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For Kin, God and Other Beings: Mixtures of Conservation Practice in Raja Ampat, West Papua
Abstract
This chapter describes the emergence of hybrid conservation practices in the Raja Ampat islands of Indonesian New Guinea in the context of significant socio-economic and ecological change. On West Papua’s coast fringe, different values motivate different types of geographic resource management systems with varying stakes for the people who support them. Here, a patchwork of interlinked regimes of land and sea-based resource governance have contributed to a composite approach to adaptive governance, rather than an inherently conflicting set of practices or norms. I describe how resident Beteo and Ma’ya people revived a limited type of seasonal harvest prohibition and taboo called sasi to incorporate Christian ethics and the significance of ancestral sites of nonhuman spirits. On Waigeo island, a center point of international conservation programs and ecotourism, two distinct forms of sasi are currently practiced: sasi gereja, a type of Christian village-based resource protection and sasi mon, a set of clan-mediated rules for areas beyond villages inhabited by ancestors or nonhuman spirit beings. In the past decade, the practices have become formalized through engagement of West Papuan communities with international non-governmental organizations. The varieties of conservation practices in coastal West Papua reflect distinct but perhaps commensurable ethical norms and values. Engagements with valued places highlights how conservation in Raja Ampat is consequential to people’s understanding of themselves and others, amidst ongoing resource degradation, the denial of Christian social virtue or economic marginalization.
... Demikian pula, konsep masyarakat Baliem tentang kehidupan kekal, yang berakar pada mitos animistik, menemukan konvergensi dan perbedaan dengan eskatologi Kristen, memungkinkan pendekatan penginjilan kontekstual yang menghormati dan memberdayakan nilai-nilai budaya mereka sambil memperkenalkan ajaran Alkitabiah (Mawikere, 2021). Di Raja Ampat, praktik konservasi hibrida seperti sasi gereja dan sasi mon mengintegrasikan etika Kristen dengan tabu tradisional, menunjukkan bagaimana nilai-nilai agama dan budaya dapat menyatu untuk mengatasi masalah ekologi dan sosial (Parker, 2021). Upacara adat dan ritual juga dapat dimodifikasi untuk memasukkan elemen-elemen Kristen. ...
Kristologi Papua menawarkan perspektif yang kaya dalam memahami Yesus Kristus, dengan pendekatan kontekstual yang relevan bagi masyarakat di Papua. Tujuan dari penulisan ini adalah menganalisis secara mendalam terkait kristologi Papua, kajian kontekstual Yesus Kristus dalam kebudayaan lokal. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kualitatif. Proses penelitian melibatkan pemilihan teolog-teolog tertentu dan studi kepustakaan yang difokuskan pada hermeneutik dan kajian teologis. Hasil kajian menunjukkan pentingnya Kristologi kontekstual di Papua dalam meningkatkan kehidupan spiritual dan budaya orang Kristen Papua, membuat iman mereka lebih otentik dan berakar dalam warisan mereka. Kesimpulannya adalah simbolisme lokal memainkan peran penting dalam melestarikan identitas budaya dan memberikan nilai-nilai melalui berbagai bentuk ekspresi, membantu menghubungkan ajaran Yesus Kristus dengan kehidupan sehari-hari masyarakat Papua dan memperkuat penerimaan serta pemahaman mereka terhadap pesan Injil.
Groupers are one of the most important and commercial fishes; many of the species are classified as Life Reef Fish Trade (LRFT). The number of grouper species in these locations may be more diverse than at other sites. Identifying the species number of a grouper is essential for mapping reef fitness. However, morphological identification of groupers is relatively difficult. Molecular methods such as DNA barcoding could be an option and even serve as reliable validation. Therefore, this research was conducted to identify groupers belonging to the Serranidae family. The grouper samples were obtained from the fish market in Waisai, Raja Ampat, Indonesia. The DNA barcoding employed the COI genes to accurately identify groupers. The Qiagen DNeasy 96 tissue extraction kit was used to extract DNA, and Primer Fish F1/R1 was applied. The sequences were analysed using ClustalW in MEGA 7.0 and phylogenetic tree was generated using the NJ (Neighbour Joining) method. Eleven species of groupers belonging to five taxa were discovered in Waisai, Raja Ampat. Anyperodon, Cephalopholis, Epinephelus, Plectropomus, and Variola are the grouper genera. Epinephelus was the predominant genus within the serranidae family, with 51.4% of the total. The International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List category puts the majority of grouper species in the 'Least Concerned' category. This study confirmed the effectiveness of DNA barcoding for species identification and the value of the COI gene for Grouper's phylogenetic research. The outcome offers information about fisheries resources, which should be helpful in managing fisheries in reef ecosystems.
