Index | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 |
Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Appendix | Literature Cited
Chapter Two: Theoretical Framework
Local Resident Involvement
Political Ecology and Social Justice Approach
The political ecology approach to human-nature interactions acknowledges the multiple facets of this relationship. A social justice approach to understanding natural resource use and conservation is based on the premise that environmental crises are not experienced equally among all citizens and to be altered need to be considered through a variety of lenses. These include, but are not limited to, political, ecological, social, cultural and historical perspectives. The objective of using multiple perspectives is to explain local level reactions to national circumstances beyond the control of local actors. The political ecology approach provides insight into the dynamic productive relationship between humans and nature (Hayward 1994). In so doing it helps explain the situation.
Political ecology encourages explanation of actions at a local level and encourages a bottom-up process. Potentially appropriate conservation answers are more likely to grow from a bottom-up approach to issues that closes the gap between decision-makers and those affected by the decisions. Economic benefits result from such an approach as well. An evaluation of 68 World Bank development projects determined that socially informed and culturally appropriate project designs revealed cost-effectiveness (Cernea 1994). The relationship between design and implementation is important and more likely to result in success when efforts are made to create a sociocultural fit.
Although Cernea's analysis refers specifically to development projects, there are important similarities between development and conservation projects which merit mention. Development projects generally hold improved economic and social welfare as primary objectives. Conservation projects typically involve biological diversity maintenance or protection as primary objectives. This is not to say the two project types cannot inform each other. Both project types may depend upon input from local residents to achieve success in their ultimate goal, change. Analysis which informs designers how to best integrate community involvement must necessarily take [political, ecological,] social and cultural realities into consideration (Little 1994). This integrative approach to project design can contribute a great deal towards appropriate projects--whether development or conservation.
Participatory Management Approach
As globalization grows, the boundaries to environmental risks disappear. This widening reach of negative impacts from environmental degradation demands a search for new tools to address conservation needs. In this search we can draw from a broader knowledge base to find solutions to problems if we seriously consider local input. Long-term conservation is more threatened each day that community participation is not integrated into in the planning and management of PAs. Without cooperation between resource management agencies and local residents, external threats, such as infrastructure development, large-scale timber extraction and commercial enterprises are permitted to proceed in their destruction of natural resources (Borrini-Feyerabend 1997).
In many subsistence cultures competing political, economic and ethical claims to resources exist. These competing interests may include immediate economic gratification to those in power versus responsibility to future generations and groups with immediate needs due to meager financial reserves (Alario 1993). One set of competing interests is the conflict between "national" goals, such as PAs and ecotourist attractions versus community or individual use of the resources to be protected (Johnston 1995). For example, conflicts of interest occur when an ecotourist project is given precedence over spending on improving the education in a community. Both national and local level actors might be interested in conserving a particular space, but the means of achieving such conservation may be quite different as well as incompatible. The state might plan a ban local extraction; the community might want to monitor extraction; and the individual might want to exclude all people who do not share a kin relationship. Actors at all three levels desire "conservation", but each achieves it via a different path. Such competition of interests calls attention to social justice issues and the utility of a political ecology approach to understanding environmental destruction at the community or local level, as well as regional, national or international levels.
Human influence on natural resources and presence in PAs calls for the active inclusion of local stakeholders in a participatory management process. Participatory management in conservation refers to situations that substantially involve all or some of the stakeholders in a PA in management activities. (Additional terms which refer to this type of arrangement include co-management, joint management, shared-management, multi-stakeholder management.(Borrini-Feryerabend 1997)) Participatory management is most appropriate but not limited to situations:
1.) when the active commitment and collaboration of stakeholders is essential for the management of the protected area (e.g., when the PA's territory is inhabited or privately owned); and
2.) when access to natural resources in a protected area are essential to local livelihoods and cultural survival (Borrini-Feyerabend 1997: 9).
Because participatory management implies a partnership between the agency with jurisdiction over a PA and other relevant stakeholders (including local residents and resource users) and because decisions are shared between all involved to some extent, the case for participation is further strengthened by the reality that most situations are complex and would benefit from multiple interpretations.
Participatory management is particularly suited to situations where local stakeholders have traditionally enjoyed customary/legal rights in the area, there is evidence of willingness for collaboration by prepared parties and there is sufficient time for negotiation (Borrini-Feyerabend 1997). Often, however, environmental destruction is so immediate and threatening that decisions must be made within short time frames which preclude a participatory process, at least in initial stages.
