CONSERVATION AND COMMUNITY

ANTH 8500

Spring 2004

Instructor: Peter Brosius

Office: Baldwin 256

Tel: 542-1463

Office Hours: Tuesday 1:00-3:00 or by appointment

Email: pbrosius@uga.edu

Course Description

At the beginning of the 21st century, as global 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 three requirements: (1) a one page written commentary on each week’s readings, (2) a 15 page research paper, and (3) 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.

COURSE OUTLINE

Conservation and the Cultural Politics of Nature

Jan. 14: Introduction

Jan. 21: Representing Natural Nature

Jan. 28: Nature Defiled or at Risk

Feb. 4: Configurations of Power, Regimes of Governmentality

Conservation and the Politics of Scale

Feb. 11: Participation, Livelihoods, and Community-Based Approaches to Conservation

Feb. 16 (Monday): Resurgent Protectionism

Feb. 25: Ecoregional Approaches to Conservation

Forms of Agency and Articulation

March 3: The State: Political Cultures and Legal Codes

March 15 (Monday): Donors, Banks, Corporations and Transnational NGOs

March 24: Local Social Movements, Indigenous Mobilizations and Transnational NGOs

March 31: Communities and the Production of Locality

Technologies of Power in the Practice of Conservation

April 7: Making Protected Areas

April 14: Community Mapping and Land History

April 21: The Uses of Local/Indigenous Knowledge

April 28: The Role of Social Science Methods in Conservation

Research paper due.

COURSE READINGS

Jan. 14: 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.

Jan. 21: 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.

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.

Supplementary Reading:

Callicott, J.B. & M. Nelson (eds.). 1998. The Great New Wilderness Debate. Athens: The University of Georgia Press.

Chaloupka, W. & R. Cawley. 1993. "The great wild hope: nature, environmentalism, and the open secret." In J. Bennett & W. Chaloupka (eds.), In the Nature of Things: Language, Politics, and the Environment, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Denevan, W. 1992. “The pristine myth: The landscape of the Americas in 1492.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 82(3):369-385.

Escobar, A. 1996. "Constructing nature: elements for a poststructural political ecology." In R. Peet & M. Watts (eds.), Liberation Ecologies: Environment, Development, Social Movements, London: Routledge.

Gomez-Pompa, A. & A. Kaus. 1992. "Taming the wilderness myth," BioScience 42(4):271-279.

Graber, David. 1995. “Resolute biocentrism: The dilemma of wilderness in national parks.” In M. Soulé & G. Lease (eds.), Reinventing Nature?: Responses to Postmodern Deconstruction, Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

Guha, R. 1989. "Radical American environmentalism and wilderness preservation: a Third World critique.” Environmental Ethics 11(1):71-83.

Nabhan, Gary. 1995. “Cultural parallax in viewing North American habitats.” In M. Soulé & G. Lease (eds.), Reinventing Nature?: Responses to Postmodern Deconstruction, Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

Nash, R. 1967. Wilderness and the American mind. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Oelschlager, M. 1991. The Idea of Wilderness: From Prehistory to the Age of Ecology. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Oelschlager, M. (ed.). 1992. The Wilderness Condition: Essays on Environment and Civilization. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

Slater, C. 1995. "Amazonia as Edenic narrative." In W. Cronon (ed.), Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature, New York: W.W. Norton & Co.

Williams, R. 1980. "Ideas of nature." In Problems in Materialism and Culture, London: Verso.

Wolke, H. 1991. "The crisis," "Ecological wilderness," & "Why wilderness?," In Wilderness on the Rocks. Tucson: Ned Ludd Books.

Jan. 28: 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.

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.

Supplementary Reading:

Ehrlich, A. & P. Ehrlich. 1990. "Extinction: life in peril," in S. Head & R. Heinzman (eds.), Lessons of the Rainforest, San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.

Gray, L. 1999. “Is land being degraded? A multi-scale examination of landscape change in southwestern Burkina Faso.” Land Degradation and Development 10(4):327-341.

Killingsworth, M.J. & J. Palmer. 1996. "Millenial ecology: the apocalyptic narrative from Silent Spring to Global Warming," in C. Herndl & S. Brown, Green Culture: Environmental Rhetoric in Contemporary America, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Kottak, C. & A. Costa. 1993. "Ecological awareness, environmentalist action, and international conservation strategy," Human Organization 52(4):335-343.

Leach, M. & R. Mearns (eds.). 1996. The Lie of the Land: Challenging Received Wisdom on the African Environment. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Lewis, C. 1993. "Telling stories about the future: environmental history and apocalyptic science," Environmental History Review 17(3):43-60.

Ribot, Jesse. 1999. “A history of fear: Imagining deforestation in the West African dryland forests.” Global Ecology and Biogeography 8(3-4):291-300.

Saurin, J. 1993. "Global environmental degradation, modernity and environmental knowledge," Environmental Politics 2(4):46-64.