The Pacific Islands region is highlighted in the literature as one of the most vulnerable geographic areas in the world, with a high priority for adaptation to climate change. In consequence, many interventions have been proposed and implemented over the years that approach environmental sustainability and adaptation to climate change in the Pacific from a predominantly scientific and technocratic worldview perspective, in which climate change is seen as a science-informed issue, rather than a faith-informed issue. Overwhelmingly, adaptation initiatives are scientifically justified and externally conceived, funded and implemented. Regrettably, most interventions intended to reduce exposure to environmental risk and to enable effective and sustainable adaptation to climate change in the Pacific Islands region have failed to acknowledge influences on decision-making of spirituality and connectedness to Nature. In the light of the almost total Christianization of Pacific Islands within the past century, such intervention failures are surprising. The situation cannot continue because every day the need for adaptation to climate change that is effective and sustainable is growing. Given that in the Pacific Islands region decision makers are likely to be influenced more by tradition and local precedent than by science, makes the purposive exploration of faith-engaged approaches to climate change adaptation a fertile and promising undertaking. This paper extends previous research by means of a literary review of pertinent challenges and opportunities. The synthesised lessons are useful for both policy and practice serving the cause of climate change adaptation in Pacific island communities. A better understanding of the science-spirituality nexus in the Pacific will also improve the effectiveness and sustainability of adaptation responses to climate-driven environmental change.
Most national and international discussions have not seriously recognized the role religio-cultural practices of indigenous Africans can play in mitigating the effects of climate change. This paper, examines the contribution the indigenous people can make towards the mitigation of the effects of climate change, using the Akan of Ghana as a case study. Mostly, indigenous people who are the major stakeholders in land use in Ghana are marginalized when policies aimed at reducing environmental degradation are made. This has resulted in low gains in the fight against environmental degradation despite several interventions in Ghana. A recent report puts Ghana into a net-emitter of GHG bracket. This means the country has to embark on a Low Carbon Development Strategy to address the situation. This paper, therefore argues that unless indigenous people—major stakeholders of land use—are duly involved; it will be difficult to address the effects of climate change in Ghana.
Atoll island communities are naturally vulnerable to flooding hazards such as king tides, storm surges and overtopping, among others. Climate change can be expected to catalyse the susceptibility to flooding through extreme weather events, sea level rise (SLR) and other climate related pressures. Further, population growth in coastal proximity can exacerbate vulnerabilities by degrading ecosystems such as mangroves and coral reefs that island communities tend to rely on for protection. The net effect: More and more people are congregating in a high-risk zone for floods and storms, but are less and less protected from them. Conventional adaptation wisdom suggests three responses: (1) plan a managed retreat (e.g., move inland); (2) accommodate the changes (e.g., build stilt houses); (3) resist the intrusion (e.g., build sea walls). On the Carteret Islands of Bougainville/Papua New Guinea (PNG), also known as the Tulun or Kilinailau Atoll, none of these adaptation measures have so far enabled the islanders to adapt in situ to mounting people and sea level pressures, resulting in both ad hoc and planned out-migration responses. Drawing on pilot research conducted on the Tulun and Nissan Atolls of Bougainville/PNG, this paper examines the linkages between climate change and human movement. It extends previous research by expressly inviting the grassroots perspectives of atoll communities of origin and mainland communities of destination in Tinputz and Buka. The research develops recommendations in areas of education, livelihood security, government planning and countering misinformation. Experiences and lessons gathered in this paper will be useful for both policy and practice serving the cause of climate change adaptation in Pacific island communities. Working towards a better understanding of climate change related vulnerabilities in coastal areas will also enable better adaptation responses.
This article argues that as humanity is now changing the composition of the atmosphere at a rate that is very exceptional on the geological time scale, resulting in global warming, humans must deal with climate change holistically, including the often overlooked religion factor. Human-caused climate change has resulted primarily from changes in the amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, but also from changes in small particles (aerosols), as well as from changes in land use. In Africa, the entire relationship between humans and nature, including activities such as land use, has deep religious and spiritual underpinnings. In general, religion is central to many of the decisions people make about their own communities’ development. Hence, this contribution examines religion as a factor that can be tapped into to mitigate negative effects of climate change, discussing climate change and religion in the context of development practice. It argues that some of the difficulties encountered in development, including efforts to reverse global warming in Africa, directly speak to the relegation of African cosmovision and conversely of the need to adopt new epistemologies, concepts, and models that take religion into consideration.
