INDIGENOUS ECOLOGY

Many observers believe that indigenous peoples possess a close relationship with and a great deal of knowledge about their physical environment. In many cases, indigenous cultures have developed sustainable land-use practices over generations of experimentation in a particular environmental setting. As a consequence, academics, journalists, and even corporate advertisers frequently portray indigenous peoples as defenders of endangered environments, such as tropical rain forests. It was not always this way. Especially during the height of European colonialism, indigenous populations (then considered colonial subjects) were often accused of destroying the environment. The then-common belief that indigenous land-use practices were destructive helped Europeans justify colonialism by claiming they were saving colonial subjects from themselves. In hindsight, it is easy to see that this belief was related to now-discredited European ideas about the racial inferiority of colonized peoples.

Debate continues today, with some observing that, although indigenous cultures may once have lived sustainably, globalization is making their knowledge and practices less useful. That is, globalization introduces new markets, new types of crops, and new technologies that displace existing land-use practices. Others note that it is impossible to generalize about sustainability in indigenous cultures because the way indigenous peoples use their environments varies from place to place and the indigenous societies are internally heterogeneous. A key discussion centers on the role of indigenous peoples in conserving the environment. The discussion is important because indigenous peoples often occupy territories of high biodiversity (Figure 2.42). Biodiversity refers to the biological diversity of the entire living world, as measured at various scales including diversity among individuals, populations, species, communities, and ecosystems. Biodiversity thus includes genetic diversity, species diversity, and habitat diversity.

For example, many of the most biologically diverse areas in Latin America are under government protection in national parks and reserves. Eighty-five percent of these protected areas in Central America and 80 percent in South America contain resident indigenous populations. There is also a close geographic correspondence between indigenous territories and tropical rain forests in not only Latin America but also Africa and Southeast Asia. Tropical rain forests, although they cover only 6 percent of the Earth’s surface, are estimated to contain 60 percent of the world’s biodiversity. Thus, some see indigenous cultures as traditional caretakers of a precious resource. With the rise of genetic engineering, conservationists and corporations alike view tropical forests as in situ gene banks. That is, genetic diversity can be held in place in standing tropical forests as a reserve to be tapped in the future. As multinational biotechnology companies look to the tropics for genetic resources for use in developing new medicines or crop seeds, indigenous peoples are increasingly vocal about their proprietary rights over the biodiversity of their homelands.

Faced with these issues, cultural geographers emphasize the value of both the knowledge indigenous peoples bring to environmental management and of their land-use practices for sustainable development. Initially, geographers focused on how indigenous cultures adapted to ecological conditions. For example, some studied the social norms and land-use practices that helped certain cultures adapt to periodic drought. Later, they came to realize that external political and economic forces were just as important in shaping nature-culture relationships. A look at the work of a few key cultural geographers will illustrate the implications of this idea.