Locality
ACSC Bibliography due.
Technologies of Power in the Practice of Conservation
April 6: Making Protected Areas
April 13: Community Mapping and Land History
April 20: The Uses of Local/Indigenous Knowledge
April 27: The Role of Social Science Methods in Conservation
Research paper due .
COURSE READINGS
January 12: Introduction
Required:
Brosius, J.P. 2002. “Common ground? Envisioning conservation in the biological and social sciences.” Unpublished ms.
Guyer, J. & P. Richards. 1996. “The invention of biodiversity: Social perspectives on the management of biological variety in Africa .” Africa 66(1):1-13.
Pimm, S., et al. 2001. “Can we defy nature's end?” Science 293:2207-2208.
Redford , Kent , et al. 2003. “Mapping the conservation landscape.” Conservation Biology 17(1):116-131.
Western, D. 2000. “Conservation in a human-dominated world.” Issues in Science and Technology , Spring 2000. http://www.nap.edu/issues/16.3/western.htm
Whitten, T., et al. 2001. “Conservation biology: A displacement behavior for academia?” Conservation Biology 15(1):1-3.
January 19: Representing Natural Nature
Required:
Adams, J. & T. McShane. 1992. The Myth of Wild Africa . Berkeley : University of California Press.
Cronon, W. 1995. "The trouble with wilderness or, getting back to the wrong nature." In W. Cronon (ed.), Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature , New York : W.W. Norton & Co.
MacDonald, Kenneth. 2004. “Developing ‘nature': Global ecology and the politics of conservation in Northern Pakistan .” In Confronting Environments: Local Understanding in a Globalizing World , J. Carrier (ed.). Walnut Creek : Altamira Press.
Proctor, J & S. Pincetl. 1996. "Nature and the reproduction of endangered space: the spotted owl in the Pacific Northwest and southern California ," Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 14:683-708.
Slater, C. 2000. “Justice for whom? Contemporary images of Amazonia .” In C. Zerner (ed.), People, Plants and Justice: The Politics of Nature Conservation . New York : Columbia University Press.
Zerner, C. 1995. "Telling stories about biodiversity," in Stephen Brush & Doreen Stabinsky (eds.), Valuing Local Knowledge: Indigenous People and Intellectual Property Rights , Washington , D.C. : Island Press.
January 26: Nature Defiled or at Risk
Required:
Fairhead, J. & M. Leach. 1995. “False forest history, complicit social analysis: Rethinking some West African environmental narratives.” World Development 23(6):1023-1103.
Guthman, J. 1997. “Representing crisis: The theory of Himalayan environmental degradation and the project of development in post-Rana Nepal .” Development and Change 28(1):45-69.
Forsyth, T. 1996. “Science, myth and knowledge: Testing the theory of Himalayan environmental degradation in Thailand .” Geoforum 27:375-392.
Lowe, Celia. 2004. “Making the monkey: How the Togean Macaque went from ‘new form' to ‘endemic species' in Indonesians' conservation biology.” Cultural Anthropology 19(4):491-516.
Taylor, P. & F. Buttel. 1992. “How do we know we have global environmental problems?: Science and the globalization of environmental discourse.” Geoforum 23(3):405-416.
February 2: Configurations of Power, Regimes of Governmentality
Required:
Brechin, S., et al. 2003. “Crafting conservation globally and locally.” In S. Brechin , et al (eds.), Contested Nature: Promoting International Biodiversity with Social Justice in the Twenty-first Century . Albany : State University of New York Press.
Brosius, J.P. & D. Russell. 2003. “Conservation from above: An anthropological perspective on transboundary protected areas and ecoregional planning.” Journal of Sustainable Forestry 17(1/2):39-65.
Chapin, Mac. 2004. “A Challenge to Conservationists.” Worldwatch Magazine , Nov./Dec.:17-31.
Darier, E. 1996. Environmental governmentality: The case of Canada 's Green Plan. Environmental Politics 5(4):585-606.
Flavin, Chris, et al. 2005. “A Challenge to Conservationists: Phase II.” Worldwatch Magazine , Jan./Feb.:5-20.
Luke, T. 1999. “On environmentality: Geo-power and eco-knowledge in the discourses of contemporary environmentalism.” Cultural Critique 31:57-81.
MacDonald, Kenneth I. 2003. “ Political Ecology and the demand for Institutional Ethnography.” Unpublished MS.
