dp72

UNITED NATIONS RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL
DEVELOPMENT
DP 72
BIODIVERSITY
AND
HUMAN WELFARE
by Piers Blaikie and Sally Jeanrenaud
UNRISD Discussion Papers are preliminary documents circulated in a limited number

of copies to stimulate discussion and critical comment.
February 1996
The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) is an
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Preface
The loss of biodiversity as a result of human activities has become a central
preoccupation among natural scientists, and many social scientists as well.
Although we do not know the exact scale of the problem, in particular the extent to
which human beings have been responsible for the loss of biodiversity as compared
to the natural evolution, the process of species extinction, green house effects and
critical changes in the earth’s biochemical cycle are now increasingly emphasized.
The concept of human welfare is equally tangled. In general terms, it relates to the
provision of improved conditions of living. Human welfare is linked with the
preservation of biodiversity in varieties of ways. Biodiversity forms the basis of a
global-life support system. Human beings have fulfilled many of their needs by
taking advantage of the existence of many genes, species, as well as a “balanced”
ecosystem. For instance, many plant species have formed the basis of food, fibre,
medicines and many other useful items. There are also many aesthetic and ethical
values of plant and animal species.
This paper considers the complex relationships between biodiversity and human
welfare. It shows how biodiversity and human welfare are perceived differently by
a wide range of actors. These contested meanings constitute the problematique of
biodiversity, an understanding of which has profound implications for conservation
policy-making. The authors examine, in particular, how biodiversity has been seen
by different groups of people and how they interact in the arena of biodiversity. It
not only looks at the level of dependence that different sections of the rural poor
have on biodiversity either as use values or for petty commodity production, but it
also examines such groups as policy makers at the international level, state
functionaries, entrepreneurs, corporations and timber traders which have frequently
more influence on the discourses surrounding the protection and use of
biodiversity. To illustrate this, the paper includes three detailed case studies
involving Russian forests, tropical forests and wildlife in Cameroon and marine
biodiversity in Greenland.
The paper suggests that international conservation policy and practice are
undergoing rapid transformation from the previous predominately nature
preservation orientation to sustainable use of natural resource for livelihoods.
Many groups of policy makers and scholars at the international level perceive a
synergy between biodiversity conservation and human welfare. However, few
concrete policies and strategies have so far been developed to implement these
ideas in practice. There have been formidable political problems in the way of
negotiating biodiversity conservation at the international level. There have also
been serious questioning of the capability and will of many states to implement
conservation policies on the ground. At the local level, conservation efforts have
led to the definition and appropriation of the biodiversity resources by outside
forces, and this in turn has generated conflicts over these resources. The paper
argues that while the contemporary debate about biodiversity appears to represent
elements of a new moral dimension about “human-nature” relationships, it is also a
testimony to familiar political-economic divisions. These involve divisions
between international, national and local interests; between North and South;
between science and politics; official and folk; and power relations at the local
level deriving from differences of class, ethnicity and gender.
i
The central conclusion of the paper is that there are strong pragmatic and political
grounds for paying detailed attention of the impact of biodiversity erosion and
conservation upon human welfare, particularly in cases where conservation efforts
may possibly affect local people directly. The pragmatic grounds are that coerced
and enforced conservation tends to fail in the long run. The political grounds are
that other considerations such as the abuse of human rights and the accentuation of
inequalities are related to environmental degradation, and so conservation efforts
must be seen to address these issues too, and not to exacerbate them.
Piers Blaikie is professor at the School of Development Studies, University of East

Anglia, Norwich. Sally Jeanrenaud is an independent consultant on environment
and rural development and a doctoral candidate at the same university.
This is one of the several thematic papers commissioned under the project on the
social and environmental impacts of national parks and protected areas. The
Institute has collaborated with several leading organizations for the preparation of
these papers. This particular paper is an outcome of joint efforts between UNRISD
and the School of Development Studies/Overseas Development Group, University
of East Anglia, Norwich. The project on the social and environmental impacts of
national parks and protected areas is co-ordinated at UNRISD by Krishna Ghimire.
February 1996 Dharam Ghai

Director
ii
Contents
1. THE MAJOR ISSUES

1
Introduction 1
“Biodiversity”: Some Definitions 3
A Summary of the Biodiversity Problem
5
Biodiversity and Human Welfare 7
Biodiversity and Values 7
An Illustration of Social Differentiation and Biodiversity Values
10
2. APPROACHES
12
An Overview of Biodiversity Issues 12
Interdisciplinary Research Initiatives 17
UNCED and the Biodiversity Convention
18
Conclusions about Conceptual Issues of Biodiversity 20
3. ACTORS
21
Policy Makers at the International Level
22
State Functionaries in Biodiversity Conservation
27
Entrepreneurs and Corporations 28
The Timber Trade 31
Local Agrarian Groups 33
4. INSTANCES 39
Russian Forests 40
A Case Study of Biodiversity in Cameroon 44
Marine Biodiversity: A Case Study of Whaling in Greenland 52
5. POLICIES
57
The Classic Approach 58
The “Neo-Populist” Approach 61
The “Neo-Liberal Economic” Approach 66
6. CONCLUSION
68
iii
Bibliography
71
iv
1. THE MAJOR ISSUES
Introduction
This paper examines the complex relationships between biodiversity and human welfare. It
aims to show how biodiversity and human welfare are perceived differently by a wide
range of actors. These contested meanings constitute the politics of biodiversity, an
understanding of which has profound implications for conservation policy-making. The
main questions addressed are:
(i) How has biodiversity been understood by different groups of people?

(ii) What aspects of human welfare are affected by biodiversity degradation and by
conservation?
(iii) Who bears the costs and reaps the benefits of biodiversity degradation and
conservation?
(iv) What are the practical mechanisms “on the ground” that will deliver such benefits?
While policy makers and writers at the international level perceive a synergy between
biodiversity conservation and human welfare as an unproblematic “vision” of conservation,
from the level of practice their supposed relationship more often appears as rhetoric. There
have been formidable political problems in the way of negotiating biodiversity
conservation at the international level. There has also been serious questioning of the
capability and will of many states to formulate and implement conservation policies on the
ground. At the local level, conservation efforts have led to the definition and appropriation
of biodiversity resources, usually in the name of the state, and this in turn has precipitated
struggles over those resources. Finally, there are crucial ambiguities and contradictions in
the formulation and practice of biodiversity conservation, particularly in the role of science
and “facts” in the biodiversity discourse. Thus, while the contemporary debate about
biodiversity appears to represent elements of a new moral dimension of “human-nature”
relationships, it is also a testimony to familiar political-economic divisions. These involve
divisions between international, national and local interests; between North and South;
between science and politics; official and folk; and power relations at the local level
deriving from differences of class, ethnicity and gender.
Bearing these issues in mind, it is easy to see that analysis of the relationship between
biodiversity and human welfare cannot be only a matter of scientific research. While
scientific methods may be powerful ways to identify and present the problems of
biodiversity erosion, they are not the only ones. Biodiversity is constituted as a range of
resources, which are the focus of both commercial exploitation and livelihoods. The debate
is thus highly politicized. Even within the academic and international policy-making
environment, we need to be critically aware of the social forces that withdraw and confer
credibility to various scientific ideas. A sociology of scientific knowledge indicates that
scientific “facts” are used to support various intellectual projects, upon which reputation,
promotion and consultancy fees depend. Therefore discourses take place at many different
levels and by a wide cast of protagonists. This paper attempts to identify different actors
and stakeholders in the biodiversity arena, their interests, how they are perceived and
articulated, and then promoted in the face of other different and often competing ones.
An analysis of biodiversity and human welfare must not confine itself only to the economic
concerns of the actors involved. It must also involve a critical review of the ideas and
ideologies of biodiversity. In other words, it is naive to expect that one can “read off”
notions about biodiversity from the structural position which actors hold, or that they will
create and use ideas that somehow are explainable in terms of their being instrumental to
their economic interests. Rather, different actors create their own ideas about biodiversity,
appropriate and adapt others, and experience and use them in different ways in different
UNRISD Discussion Paper No. 72
arenas. It is thus necessary to focus on the ideas themselves as well, and a section on
different paradigms for biodiversity conservation is devoted to this task, bearing in mind
that actors will use parts of these paradigms, sometimes in an eclectic and contradictory
manner, in pursuit of their own “projects”. Actor-oriented approaches have recently been
developed to analyse the “development interface” by Long and Long (1992) and others,
with particular reference to how various actors pursue their “projects” within the context of
their “life-worlds”. While a full treatment of the life-worlds of actors who appear in the
arena of biodiversity would be too ambitious for our purposes here, it is useful to extend
the analysis of biodiversity and human welfare beyond a mere representation of the
interests of different stakeholders (e.g. biotechnology prospectors, wildlife protection
groups, forest dwellers in the tropics, etc.). It is necessary also to understand how the ideas
that different people have about nature are formed and articulated; how those arguments are
used and supported by recourse to scientific “facts” or to natural justice and inalienable
rights.
In this way we develop an approach in which people have specific interests in very
particular natural resources or species for precise purposes. We argue that “nature” is not
only perceived and valued from various cultural and ideological perspectives, but that
powerful economic incentives are involved in shaping and conserving particular aspects or
constituents of it. By no means all of these different interests and normative notions about
biodiversity concern human welfare, although they may be invoked in its name.
The main objective of this paper is to contribute to a more consistent and effective strategy
for the conservation of biodiversity, and to identify clearly how and who conservation will
and should benefit. For a more effective policy to emerge, the vision must be deconstructed
into its often contradictory parts, and deepened to accommodate social dynamics. As a first
step, we argue, this requires changes both within and outside the conservation movement.
The conservation movement itself must recognize and work with the political economy of
biodiversity erosion and conservation. It is not only a matter, as Pimbert (1993) suggests,
of a “new professionalism”, one which works closely with local groups and which
integrates thinking from both the social and natural sciences. We support this initiative, but
it also requires two others — a partial rapprochement to the political economic realities in
the local and global political economy, and also the advocacy to change some of the most
damaging of these realities in terms of biodiversity erosion and implications for the
undermining of human welfare. This change mainly implies the development of effective
policies at the international, state and local levels, but at the same time understanding the
political and institutional obstacles which stand in its way. These obstacles must not be
characterized simply as “lack of political will”, corruption or administrative inefficiency
and somehow externalized from the policy-making process. They must be worked with and
tackled in arenas other than biodiversity conservation alone — for example in trade and
tariff agreements, the structure and volume of international aid to developing countries,
human rights for indigenous peoples — in short a number of enduring political issues
revolving around human welfare, which may be only indirectly related to biodiversity
conservation.
“Biodiversity”: Some Definitions