Literaturverz. S. [337] - 365
A cornerstone of environmental policy is the debate over protecting nature for humans’ sake (instrumental values) or for nature’s (intrinsic values) (1). We propose that focusing only on instrumental or intrinsic values may fail to resonate with views on personal and collective well-being, or “what is right,” with regard to nature and the environment. Without complementary attention to other ways that value is expressed and realized by people, such a focus may inadvertently promote worldviews at odds with fair and desirable futures. It is time to engage seriously with a third class of values, one with diverse roots and current expressions: relational values. By doing so, we reframe the discussion about environmental protection, and open the door to new, potentially more productive policy approaches.
Residents of Raja Ampat, Papua, have been practicing sasi for generations to manage local marine resources. Recognizing its importance for marine resource conservation, efforts have been made to integrate sasi into current conservation management approach. This study was carried out with 3 objectives: (1) to define and elaborate sasi; (2) to examine the benefits of sasi for conservation of marine resources; and (3) to evaluate the change of sasi in the context of conservation. Multi-method approaches were employed to collect data from local communities in Dampier Strait District MPA in two separate sampling periods. Results indicated that sasi in Raja Ampat could generally be categorized into samson or kabus which basically reflect different aspects such as location, type of commodity, implementing ceremony, period of closure, the influence of monsoons, and communal ownership. The benefits identified included the increase in target fish production, the lowered level of exploitation, the improved recovery of fish stocks, and the increase in the local people's income. From the modern conservation management point of view, it was obvious that sasi could help protect and sustain marine biological resources. Therefore, it is essential to incorporate sasi into modern conservation management practices and vice versa.
Religious beliefs, an important element of culture, influence adaptation to climate change. Less understood is how changing beliefs shape the adaptive capacity of communities responding to climate change. In the last century sub-Saharan Africa has experienced a transformation in beliefs. Since 1900 Christians have increased 70-fold while in rural areas Traditional Beliefs and associated Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) continue to influence the lived practices of vulnerable rural communities. Using two case studies of rural communities in Malawi (Bolero) and Zambia (Monze) we explore how Christianity and Traditional beliefs (and associated TEK) co-exist and assess if, and how, holding multiple belief systems affects climate-sensitive livelihood practices of food production. In Bolero we observed a lack of tensions between belief systems with Traditional leaders and elders noting the flexibility of adhering to both belief systems. In Monze however, basing livelihood decisions on the practice of rain-rituals resulted in strong tensions. In both communities elders noted their concern of how changing beliefs affect adherence to TEK management practices. We find that culture and beliefs play an important role in adaptive capacity but are not static. In the context of changing beliefs, adaptive capacity will be influenced by how different belief systems co-exist and how epistemological and intergenerational frictions are negotiated. As climate services become the focus of research and government interventions in vulnerable regions, avoiding culturally and economically expensive mal-adaptation will require giving attention to the complexity and dynamism of changing religious landscapes.
“Community” has long been used as the preferred scale for implementing development projects, but it is being increasingly pitched as the panacea for climate change adaptation. The Pacific region is no exception and given the speed at which projects are being implemented it is important to extract lessons from past community-based projects more generally to inform adaptation activities now and in the future. This article draws from in-depth focus-group discussions (n = 10) in four village communities in Pele Island (Vanuatu) to understand the key factors influencing the success and failure of community-based projects (n = 34) since the late 1970s until the end of 2013. The overwhelming sense from participants is that projects have largely failed in these communities, due in part to a number of standard challenges associated with sustaining projects, including issues of finance, maintenance, management expertise and so on. But it has been the social dynamics, power relations and changing traditional norms at the community level that have been at the epicentre of project failure. This points to an urgent need for “community” to be re-framed as more than just the place where projects are rolled out. Instead, it needs to be a site where the socio-political context is understood and transformed to: avoid problems being built into projects; guarantee that project goals and outcomes do not exacerbate existing inequalities; and ensure that projects do not fail, weaken adaptive capacity or result in maladaptation. This article concludes with a preliminary set of four guidelines that may contribute to the climate change adaptation literature and assist practitioners and donors working with “community” on climate change adaptation efforts now and in the future.