Scott, J. 1998. “Introduction.” In Seeing Like a State . New Haven : Yale University Press.
February 9: Participation, Livelihoods, and Community-Based Approaches to Conservation
Required:
Alcorn, Janis. Forthcoming. “Dances around the fire: Conservation organizations and community-based natural resource management.” In J.P. Brosius, A. Tsing, & C. Zerner (eds.), Representing Communities: Histories and Politics of Community-Based Natural Resource Management .
Berkes, Fikret. 2004. “Rethinking community-based conservation.” Conservation Biology 18(3):621-630.
Brosius, J.P., A. Tsing & C. Zerner. 1998. “Representing communities: Histories and politics of community-based natural resource management.” Society and Natural Resources Vol. 11(2):157-168.
MacDonald, Kenneth I. 2003. “Community-based conservation: A reflection on history.” Unpublished MS
Neumann, R. 1997. “Primitive ideas: Protected area buffer zones and the politics of land in Africa .” Development and Change 28(3):559-582.
Newmark, W. & J. Hough. 2000. “Conserving wildlife in Africa : Integrated Conservation and Development Projects and beyond.” BioScience 50(7):585-592.
Wagner, John. 200?. “The politics of accountability: An institutional analysis of the conservation movement in Papua New Guinea .” Social Analysis 45(2):78-93.
Western, D. & R. Wright. 1994. "The background to community-based conservation." In D. Western and R. Wright (eds.), Natural Connections: Perspectives in Community-Based Conservation , Washington , D.C. : Island Press.
February 16: Resurgent Protectionism
Required:
Brechin, S., et al. 2002. “Beyond the square wheel: Toward a more comprehensive understanding of biodiversity conservation as social and political process.” Society and Natural Resources 15(1):41-64.
Oates, John. 1999. Myth and Reality in the Rain Forest . Berkeley : University of California Press.
Terborgh, J. 2000. The fate of tropical forests: a matter of stewardship. Conservation Biology 14(5):1358-1361.
Wilshusen, P.R., et al. 2002. “Reinventing a square wheel: Critique of a resurgent ‘protection paradigm' in international biodiversity conservation.” Society and Natural Resources 15(1):17-40.
February 23: Ecoregional Approaches to Conservation
Required:
Brosius, J.P. 2003. “Seeing communities: Technologies of visualization in conservation.” Unpublished ms.
Olson, D.M., et al. 2001. “Terrestrial ecoregions of the World: A new map of life on Earth.” BioScience 51(11):933-938.
Pressey, Bob. 1999. “Editorial: Systematic conservation planning for the real world.” Parks 9(1):1-6.
Soulé , M. and J. Terborgh. 1999. “The policy and science of regional conservation.” In M. Soulé and J. Terborgh (eds.), Continental Conservation: Scientific Foundations of Regional Reserve Networks . Washington , D.C. : Island Press.
Wikramanayake, E., et al. 1999. “Where can tigers live in the future? A framework for identifying high-priority areas for the conservation of tigers in the wild.” In J. Seidensticker, et al. (eds.), Riding the Tiger: Tiger Conservation in Human-Dominated Landscapes . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
Younge, Amanda. 2002. “An ecoregional approach to biodiversity conservation in the Cape Floral Kingdom, South Africa.” In T. O'Riordan & S. Stoll-Kleemann (eds.), Biodiversity, Sustainability and Human Communities: Protecting Beyond the Protected . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
March 2: The State: Political Cultures and Legal Codes
Required:
Li, Tania. Forthcoming. “Engaging simplifications: Community-based natural resource management, local processes and state agendas in upland Southeast Asia .” In J.P. Brosius, A. Tsing, & C. Zerner (eds.), Representing Communities: Histories and Politics of Community-Based Natural Resource Management .
Lynch, Owen. Forthcoming. “Legal concepts and strategies for promoting community-based natural resource management: Insights from the Philippines and other nations.” In J.P. Brosius, A. Tsing, & C. Zerner (eds.), Representing Communities: Histories and Politics of Community-Based Natural Resource Management .
Moore , D. 1996. “Marxism, culture and political ecology: Environmental struggles in Zimbabwe 's Eastern Highlands .” In R. Peet & M. Watts (eds.), Liberation Ecologies: Environment, Development, Social Movements , London : Routledge.