Wilson, E.O. 1985. "The biological diversity crisis," BioScience 35(11):700-706.

Wilson, E.O. 1988. "The current state of biological diversity," in Biodiversity, Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

Fairhead, James, & M. Leach. 1996. Misreading the African Landscape: Society and Ecology in a Forest-Savanna Mosaic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Feb. 4: Configurations of Power, Regimes of Governmentality

Required:

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.

Darier, E. 1996. Environmental governmentality: The case of Canada's Green Plan. Environmental Politics 5(4):585-606.

Luke, T. 1999. “On environmentality: Geo-power and eco-knowledge in the discourses of contemporary environmentalism.” Cultural Critique 31:57-81.

Rutherford, Paul. 1999. “’The entry of life into history’” & “Ecological modernization and environmental risk.” In E. Darier (ed.), Discourses of the Environment. Oxford: Blackwell.

Scott, J. 1998. “Introduction.” In Seeing Like a State. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Supplementary Reading:

Brosius, J.P. 1999. "Green dots, pink hearts: Displacing politics from the Malaysian rainforest." In Ecologies for Tomorrow: Reading Rappaport Today, special issue of American Anthropologist 101(1):36-57.

Clark, William. 1989. "Managing planet earth," Scientific American 261(3):46-57.

Dizard, J. 1993. "Going wild: the contested terrain of nature," in J. Bennett & W. Chaloupka (eds.), In the Nature of Things: Language, Politics, and the Environment, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

DuBois, M. 1991. The governance of the Third World: A Foucauldian perspective on power relations in development. Alternatives 16(1):1-30.

Eder, K. 1996. "The institutionalisation of environmentalism: Ecological discourse and the second transformation of the public sphere." In S. Lash, B. Szerszynski, and B. Wynne (eds.), Risk, Environment and Modernity: Towards a New Ecology. London: Sage Publications.

Escobar, Arturo. 1992. “Planning.” In W. Sachs (ed.), The Development Dictionary. London: Zed Books.

Foucault, M. 1991. "Governmentality". In The Foucault effect: studies in governmentality. Edited by G. Burchell, C. Gordon, and P. Miller, pp. 87-104. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Freemuth, J. 1996. "The emergence of ecosystem management: reinterpreting the gospel?," Society and Natural Resources 9(4):411-417.

Lipschutz, Ronnie & J. Mayer. 1996. “Governing nature: global change, social complexity, and environmental management.” 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.

Luke, T. 1995. On environmentality: Geo-power and eco-knowledge in the discourses of contemporary environmentalism. Cultural Critique 31:57-81.

Myerson, G., and Y. Rydin. 1994. 'Environment' and planning: A tale of the mundane and the sublime. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 12(4):437-52.

Peluso, N. 1996. "'Reserving' value: conservation ideology and state protection of resources," in E.M. DuPuis & P. Vandergeest (eds.), Creating the Countryside: The Politics of Rural and Environmental Discourse, Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Rutherford, P. 1994. The administration of life: Ecological discourse as 'intellectual machinery of government'. Australian Journal of Communication 21(3):40-55.

Willers, B. (ed.) 1999. Unmanaged Landscapes: Voices for Untamed Nature. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

Feb. 11: 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.

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.

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.

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.

Supplementary Reading:

Banarjee, A., et al. 1997. Participation in Forest Management and Conservation. Environment Department Paper No. 49. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank.

Barrett, C. & P. Arcese. 1995. “Are Integrated Conservation-Development Projects (ICDPs) sustainable? On the conservation of large mammals in sub-Saharan Africa.” World Development 23(7):1073-1084.

Borrini-Feyerabend, Grazia. Forthcoming. “What constitutes democracy in 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.

Brown, M., and B. Wyckoff-Baird. 1993. Designing Integrated Conservation and Development Projects. Washington, D.C.: Biodiversity Support Program.

Chambers, R. 1991. “Shortcut and participatory methods for gaining social information for projects.” In M. Cernea (ed.), Putting People First: Sociological Variables in Development (Second Edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Coward, Walter. Forthcoming. “Building Models of Community-Based Natural Resource Management: A Personal Narrative.” In J.P. Brosius, A. Tsing, & C. Zerner (eds.), Representing Communities: Histories and Politics of Community-Based Natural Resource Management.

Dichter, T. 1992. “Demystifying popular participation: Institutional mechanisms for popular participation.” In B. Bhatnagar & A. Williams (eds.), Participatory Development and the World Bank: Potential Directions for Change. Discussion Paper No. 183. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank.

Grimble, R. & K. Wellard. 1997. “Stakeholder methodologies in natural resource management: A review of principles, contexts, experience and opportunities. Agricultural Systems 55(2):173-193.