Understanding how social-ecological systems are and can be resilient to climate change is one of the world's most crucial problems today. It requires knowledge at local and global scales, the integration of natural and social sciences, and a focus on biocultural diversity. Small Pacific Islands and the knowledge-practice-belief systems of their peoples have a long history of resilience to environmental variability and unpredictability, including in areas with marginal habitats and with periodic, severe disturbance (e.g., drought, flood, storms, and tsunami). We review the state of research on these knowledge systems as it pertains to resilience and
adaptation, and we highlight critical research needs to address the interrelated areas of: (1) local-scale expertise and observations of change with regard to weather, life-history cycles, and ecological processes; (2) customary resource management institutions and practices (i.e., with agroforests and the nearshore marine environment); and (3) the roles of leaders, social institutions, and social networks in the context of disturbance and change. We conclude that these knowledge systems can contribute high-resolution observations, benchmark data, and insights into practices that enhance resilience and adaptive capacity in integrated terrestrial and marine systems. Community-based and participatory approaches can complement and ground-truth climate models and direct culturally appropriate resource management, research, and adaptation measures. Although most islands in the Pacific are small, their knowledge systems include valuable insights on seasonal cycles, ecological processes, and the management of biocultural diversity that are relevant at a broad scale for understanding resilience and adaptability to the social-ecological effects of climate change.
Society's response to every dimension of global climate change is
mediated by culture. We analyse new research across the social sciences
to show that climate change threatens cultural dimensions of lives and
livelihoods that include the material and lived aspects of culture,
identity, community cohesion and sense of place. We find, furthermore,
that there are important cultural dimensions to how societies respond
and adapt to climate-related risks. We demonstrate how culture mediates
changes in the environment and changes in societies, and we elucidate
shortcomings in contemporary adaptation policy.
Raja Ampat, Indonesia, possesses the greatest diversity of corals and reef fishes on the planet. The area is a priority for marine conservation for the provincial government, local communities, and major international nongovernmental organizations such as The Nature Conservancy and Conservation International. Traditional marine resource management practices in the region, referred to as sasi, have the potential to support conservation objectives. This article contends that while traditional marine resource management systems may support conservation, they must be reinforced by a supportive social structure and governance system to remain relevant in a rapidly changing world. Two villages in Raja Ampat were studied to gain a better understanding of sasi and how this practice has been affected by cultural, political, and economic change. These villages illustrate how the role of religious authorities, access to alternative livelihoods, proximity to urban centers, and capacity for monitoring and enforcement may influence the effectiveness of marine resource management systems. Our research suggests that the continued relevance of sasi in marine resource management relies on the support of influential local leaders and businesses and government regulations that reinforce traditional resource use practices.
This paper examines the role of taboos in limiting the exploitation of marine and coastal resources in Mada- gascar. I surveyed 13 communities within and adjacent to all five of Madagascar's national marine parks. The presence of food and/or species taboos and gear restrictions is widespread, with sacred areas in three national marine parks. However, only one sacred area restricted fishing. Although customary management in the Pacific is often implemented adaptively to manipulate resources, in Madagascar, taboos are highly inflexible and some communities have resisted attempts to amalgamate them with contemporary conserva - tion methods.
In environmental circles there are two long-running debates about (1) whether indigenous peoples are truly conservationists, and (2) whether Christianity is inherently inimical to conservation. In this article, I bring these two debates into dialogue by exploring the changes in resource management practices of an indigenous group in highlands Papua New Guinea, many of whom have recently converted to Christianity. In Porgerà, spirits are critical for maintaining and regulating ecological affairs, so it could be assumed that Christianity would erode whatever conservationist principles are extant in traditional religious belief. This is not the case, however. Traditional, conservation-like practices were dependent upon particular spirits, resources, and ecological zones. Christianity has engaged with these spirits, resources, and zones in complex ways. I argue that we need more nuanced understandings of how the global spread of world religions are integrating with traditional resource management practices to promote sustainability more effectively.