Neumann, R. 1995. “Ways of seeing Africa: Colonial recasting of African society and landscape in Serengeti National Park ,” Ecumene 2:149-169.
Peluso, N. 1993. "Coercing conservation: the politics of state resource control", in R. Lipschutz & K. Conca (eds.), The State and Social Power in Global Environmental Politics , New York : Columbia University Press.
March 9: Donors, Banks, Corporations and Transnational NGOs
Required:
Cline-Cole, R. 1996. “African and Africanist biodiversity research in a neo-liberal context.” Africa 66(1):145-159.
James, A., K. Gaston, & A. Balmford. 2001. “Can we afford to conserve biodiversity?” Bioscience 51(1):43-52
Sayer, Jeffrey & Michael Wells. 2004. “The pathology of projects.” In T. McShane & M. Wells (eds.), Getting Biodiversity Projects to Work . New York : Columbia University Press.
Schroeder, R. Forthcoming. “Community, forestry and conditionality in the Gambia .” In J.P. Brosius, A. Tsing, & C. Zerner (eds.), Representing Communities: Histories and Politics of Community-Based Natural Resource Management .
Smith, Richard. Forthcoming. “Can David and Goliath have a happy marriage: Petroleum development and the long-term management of indigenous territories in the Peruvian Amazon.” In J.P. Brosius, A. Tsing, & C. Zerner (eds.), Representing Communities: Histories and Politics of Community-Based Natural Resource Management .
WWF. 2001. Center for Conservation Finance Business Plan: Building Conservation Capital for the Future . Washington , D.C. : WWF. www.worldwildlife.org/conservationfinance/pubs/business_plan.pdf
March 23: Local Social Movements, Indigenous Mobilizations and Transnational NGOs
Required:
Brosius, J. Peter. 2004. “Indigenous Peoples and Protected Areas at the World Parks Congress.” Conservation Biology 18(5):609-612. To be reprinted in Parks (journal of the IUCN Programme on Protected Areas).
Escobar, Arturo. 1998. “Whose knowledge, whose nature? Biodiversity, conservation, and the political ecology of social movements.” Journal of Political Ecology 5:53-82.
Forest Peoples Programme. 2003. Indigenous peoples at the Vth World Parks Congress: A Summary Report and Assessment . Unpublished ms.
Keck, Margaret. Forthcoming. “Social movements, community-based natural resource management and the struggle for democracy.” In J.P. Brosius, A. Tsing, & C. Zerner (eds.), Representing Communities: Histories and Politics of Community-Based Natural Resource Management .
Mayer, Judith. 1996. “Environmental organizing in Indonesia : The search for a newer order.” In R. Lipschutz & J. Mayer, Global civil society and global environmental governance: The politics of nature from place to planet . Albany : State University of New York Press.
Redford , Kent . 2002. “Creating natural alliances before the forest is destroyed.” Unpublished MS.
Redford , K. & A. Stearman. 1993. “Forest-dwelling native Amazonians and the conservation of biodiversity: Interests in common or in collision?” Conservation Biology 7(2):248-255.
March 30: Communities and the Production of Locality
Required:
Adams, William M., et al. 2004. “Biodiversity conservation and the eradication of poverty.” Science 306:1146-1149.
Agrawal, Arun, & C.C. Gibson. 1999. “Enchantment and disenchantment: The role of community in natural resource management.” World Development 27(4):629-649.
Li, T. 1996. "Images of Community: Discourse and Strategy in Property Relations," Development and Change 27(3):501-527.
Wilshusen, Peter. 2003. “Territory, nature, and culture: Negotiating the boundaries of biodiversity conservation in Colombia 's Pacific coastal region.” In S. Brechin , et al (eds.), Contested Nature: Promoting International Biodiversity with Social Justice in the Twenty-first Century . Albany : State University of New York Press.
Zerner, Charles. 1994. "Through a green lens: the construction of customary environmental law and community in Indonesia 's Maluku Islands ", Law and Society Review 28(5): 1079-1122.
April 6: Making Protected Areas
Required:
Brandon , K.E. & M. Wells. 1992. “Planning for people and parks: design dilemmas.” World Development 20(4):557-570.
Kaiser, J. 2001. “Bold corridor project confronts political reality.” Science 293:2196-2199.
