On the Fractured, Fragmented and Disrupted Landscapes of Conservation

Abstract

Since Agenda 21, drawn up after the UN Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the merger of environmentalism and development has been pitched as a ‘win–win’ scenario often coined as ‘conservation-as-development’. By integrating local populations in the environmental projects ‘conservation-as-development’ claim to overcome negative aspects of the nature–culture divide. Using the arguments forwarded by Cortes-Vazquez, Turner, Semedi and Howell in this issue, the article critically discusses the development of these environmentalist efforts, exemplified by the UNESCO Biosphere reserves and the UN-REDD, to suggest that the natureculture divide keep cropping up in new constellations despite the official rhetoric. It is suggested that a solution is to be found in a serious, ethnographic approach that pays attention to the new social networks and material flows that tie local and global worlds together through these forms of environmentalist practices.

Keywords:

• biosphere reserves
• conservation-as-development
• nature-culture divide
• protected areas
• UN-REDD

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to Cecilia G. Salinas for valuable comments and suggestions.

Notes on contributor

Rune Flikke is an associate professor at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo. He has conducted research on the Zulu Zionist church and their healing practices in and around Durban over the past 20 years. During 2008–2012 Flikke was also a primary investigator in the project explaining differential immunization coverage sponsored by the Norwegian Research council. Here, he studied vaccination practices and mother–child health in Malawi. Recently his research interests have focused on perceptions of nature and nature conservation. He is currently finishing his engagement in the research project ‘Cultures of Biodiversity: Precepts and Practices’, sponsored by the Norwegian Research Council, project no. 204326.

Notes

¹The articles were in earlier versions presented as papers at two CUBI (Cultures of Biodiversity: Precepts and Practices) sponsored events. EASA workshop ‘Mastering the environment?’ in Paris, 10–13 July 2012, and the CUBI annual workshop 12–14 October 2011. CUBI has been financed by the Norwegian Research Council, Project No. 204326.

²See Kalland (2008) for a critical discussion of this assumption (cf. Ellen 1986).

³Oral communication with professor Signe Howell.