Environmental anthropological studies on natural resource management have widely demonstrated and thematized local resource management practices based on the interactions between local people and supernatural agencies and their role in maintaining natural resources. In Indonesia, even though the legal status of local people's right to the forest and forest resources is still weak, the recent transition toward decentralization presents a growing opportunity for local people to collaborate with outsiders such as governmental agencies and environmental nongovernmental organizations in natural resource management. In such situations, in-depth understanding of the value of local resource management practices is needed to promote self-directed and effective resource management. Here, we focus on local forest resource management and its suitability in the local social-cultural context in central Seram, east Indonesia. Local resource management appears to be embedded in the wider social-cultural context of the local communities. However, few intensive case studies in Indonesia have addressed the relationship between the Indigenous resource management practices closely related to a people's belief in supernatural agents and the social-cultural context. We illustrate how the well-structured use of forest resources is established and maintained through these interactions. We then investigate how local resource management practices relate to the social-cultural and natural resources context of an upland community in central Seram and discuss the possible future applications for achieving conservation.
This article presents a diachronic perspective on the exchange of cloths (kain timur) and the transformations in their importance over time with social and political changes in the Bird's Head region of the province of West Papua. Providing insight into the transformations in kain timur exchange sheds light on the history of the region, long characterised by influences from other islands in Eastern Indonesia while simultaneously displaying distinctly Papuan cultural and linguistic features. The exchange of kain timur has evolved amid colonial and post-colonial influences such as missionisation, government administration, education, migration, and the exploitation of resources. The most prominent current meaning of the exchange of kain timur is the safeguarding of the moral community in regard to marriage practices and married life. As material objects kain timur are considered authentic cultural products that mark local identity. In contrast to other Melanesian art forms kain timur has to date attracted little attention from art collectors, anthropologists, and tourists.
Sasi, the spatial and temporal closure of fields, forests, reefs and fishing grounds, is a conspicuous feature of many Moluccan societies. Despite increasing domestic and international awareness and praise of what is considered by many analysts to be an exemplary indigenous resource conservation tradition, the practice is in decline in many parts of the Thousand Island province, and in many villages has disappeared altogether. This study examines the practice of managing Trochus niloticus (Topshell) harvests in Ohoirenan, a village on the eastern coast of Kei Besar in the District of Southeast Maluku. Trochus is one of the most important sources of cash income for Kei villagers, and until recently, for the district government as well. Since 1987, trochus has been classified as a protected species in Indonesia, and regulations have been issued to regulate the cultivation, harvest and transport of this and other protected species. This article briefly introduces Kei customary law and property relations, followed by a description of sasi and its application to reef habitats and trochus harvests. Examining a territorial conflict between Ohoirenan and a neighboring village, and more recent contention arising from government efforts to protect the species, the article explores issues of society–nature and state–society relations as pertain to natural resource management in Indonesia. Sasi continues to function as an exemplary common property resource (CPR) management institution in Ohoirenan, assuring equitable distribution of the benefits deriving from controlled extraction of a local resource. But, erratic and uneven enforcement of “one-size-fits-all” centralized conservation policy and law, combined with collusion and self-interest on the part of various parties, combine to threaten both the resource and the institutions that have successfully and sustainably managed it in this region. Within the context of a centralized, state-led natural resource management system, the national species protection precludes the establishment of sensible, mutually beneficial co-management regimes that could serve the interests and employ the inherent knowledge and capabilities of local communities, traders, and government agents.
Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are known to be particularly vulnerable to climate change, which poses a challenge to their economic and social development. This vulnerability is expressed in several ways, from exposure to sea level rises, to salt intrusion, and extensive droughts in some areas. Despite this rather negative trend, there are examples of initiatives where the vulnerability of SIDS can be reduced, and their resilience may be increased. Based on the paucity of the literature on concrete examples of successful climate change adaptation initiatives on SIDS, this paper presents an overview of pertinent challenges faced, and introduces two case studies from the Solomon Islands, which illustrate how much can be achieved by systematically pursuing adaptation strategies. The lessons learned from these case studies are outlined and some useful insights are provided, which may help SIDS to better foster the development opportunities with climate change adaptation offers to them.
Small Island Developing States (SIDS) share a common vulnerability to climate change. Adaptation to climate change and variability is urgently needed yet, while some is already occurring in SIDS, research on the nature and efficacy of adaptation across SIDS is fragmentary. In this article, we systematically review academic literature to identify where adaptation in SIDS is documented; what type of adaptation strategies are taken, and in response to which climate change impacts; and the extent to which this adaptation has been judged as successful. Our analysis indicates that much adaptation research is concentrated on the Pacific, on independent island states, and on core areas within SIDS. Research documents a wide array of adaptation strategies across SIDS, notably structural or physical and behavioral changes. Yet, evaluation of concrete adaptation interventions is lacking; it thus remains unclear to what extent documented adaptation effectively and sustainably reduces SIDS’ vulnerability and increases their resilience.