“Biological diversity” or “biodiversity” is still a relatively new concept which is not found
in dictionaries published before mid-1980s (Dudley, 1992). The term “biodiversity”
entered the scientific language as a result of a US National Academy of Sciences’
publication of the same name (Wilson, 1988). However it draws together concepts that had
preoccupied ecologists and geneticists for some time prior to that date.
There have been a number of international conventions concerned with specific aspects of
biodiversity — for example, the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance,
especially Waterfowl Habitat (known as the Ramsar Convention, 1971), the Convention to
Regulate International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (Washington,
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Biodiversity and Human Welfare
1973), the Convention of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (Bonn, 1980), and the non-
binding International Undertaking on Plant Genetic Resources. There have also been
conventions concerning biodiversity in particular regions, for example the Convention on
European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (Bern, 1979), the Convention on Nature Protection
and Wildlife Preservation in the Western Hemisphere (Washington, 1940) and the African
Convention on Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (Algiers, 1968). As the
names of these conventions imply, the issues involved concerned species and landscape
conservation. None of them were focused on biodiversity on a global scale, and on the full
and integrated set of definitions of the word (which are discussed below). Nor did they
explicitly consider the implications of conservation for development and human welfare,
except in passing.
By 1987, there was growing scientific evidence of the erosion of biodiversity on a global
scale. This also resonated with emerging problems with the control of genetic information,
which emerged with the rapid development of biotechnology. Since the beginning of the
1990s the conservation of biodiversity had also become one of the central goals of
international conservation organizations such as the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF),
the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) (WWF, 1993a). Much of the scientific and commercial interest originated in the
United States, and this country was the first to pressure for a global convention. UNEP was
prompted to organize an Ad Hoc Working Group of Experts on Biological Diversity. After
a number of meetings this was turned into an intergovernmental negotiating committee,
which ran into some key political issues concerning sovereign rights over genetic
resources. Nonetheless, it addressed the wider issues of all biodiversity protection on a
global scale, and is used as a framework for the discussion by the present paper. It now has
international recognition as a result of the Biodiversity Convention signed under the
auspices of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in
Rio in June 1992, and it has since become an increasingly prominent public policy issue, as
governments seek to ratify the Convention.
The term biodiversity involves a complexity of meanings and levels. As used in the
Convention, the term has the following definition (IUCN, 1994):
• “Biological diversity” means the variability among living organisms from all sources
including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the
ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species,
between species and of ecosystems.
•
Thus biodiversity is the variability of life in all forms levels, and combinations. It is not the
sum of ecosystems, species and genetic material, but rather represents the variability within
and among them (IUCN, 1994). Biologists usually consider it from three different
perspectives:
• “Genetic diversity” refers to the frequency and diversity of different genes and/or
genomes. It includes variation both within a population and between populations.
• “Species diversity” refers to the frequency and diversity of different species
• “Ecosystem diversity” refers to the variety and frequency of different ecosystems
It can be seen that these three perspectives form a hierarchy and are basically different
ways at looking at the same thing (IUCN, 1990). All biodiversity is the result of natural
selection working on the consequences of genetic variation (Lee, 1993). Much important
diversity is invisible — such as microscopic life-forms in soil (Beard, 1991) — or not
obvious — such as variation within a single species.
The scientific understanding of biodiversity is still at an early stage (as discussed below).
The initial scientific focus was on estimating the diversity of life forms and the scale and
rapidity of their decline (Wilson, 1988). Although an estimated 1.7 million species have
3
been described to date, we do not know the true number of species on Earth, even to the
nearest order of magnitude. While counts for small groups, such as birds, are relatively
well known, the biggest question mark lies over the number of insects and micro-organisms
(WCMC, 1992).
A Summary of the Biodiversity Problem

The proximate or direct causes of biodiversity loss are well documented. These include
mechanisms such as habitat loss and fragmentation, over-exploitation of plant and animal
species, introduced species, pollution, climate change, and agro-economic processes which
have resulted in a concentration upon a short list of few heavily utilized species, at the
expense of and extinction or threatened extinction of the remaining species. This process
began with the emergence of settled agriculture and more sophisticated hunting and
herding techniques. Until approximately 10,000 years ago, only natural processes of
extinction had occurred, but were added to by spatially isolated cases of the extinction of
wild animals which competed with humans, usually at sites of intensive settlement. It is
estimated that in the present greatly accelerated phase of extinctions, current rates of
extinction may be between 1000 and 10,000 times the historical rate (Wilson, 1988).
Once this short list of heavily utilized species is established, the forces for specialization
become firmly established in which capital goods are applied to the production of these
species and these species alone. “Sunk costs” such as technologies, along with adapted
social and economic structures (e.g. irrigated paddy production), are important
considerations acting against the diversification and extension of the short list of existing
species (Swanson, 1992c). The result is that it becomes attractive to increase the quantities
of these established specialized species, rather than to invest in the new technologies and
socio-economic and political structures that would be necessary in order to begin to exploit
other species not on the short list of the twenty or so which produce the great majority of
the world’s food (Plotkin, 1988). As specialization of agriculture deepens and diffuses
(from early settled areas, and from the North to the South), the rates of conversion to
specialized species and the associated conversion of wild (and biologically relatively
diverse) habitats to settled agriculture or livestock production increases greatly. Table 1
indicates rates of conversion of natural habitat to agriculture between 1960 and 1980.
Table 1
Rates of conversion of natural habitat to agriculture (million hectares)
Developing countries 1960 1980 % change
Sub-Saharan Africa 161 222 37.8
Latin America 104 142 36.5
South Asia 153 210 37.2
South-East Asia 40 55 37.5
Developed Countries
North America 205 203 0.1
Europe 151 137 -10.0
USSR 225 233 2.0
Source: Repetto and Gillis (eds.), 1988
From Table 1 it will be clear that conversion is far greater in developing countries, since
the process is largely completed in the developed countries. In addition, population growth
in developing countries is relatively rapid. It increased between 1950 and 1990 from 1.6 to
4.0 billion people; at least 85 per cent of the world’s population will live in these countries
by the year 2100 (Western, 1989). Other statistics (e.g. WRI, 1990) also show that the
conversion rate to crop and pastureland from 1977-1987 in developing countries was
extremely rapid (e.g. Paraguay 71.2 per cent and Niger 32 per cent to cropland; Ecuador
61.5 per cent and Thailand 32.1 per cent to pastureland). This process of conversion can be
expressed in an alternative way (see Table 2)
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Table 2
Loss of wildlife habitat
Source: WWF, 1993a:15
The implications of the conversion process, expressed in terms of area related to estimated
rates and projections for extinction, are open to debate and the range of projected losses is
quite large (see discussion below). Swanson (1992b) has collated a number of estimates of
extinctions of global species per decade (see Table 3)
Table 3
Estimates of extinctions of species per decade
Rate* Projection** Basis Source
(cited in Swanson, 1992)
8% 33-50% Forest loss Lovejoy (1980)
5% 50% Forest loss Ehrlich and Ehrlich (1981)
— 33% Forest loss Simberloff (1986)
9% 25% Forest loss Raven (1988)
5% 15% Forest loss Reid and Miller (1989)
* Rates are percentage losses of total number of species per decade.
**Projections are based on the extrapolation of this trend at then-current rates through
to the total conversion of the examined forest area.
Source: Swanson, 1992b:23
There are many global projections of the rates of extinction. For example Reid (1992)
estimates that there will be a 1.5 per cent global loss of biodiversity per decade, while
WWF states that “half the species alive today could be extinct by the end of the next
century” (WWF, 1993a:14).
What is less well understood are the remote or fundamental causes of environmental
change embedded within the global political economy. Analysis of these causes would
need to address the impact of political and economic processes on biodiversity, at different
levels (see Blaikie, 1994 for “the chain of explanation” model for land degradation). These
might include:
• the global economic system (e.g. the foreign debt crisis, oil prices, restructuring, etc.);
• the nature of the state (e.g. land tenure laws, abilities of administration, government
stance on transnational companies in forestry, etc.);
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• the nature of agrarian society (e.g. distribution of rights to land, laws of inheritance,
gender division, etc.);
• local land users’ resources and practices, etc.
It is clear that most current biodiversity reduction is taking place in developing countries. It
is perhaps for these reasons that initial attention has been given to tropical “hot spots”
(Myers, 1988). These are usually forest areas characterized by exceptional concentration of
species with high levels of endemism, and experiencing rapid rates of depletion, such as
Madagascar, Cameroon, the Atlantic rainforest of Brazil, and peninsular Malaysia.
However, since the early 1990s interest has broadened to include the world’s temperate and
boreal forest regions (Dudley, 1992). Biodiversity in some plant and animal groups, such as
soil micro-flora and fauna, can approach that found in tropical forests (Lattin, 1990).
Genetic diversity within species is also thought to be particularly important in temperate
forests, making some local populations of great ecological importance (Dudley et al.,
1995). However, in terms of species diversity, the aphorism that “the North has the
technology but the South has the bio-” captures one of the central political economic issues
of biodiversity conservation. This will be further discussed below.
Despite much biological and ecological literature, the theory behind biodiversity and the
functioning of ecosystems remains nebulous, lacking in hard data and open to varying
interpretations. It appears, for example, that there are no clear-cut relationships between
biodiversity and ecosystem productivity or stability (Gadgil, 1993). Experimental reduction
of ecosystem diversity has shown that it does not necessarily lead to loss of productivity. In
fact, some simple man-made systems with low levels of biodiversity are the most
productive of all. However, monocultures are less resilient in the face of perturbations such
as pest outbreaks. Deep sea benthic ecosystems are very diverse, but maintain low levels of
productivity; whereas highly diverse coral reef ecosystems appear to be very susceptible to
disruption. However, despite (and also because of) the lack of any clear relationships,
conservationists have been quick to promote the “precautionary principle” until further
scientific evidence becomes available.
Estimates of biodiversity loss involve large degrees of uncertainty, and are derived from
extrapolations of measured and predicted habitat loss, and estimates of species richness in
different habitats. Some critics argue that the assumptions about extinctions have little
scientific support and are wide open to question (Mann, 1991). For example, most
predictions of species loss are based on using islands as a model, whereas on mainland
territories species may escape into bordering areas. Data on habitat and species loss can
therefore be misleading. Moreover, current models of the relation between species and
geographic area imply that an infinite increase in area implies an infinite increase in the
number of species. However, others argue that the species-area curve levels off at its upper
reaches. Thus, habitats on the upper part of the species-area curve can be reduced without
substantial species loss. Furthermore, the estimates of mass extinctions are largely based on
species predicted to exist, rather than species actually identified (Mann, 1991). The
problem of biodiversity policy resting on a questionable scientific basis can be summed up
by a quotation from a prominent but anonymous conservationist who said: “they’ll kill me
for saying this ... but the lack of data worries me. I am absolutely sure we’re right, but a gut
feeling isn’t much backup when you’re asking people all over the world to change their
lives completely” (cited in Mann, 1991).
According to some observers, conservation of biodiversity is merely a sophisticated