Grumbine, R.E. 1997. “Using biodiversity as a justification for nature protection in the U.S.” In B. Blount (ed.), Environmental Anthropology: A Reader. Needham Heights, MA: Simon and Schuster Custom Publishing.

Helmich, Henny & I. Smillie. 1999. Stakeholders: Government-NGO Partnerships for International Development. London: Earthscan.

Kakabadse, Yolanda. 1993. Involving communities: The role of NGOs. In The future of IUCN: The World Conservation Union, eds. M. Holdgate and H. Synge, pp. 79-83. Gland: IUCN.

Korten, D. 1980. “Community organisation and rural development: a learning process approach.” Public Administration Review 40(Sept./Oct.):480-511.

Kremen, C., et al. 1994. “Ecological monitoring: A vital need for Integrated Conservation and Development programs in the tropics.” Conservation Biology

Little, Peter. 1994. “The link between local participation and improved conservation: A review of issues and experiences.” In Natural Connections: Perspectives in Community-Based Conservation, D. Western and M. Wright (eds.). Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

Marcus, R. 2001. “Seeing the forest for the trees: Integrated Conservation and Development Projects and local perceptions of conservation in Madagascar.” Human Ecology 29(4):381-397.

McCabe, T., et al. 1992. “Can conservation and development be coupled among pastoral people? An examination of the Maasai of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania.” Human Organization 51(4):353-366.

Messerschmidt, D. 1987. “Conservation and society in Nepal: Traditional forest management and innovative development.” In Lands at risk in the third world. Edited by P. Little, M. Horowitz, and A. Nyerges, pp. 38-57. Boulder: Westview Press.

Molnar, Augusta. Forthcoming. “Community-based natural resource management and the World Bank: A partial history.” In J.P. Brosius, A. Tsing, & C. Zerner (eds.), Representing Communities: Histories and Politics of Community-Based Natural Resource Management.

Peters, P. 1996. "Who's local here? The politics of participation in development." Cultural Survival Quarterly 20(3):22-25.

Pimbert, Michele, & J. Pretty. 1997. “Parks, people and professionals: Putting ‘participation’ into protected area management.” In K. Ghimire & M. Pimbert, (eds.), Social Change and Conservation: Environmental Politics and Impacts of National Parks and Protected Areas. London: Earthscan.

Rahnema, M. 1992. "Participation," in W. Sachs (ed.), The Development Dictionary: A Guide to Knowledge as Power, London: Zed Books.

Redford, K. & B. Richter. 1999. “Conservation of biodiversity in a world of use.” Conservation Biology 13(6):1246-1256.

Redford, K. & S. Sanderson. 1992. “The brief, barren marriage of biodiversity and sustainability.” Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 73(1):36-39.

Ribot, Jesse. 1996. "Participation without representation: chiefs, councils and forestry law in the West African Sahel" Cultural Survival Quarterly 20(3): 40-44.

Ribot, Jesse. 1999. “Decentralisation, participation and accountability in Sahelian forestry: Legal instruments of political-administrative control.” Africa 69(1):23-64.

Salafsky, N., et al. In press. “A systematic test of an enterprise strategy for community-based biodiversity conservation.” Conservation Biology.

Sinclair, A., et al. 2000. “Conservation in the real world.” Science 289:1875.

Sivaramakrishnan, K. 1996. "Participatory forestry in Bengal: competing narratives, statemaking, and development," Cultural Survival Quarterly 20(3):35-39.

Van Schaik, C. & H. Rijksen. 2002. “Integrated conservation and development projects: Problems and potential.” In J. Terborgh, et al (eds.), Making Parks Work: Strategies for Preserving Tropical Nature. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

Wells, M. & K. Brandon. 1993. “The principles and practice of buffer zones and local participation in biodiversity conservation.” Ambio 22(2-3):157-162.

World Bank. 1996. The World Bank Participation Sourcebook. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank.

Feb. 16 (Monday): 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.

Supplementary Reading:

Butler, V. 1998. “Unquiet on the Western front.” National Wildlife Federation. www.nwf.org/internationalwildlife.1998/western.html.

Oates, J. 1995. “The dangers of conservation by rural development: A case study from the forests of Nigeria.” Oryx 29(2):115-122.

Redford, K H and S E Sanderson. 2000. Extracting humans from nature. Conservation Biology 14(5):1362-1364.

Robinson, J. 1993. “The limits to caring: Sustainable living and the loss of biodiversity.” Conservation Biology 7(1):20-28.

Schwartzmann, S., A. Moreira and D. Nepstad. 2000. Rethinking tropical forest conservation: perils in parks. Conservation Biology 14(5):1351-1357.

Schwartzmann, S, D. Nepstad and A. Moreira. 2000. Arguing tropical forest conservation: people vs. parks. Conservation Biology 14(5):1370-1374.

Terborgh, John. 1999. Requiem for Nature. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

Feb. 25: 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.

Supplementary Reading:

Bailey, R.