Showing papers in "Human Ecology in 1999"

Against Political Ecology 1

Abstract: Starting with a priori judgments, theories, or biase s about the importance or even primacy of certain kinds of political factors in the explanation of environmental change s, self-styled political ecologists have focused the ir research on environmental or natural resource politics and have missed or scanted the complex and contingent interactions of factors whereby actual environmental change s often are produced. As an alte rnative to the present ple thora of programmatic statements on behalf of political ecology, a proposal is presented here for what may be called evenemental or event ecology. Our own experience in applying an evenemental approach to research on mangrove forests of the Philippine s will be drawn on for the purpose of illustration.

Environmental Change and Pastoral Perceptions: Degradation and Indigenous Knowledge in Two African Pastoral Communities

Abstract: Mobile livestock herders have long been seen as the main culprits of over-stocking and rangeland degradation. In recent years, however, anthropologists and ecologists have argued that African pastoralists have developed sustainable modes of pasture management based on a sound knowledge of savanna ecosystems. Comparing indigenous knowledge on species' grazing values, plant succession, and ideas about the causes for environmental change in two African pastoral societies (the Kenyan Pokot and the Namibian Himba), it is shown that their knowledge is indeed fine-grained and complex but at the same time socially constructed and embedded in ideology. It relates to a cultural landscape and not to abstract considerations on climax vegetation and its changes over time. Pastoral knowledge is built up around the interaction between herds and vegetation rather than around the environment as such.

Response to Drought Among Farmers and Herders in Southern Kajiado District, Kenya: A Comparison of 1972-1976 and 1994-1995

Abstract: This article examines continuity and change in farming and herder communities' strategies for coping with food deficits in S.E. Kajiado District, Kenya, through a comparison of coping strategies reported in surveys conducted in 1977 and 1996. It provides empirical evidence of the dynamic responses that one rural society prone to recurrent drought-related food insecurity has made to the complex interactions between exogenous and local political, economic, social and demographic, and environmental processes. It demonstrates that although driving forces emanating from national and international scales create the broad context for developmental change, local processes mediate these. As these alter, so do the options available for coping with food insecurity. The availability of these options differs according to a person's age, gender, and socio-economic status. Such dynamism and differentiation is inherent in rural development and should inform development planners and those seeking to include monitoring of coping strategies as a component of famine early-warning systems.

Private Versus Common Property Forests: Forest Conditions and Tenure in a Honduran Community

Abstract: Establishing secure tenure is widely recognized as a fundamental component of sustainable forest management. Policy-makers generally prefer privatization to achieve these ends, although common property institutions may also be appropriate. But if common property tenure is insecure and fails to control exploitation, theory predicts that private tenure should lead to better forest conditions. In this case study of a western Honduras community, forest mensuration data were collected from four private forests and two relatively open access common property forests. Statistical analyses failed to find consistent, significant differences in vegetation structure or soils related to tenure. Notable contrasts between forests reflected historical conditions and owner preferences. Neither form of tenure appeared to emphasize concerns for sustainable management, and ongoing processes of change constrained the possibility for limiting common property forest exploitation. The study adds to others which show that the outcomes of private or common property tenure relate substantially to the socioeconomic, political, and ecological context.

Common Property Models of Sea Tenure: A Case Study from the Roviana and Vonavona Lagoons, New Georgia, Solomon Islands

Abstract: In recent decades, Pacific Region indigenous sea tenure regimes have received considerable attention from social scientists who believe thatmarine-localized common entitlements and fishing practices can aid modern littoral fisheries management. The endorsement of sea tenure institutions as managerial tools, however, has proceeded without adequate consideration of their vulnerability to social and economic changes. The general view held by researchers is that Pacific Island sea tenure regimes are generally undermined by the influence of exogenous forces resulting in an open-access commons. In this article, it is argued that the contemporary transformation of sea tenure regimes emerges not only from exogenous agency, but from a complex set of autochthonous processes. A case study from New Georgia, Solomon Islands, is presented to show how sea tenure regimes can vary within an ethnically and culturally homogeneous region. Three tenure models are presented to show how different pre- and post-European contact regional settlement patterns, localized processes of political expansion and contraction, and dynamic indigenous sociocultural principles have resulted in institutional differences between each sea tenure model. The effect of the market economy on the organizational structure and managerial outcomes of each model also is discussed.

Balancing conservation with development in small-scale fisheries: is ecotourism an empty promise?