Gender in Development
Due to the significant impact humans have on nature and natural systems, it is critical to recognize the connections between the two in planning PAs. Clearly, human populations are not homogenous groups. Social roles within societies create significant divisions necessitating consideration of different groups. Women's attitudes differ from men's in ways that merit considering the two as separate stakeholder groups in participatory conservation. Further, negative impacts on tropical resources will only be reduced or contained when social equity is addressed, which necessarily means involving under-represented groups, including women, in decisions (Shiva 1994).
While the justifications for considering gender range from broad to specific and have evolved over the past three decades, all point to the importance of actively including this classification for improved and appropriate conservation for all groups. Commenting on the role of gender in the development process and impacts on natural resources, Mosse (1993) argues that as long as water, land and forest are means of production for women, we will almost assuredly fail in conserving them if women are not considered.
With the growing numbers of female-headed households throughout the world, especially in declining rural economies, consideration of women is essential to preserving resources and sustainable development (Slocum and Thomas-Slayter 1995). In Honduras, various studies place the percentage of female-headed households between 20% and one-third of households (Bradshaw 1995). Although specific data on heads of households was not collected in this study, casual observation indicates that the communities surrounding NPPI are no exception to the general trend of 20-30% female-headed households. Such numbers necessitate including women in community-based resource conservation. Furthermore, there is an "underlying commonality between the premises and goals of the women's movement and the environmental movement" (B. Agarwal 1991: 5 in Jackson 1993). If success were realized for both movements, there would be benefits for conservation as well as women's rights.
Gender affects people's daily activities and varies from situation to situation. Therefore, specific attention to context is critical (Fenstermaker et al. 1991). Moser (1993) points out the importance of contextualizing a situation to avoid overlooking groups whose input is often "invisible" (Boserup 1970). Contextualizing a situation involves discovering the specific social roles of people and thus how to best design a project that will benefit them because it works within their economic, time and value systems. For example, invisibility arises in accounting systems that do not assign financial values to the fruits of labor of groups that are not recognized as productive contributors to society because they do not produce capital. Often this is a situation that characterizes women. Taking local residents' gender roles into consideration can provide insight for project design that will permit local actors to effectively participate.
An additional more recent feminist approach to the woman-nature connection is ecofeminism. It is grounded mainly on biological factors and states that due to women's more lengthy involvement in procreation, they are likely to feel a stronger alliance or connection with nature (Shiva 1994). Thus, ecofeminism argues that women are especially critical to conservation and resource management.
Davidson and Fruedenburg's comparative study of environmental concern points to potentially important differences along gender and ethnic lines. Although differences between women's and men's concern for the environment were modest overall,
the consistent finding has been that women do indeed express higher levels of concern than do men, not because they know less but because they care more. In particular, women appear to care more about the potentially serious if often empirically undetermined threats to the health and safety of their communities and families (1996: 328).
Although this comparative study was based on North American experiences, it may be argued that Honduran women are not so different as to be excluded from a similar characterization. Further, there is evidence from developing nations to support differences in attitudes between women and men. Folbre (1988), speaking globally, mentions socialization processes that teach women to be better altruists than men. This also helps explain why women "often seem less motivated by 'economic' concerns than men" (Folbre 1988:261).
When conservation of natural resources is concerned, it is generally true that women are a stakeholder group. They represent half the population, they use the resources, they head many households and existing literature points out that there are different attitudes between women and men (Davidson and Fruedenburg 1996, Bradshaw 1995, Slayter-Thomas 1995, Slocum 1995, Agarwal 1991). Women's influence covers a wide spectrum of areas and their presence is an important aspect for consideration in the context of a design for community-based conservation and management at NPPI.
The Role of Culture
Culture provides another arena in which human-environment interactions occur. A definition of culture sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and stated at a World Bank conference on culture and development is:
the whole complex of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features that characterize a society or social group. It includes not only arts and letters, but also modes of life, the fundamental rights of the human being, value systems, traditions, and beliefs (Serageldin and Taboroff 1994:2).
Thus, culture is another essential variable to consider in conservation or change because it interacts on some level with most aspects of daily life.
Explanations of indigenous people as distinct culture groups come from agreements 107 and 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO). Among other characteristics, Agreement 107 states that indigenous peoples can be identified when status is regulated by customs and traditions of previous generations. Agreement 169 specifies that indigenous groups distinguish themselves from other sectors of the larger society by cultural and social conditions. In the context of NPPI, the Gar'funa are considered an indigenous group based on
the fact that they present primarily African-American phenotypes, that their cultural patterns include many of African origin, and that one line of their ancestry is African does not negate the other historical facts in evidence [pre-European presence in the Americas, distinct cultural and language traits]. (Anthony Stocks, Idaho State University, personal communication, October 1997)
Tying culture to conservation, project development does not take place if people do not find some connection between expected results and their mode of life, human rights, value and belief systems and traditions, although their expectations may not be explicitly stated in these terms. If a group does not perceive culturally relevant advantages from a proposed change, such as a PA, they are not likely to positively participate in the change. In a situation where the success of a proposed change may create restrictions on a previously enjoyed lifestyle, consideration of cultural attributes becomes even more essential.
