Don’t Forget Indigenous Peoples in Conservation!

Indigenous people form diverse communities across the globe. They make up an array of unique cultures that are reliant upon many ecosystems that are struggling to survive. As a consequence, these are the people most vulnerable to the current climate and biodiversity crisis. 65% of the world’s land is owned, managed, or occupied by the indigenous people who depend on the land’s resources. Climate change is a huge threat to the livelihood of these people. The melting sea ice means Inuit hunting seasons are failing and islands home to thousands of indigenous societies will disappear. Severe droughts are reducing pastureland across Africa from the Maasai cattle in East Africa, to the Bedouin settlers of the South Sinai. Unfortunately, whilst the indigenous peoples have the most at stake in the battle against climate change and biodiversity loss, these are the same people who have had little say in conservation practice.

As a result of a view that people cannot cooperate with nature, the needs of indigenous peoples have been excluded from both consideration during planning, and from their homelands during conservation action. During the formation of the national parks in the USA, Native American societies were excluded from these parks, such as Yellowstone. The same is true for tribes in Africa, where declared national parks for the use of trophy hunting were cleared of tribal communities to prevent the hunting, or poaching, in protected areas. Inuits as well were faced with a forced new modern world requirement of money so were pushed to whaling as a living to provide food for the continent and money for their family. People are thought an unnatural presence in what should be a ‘natural’ place, and these people threaten park ecosystems via farming, burning and overgrazing.

“Ecosystem analysts have discovered the ‘degrading’ activities of the poor, but have seldom recognized that such problems were rooted in the development processes that displaced indigenous communities, disrupted people’s habitats and occupations, and forced many rural societies to increase their pressures on the environment. Now the poor are admonished….for their ‘irrationality’ and lack of environmental consciousness.” (Escobar, 1996)

Thankfully, conservation charities working with indigenous peoples’ communities have created projects that meet the needs of both these rare isolated communities and the precious wildlife around them. The IUCN, UNEP and WWF for example have been responsible for stressing the importance of integrating human sustainability principles with conservation and environmental protection. It is slowly being realised that community conservation is the future and although interests of indigenous peoples can conflict with some conservation goals, their needs must be acknowledge for humans to form a sustainable existence.

“The knowledge of Indigenous peoples continues to provide key information to protect resources, and to create opportunities for climate change adaptation and mitigation actions across diverse ecosystems.” Conservation International’s Johnson Cerda.

Thanks to the likes of Conservation International and others, indigenous people have helped scientists gain knowledge about how the land has been used for thousands of years, giving insight into how human societies can be sustainable in the future whilst protecting the valuable habitats around them.

Historically, 63% of Hawaii’s seafood was imported as a result of overfishing, coral reef degradation and pollution runoff in the last century meaning Hawaii’s once fruitful fisheries were sparse and unable to support the population. After communicating with the indigenous people, however, conservation scientists learnt about the Ioko I’a fishponds built along the coasts by their ancestors. Fish ponds have since been restored, providing millions of pounds of seafood to local communities and restocking reefs with fish by later releasing stocks into the wild. Under the guidance of conservation scientists on these islands, the indigenous people will be able to replenish fisheries and sustainably live off the fish in their area.

Over in Australia, forest fires are a huge threat to local people and wildlife but they are being fought with time-tested methods learnt from Aboriginal communities. The Aborigines helped conservation scientists through the sharing of land management techniques, where setting controlled early-season fires helped prevent the build-up of dense ground vegetation that would dry out and fuel uncontrolled fires later in the dry season.

Although there are so many validations for cooperation with indigenous communities in conservation, in current legislation their needs are still being taken with a pinch of salt. During the COP21 Paris agreement signing in 2016, the rights of the indigenous people were not properly recognised. Voicings were made early on in decision making, but in the final agreement, indigenous peoples were not accounted for in any particular way, making it less certain that they will be adequately considered as negotiators work out the details of the agreement in coming years.

“Failure to protect indigenous peoples’ rights in a final agreement will fuel destruction of the forests and other ecosystems managed since time immemorial by indigenous peoples.” Spoken by Conservation International’s board of directors regarding the COP21 agreement

Under the present state of global climate change, biodiversity, and poverty, conservation science needs to be more efficient and effective than ever. Unfortunately differences in opinion on conservation practice arise on whether indigenous peoples’ needs should be considered in conservation practice. These societies are the most vulnerable to the threats of climate change and biodiversity loss, leaving not just the wildlife but the people’s cultures in danger of extinction if action isn’t taken to help them. Indigenous needs are being incorporated into successful conservation practice today, and this needs to be recognised as their requirements to keep their livelihoods are still be ignored in high profile global agreements. There is currently little validity in arguments promoting the exclusion of indigenous people’s needs, but to many the fallacy of indigenous people’s insignificance still rings true.