Abstract: This paper uses a political ecology approach to examine whether ecotourism along the Pacific Coast of the Baja California peninsula in Mexico promotes stewardship of marine resources, which have been devastated in recent years by uncontrolled commercial harvesting. This case illustrates how conflicts over access to common-pool resources that fueled the demise of area fisheries are now emerging in the rapidly growing industry of recreational whale watching. Even if ecotourism provides a significant new source of income through environmentally friendly, nonconsumptive resource use, it may not be sufficient to discouragelocal people from engaging in other, more destructive forms of consumptive resource use. But resource conflicts may not preclude efforts to promote conservation through ecotourism. Along the shores of Baja's gray whale calving lagoons there are nascent, community-based organizations that could serve as vehicles for mobilizing local people into conservation efforts, if local access rights to marine resources were both secure and accorded preference over outside claims to the same.

Rangeland Mismanagement in South Africa: Failure to Apply Ecological Knowledge

Abstract: Chronic, heavy livestock grazing and concomitant fire suppression have caused the gradual replacement of palatable grass species by less palatable trees and woody shrubs in a rangeland degradation process termed bush encroachment in South Africa. G razing policymakers and cattle farmers alike have not appreciated the ecological role fire and native browsers play in preventing bush encroachment. Unpredictable droughts are common in South Africa but have deflected too much blame for bush encroachment away from grazing mismanagement. Bush encroachment is widespread on both black and white farms, although the contributing socioeconomic, cultural, and political forces differ. Managers at Madikwe Game Reserve have reintroduced fire and native game animals into a formerly overgrazed system in an attempt to remediate bush encroachment, with encouraging preliminary results. A bush control program is needed that educates cattle farmers about the ecological causes of bush encroachment and encourages the use of fire and native browsers as tools for sustainable grazing management.

The power of environmental knowledge : Ethnoecology and environmental conflicts in Mexican conservation

Abstract: Theory in political ecology emphasizes the role of competing interests in shaping resource use. Although supportive of these approaches, this article draws on the importance of meanings assigned to ecological systems to question how epistemological differences also contribute to environmental conflicts. Following calls to examine the interface between environmental knowledge and action, consideration is given to ethnoecological constructs of forests on Mexico's southern Yucatan peninsula, home to the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. To quiet opposition to the Reserve, government agents increased financial aid to the region in the form of conservation development projects. With the counsel of a Reserve director, local residents effectively used these projects to press for an environmentalism based on sustainable resource use. This position has associations with a local ethnoecology of land as a place of work. In examining how ethnoecologies played out in contests surrounding conservation, possibilities for a localized, alternative environmentalism are discussed, as well as the importance of environmental constructs for research in political ecology.

Food Consumption and Subsistence in Three Caboclo Populations on Marajó Island, Amazonia, Brazil

Abstract: In this article data on household food consumption is used to further understanding of subsistence strategies in three Caboclo populations on Marajo Island, Amazonia, Brazil. Data were collected using participant observation and 24-hour food recalls in 16 households for 7 consecutive days during the rainy (March) and dry (July) seasons. Marajo-Acu households (n = 6) had the highest levels of energy and protein intake relative to recommendations. This was probably related to their successful integration into the prosperous acai (a palm fruit) market of the riverine area. Praia Grande households (n = 6) had the lowest values for energy intake (rainy season), which supports the authors' ethnographic observations of some instability in the subsistence system of this population. Paricatuba households (n = 4) exhibited intermediate values of energy and protein intakes, but less seasonal variation in consumption than the other two populations. Despite the differences observed, food consumption does not appear to be a major limitation for any of the three populations. The data support recent hypotheses concerning the concomitant and multiple use of varzea (floodplain) and terra firme (upland) environments by the Caboclos and integration into the local market economy as the central strategies in dealing with the so-called socioenvironmental constraints of the Amazonian floodplain.

Labor process and the environment : The effects of labor availability and compensation on the quality of herding in the Sahel

Abstract: The relationship between investments of labor to agricultural production and environmental degradation in rural areas of the developing world is complex. This paper reports on qualitative and quantitative research focused on the effects of labor availability and its compensation on the way in which cattle are herded in the Maasina region of Central Mali. Within this particular region, two social relationships determine the level and form of herder compensation: that between herd patriarch and cattle owner, and that between herd patriarch and herder. Both the nature of these relationships and variations in herding practice are described prior to a presentation of statistical analyses of the effects of household labor availability and cattle wealth on travel and grazing management decisions. Reductions in both the availability of herding labor and in the economic security of Fulsse households are shown to lead to reduced herd mobility and more constricted grazing patterns with significant environmental implications.