expression of a well established pre-occupation with the conservation of a small number of
extinction-prone animal species and their habitats. Despite the rhetoric, conservation policy
is still aimed at key species (Dudley, 1992). However, Pimbert (1993) acknowledges that
most of the species important for the maintenance of ecological processes (the
inconspicuous organisms) are located in human-managed ecosystems such as agricultural
and forestry land, which therefore lie outside protected areas, with (presumably) greater
species diversity. For example, in West Germany only 35-40 per cent of the total of 30,000
species are found in protected areas; the remaining species live in human-managed
6
ecosystems (Pimbert, 1993). There is a strong case for conservation organizations to pay
more attention to human-managed ecosystems to fulfil the goals of biodiversity
conservation, rather than to concentrate efforts and data collection on unconverted habitats.

The notion of “welfare” is also subject to multiple interpretations, and can be identified in
the current context as ways in which different values of biodiversity are appropriated by
different actors. Thus there is a growing recognition of the need to accommodate
qualitative and indigenous concepts of the values of biodiversity with a particular emphasis
on the ways in which these appropriated values are distributed. Also, the range of measures
of welfare has been steadily extended, as illustrated by the increasing sophistication of the
Human Development Index (HDI), published annually by UNDP. For example, in 1993
UNDP introduced the idea that the participation and empowerment of individuals and
groups to shape their own lives are important dimensions of welfare.
Many of the methodological and scientific references which mention the connections
between biodiversity and human welfare have done so in very general terms. The discourse
usually focuses on the benefits of biodiversity to “mankind” over long time periods and on
a global scale. Attempts are made to identify the value of biodiversity conservation, to
demonstrate its constituent parts, and then go on to capture those values in decision-making
criteria. It is, of course, in the latter that the question of how these benefits affect humans
(and which humans) impinges upon our concern of human welfare. We believe there is an
urgent need to analyse the social complexities of these generalized arguments. This is done
first by identifying the different values of biodiversity in principle, and then by specifying
who appropriates each of these values which contribute to their welfare.
Biodiversity and Values

How have the values of biodiversity conservation been understood? Values have to be
relevant to human beings, and implicitly values of a resource such as biodiversity, when
they are realized, are a way of understanding human welfare. However, at the outset it is
worth mentioning that the reasons for conserving biodiversity relate not only to human
welfare and that there are other non-anthropocentric reasons for conservation. The section
concludes with an illustration of the contested meanings and values of biodiversity.
Five general reasons have been given to explain the importance of maintaining biodiversity
(summarized among others by Inskipp, 1992).
(i) Ethical reasons: the belief that every life form warrants respect independent of its
worth to people and human welfare.
(ii) Maintaining ecosystems: a myriad of life forms are essential for keeping air clean;
stabilizing weather; disposing of wastes; recycling nutrients; creating soils; controlling
diseases; pollination, etc.
(iii) Material and economic benefits to people: biodiversity contributes to agriculture;
fisheries; medicines; industry, etc.
(iv) Maintaining evolutionary processes: biodiversity is the raw material of further
evolution. If the genetic resource base is drastically reduced, the result is likely to be a
depletion of evolution’s capacities for speciation and adaptation persisting far into the
future.
(v) Aesthetics: many species inspire beauty and awe. Conservation literature is full of
statements about the connection between biodiversity and human well-being in terms
of these subjective criteria.
These general reasons for conserving biodiversity may be expressed in terms of the values
which they represent, as described below.
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Direct and instrumental/use values

These are concerned with the enjoyment and satisfaction derived from the use of biological
resources. Thus they involve the consumption of those resources and their realization is a
major factor in the possible depletion of those resources. Direct values can be decomposed
into two types.
(a) Consumptive use values, which refer to the values that are placed on those products that
are consumed directly without passing through a market, and clearly are of greatest
importance to rural populations in developing countries, where biological resources are
collected and used (often from the “wild”, or those areas not subject to the rights and
obligations under private property). They include a vast array of wild animals, insects, fish,
fibres, resins, medicinal plants, fuelwood, fruits, fungi, dyes, gourds, construction materials
and so on. They also refer to cultural, religious and recreational values involved in the
consumption of the resource (e.g. the importance of whale meat in Inuit cultures, or of
hunting in initiation rites of many African pastoral peoples).
The loss of this value of biodiversity can come about for a number of different reasons.
Population pressure on forest areas can convert them into privately held agricultural land,
which may well result in increased aggregate food supplies, but a reduced variety of
resources for subsistence. Also such encroachment on forests and common property or
open access resources typically impacts on those who have least access to private property.
It is important to note that the erosion of consumptive use values of biodiversity for the
poor and politically weak usually arises for three main reasons. First, there occurs an
alteration in the distribution of those resources at the expense of less powerful groups.
Second, there is a widespread conversion of value from consumptive to productive use
values through an extension and deepening of the market for many of these resources.
Third, a decline in their aggregate supply on the remaining de jure common property and
de facto open access resources tends to occur through overuse. As will be illustrated further
by case study references, it is common that all three processes operate together in an
agrarian political economy, and that the purely biological issue of diversity and supply of
different resources is only part of the picture. These reasons for the loss of biodiversity and
their implications are illustrated in section 3.
(b) Productive use values, which are assigned to resources which are harvested and sold in
the market, and therefore appear in national income accounts. They are generally valued at
the point of production and harvesting, and involve a similar overall range of resources
used for direct consumption, although these may be very different at different locations. In
some cases they may involve domesticated agriculture and a short slate of specialized crops
or products (such as a few tree species which are recognized to be commercially useful),
but in other cases the same products may be considered to have both consumptive and
productive values (e.g. commercial and subsistence-based culling of the same wild
animals).
Productive use values therefore contribute to welfare in the provision of monetary income
to those who can appropriate this value through the effective realization of private property
rights, which may already exist in their favour, or through the acquisition of these rights. It
is often the case that entrepreneurs may secure agreements with the state which overlay or
directly overturn existing customary rights to resources, which hitherto had been enjoyed
by local groups in the agrarian political economy. These groups include forest dwellers,
farmers and pastoralists who had previously been able to exploit these resources locally,
both as productive use values through their sale as petty commodity producers and directly
through consumptive use. Technological change has continually created new opportunities
to develop productive use values, such as in the development of genetic material for new
varieties of domestic crops and in medical research. Issues of the ownership of intellectual
8
property rights of these resources arise (e.g. landraces) as a result of these new market
opportunities at the global scale.
Indirect instrumental/use values