How different groups perceive climate-related problems and changes is of growing interest in research and practice, especially in relation to the adaptation of vulnerable communities to climate change. However, research on local climate perceptions to date has tended to focus on what changes are perceived , not on how those changes are interpreted in particular socio-cultural contexts and given meaning within local worldviews and systems of values and beliefs. Based on fieldwork in agro-pastoral communities in highland Cusco, Peru, this study examines climate perceptions in terms of how local community members understand and explain changing climatic conditions. Specifically, two local climate narratives are identified and found to relate to Andean re-interpretations of Catholic and Evangelical religious traditions. The Andean practice of ritual offering to the earth (pago a la tierra) is found to play a key role both in the shifting religious identifications encountered at the local level, and in giving meaning to changing climatic conditions. The article further explores how these perspectives are rooted in diverging ontological and epistemological foundations. While in the local Catholic view the earth is conceived of as a non-human sacred/social person (pachamama or Santa Tierra) with whom a relationship of reciprocity must be maintained, the local Evangelical perspective instead conceives of the earth as an object, not a subject, more closely mirroring modernist Nature/Culture dualism. More broadly, the study suggests that how people interpret changing climatic conditions cannot simply be extracted and purified from the contexts of meaning production, and proposes the concept of 'entangled narratives' as a way of accounting for the social and cultural embeddedness of climate perceptions. Fulfilling our obligation to address climate change in socially just ways will require deepening our understanding of its human dimensions, including taking seriously what these changes may mean to the impacted groups.
This thesis is a descriptive grammar of Ambel [wgo], an endangered Austronesian (South Halmahera-West New Guinea) language. Ambel is spoken by approximately 1600 people on Waigeo, the largest island in the Raja Ampat archipelago (West Papua province, Indonesia). This grammar is based on naturalistic and elicited data, collected by the author from native speakers of Ambel. Ambel is a head-marking language, with basic SV/AVO constituent order. There are 14 native consonant phonemes and five vowel phonemes. Ambel has a tone system, in which /H/ syllables contrast with toneless syllables. Neither stress nor vowel length are contrastive. In verbal clauses, the subject of the clause is marked on the verb. This system makes a four-way number distinction (singular, dual, paucal, and plural), an animacy distinction in the third person, and a clusivity distinction in the non-singular first person. The Ambel noun phrase is mainly head-initial. There are five distinct morphosyntactic possessive constructions, the choice of which is primarily determined by a lexical specification on the possessed noun. Some nouns (including most body parts and some kin terms) are possessed in one of three constructions in which the person, number, and animacy of the possessor is marked directly on the possessed noun, while most other nouns are possessed in one of two constructions in which the possessor is marked on a prenominal possessive classifier. Within the clause, all negation particles and most aspect and mode particles are clause-final. There is no passive construction. Ambel has a rich system of spatial deixis, in which six different classes of deictic words (such as demonstratives, deictic prepositions, and deictic nouns) are derived from one of four demonstrative roots or 28 directional stems. Verb serialisation is used to express, among other things, purposive motion and changes of state. This thesis is the first major description and documentation of the Ambel language. As such, it will be of considerable interest to typologists and historical linguists, as well as others interested in the languages, cultures, and history of New Guinea. All of the data on which this grammar is based have been archived with both the Endangered Languages Archive, and the Center for Endangered Languages Documentation at Universitas Papua in Manokwari. The data will thus be available to future generations, including the Ambel community themselves.
Winner of the 2011 Julian Steward Award as given by the Anthropology and Environment Section of the American Anthropological Association. The "Hikayat Banjar," a native court chronicle from Borneo, characterizes the irresistibility of natural resource wealth to outsiders as "the banana tree at the gate." Michael R. Dove employs this phrase as a root metaphor to frame the history of resource relations between the indigenous peoples of Borneo and the world system. In analyzing production and trade in forest products, pepper, and especially natural rubber, Dove shows that the involvement of Borneo's native peoples in commodity production for global markets is ancient and highly successful and that processes of globalization began millennia ago. Dove's analysis replaces the image of the isolated tropical forest community that needs to be helped into the global system with the reality of communities that have been so successful and competitive that they have had to fight political elites to keep from being forced out. The ubiquitous but historically inaccurate emphasis on isolation and resource-poverty disguises that the overweening characteristic of these communities is their political marginality and that their greatest want is not to be uplifted economically but to be empowered politically.
