Global indigenism and spaceship earth: Convergence, space, and re-entry friction

Abstract

Since the 1990s, indigenous issues have come to occupy a consistent place in the Global Conservation Movement. In 2000 the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) published a position paper entitled Indigenous and Traditional People of the World and Ecoregion Conservation, which posited significant overlap between biodiversity and cultural diversity on a global scale. The most recent World Parks Congress (2003) was attended by 120 indigenous representatives. Optimistic observers have heralded these events as a convergence of the Indigenous Peoples’ Movement and Global Environmentalism. More cynical observers argue that it is an opportunistic political move by indigenous leaders and their western supporters to take advantage of conservation, or conversely a move by large conservation NGOs to present a ‘people friendly’ façade to capture larger sums of donor money. This article outlines the global historical and political trends that have brought together conservationists and indigenous peoples in the global arena and discusses the opportunities and problems created by this uneasy convergence.

Notes

1. In 2000, the World Conservation Union established a working group on indigenous and local communities, equity and protected areas. The most recent World Parks Congress, convened in Durban (2003) was attended by 120 indigenous representatives (Brosius, 2001; Terborgh, 2004). Indigenous peoples and issues were again conspicuously present at the World Conservation Congress, convened in Bangkok (2004).

2. This term was coined by representatives of the Sierra Club, upset by decisions of the Ute Mountain Tribal Council to build irrigation schemes on their portion of the Animas and Las Platas Rivers.

3. After extensive research in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, journalist Mark Dowie discovered that indigenous peoples around the world have been displaced by conservation. Although western conservationists frequently dismiss hostility toward conservation as irrationally ‘negative conservation attitudes’, there is nothing irrational about formulating opinions or position based on previous experience. See Igoe, 2004b.

4. Chapin's article can be found online at http://www.un-ngls.org/cso/cso6/worldwatch%20inst%20-%20NGOs%20and%20IPs.pdf. Responses can be found at http://www.worldwatch.org/pubs/mag/2005/181/contents/and http://www.worldwatch.org/pubs/mag/2005/182/online/1/.

5. For a full discussion of the history of the origins of large conservation organizations see MacKenzie, 1988; Bonner, 1993; Neumann, 1998; Spence, 1999; Adams, 2004. For a full discussion of the Global Indigenous Peoples Movement see Niezen, 2003.

6. Enforcement rangers I interviewed identified drugs as one of their greatest enforcement challenges. The Ranger Fraternal Order of Police maintains a list of the ten most dangerous parks in the US (http://www.rangerfop.com/danger03.htm). It also appears that parks are becoming connected to the spread of extractive industries. I recently was hired as a consultant to assess a development project in Tanzania, which claims that it will protect biodiversity with large-scale rice farms using genetically modified seeds.

7. Prior to this period, these organizations depended primarily on foundation money and individual contributions to cover their operating costs.

8. According to Wetlands International—http://www.wetlands.org/reports/dbdirectory.cfm?site_id=108.

9. This term comes from a speech by Maasai leader Martin Saning'o at the World Conservation Congress.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jim Igoe

Jim Igoe is an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado at Denver, where he teaches conservation, development, identity and power. He has conducted extensive field research on conflicts between parks and neighbouring communities in Tanzania and the American West. He is the author of Conservation and Globalization: A Study of National Parks and Indigenous Communities from East Africa to South Dakota (Wadsworth, 2004). He has also co-edited (with Tim Kelsall) a volume called Between a Rock and a Hard Place: African NGOs, Donors, and the State (Carolina Academic Press, 2005). Jim is a senior fellow of the Environmental Leadership Program and a member of the IUCN Commission on Conservation, Ecology, Economics, and Social Policy. He is currently a visiting lecturer at the College of African Wildlife Management in Mweka, Tanzania, under a Fulbright Visiting Scholar Grant from the US State Department.