(a) These mostly refer to the functions and services of eco-systems which have value for
society in general rather limited to the specific user(s) and therefore support and have
important social and economic implications for direct values. These are values which are
not consumed or traded in the market place and are known as public goods. Conservation
of biological resources have the following benefits:
• providing the support system for harvested species by photosynthetic fixation of solar
energy and its transference into food chains which involve harvested species;
• providing ecosystem functions involving reproduction. There are a variety of ways in
which wild biological resources may contribute to the productive use values of
domesticated resources (Prescott-Allen, 1986). These include: wild species forming the
genetic resource for the breeding of new domesticates; wild pollinators being essential
for domestic crops; and wild enemies of pests controlling attacks on domestic crops;
• maintenance of hydrological régimes, including the recharging of water tables and the
buffering of extreme hydrological conditions, which might otherwise precipitate
drought or flood;
• soil and water conservation by the regulation of water flows, the provision of suitable
environments for the creation and maintenance of soil and its fertility through storage
and cycling of essential nutrients;
• absorption, breakdown and dispersal of harmful pollutants (air and water pollutants,
organic wastes);
• the provision of the aesthetically and culturally preferred environment for human
habitat;
It is clear that the contributions of these indirect use values to human welfare will be very
substantial, even if their measurement is both practically and methodologically very
difficult. They are also diffuse and distributed widely between populations, both at present
and in the future. Also the erosion of these functions may not result from the reduction of
biodiversity per se. For example, there are plenty of examples of adverse impacts of soil
erosion and declines in productivity of primary and secondary production of rangelends,
but the physical processes involved usually do not revolve around a local or regional
reduction in biodiversity.
(b) Option values, which refer to the future uses of both direct and indirect values,
described above. The future is uncertain but the fact of the extinction of a species is all too
certain. The future paths of socio-economic (including technical) change are also uncertain,
and unforeseen developments such as the implications of climatic change for natural
resource use, and for biodiversity in particular can only be guessed at and their aggregate
effects cannot be known at the present time. However there is a value in maintaining
genetic diversity, even though we do not know its value, although we do know that there is
a positive value for maintaining the option. There are also other options which society may
be prepared to pay for, such as having future access to a given species or ecosystems, even
though people cannot specify what these might be, or even contemplate ever visiting,
reading about, or benefiting in any way from them.
Non-instrumental intrinsic value
Many, particularly but not exclusively from “deep ecology” movements, would argue that
all species have an intrinsic value, that biodiversity is a moral condition, and its
conservation a moral responsibility, since non-human species have rights too. Therefore
this value is non- even anti-anthropocentric, and has no connection with human welfare
9
other than (and this will be important to Gaians and others in the ecology movement) that
the act of discharging a moral responsibility contributes to human welfare.
While this list undoubtedly points to general categories of value, it hides a complexity of
particular and contradictory interests. For example, while “charismatic” species such as
elephant may inspire awe and wonder among the urban middle classes of the North, they
may be regarded as a pest to agricultural communities in the South. While biodiversity
clearly provides material benefits to commercial companies, new developments in the
biotechnology industry may be at odds with the ethical or aesthetic values of other groups,
and may even undermine the material subsistence of some. The point is that different actors
appropriate different values from different aspects of biodiversity, and gain access to
different functional benefits. How this and other values are understood and measured are
discussed below. The task remains to identify these different values of biodiversity, at
which level of biodiversity they may be realized and to whom they might typically accrue.
This is complex because of the number of combinations of value, benefit, uses and levels of
realization, and the hierarchical definitions of biodiversity. These different combinations
are thematically illustrated by examining a brief case study taken from the Nepalese terai
and are drawn from both authors’ professional experience there, and from Ghimire (1992)
and Brown (1994).
An Illustration of Social Differentiation and

Biodiversity Values
The pressures for conversion to agricultural land in the Nepalese terai are formidable.
Population densities are still about half those on the Indian side of the border (a few
kilometres away), but the Middle Hills of Nepal are experiencing extreme pressure on land,
and out-migration to the terai is rapidly gaining pace (Brown, 1994; Ghimire, 1992; Blaikie
et al., 1980). It is mostly the very poor who encroach on the forest (sukhumbasi, “those
without any place to go”), and their prevention by evictions, crop burning and other acts of
violence is undoubtedly a cost for them. However, forest resources are being used, and
biodiversity reduced, by other more powerful groups such as timber contractors, and their
clients in the local political hierarchy (e.g. the pradhan panch, or village headman ). Thus
the issue of biodiversity is also a struggle over the classification of those resources (e.g.
whether the land is demarcated as official state forest or agricultural land for settlement).
The meaning of “biodiversity” is, at the local level, one of naked struggle over resources.
The costs of conserving the forest are also borne, at least theoretically, by the Nepalese
state, in terms of the opportunity costs of foregone timber and grain exports to India. But
here again local specificities of the political economy of Nepal prevent all but the smallest
proportion of those revenues from reaching the national accounts and being used to further
human welfare in such ways as the provision of educational and health facilities in the area
by the state. So it is with one of our case studies later in this paper, that of Cameroon, in
which the costs of biodiversity conservation are borne in practice by local people who rely
on wildlife for subsistence and the forest for shifting cultivation. In examining below the
global responsibilities for conservation, who bears the real costs of conservation must also
be considered, as does the question of whether local communities do in fact benefit at all
from attempts to offset such costs. Table 4 indicates the variety of interests in biodiversity,
the different values accruing to different people and the different meanings attached to
“biodiversity”.
Table 4
Interest groups and stakeholders in grassland conservation in the Terai
Group Scale of influence Source of power Interests/Aims Means
Indigenous people Local Very limited Livelihood maintenance; use Subsistence farming,
protected areas for subsistence minor marketing; legal
needs, minor trading of products; and illegal extraction of
thatch, fodder, building materials, resources from protected
10
fuel, wild foods, plant medicines, areas

hunting and fishing
Migrant farmers Local Limited Livelihood maintenance; use Cash farming plus
protected areas for subsistence subsistence; legal and
needs; thatch, fodder, fuel, building illegal extraction of
material products from protected
areas
Local entrepreneurs Local Many hold official Profit; commercial; range of small Small business
positions locally enterprises tourist and non-tourist- enterprises, buying and
based selling to tourists
Tourist concessions National/some Lobbying/may hold Profit, commercial expansion; Tourism revenues;
international official positions some of revenue may be earned concessions from
overseas; control tourists staying in government
protected areas overnight
Government conservation National Administrative and Conserving wildlife and facilitating Enforcing park
agencies supervisory tourist development boundaries; imposing
fines
Conservation pressure Local/national Lobbying, may have Conserving biodiversity but with Lobbying, publicity
groups some international personal contacts, considerations for local livelihoods
links international funding
International International International funding Conserving biodiversity; limited International legislation,
conservation groups “green interests in human welfare lobbying
conditionality”
Central government National Political and National development; economic Legislation, bureaucracy,
administrative growth? budget allocation
Source: Brown, 1994
From this example, some of the complexity of biodiversity issues may be unravelled in
more general terms which illustrate the different and competing notions of the values of
biodiversity.
(i) There are different actors who relate in different ways to the resources in question.
(ii) They therefore define “biodiversity” in very different ways and at different levels or
geographical scales.
(iii) They bring to bear on these definitions their culture, their material circumstances and
their experience of biodiversity.
(iv) They engage in the issue often in contradictory ways, expressed in struggles over the
meaning and control of biodiversity between themselves and with outside parties.
Diverse activities such as “poaching”, evictions, commercial negotiations and
academic arguments at international workshops are examples of these struggles.
One of the implications of the competing meanings of biodiversity is that discussion of the
subject outside the natural sciences tends to lack rigour, and sinks to the lowest common
denominator of the meaning of “biodiversity”. In some literature, the term is used as a
synonym for “conservation”, even “sustainable development”, or as a goal of national
parks. It also can be reduced to an issue of local struggles over a range of natural resources.
Debates at the international academic level are thus usually very generalized, focusing on
the benefits of biodiversity to “mankind” over long time periods and on a global scale.
More recently conservation policy has directed greater attention to an assumed
convergence of grassroots and global interests; “people oriented” conservation projects are
becoming more important, and have tried to engage these struggles to provide feasible
policies (Pimbert and Pretty, 1994).
A similar pattern of the distribution of the costs of biodiversity degradation emerges. The
majority of rural populations, especially the poorest groups, lose livelihood opportunities
and habitat through the depletion of the list of species used in local consumption and in
petty commodity production. The indirect values of biodiversity — of underwriting the
11
regional ecological maintenance of natural systems, for example — will benefit a wider
spectrum of local people, although compensatory adjustments to the loss of biodiversity
can always be made more easily by the more wealthy. The case study in the Nepalese terai
provides several examples of this. The wealthier can “buy their way out of trouble”, or
offset the costs of biodiversity loss by such means as purchasing fertilizers where the
provision of natural fertility fails, or tubewells where water from public sources for
drinking and irrigation dry up or become polluted, and so on (Seddon et al., 1979). In other
words, some are able to compensate for the failure of public goods by private purchase. It
is thus inadequate to impute the impact of degradation on human welfare costs only in
terms of those costs — it is necessary also to consider how those costs will be met in a
given, and usually unequal political economy. The impact of biodiversity degradation upon
human welfare must be set within the political economy as a whole.
Furthermore, this illustration brings into focus the disjunctures between different
“cognitive maps” of biodiversity, which are held by different people. These maps are
constructed at different scales — the scientific maps tending to be global and regional, and
those of the local populations, local. The disappearance of forests may have a symbolic,
political or aesthetic significance for some, while for local people it directly affects their
livelihood opportunities. Therefore the cognitive map will consist of specific natural
resources, and competitors and allies who have an interest in those resources.
2. APPROACHES
While the concept and science of biodiversity are largely biological in origin, many of their
issues have been taken up by thinkers and writers from other disciplines, and then used by
a variety of actors. Who is interested in biodiversity and why? How has biodiversity
become incorporated into other agendas?
An Overview of Biodiversity Issues