Yucatec Maya Medicinal Plants Versus Nonmedicinal Plants: Indigenous Characterization and Selection

Abstract: Medicinal plants are an important part of the environment as it is perceived by Mexican indigenous groups. The aim of this study, which was conducted over a period of 18 months in three Yucatec Mayan communities, is to better understand the selection criteria for medicinal plants. An important group of selection criteria are the flavor and aroma of plants. The absence of smell or taste indicates that the taxon has no potential medical value. Medicinal plants are more often considered to be sweet or aromatic (to smell good) or astringent, while a similar percentage of medicinal and nonmedicinal plants are considered bitter, spicy, acidic, or bad smelling. The relationship between the ethnobotanical data obtained for the individual plants and the secondary plant products (natural products) prominent in each species is specifically addressed in this paper. It shows that an understanding of the indigenous concepts used to distinguish medicinal from nonmedicinal species has considerable heuristic value.

Overlapping Patchworks of Mountain Agriculture in Peru and Bolivia: Toward a Regional-Global Landscape Model

Abstract: Overlapping patchworks of farm spatial units are characteristic of the mountain landscapes of Andean regions of Peru and Bolivia. Patchiness and overlap (200-600 m) are shaped by the broad tolerances of major crops, high variability/low predictability of habitat factors, multifaceted cropping rationales of cultivators including their linkages to extraregional influences, and, to varying extents, the sociospatial coordination of crop choice among farmers. Indian peasant farmers manage overlapping patchworks using a concept of farm spaces as loosely bounded. They apply a naming system to farm spatial units based primarily on topographic features in order to serve their cultural, social, and political purposes. Key processes suggest a regionalglobal model of overlapping patchworks. The model elucidates the roles of landscape flexibility and uncertainty in conservation-with-development. Implications are shown by farm units of diverse food plants and prospects for in situ conservation. Findings caution against universality of the zone model of mountain agriculture.

Creating Grasslands: Social Institutions and Environmental Change in Mkambati Area, South Africa

Abstract: Through a case study of the grassland system of the Mkambati area in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, the paper explores the interaction of social institutions and ecological processes in the creation of a diverse grassland environment. A number of different transitions between grassland states are examined in detail, highlighting a range of social and institutional factors influencing grassland change. The spatial patterning of different grassland types and the frequency of transitions between them are shown to be dependent on the institutional relationships between different social actors. Understanding such complex and multifaceted processes of environmental change requires analytical tools which combine social and ecological perspectives;an extended form of qualitative “state-transition” modeling, which incorporates institutional dimensions, is therefore explored.

The Fire, Pruning, and Coppice Management of Temperate Ecosystems for Basketry Material by California Indian Tribes

Abstract: Straight growth forms of wild shrubs and trees unaffected by insects, diseases, or accumulated dead material have been valued cross-culturally for millennia for use in basketry, yet these growth forms do not occur readily in nature without disturbance. California data are presented that demonstrate how fire and pruning were ancienthorticultural techniques that were utilized by Native Americans in various temperate ecosystems to shape ecosystem structure, reduce the occurrence of insects and diseases, and activate specific developmental stages in shrubs and trees for twined and coiled basketry.Itis suggested that the magnitude and extent of burning applied to wildlands for basketry and many other cultural purposes in most indigenous cultures in California have been drastically underestimated in the published literature. A methodological approach is outlined for unraveling past and present-day wildland management for basketry materials in various temperate regions. Working hypotheses to explain the ecological rationale for indigenous management at both the organismic and ecosystemic level are proposed.

Reconsidering the Role of Absentee Herd Owners: A View from Mongolia

Abstract: Since the privatization of livestock in 1992, rates of absentee ownership of livestock have increased sharply in Mongolia Unlike other documented instances of absentee herding in pastoral societies, absentee herd ownership has few detrimental ecological or social impacts in Mongolia Rather, the relationship between absentee herd owners and herders may be viewed as a revitalized institution, with links to customary patterns of urban-rural exchange, emerging to meet the needs of both herders and town-dwellers during the transition from a socialist planned economy to a free market economy Absentee herding in Mongolia differs from absentee and contract herding accounts from Africa and the Middle East in its continuing emphasis on subsistence rather than speculative investment and accumulation Other important distinctions include: (1) absentee owners and herders are usually kin or friends; (2) herders tend their own private herds in addition to absenteeowned animals;(3)few ethnic, caste, or class differences existbetween herders and absentee herd owners; and (4) herders from all wealth strata tend absentee-owned animals Policies to restrict or regulate absentee livestock ownership must be carefully considered in the Mongolian context, making clear distinctions between informal, mutually beneficial subsistence-driven arrangements among kin and friends, and more formal investment-driven contracts between businesses or investors and herders

