Modern conservation and indigenous peoples: in search of wisdom

Abstract

The resource management systems of indigenous people often have outcomes that are analogous to those desired by Western conservationists. They differ, however, in context, motive and conceptual underpinnings. To represent indigenous management systems as being well suited to the needs of modern conservation, or as founded in the same ethic, is both facile and wrong; it will not serve the interests of either modern conservation or disadvantaged indigenous peoples. It is argued that encounters between the interests of modern conservation and indigenous peoples must be resolved in favour of the latter.