Before reviewing other disciplines, it is important to discuss a more general issue here.
This concerns the use to which scientific facts are put, what ones are used, and what fails to
create any significant agenda. The increasingly dated rationalist approach, with policy
makers simply using the facts of objective science, is difficult to sustain, since it has been
increasingly recognized that scientific information, as “authoritative knowledge”, is
frequently used selectively to legitimate particular policies. Thus, the view of science in
policy-making as “truth talking to power” (Carnegie Commission, 1992) must continue to
be questioned. That science will, independently and in an apolitical world, uncover the
environmental problems of biodiversity degradation and tell policy makers what to do,
invites critical enquiry into how and why knowledge is created, promoted and used.
It is helpful to consider a continuum of cases in which at one end, there are comparatively
simple scientific facts, where perceptions and definitions are widely shared, and normal
“objective” science, at least for relatively tame and carefully bounded problem-solving
areas, will continue to play a central role in understanding society-environment
relationships. At the other end of the continuum, there are scientific ideas and research
areas in which the social construction of the environment is more clearly contested. Here,
they are culturally embedded and rest upon particular problem definitions and implicit
ideologies, which are not necessarily shared by scientific definitions and understandings.
For example, the issues of land degradation, pollution, or risk may imply straightforward
concepts for natural scientists which can be measured in a socially and politically neutral
manner, which are analysable by normal positivist natural science, and where the only
problems are technical ones (e.g. of definition, data collection and experimental design).
But all these issues are loaded with social significance and subject to a rich variety of
meanings (for example see Douglas and Wildavsky, 1982 for a social analysis of risk).
They simply cannot be captured by a single and authoritative scientific set of facts. In all
12
these cases, their natural science components are imbued with judgements about scientific
agenda (what gets studied and what ignored), how scientists study these agendas (the
institutions in which they study, and the reward structures for doing so), and the ideological
assumptions about the terms themselves.
For example, the terms at the top of contemporary conservation agenda — such as
sustainability, degradation or biodiversity — are at the same time technical issues, but the
privileging of some over others, the ways in which they are defined measured and used in
modelling are subject to alternative social constructions. The current debate in range
ecology is a case in point. The notions of ecological succession and carrying capacity of the
range have for many years been a topic of solely scientific and technical debate. But as
Behnke and Scoones (1993) and Abel and Blaikie (1988, 1990) have shown, these notions
rest upon a very particular interpretation of the human impact upon rangelands and of
human decision-making. In the same way, the interpretations of the value of biodiversity
rest upon partisan assumptions. Some of these derive from the discipline of the researcher
— there is debate among economists, and even more so between economists and
sociologists, as the discussion below shows. In such cases, the “scientific problem area” is
extremely problematic, and scientific problem definition, method and interpretation cannot
be made upon apolitical and objective grounds. One of the implications which derives from
the fact that the “biodiversity problem” has been framed by the environmental scientific
disciplines is that it has been framed as a scientific problem with scientific solutions.
Redclift (1994:31) argues that this creates a process of disengagement and lack of
responsibility for our behaviour, since the problem is seen scientifically and as being
understood to lie in the physical and not in the social environment. Rather, biodiversity
erosion is the scientifically defined problem with social and economic implications, which
has scientific solutions.
We argue that there are three broad areas of intellectual interest in biodiversity, which are
helping to incorporate it into wider social debates. The first is articulated mainly within the
natural sciences; the second within the social sciences (particularly economics); and the
third in more philosophical and ethical schools. The three areas of intellectual interest can
be distinguished by their approach to “human-nature” relationships; the origins of
environmental problems; and how to solve them. Their policy implications are analysed in
section 5.
Natural sciences
Ideas formulated within the natural sciences tend to conceive environmental problems as
products of unbalanced “human-nature” relationships. They tend to emphasize the physical
and technical aspects of “sustainability”, which is often expressed in terms of not
exceeding the earth’s carrying capacity. Publications such as Caring for the Earth
(IUCN/UNEP/WWF, 1991) reflect the commonly held belief that the quality of human life
depends primarily on the health of the earth, and sustaining the planet in a relatively
unaltered state. Thus poverty must be addressed because it inhibits the right balance
between humans and nature and not necessarily because of its intrinsic importance.
Therefore solutions to environmental problems are focused on changing human attitudes,
behaviour and technologies which negatively affect a harmonious balance with the
environment. Wilson (1993) argues that the technical problems in achieving this balance
are so formidable that they require a redirection of much of science and technology, and a
reconsideration of our self-image as a species.
As ecological science and an understanding of global environmental systems theories have

developed, conservation priorities have expanded beyond the traditional emphasis on single
or endangered species, to concern for whole ecosystems and life support processes. These
elements have simultaneously embraced humanistic concerns for indigenous people’s
rights, cultural preservation and rural development, and have enriched all thinking on
conservation, especially the neo-populist approach described in section 5. Conservation
13
now sees itself as a preserver of the principle of “diversity”: biological, ecological, and
more recently cultural. An example of the latter type of diversity is provided in the
following quote:
Even the diversity of human communities is at risk. It is thought that 92 Brazilian

tribes have disappeared this century, taking all their traditional knowledge with them.
As more and more habitats are destroyed, indigenous peoples all around the world are
threatened with extinction. By the end of the twenty-first century, the number of
languages spoken in the world could have fallen from 6,000 to 3,000 (WWF,
1993a:14).
It is argued that bio- or life-diversity underpins and enriches the material basis of human
and non-human life. Until the last three years or so, development was seen as leading
inevitably to an impoverishing monoculture, which threatened diversity and thus our ability
to adapt and survive. Many are critical of those who fail to see humanity as a natural
species dependent on the natural world, and who underestimate the consequences of
“dismantling a support system that is too complex to understand let alone replace in the
foreseeable future” (Wilson, 1993).
Social sciences
Ideas formulated within the social sciences take a number of paths, which tend to be
defined in a disciplinary manner. First of all, political science, political economy and
international relations tend to conceive environmental problems as products of inequitable
“human — human” relationships, (e.g. North-South divisions; class; gender, etc.). Thus
solutions to environmental problems are centred primarily on transforming social,
economic and political relationships. Environmental problems are perceived and analysed
within specific socio-economic and political contexts. The two main sub-divisions of social
analyses are the liberal/reformist and radical traditions. The former conceives of the
problems and solutions within the context of continued capitalist growth (Bauer, 1976).
However, the latter, while not challenging growth, wishes to transform capitalist structures
of production and distribution. The more radical analyses of the social dimensions of
environmental problems are expounded by authors such as Blaikie (1985, in the case of
land degradation). In more global and abstract terms Daly and Cobb (1990), point to the
laws of capitalist growth, leading through competition to over-production and depletion of
resources, to inequality on a global scale and enforced “eco-cide” by the South. The
application of this kind of thinking has linked biodiversity issues to human rights issues,
grassroots conservation and environmental entitlements (Horta, 1991; Lohmann, 1991;
Colchester, 1991; 1992; 1993; and Shiva, 1989a; 1990,). More specifically, Shiva (1989a)
identifies the social origins and consequences of genetic resource erosion, particularly for
women, and identifies the gender implications of such issues as intellectual property rights
and biosafety.
Sociology has not addressed issues of environmental management in the same