Domestic Water Use in Rural Semiarid Africa: A Case Study of Katarko Village in Northeastern Nigeria

Abstract: Katarko village in the Sahel region of northeastern Nigeria relies entirely on natural sources of water such as rainfall and ground water. Thelatter is potentially the only constant source of water. This study is based on primary data collected in Katarko during a period of 8 months in 1996. Analysis indicates that per capita daily water consumption is higher (44.9 l) in the rainy season than in the dry season (26.1 l). The proportion of households who useless than 150 l per day, the minimum daily requirement recommended by the World Health Organization (Dieterich & Henderson, 1963) increases from 29% during the rainy season to 67% during the dry season. Most households prefer to use water of poor quality that is to be found closer to their homes to traveling long distances to or spending extra time at the water sources to obtain good quality water. Poor water quality, appalling sanitation, and unhygienic water-handling practices, particularly during the dry season, contribute to the high incidence of diarrhea in the village.

Land Use Intensification and Disintensification in the Upper Cañete Valley, Peru

Abstract: Farmers in the Upper Canete valley have both disintensified and intensified land use. The direction of land use change depends on the production zone in which it takes place. Although land in the distant rainfed agropastoral zone is disintensified through land abandonment and an increase of the fallow period, land in the nearby irrigated agropastoral zone is intensified through more frequent cropping, and the use of high-yielding potato varieties, fertilizers, and pesticides. Simultaneous intensification and disintensification contradicts Boserup's theory of agricultural intensification, which predicts unilinear change for all land use systems within a village territory. Population has decreased in the Upper Cante valley, but this factor alone cannot explain the dynamics of land use. Land use change is also driven by differences and complementarity between production zones, their distance from the villages, and social, economic, and technological change.

Common Pool Resources, Buffer Zones, and Jointly Owned Territories: Hunter-Gatherer Land and Resource Tenure in Fort Irwin, Southeastern California

Abstract: Anthropologists have described, but seldom explained, the existence and persistence of common pool resource systems among hunting and gathering populations Land tenure practices in the Fort Irwin area of the Mojave desert, California are explored Ecological, ethnographic, archeological, and ethnohistoric information suggests that this area was jointly owned and intermittently used by several distinct ethnic groups Although the region was important as a buffer against resource shortfall during certain seasons, sporadic use and meager and variable resource yield may have made exclusive ownership difficult and costly A jointly managed region with common pool resources better served surrounding groups, while simultaneously creating a spatial buffer to diffuse social tensions Following presentation of the Fort Irwin case, the paper considers the formation of such land tenure practices among hunting and gathering populations

The Emergence of Waterfowl Conservation Among Yup'ik Hunters in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska

Abstract: This paper presents evidence of emerging waterfowl conservation practices and attitudes among certain groups of contemporary Yup'ik subsistence hunters in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, a remote, wetlands dominated region of western Alaska crucial to several species of Pacific migratory birds. By examining what factors motivate hunters to follow restraint practices and evaluating how federal goose management policies impact these factors, I argue that recent policy has succeeded not by enforcement of regulations but by providing minimum necessary conditions for voluntary conservation to emerge as a cultural practice. This example of cooperative management may serve as a model for future, sustainable wildlife policies that involve indigenous resource users.

