Hegemonic and emerging concepts of conservation: a critical examination of barriers to incorporating Indigenous perspectives in protected area conservation policies and practice

ABSTRACT

The establishment of Canada's protected areas mirrored their development throughout the New World, using an exclusionary model of conservation reflecting the hegemonic nature/culture dichotomy. There has been increasing criticism of the colonial and postcolonial impacts resulting from this exclusionary model: new concepts developed to better link Indigenous peoples and conservation lands (e.g. cultural landscapes, socio-ecological systems, resilience and bio-cultural conservation) have thus been developed. But the existing paradigms and dichotomies that buttress the exclusionary model – including a linear, static view of nature, a deep seated discourse equating human presence with ecosystem destruction, the concept of wilderness, differing concepts of recreation/work and the nature/culture split – have proved more difficult to supplant that anticipated, and have restricted progress in moving these new concepts from theory to practice. This paper reviews these concepts and barriers and buttresses these theoretical critiques with practical insights from a study in a co-managed park in the Yukon Territory, Canada. The existing role of outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism in protected areas is a particular focus in examining the barriers to developing new conservation discourses which allow for a more meaningful engagement from Indigenous peoples. A pyramid of potential changes is suggested to encourage future incremental change.

保护的霸权和新兴概念：障碍的严格审查，以在保护区保护政策和实践中结合土著观点

加拿大保护区的建立反映了他们在新世界中的发展，其所采用的排外模式则显示了霸权主义自然与文化两分法。这种排外模式对殖民地和后殖民地所造成的影响产生了不断增加的批评，而能够更好地将土著民族和保护地（如文化景观，社会生态学体系，恢复力和生态文化保护）结合的新观念也由此发展起来。但是支持排外模式的范例和二分法依旧存在，其中包括对自然线性、静态的看法，坚持将人类存在等同与生态破坏的言论，将娱乐和工作，自然和文化分离的看法，这些观点都证明了取代现状困难重重，这也阻碍了将新理论付诸于实践的过程。本文回顾了上述观点和阻碍, 并通过加拿大育空区域共同管理的公园的研究得出的实际观点来支持这些理论批评。保护区现有的户外游憩和自然旅游规则主要关注于检验障碍，从而发展一个能允许与土著民族更有意义的接触的新保护议题。一个潜在变化的金字塔建议更长远的递增改变。

KEYWORDS:

• Protected areas
• Indigenous peoples
• colonialism
• conservation
• protected areas
• nature-based tourism
• wilderness

关键词:

• 保护区
• 土著民族
• 殖民主义
• 保存
• 保护区
• 自然旅游
• 荒原

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

John Shultis

John Shultis is an associate professor in the Ecosystem Science and Management Program at the University of Northern British Columbia. His research addresses topics in outdoor recreation, conservation and nature-based tourism (e.g. the impact of technology on the wilderness experience and the impact of neoliberalism on park management). He is a co-executive editor of the Journal of Environmental Education and the International Journal of Wilderness and a member of the World Commission on Protected Areas.

Susan Heffner

Susan Heffner is an archaeologist with 19 years of experience in cultural resource management. Susan is pursuing her MA degree in the natural resource and environmental studies program at the University of Northern British Columbia, Canada, investigating the role of Indigenous resource management systems, with a case study of the relationship between the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation, Tombstone Territorial Park and Caribou.