comprehensive way as economics, and there is not a “sociology of the environment” as
there is an environmental economics (see below). Machlis (1992) has suggested a possible
role for sociology in biodiversity research and management. First, he suggests that
sociology should be able to throw light on the social construction of biodiversity issues.
For example, the choice of the measure of biodiversity (number of species, “richness”,
abundance and distribution of populations, number of endangered species, centres of
species richness with high endemism, degree of genetic variability) is crucial to the social
construction of the problem. In fact, the whole project of the deconstruction of science,
which in part derives from a post-modern strand in the social sciences, is invoked by
Machlis, though many of the main writers are not sociologists (see above). Sociology can
also lead to a better understanding and management of habitat change, through an analysis
of perceptions and knowledge of biological resources, and struggles over them, although
the enormous literature on the subject has been written by geographers, anthropologists,
14
ethno-botanists as well as sociologists (for example see Croll and Parkin, 1992; Milton,
1993).
Economics
A second strand of thinking in the social sciences has been developed by economists to
study and provide more rational bases for environmental policy (Pearce, 1991; Pearce et
al., 1992). The economic approach to the environment has been one of the most innovative
applications of economics in recent years, and has provided a basis for a distinctive
approach to environmental management — the neo-liberal approach, with a particular set
of ideological and political assumptions (discussed in section 5).
Two related analytical tasks are (a) the demonstration and measurement of the value of
biodiversity; and (b) the appropriation of that value, i.e., how are those values realized and
who does and should realize them. Both of these have been briefly discussed above.
Turning to the first task, there are two largely contradictory paradigms (Brown and Moran,
1993, quoting Machlis). The first is a utilitarian one appropriate for industrial economies,
where the cost of a lost species is defined as a lost commodity and the income streams that
would have accrued, had it been conserved. Thus the value of conserving biodiversity in
plants may be reduced to the potential pharmaceutical value of those plants, and
biodiversity is redefined and reduced to a “pharmaceutical and industrial warehouse”. It has
also led to other conclusions following the earlier work of Clark (1973), where for certain
types of species which are not competitive as assets (because their natural growth rates are
uncompetitive with other species), optimal management policies might lead to extinction,
and investments made in other more useful species. Thus the blue whale or African
elephant would (and should? — the normative aspect of neo-classical economics may not
be as neutral as some economists would like to claim) be hunted to extinction in an
“optimally” managed régime (Spence, 1975, Dasgupta and Heal, 1979). It is hardly
necessary to add that many from all disciplines will find this conclusion unacceptable for
the reason that other values for the conservation of biodiversity than productive use values
(in very narrow terms) must be demonstrated and given more weight. The other paradigm
is the argument that species have intrinsic value, which is immeasurable and unmeasurable.
Between these two extremes, a number of economic analyses have developed which
incorporate some of the other values as described above, particularly indirect use values
such as the regulatory functions of the environment. Very little of this work addresses
human welfare, except insofar as the less quantifiable consumptive use values and option
values have sometimes been added as afterthoughts, although their importance and
legitimacy may be granted in principle. It must also be said that economists have also tried
to pursue these values in their computation of the “Total Value of an Environmental
Asset”.
It should also be added that the basis of measuring the value of biodiversity is through
measuring peoples’ revealed preferences or willingness to pay. Two general criticisms
apply here. First, humans are the only species able to state their preferences either explicitly
or implicitly in money terms. Therefore the valuation is anthropocentric and cannot
accommodate intrinsic values except as they are interpreted by human beings. Second,
revealed preferences are subject to our tastes for different states of nature but also to
income endowments. Thus poor groups in the developing countries do not have the
disposable income to underwrite their preferences, and therefore the states of nature and
levels of biodiversity which they prefer would tend to be valued lower than those
preferences of people with higher disposable incomes. Thus the total value of biodiversity
will tend to be underestimated for a variety of reasons. Intrinsic value can be acknowledged
but not incorporated easily into a total valuation.
The second issue concerns appropriation. Swanson (1992b) expresses it as a problem of a

decentralized regulatory process, whereby countries independently at each point in time
15
consider the costs of conversion (e.g. of wilderness and high biodiversity to agricultural
land and reduced biodiversity but increased food supplies from specialized food production
called “agriculture”) without considering the global costs of biodiversity loss. Conceptually
this is in part due to a lack of information — decision makers do not know of these costs —
but also this is due to the lack of a global market which would capture the value of
conservation at the margin. There are important externalities which are not considered in
each conversion decision. Those that convert land in this way do not at the present time
compensate those who suffer the consequences of that conversion. These costs can be
local, regional, national and global. Typical local costs are the reduction in natural
regulatory functions (e.g. soil and water conservation at the watershed or regional level)
and losses of products consumed by rural populations in developing countries. At the
national level, they may be rapid changes in the area-species relationship, where final
conversions of undisturbed habitats (say, the last 10 per cent of the national territory) may
have an extremely severe impact on species diversity within the national territory itself. At
the global level the costs may be in a reduction in carbon sequestration and option values of
various types discussed above. It follows therefore that an incentive structure should be put
in place where these values of conservation should be reflected in marginal decisions by
actors both within national governments and in civil society (e.g. forest contractors, land
hungry farmers, national park operators and so forth). Attempts to create such a global
market are now making their first appearance (in the Climate and Biodiversity conventions,
discussed in the next section). Finally, economists have identified “perverse” incentives put
in place by national governments which accelerate the conversion process. These are now
well known and include examples such as the subsidies to forest conversion for livestock in
Brazil up until the 1980s, subsidies for beef production in Botswana to take advantage of
preferential tariffs by the European Union, subsidies and tenurial concessions to
mechanized farmers in the clay plains of the Sudan, and hedgerow removal in the European
Union itself encouraged by intensive farming under the Common Agricultural Policy.
In summary, the economic approach to the environment is providing a rationale for

biodiversity loss and the institutional means at different levels to deal with it. However,
virtually all economists would admit that there are unresolved and unresolvable problems
with the demonstration and measurement of biodiversity, and that the practical and political
realities of instituting properly functioning markets require other considerations more
effectively understood and handled in other disciplines — particularly eco-philosophy,
sociology, political science and anthropology.
Philosophy
Biodiversity has also been taken up by eco-philosophers who are using the issues to rethink
culture-nature relationships and to formulate systems of bioethics. According to Simmons
(1993) there are at least two basic environmental ethical questions: one concerning the
ethic for the use of the environment, encapsulated by the term “wise use” of the
environment; and the other concerning an ethic of the environment in which the moral
standing of non-human species are given equal value to the human species. Many of the
contemporary eco-philosophers have their origins in the radical tradition outlined above,
but differ in that they have incorporated a strong ecological consciousness (e.g. Bahro,
1984; Bookchin, 1980; 1982; Friberg and Hettne, 1985). Many of the approaches stress
both the ecological and social dimensions of their world view, and argue that survival
depends on transcending the dichotomies of dualistic thinking which separates humans and
nature. For example Eckersley (1992) argues powerfully for an ecologically informed
philosophy (“ecocentrism”) which recognizes the internal relatedness of all organisms.
Unlike conventional “anthropocentric” ethical and political theory which justifies the
exclusive moral rights of humans on the basis of our separateness from the rest of the
animal world, ecocentrism would be protective of the Earth’s life-support system, because
of its orientation of inclusiveness of all beings. Therefore, the intrinsic value of biodiversity
is privileged above narrower utilitarian and instrumentalist concerns which directly concern
human welfare alone.
16
Interdisciplinary Research Initiatives

This section summarizes the main elements of interdisciplinary research in the social
sciences that have provided interpretations and approaches to the information provided by
the natural sciences about biodiversity. This helps to explain the important place of
biodiversity on the international agenda.
(i) There has been a long history of wildlife conservation, especially in Africa. It involved
single high-profile species such as elephant, rhinoceros and lion. Initiatives sought to
preserve these “flagship” species and tended to ignore human welfare issues, such as
the loss of grazing rights and access to forests by local people. Limited treatment of the
biodiversity issue therefore had a long policy history, the defects of which had been
well recognized by the 1970s.
(ii) Scientific research on global warming which progressively emerged from the early
1970s and 1980s was undoubtedly a major catalyst both empirically and theoretically
to biodiversity research. Some issues were shared by both (e.g. carbon sequestration),
and the acknowledgement of global interdependence with systems-based research of
global warming resonated with emerging research on biodiversity.
(iii) International environmental agreements such as CITES (Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), but also the Vienna and
Montreal Protocols (to phase out ozone damaging substances), the London Dumping
Convention (now simply the Dumping Convention to limit marine pollution), the
International Tropical Timber Agreement (the ITTA, which, although a trade
agreement, has important conservationist clauses), and the World Heritage Convention
(dealing with sites of world cultural, scenic and scientific value) had already provided
an experience of international negotiation and political initiative to conserve different
aspects of the environment. UNCED-sponsored Earth Summit agreements at Rio are
also important in this context, of course; these are discussed below.
(iv) The interdisciplinary research initiative by the Board of Science and Technology in
Development (BOSTID) in Common Property Resource Management brought together
a large number of social scientists to understand the nature of property régimes with a
focus on environmental management. About twenty case studies, mostly in developing
countries, were written within a mutually developed theoretical framework. The
problems of externalities, rights, duties and expectations under different property
régimes, and their implications for environmental management were discussed, and
seminal works by Ostrom (1990), Bromley (1992) and Birkes (1989) followed. Many
theoretical advances emerged from this initiative, as evidenced by their application and
extension in the social science literature on biodiversity. This is especially so in
responding to scientific research in (ii) above, in which the “management of the global
commons” has become a catch-phrase of this fast-developing research field.
What is surprising is the scant attention paid by these converging academic approaches to
the issue of human welfare in biodiversity. There are disciplinary and methodological
reasons for this which have already been mentioned. The main impetus has come from
other strands of thought and development paradigms, and as yet have made only a partial
impact.
UNCED and the Biodiversity Convention