Two distinct culture groups live in communities within NPPI's zone of influence. Each has some distinct natural resource use practices. The Gar'funa have traditionally been fishers and subsistence farmers (Gonzalez 1979) while ladinos have been more involved in cattle ranching and large-scale agriculture. These differences impact the groups' views of resources in the area and must be considered in promoting participation.
Along the western border of NPPI lies the Garifuna community of Triunfo de la Cruz (Figure 1.2). From the southwestern to eastern borders and in the nuclear zone lie various ladino communities. Each of these culture groups has its own narrative and unique characteristics. And the variation does not stop at the legal community boundary, differences also exist within communities.
Indigenous cultures are especially at risk where threats to tropical forests exist. Brian Willson stated, in a letter to the Native Forest Network after a visit to Nicaragua, "when these people and their lands are destroyed, we are but one step behind in our own extinction." Thus, losses suffered by indigenous people and their knowledge of neotropical forest ecosystems represent losses to the dignity and sustainability of human culture in general (Willson 1996 and Froehlich and Schwerin 1983). Protecting indigenous rights has benefits for a much wider group than those specifically named, a case similar to that of considering gender.
Culture is also a synthesizing element among people. Top-down development can dehumanize and destroy culture groups, whether they are indigenous or not. Hegemonic models of PA development can destroy a group's self-esteem and sense of self-worth by de-humanizing them (Johnston 1995). If culture is lost or destroyed, it can cause the destruction of natural resource bases in cultures closely associated with forest (Richards 1997, Robinson and Redford 1994) and marine ecosystems (Warner 1997), which can have negative environmental consequences.
In addition to playing a role in human-environment interactions, culture itself can be viewed as a resource providing insight into development of conservation plans (Alcorn 1994). It can be used as a tool to promote community cohesion and to emphasize the urgency of conservation (Robinson and Redford 1994). Bringing people together to talk about conservation based on a common cultural background can serve to strengthen the community. In so doing, traditional resource uses may be maintained. If traditional uses are more environmentally friendly than other alternatives, benefits from their preservation will be widespread. Through increased understanding and appreciation of alternative natural resource use, different culture groups may eliminate conflicts over use, reducing pressure on resources. Based on experience in Kenya, Western suggests that it is "more important to adopt and adapt existing value systems as a way of protecting biodiversity than to reach for any universal ideal" (1993:31). Recognition of the presence of different cultural systems in NPPI may permit a broader, more appropriate overall policy toward natural resource use to be developed. Taking different worldviews into consideration is appropriate for the desired goal of participatory management and conservation in NPPI.
In general, culture can remind people of who they are and where they come from. It can also help them to determine where they are going. The farther back into their history the participants look, the clearer it may become where it is they should be headed in the future (Kleymeyer 1994). Re-acquaintance with cultural values may provide guidance or cohesion to groups and help prepare them to demand consideration in management efforts.
The importance of culture as an element in conservation was formally noted at the 15th General Assembly of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). Two of the suggestions to those involved in the planning and administration of PAs were to:
If local residents, who by definition spend more time in the area and may be presumed to notice changes in the state of resources, are not motivated to protect the resources, considerable human capital is lost and the costs to human and environmental conservation are high. Starting with the basis of culture and building upon it means beginning one step ahead of the game. If people share some spiritual, material, intellectual or emotional features, they may act as a foundation for beginning the discussion about change within the community, such as a PA. Using a commonality such as culture can give facilitators and managers a strengthened base from which to call residents together for discussion (Kleymeyer 1992). In the case of NPPI, consideration of the different culture groups with their richness is a starting point that offers potential for further group cohesion that can ultimately contribute to conservation.
Behavior
Understanding behavior conducive to participation in community-based
conservation and management is a starting point for reaching the goal of
participatory management. Triandis'(1971) theory of behavior indicates that
there are three components that constitute behavior - attitudes, expectations
and knowledge. I believe each of these components is affected to some extent
by gender and culture attributes. Political ecology theory highlights the
importance of considering external factors-- political, ecological, economic
and historical--in understanding local level natural resource decision-making
behavior. A more in-depth understanding of behavior in different gender
and culture groups is one basis for promotion of a more participatory process
of conservation in NPPI to be created.
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Chapter Three.
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