Diets in Transition: Hunter-gatherer to Station Diet and Station Diet to the Self-select Store Diet

Abstract: The transition of Australian Aborigines from a diet based on hunting and gathering to an essentially Western diet has been proceeding for almost 200 years, but in some regions was greatly delayed. In 1966/1967 G ould (1980) studied operational aspects of hunting-gathering in desert regions of northwestern Australia and recorded sufficient quantitative and species-specific data to allow definition of the diet over 5 months. By 1966, many Aboriginal people in that region had been displaced from their hunting grounds and were living in camps on cattle stations or in missions. Aboriginal diet on cattle stations in the north-westwas studied in 1951 (Commonwealth Departmentof Health) and shown to consist chiefly of fresh meat, wheaten flour, and sugar with small amounts of vegetables and dairy products. With the granting of citizenship in 1967, most Aborigines were dismissed from cattle stations and were moved first to town camps and later formed remote Aboriginal communities. Studies in the 1980s showed that the self-selected diet in such communities reflected the station diet to a greater extent than the traditional diet. Quantitative presentation of the above three diets, in terms both of foods and of major nutrients, show that many of the dietary inadequacies of the station diet identified in 1951 still persisted in self-selected Aboriginal diets in the 1980s. A comparison of the three diets with a modern recommended dietsupports the nutritional adequacy of the hunter-gatherer diet. Traditional cultural values assigned to food preferences continued to influence food choices in all three diets.

Proximate and distal variables in the demography of Rendille pastoralists.

Abstract: Following the widespread application and success of Bongaarts' proximate fertility framework in the 1980s, anthropologists and demographers have shown increased interest in the delineation of distal fertility variables, alternatively called “higher-order” by cultural ecologists or “ultimate” variables by evolutionary ecologists. This shift in focus raises at least four immediate issues: (1) confusion over the role and effect of culture on individual members' behavior, (2) whether the individual or the group forms the basic unit of analysis, (3) discordance between external and internal perspectives of demographic regimes, and (4) difficulty comparing and evaluating quantitative survey-based data with qualitative information derived from focus groups or key informants. This paper presents one approach to dealing with these problems, featuring the assessment of anthropological and demographic data collected for Rendille pastoralists of northern Kenya, a group long cited in both anthropological and demographic literature as regulating their fertility in relation to ecological factors.

Are Good Citizens Environmentalists

Abstract: It has been argued that postmodern societies suffer from a lack of social purpose and bases for solidarity, rendering citizenship a dubious concept at best. On the other hand, the global dimension of environmental problems and the emergence of green politics appear to promise a reconciliation of individual rights and duties with collective goals, suggesting a possible renewal of citizenship in a new form. This report is based on a small pilot study conducted among university students in Turkey which was designed to ascertain the perceived characteristics of an environmentalist in relation to those of a good citizen. The results suggest that environmentalism has not only penetrated the definition of citizenship, but has also become the most important dimension in designating a good citizen. Steward (1991) pointed to a rise of green global citizenship that "embodies a new sense of the universal political subject beyond the context of the traditional nation state, and a refreshed awareness of equality in terms of our shared dependence on nature" (p. 74). Falk (1994) considered the global management of the environment and its resources as one of the vital elements of the extension of new citizenship. Steenbergen (1994) suggested that citizenship would soon gain a new dimension, ecological citizenship, and Eden (1993) referred to the promotion of individual environmental responsibility by business and government in Britain, citing the Department of the Environment designation of environmental responsibility as "an instinctive characteristic of good citizenship." The close association between environmentalism and citizenship was also observed by Dunlap et al. (1993). In their worldwide survey, individual citizens and citizen groups were frequently seen as being primarily responsible for protecting the environment

Ecological Restoration and Local Communities: A Case Study from Sinkyone Wilderness State Park, Mendocino County, California

Abstract: A partir de l'examen d'un projet de reserve naturelle dans le nord de la Californie (Sinkyone Wilderness State Park, comte de Mendocino), l'A. analyse la maniere dont la participation des populations locales dans la gestion des ressources naturelles influe sur la conservation du milieu naturel et la restauration de la biodiversite. Il montre comment, dans un climat conflictuel, il existe neanmoins une demande forte de concertation et de participation entre les differentes parties impliquees : groupes environnementalistes, conseillers scientifiques exterieurs, exploitants forestiers, habitants, et administrations locales.

Oases in South Sinai

Abstract: A partir de ses propres recherches de terrain effectuees durant la periode d'occupation israelienne (1972-1982), et de sources documentaires anciennes (documents arabes et turcs issus du monastere de Sainte Catherine, recits de voyages et de pelerinages), l'A. decrit les caracteristiques des differents types d'oasis dans le Sinai meridional. Il montre comment les oasis se developpent en fonction du contexte physique et socioeconomique englobant : climat, geographie, moyens de transport et accessibilite, opportunites economiques et strategies de subsistance des Bedouins. Il met ainsi en evidence la maniere dont chaque oasis, en tant qu'unite independante, s'integre dans un systeme economique complexe.