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) which took
place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June 1992 forced biodiversity onto the international
political agenda. It represented the culmination of efforts and concern about the
environment which have been around since the warnings of the Club of Rome about the
“predicament of mankind”. For example, IUCN published its World Conservation Strategy
in 1980. The United Nations created a World Commission on Environment and
Development and published Our Common Future (WCED, 1987).
17
UNCED has been seen as especially significant because for the first time a process of
democratization in international policy-making was set in motion. However, many
considered this to have been limited to the “lowest common denominator” due to an
unwieldy bureaucratic process of bargaining over the minute details of the text of the
convention. It produced the Rio Declaration, a Framework Convention on Climate Change
and a Convention on Biological Diversity and “Agenda 21”. (Agenda 21, which attempts to
integrate development and environmental conservation, is strongly supportive of neo-
populist “bottom-up” participatory approaches, but also develops a neo-liberal economic
approach to the environment.) Finally, a set of Forest Principles emerged, which in effect
was a set of compromises between the declared sovereign rights of nations to manage their
forests, along with non-binding principles governing protection and management.
Negotiation of an international agreement on the conservation of biodiversity began in

1990, as a result of increasing concern that the world’s biological diversity was diminishing
at an alarming rate. There was also a concern that developing countries, the biodiversity
“hot spots”, needed increased assistance from developed countries to be able to conserve
effectively their biodiversity. Furthermore, there has been a growing recognition that in
return for access to genetic material, countries of origin should get a greater share of the
benefits arising from the commercial use of the material (Inskipp, 1992)
The Biodiversity Convention contains the following significant points.
• It recognizes that biodiversity is essential to our planetary life-support systems.

• It commits countries to a series of national level obligations, including making
inventories of biological resources, developing national conservation strategies and
integrating conservation in development planning.
• It requires developed countries to assist developing countries in carrying out their
conservation programmes.
• It recognizes the role of indigenous and local communities in protecting biodiversity.
• It promotes the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the use of genetic
resources by way of appropriate access to genetic resources, transfer of relevant
technologies to developing countries and sufficient funding to underwrite these
activities.
The Biodiversity Convention was signed by 157 countries, with the United States being the
only major non-signatory (it was signed later by President Clinton). The Convention has
now been ratified.
The many lessons of the Rio Conference have been well documented (Grubb et al., 1993).
Perhaps the most prominent lesson is that biodiversity, like all natural resources, has
become a new focus of global politics. While the global vision of biodiversity loss would
predictably face formidable political problems in the path of implementation, it struck a
number of commentators how timid and rhetorical the convention turned out to be
(Chatterjee and Finger, 1994). The political and institutional environment of the
negotiations themselves go a long way to explain the outcome. Minute contestations of the
text of the convention became the currency of deeper conflicts. The lowest common
denominator of agreement is bound to produce a bland, conservative and non-committal
product. However, optimists can rightly point to the first global meeting of its kind, and the
firm establishment of global environmental issues on international and national agendas.
The negotiations reflect familiar patterns of development discourse. Three are reviewed
below.
(a) The extension of North-South confrontation. It has become increasingly clear that the
central issue of global sustainable development is centred on the divisions between the
developed and developing countries. Debates focused on economic issues such as
financing, resource and technology transfer, population, poverty and patterns of unequal
18
consumption and control of natural resources. UNCED did force a renewed period of self
reflection in both the North and South. Analysts from developing countries point out that
the Convention is skewed in favour of the North, and in particular US corporations. Shiva
(1993b), for example, draws attention to issues of intellectual property rights and
biotechnology, and “biosafety”. She argues that the Convention does not recognize the
sovereign rights of local communities to conserve and use biodiversity, and that
biotechnology which uses the “raw materials” from the South does not aid conservation
(because of the tendency of biotechnologies towards monocultures) and it exploits citizens
from the South because they end up buying biotechnologies back. While there is a protocol
concerning patenting genetic materials of living resources and transfer of biotechnologies
between North and South, there is concern that the convention will open the floodgates
towards patenting of genetic materials already in gene banks, which ignores sovereign
rights issues.
(b) International responsibilities and perceived sovereign national interests. UNCED is

one of the first and undoubtedly the biggest effort to forge a unified environmental ethic
and sense of global responsibility. However, there are clear tensions between United
Nations processes and interests of individual states, many of which asserted the principle of
national sovereignty. Some argue that issues of sovereignty are often used to avoid
discussions on uncomfortable topics: for example, in discussions about forest principles,
Brazil argued that international intervention in its internal affairs was out of the question.
The debate about global sustainability also reopens the debate about the proper limits to
national sovereignty (Grubb et al., 1993). In other spheres too, such as human rights and
even health, there are vigorous advocates for the limitation of the sovereign rights of nation
states in the name of safeguarding human welfare as an international right and therefore a
duty to uphold internationally.
(c) Guidelines to action. There has been a lack of detailed prescription about how to
implement the convention. Instead there has been much in the way of exhortation, and
statements of general commitment. Some economists (e.g. David Pearce) argue that the
Convention does not touch upon the fundamental forces underlying biodiversity loss. He
argues that losses are due to the ways that national economies and the world economy are
organized, in addition to population pressure. He argues for an “economic theory of
biodiversity loss”. Although regulations and agreements play their part, unless the
economic incentives and disincentives are worked out so that a global market for natural
resources, and particularly biodiversity can be created and operate efficiently, all the
rhetoric in the world will not help to conserve biodiversity. However, global markets
require international agreements as well as institutional strengthening of national policy-
making capability, as well as heroic improvements in the effectiveness of national and local
bureaucracies in developing countries (as discussed below). Critics of UNCED have
pointed out these and other shortcomings. This paper reviews some of the ways in which
these shortcomings are, and may be, bridged in the future.
Conclusions about Conceptual Issues of