The paper examines factors influencing the sustainability of integrated coastal management (ICM) projects in the Philippines and Indonesia. Measures of project sustainability are developed and primary data collected at the village level are analyzed to determine the effects of project activities and individual characteristics on ICM sustainability. The findings indicate that perceptions of benefits as well as initial benefits influence early involvement and participation in the ICM projects evaluated in the Philippines and Indonesia. In turn, this involvement enhances the chances that ultimate benefits will be those desired by the target population. Finally, achievement of these benefits stimulates continuing involvement in the activities, sustaining the ICM process.
Co‐management of protected areas and renewable resources, with its focus upon local community involvement, is often proposed as some form of ‘magic cure’ for environmental ailments and social injustices. Notwithstanding the inherent romanticism of some of the proponents of management from ‘the bottom up’, there is a strong tendency to view this approach in overly utilitarian, ahistorical and often essentialist terms. In the process, the cultural, historical and political specificities and effects of this discourse are either neutralised or totally disregarded. While a number of authors have identified some of the limitations and problems associated with the implementation of community‐based, co‐management programmes, there is still a general reluctance to question the logic which informs and is constitutive of this discourse.
In this paper, I explore the discourse of resource management in relation to the varied practices and perceptions associated with and identified as sasi . This discussion of sasi focuses upon the island of Luang, and the 1800 or so people who inhabit this island located in the southern waters of the Banda sea. The environmental and economic circumstances of Luang make it an ideal context for the investigation of ‘community‐based, marine resource management’ strategies. However, while this context seems to comply with some of the truths produced by the discourse of resource management, in this paper I argue that the very canons of this discourse are placed at risk through people's enactment of their own projects and the expression of their own representations.
Social taboos exist in most cultures, both Western and non-Western. They are good examples of informal institutions, where norms, rather than governmental juridical laws and rules, determine human behavior. In many traditional societies throughout the world, taboos frequently guide human conduct toward the natural environment. Based on a survey of recent literature, we synthesize information on such taboos. We refer to them as "resource and habitat taboos" (RHTs). Examples are grouped in six different categories depending on their potential nature conservation and management functions. We compare RHTs with contemporary measures of conservation and identify and discuss some key benefits that may render them useful in partnership designs for conservation and management. We conclude that many RHTs have functions similar to those of formal institutions for nature conservation in contemporary society but have not been sufficiently recognized in this capacity. We suggest that designs for conservation of biological diversity and its sustainable use in developing countries focus more on informal institutions, like social taboos, because they may offer several advantages compared to conventional measures. These include non-costly, voluntary compliance features implicit in the taboo system.
Le terme Papoea (Papua, Papouasie) a fait l'objet de changements de significations en fonction des disciplines et des contextes historiques. L'A. se propose d'examiner ces changements de significations, particulierement dans le discours colonial hollandais, et il centre son analyse sur les glissements de sens tels qu'ils sont apparus dans le discours anthropologique. Il examine successivement : l'emergence du terme au debut de la periode coloniale ; l'extension de l'administration hollandaise autour du debut du 20 eme siecle ; les politiques coloniales en Nouvelle-Guinee hollandaise apres la reconquete dans le cours de la deuxieme guerre mondiale et dans l'immediat apres-guerre ; le conflit entre l'Indonesie et les Pays-Bas a propos de la Nouvelle-Guinee occidentale (Irian Jaya) ; l'etat du savoir anthropologique sur ce territoire a la fin des annees 1940 ; la caracterisation de de Papoea par Held et van Baal ; et finalement les points de vue de Pouwer et van der Leeden.
Recent years have witnessed the rapid proliferation and growth of local, national, and transnational environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), national bureaucracies concerned with environmental management, and transnational institutions charged with implementing various forms of global environmental governance. This proliferation and recent theoretical trends within the discipline have contributed to a dramatic upsurge in interest among anthropologists in analyzing this phenomenon. The present discussion is an attempt to take stock of this current research trend within anthropology and to contextualize it within a larger set of topical and theoretical concerns. I examine some of the theoretical and practical sources of our interest in environmentalism and review a series of recent trends in the anthropological analysis of environmental movements, rhetorics, and representations. I also identify a set of other issues that I believe a critically informed anthropology might address in the production of future ethnographic accounts of environmental discourses, movements, and institutions. © 1999 by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. All rights reserved.