Mahanty, Sango & Diane Russell. 2002. “High stakes: Lessons from stakeholder groups in the Biodiversity Conservation Network.” Society and Natural Resources 15:179-188.
MacKinnon, John. 2002. “Avenues of futility in conservation.” Unpublished paper delivered at 2002 Annual Meetings of the Society for Conservation Biology, Canterbury , Kent , UK .
Peres, C. & J. Terborgh. 1995. “Amazonian nature reserves: An analysis of the defensibility status of existing conservation units and design criteria for the future.” Conservation Biology 9(1):34-46.
Phillips, Adrian . 2003. “Turning ideas on their head: The new paradigm for protected areas.” The George Wright Forum 20(2):8-32.
Stevens, S. 1997. “The legacy of Yellowstone ,” “New alliances for conservation,” & Lessons and Directions. In Conservation through Cultural Survival: Indigenous Peoples and Protected Areas , S. Stevens (ed.). Washington , D.C. : Island Press.
Twyman, C. 1998. “Rethinking community resource management: managing resources or managing people in western Botswana .” Third World Quarterly 19(4):745-770.
April 13: Community Mapping and Land History
Required:
Alcorn, J. 2000. Borders, Rules and Governance: Mapping to Catalyse Changes in Policy and Management . Gatekeeper Series No. 91, IIED, London .
Eghenter, C. 2000. Mapping people's forests: the role of mapping in planning community-based management of conservation areas in Indonesia . Peoples, Forests and Reefs (PeFoR) Program Discussion Paper Series. Biodiversity Support Program/WWF-US, Washington D.C .
Ellis, David. Forthcoming. “What is ‘wildlife'? The importance of local history in development and conservation in the Pio-Tura region of Papua New Guinea .” In C. Filer (ed.), The Social Assessment of Conservation in Melanesia . Canberra : Australian National University Press.
Hodgson, Dorothy & Richard A. Schroeder. 2002. “Dilemmas of counter-mapping community resources in Tanzania .” Development and Change 33:79-100.
Peluso, N. 1995. “Whose woods are these? Counter-mapping forest territories in Kalimantan , Indonesia .” Antipode 27(4):383-406.
April 20: The Uses of Local/Indigenous Knowledge
Required:
Baviskar, Amita. 2000. “Claims to knowledge, claims to control: Environmental conflict in the Great Himalaya National Park, India.” In R.F. Ellen (ed.), Indigenous Environmental and its Transformations: Critical Anthropological Perspectives . Amsterdam : Harwood Academic Publishers.
Filer, C. nd. “How can Western conservationists talk to Melanesian landowners about indigenous knowledge?” Unpublished manuscript.
Stripen, C. & S. DeWeerdt. 2002. “Old science, new science: Incorporating Traditional Ecological Knowledge into contemporary management.” Conservation in Practice 3(3):20-27.
Watson, Alan, et al. 2003. “The relationship between traditional ecological knowledge, evolving cultures, and wilderness protection in the circumpolar north.” Conservation Ecology 8(2). www.consecol.org/vol8/iss1/art2
Zent, Stanford. Nd. “A genealogy of scientific perspectives of indigenous knowledge.” Unpublished manuscript.
April 27: The Role of Social Science Methods in Conservation
Required:
Batterbury, S., T. Forsyth, and K. Thomson. 1997. “Environmental transformations in developing countries: hybrid research and democratic policy.” Geographical Journal 163(2):126-132.
Ervin, Jamison. 2003. “Rapid assessment of protected area management effectiveness in four countries.” BioScience 53(9):833-841.
Mascia, Mike, et al. 2003. “Conservation and the social sciences.” Conservation Biology 17(3):649-650.
Russell, D. & C. Harshbarger. 2003. Chaps. 1-3. In Groundwork for Community-Based Conservation . Walnut Creek : Altamira Press.
Scoones, Ian. 1999. “New ecology and the social sciences: What prospects for fruitful engagement?” Annual Review of Anthropology 28:493-524.
Vayda, Andrew P. 1997. “Managing forests and improving the livelihoods of foresty-dependent people: Reflections on CIFOR's social science research in relation to its mandate for generalisable strategic research.” CIFOR Working Paper No. 16. www.cgiar.org/cifor
WWF-US. 2000. “A guide to socioeconomic assessments for ecoregion conservation.” WWF-US Ecoregional Conservation Strategies Unit.