This paper examines how and for what reasons rural residents come to care about the environment. Focusing on Kumaon, India, it explores the deep and durable relationship between government and subjectivity and shows how regulatory strategies associated with and resulting from community decision making help transform those who participate in government. Using evidence drawn from the archival record and fieldwork conducted over two time periods, it analyzes the extent to which varying levels of involvement in institutional regimes of environmental regulation facilitate new ways of understanding the environment. On the basis of this analysis, it outlines a framework of understanding that permits the joint consideration of the technologies of power and self that are responsible for the emergence of new political subjects.
For the past two decades, biodiversity conservation has been an area of concerted action and spirited debate. Given the centrality of biodiversity to the earth's life support system, its increasing vulnerability is being addressed in international conservation as well as in research by anthropologists and other social scientists on the cultural, economic, political, and legal aspects of human engagement with biological resources. The concepts of biodiversity as a social construct and historical discourse, of local knowledge as loaded representation and invented tradition, and of cultural memory as selective reconstruction and collective political consciousness have also been the foci of recent critical reflection.
In this paper we examine the strengths and weaknesses of state-supported Customary Marine Tenure (CMT) systems in two independent Melanesian states (Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea) in the context of the management of rapidly intensifying commercial and subsistence fisheries. We focus particularly on the proposed use of permanent no-take Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), which are at present strongly favoured by scientists and environmentalists around the world, as the most versatile marine fishery management tool, especially in poor developing countries. We argue that, with some exceptions, typical Melanesian CMT regimes make MPAs difficult to establish, primarily due to issues of scale. We look closely at the ecological rationale for no-take MPAs, for different coral-reef based species, and assess the likelihood that populations of these species are self-replacing on the same scale as CMT territories for most of coastal PNG and Solomon Islands. We argue that with some exceptions (mainly species with short-lived larvae), the dynamics and scale of population replacement processes for most fished species make no-take permanent closures largely incompatible with traditional CMT systems, and therefore unlikely to prove a successful management tool in this socio-political context.
In many parts of the world, there is increasing interest among scientists, managers, and communities in merging long-enduring customary practices such as taboos that limit resource use with contemporary resource management initiatives. Here, we synthesize the literature on the customary management of coral reefs emerging from diverse disciplines including anthropology, common property economics, and ecology. First, we review various customary management strategies and draw parallels with Western fisheries management. Secondly, we examine customary resource management and conservation. We argue that, while resource conservation often appears to be an unintended by-product of other social processes, customary management can, in fact, conserve marine resources. In the third section, we examine the resilience of customary management institutions to socioeconomic transformations. We suggest that in conditions of high population and commercialization of marine resources, property rights may become strengthened but arrangements that rely on self-restraint become weakened. Finally, we examine the commensurability of customary management and conservation. We emphasize that practical and conceptual differences exist between customary management and contemporary conservation which have often led to failed attempts to hybridize these systems. However, when these differences are understood and acknowledged there exists a potential to develop adaptive management systems that are: (1) highly flexible; (2) able to conserve resources, and; (3) able to meet community goals. In each section, we provide research priorities. We conclude by developing six key features of successful hybrid management systems.
The widespread adoption of bottom‐up participation as opposed to top‐down modernisation approaches has opened up challenging opportunities for anthropology in development. The new focus on indigenous knowledge augurs the next revolution in anthropological method, informants becoming collaborators and their communities participating user‐groups, and touches upon such contemporary issues as the crisis of representation, ethnography's status with regard to intellectual property rights, and interdisciplinary cooperation between natural and social scientists. Indigenous‐knowledge studies are challenging not only because of difficulties in cross‐cultural communication and understanding but also because of their inevitable political dimensions. Contributing to development which intervenes in people's lives, these studies engage with them in novel ways.
Governing dynamics in marine conservation tourism in Raja Ampat
- E Atmodjo
- M Lamers
- Apj Mol
On the genealogy of Sasi: the transformations of an imagined tradition in Eastern Indonesia
- N Bubandt
The sosolot: an eighteenth century East Indonesian trade network. Dissertation
- T E Goodman
Austronesians in Papua: diversification and change in South-Halmahera
- D Kamholz