Biodiversity
The initial identification of the biodiversity problem has come from the natural sciences
and it stimulated and developed earlier more fragmented concerns of single species
conservation, national parks, and Western concerns about “Edenism”, which refers to the
vision of an untrammelled nature, a state to which it should be restored (see Colchester,
1994 for an excellent critique). This earlier notion of conservation was, of course, oblivious
to its detrimental implications for human welfare.
Biodiversity has a complex scientific basis, much of which is still not understood, but some
of the basic data on trends of species and genetic diversity are increasingly persuasive that
there is a very serious problem in global terms. How this will impact and who will bear the
costs of its prevention or palliation is still far from clear.
19
The contested nature of the social construction of “biodiversity”, and the related variety of
interpretations by different actors has meant that the term has become a bandwagon, and
means all things to all people. The result is that much of the analysis is being degraded and
reduced to the status of a fetish, sometimes even an excuse for posturing and doing little.
This difficulty is similar to that faced by other complex and imprecise notions at the
environmental-social interface such as “sustainability” or “environmental degradation”
Therefore it may be helpful to (a) accept plurality of definitions, but define them carefully
and attribute them to the stakeholders involved; (b) be prepared to link biodiversity with
other issues too, but acknowledge that there are other issues involved which intersect with
(some of) the aims of biodiversity, but which do not share the same final goals. Human
rights, particularly of indigenous people, income distribution, rights to clean water,
education, shelter, etc., and human welfare all are related to biodiversity and its different
values, but have agendas and goals other than biodiversity conservation.
As with other systemic environmental changes on a global scale, the impact of biodiversity
loss upon human welfare will be spatially and globally patchy and always mediated
through patterns of wealth, access and power. Also, biodiversity loss is only one among a
number of implications of habitat loss/land use conversion, modernization and
commercialization of agriculture, etc., and so the implications of biodiversity loss will be
complex. For example, loss of indigenous forests will be associated with both a
contribution to global warming and biodiversity loss, some of the impacts of which will be
felt locally (e.g. sea level rise at some coastal locations and loss of access to use values at
other locations), and some globally.
Loss of biodiversity is irreversible (unlike climatic warming, holes in the ozone layer, soil
erosion, etc.). Once genes (biochemical units of hereditary information) have been lost,
they are gone forever. It is clear that the process of impoverishing the genetic basis of
evolution and adaptation is accelerating. Some are currently drawing apocalyptic
conclusions, such as the possibility that we are witnessing the “end of nature” (McKibben,
1990). While these conclusions may be overdrawn, there are very strong scientific
arguments for taking action, even if this only amounts to holding operations or palliative
action. The critical approach in this paper to the ways in which the concept of biodiversity
has been used should in no way be seen to detract from this point.
3. ACTORS
One of the pervasive themes of the last section was the contested quality of the natural and
social environment of biodiversity. There are conflicts of interest over natural resources,
different interpretations of the term by scientists, different perspectives upon both means
and ends, and struggles over the meaning of different terms and classifications of natural
resources (e.g. whether a patch of land is designated a National Park or agricultural land for
clearing and cultivation). In this section attention is turned to a brief introduction of the
actors themselves who are involved in biodiversity issues. The differences in the way each
perceives, understands, and experiences “biodiversity” derives from differences in their
daily lives.
There are groups of actors who enjoy direct benefits from biodiversity and whose welfare
is thus directly affected by biodiversity erosion or the loss of control and access to it. This
group includes rural populations whose livelihoods are affected by the changes in habitats
and in their access to a range of biological resources, primarily in developing countries.
Especially important are those who are politically, economically and ecologically
precarious within overall changes of the agrarian political economy. These include the
poorest sections such as tribal groups, marginal farmers, forest dwellers, and women within
these groups.
20
Also there are other groups of actors whose daily lives are affected by biodiversity issues in
contingent and indirect ways. These are government servants who are involved in the
conservation of biodiversity and those who control access to biological resources through
official means. These include the police, forestry officers, district-level officials, chairmen
of the village council, chambers of commerce at the local level and so on. In their daily
lives they control access to resources, which collectively are “biodiverse”, however
defined. So, for example, local customs officers responsible for monitoring the export of
live species from a developing country at a remote airport experiences the “biodiversity
issue” in a most contingent and indirect manner. At the same time, their performance in
their duties is actually quite important to biodiversity conservation. Their daily life
concerns managing on a meagre, post-structural adjustment government salary. They have
to distinguish different species of parrot, for example, a task for which they do not have the
training or the personal commitment. It is only by identifying their contingent relationship
with biodiversity that the basis of an understanding of their actions can be constructed. To
take the case of the hypothetical customs officers, their welfare may be served better by
extracting bureaucratic rent (or bribes) and allowing through for export all manner of rare
species threatened with extinction. It is very often the case that income earned at the margin
by the disposal of (rather than the conservation of) rare and endangered species is more
attractive to those who control these resources through the exercise of formal and informal
political power.
There is an important general point to be made here concerning the relationship between
biodiversity and welfare which many actors share. Conservation of forest resources,
wildlife and sites of scientific importance often work against the short-term economic
interests of virtually all sections of the rural populations of developing countries. In many
tropical and sub-tropical regions, timber is used as fuelwood on a day-to-day basis; the land
on which it stands is required for agriculture under present agricultural technologies and
population growth; and certain species offer opportunities for immense and rapid
enrichment for foreign firms as well as small-scale loggers. Wildlife provides meat for the
majority of the population, both urban and rural; some species may fetch very high prices
either as live specimens or as trophies, or may yield ivory. Simply, most people who are
part of the state apparatus or in civil society make money from continuing to exploit these
resources, or from selling access to them. Since the aggregate rate of exploitation is non-
sustainable, any aim of either sustainable resource use or conservation will tend to be
frustrated. The present and future values of biodiversity are diffuse, in both the senses of
widely distributed amongst the present and future populations and ill-defined. These values
of biodiversity also are usually unperceived altogether by most of the population, because
they refer collectively to particular species as a whole, and not to the value of a particular
animal or plant at the margin, where they offer an immediate and (for many) essential
income or use value. This point questions any simplistic assumption that rural people will
necessarily prefer to conserve biodiversity, or even to use resources in a sustainable way.
To understand the political dimensions of biodiversity it is necessary to understand how the

groups of actors interact. Long and Long (1992) call this the “interface”, and typically this
is the interface between bureaucrats and state or project officials on the one hand, and civil
society (ordinary people) on the other. In the case of biodiversity, interaction between a
broader range of actors is relevant — between scientists and policy makers, between
members of the timber trade and activist groups, and so on. In this report four major groups
are critically discussed in relation to contemporary biodiversity issues: international policy
makers; officials and state functionaries; entrepreneurs and commercial corporations; and
local resource users. There are many other actors involved in one way or another with
biodiversity, such as eco-tourist and safari tour operators, conservation project managers,
non-governmental organizations and local action and protest groups. Some of these appear
in our case studies, but are not discussed in this section.
This section also develops a critique on how actors are assumed to interact in the arena of
biodiversity. There are persuasive images of the behaviour of some actors which are often
21
central to policy-making, but which are frequently left unexamined. We take two — the
image of the “community” as an assumption of social order in rural society in the South;
and the image of rational policy discourse about conservation strategies. Here it is
suggested that the “community” as a concept is needed by international conservation
agencies, international NGOs and aid donors, and that it is frequently imagined rather than
real. A more contingent and contested approach is put forward which has considerable
implications for biodiversity conservation policy. In the section on policy makers the
influence of institutional politics and professional rivalry on policy development is
explored. While these insights are neither new nor confined to conservation, they are of
great importance in understanding how global decision-making and opinion-forming about
biodiversity take place. In section 4, a cast of actors in biodiversity is assembled and their
interactions discussed in a series of case studies.
Policy Makers at the International Level

International policy makers have a major influence upon discourses surrounding the
environment and development, and more specifically the way natural resources (and thus
biodiversity) are managed. Of course there are other actors at the national, regional and
local levels who will also enter the discourse. There will be filters to the ideas of
international policy makers, in terms of political bargaining in policy formulation, and
issues of interpretation and implementation of the policy itself. It is important to make a
distinction between the high level policy negotiations among a range of government
representatives; international organizations and NGOs (e.g. the UNCED and post-UNCED
process); and the particular policies of the international conservation organizations. The
following discussion refers mainly to the policy-making practices of international
conservation organizations.
International conservation policies are largely promoted by international agencies such as

IUCN, UNEP and WWF. Their general policies are set out in documents such as the
World Conservation Strategy (IUCN et al., 1980) and Caring for the Earth
(IUCN/UNEP/WWF, 1991), and other papers such as WWF’s Gobal Priorities to the
Year 2000 (Martin, 1994). The last decade has seen a notable shift in their policies away
from the classical emphasis on nature preservation towards ideas of sustainable
development, which include the more populist and neo-liberal approaches to conservation
(see section 5 for further discussion). Conservation activities have also evolved
significantly over the last decade. For example, 30 years ago WWF was a grant-making
organization, funding small conservation projects, or collaborating with national
governments to set up national parks. Currently they devote a significant portion of funds
and human resources to lobbying and advocacy work. The social history of WWF reveals
strong strategic relations with Northern states and élites from the South, but at the same
time a firm adherence to its independent NGO status. Because of these ties, WWF is well
positioned to press for changes in government policy. For example, in 1985 WWF helped
to bring about an international moratorium on whaling, and in 1990 another on the ivory
trade. It has also pressured governments to sign the Biodiversity and Climate Conventions
(elaborated in Rio in 1992). It has also played an influential role in the negotiations of the
United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), particularly on forestry,
biodiversity and climate change issues. WWF is also actively involved in trying to
influence business and trade practices (see the sub-section on entrepreneurs and
corporations below). Its contacts with political élites in the South have enabled WWF to
negotiate debt-for-nature swaps, whereby a portion of a nation’s debt is converted into
conservation funds. These have been made in a number of countries including Ecuador, the
Philippines, Poland and Zambia (Russell, 1993).
International and national conservation policy makers increasingly come from different
social backgrounds. Much contemporary policy-making is characterized by inter-NGO
networking and collaboration, and more emphasis on local and regional level participation.
For example, at a national level WWF-UK frequently collaborates with other NGOs such
22
as Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Survival International, for particular campaigns. In
1991, an inter-NGO campaign was aimed at bringing a halt to World Bank funding of
projects that exploited primary moist tropical forests. In 1992, an association of
conservation NGOs established the Boreal Forest/Taiga Rescue Network in Sweden as a
forum for exchanging information, and to run joint campaigns aimed at the protection of
boreal forests. WWF also carries out its own field programme at the local level in the
South, often in collaboration with southern NGOs, and may bypass state institutions
altogether.
In the post-UNCED era, conservation policy-making at the international level has involved
complex, time consuming and politically sensitive negotiations between a range of
international organizations, government representatives and NGOs. The talks are often
characterized by their lack of detail on specific issues, and deliberate strategies to block any
initiative which may threaten sovereignty. Some observers suggest that governments have
failed to meet the commitments made at UNCED and that things may be worse now
(Dudley et al., 1995), and that the United Nations process “lacks the teeth” to make
changes on the ground.
While environmental NGOs continue to struggle for representation at high-level

negotiations, many at the same time have been disillusioned with the UNCED process and
choose to develop or support independent initiatives. For example, the Forest Stewardship
Council (FSC) was founded in Toronto in 1993 by a diverse group of representatives from
environmental institutions, indigenous peoples’ organizations, community forestry groups,
the timber trade, the forestry profession and forest product certification organizations from
25 countries. It is notable for its strong concern for forest ecosystems and for the welfare of
local communities in both the North and South. The FSC has evolved in response to the
growing public demand that purchases of wood and other forest products do not contribute
to deforestation but rather help secure forests for the future. During the past few years there
has been a proliferation of self-certification programmes of wood products on the market.
The FSC seeks to guarantee the authenticity of their claims. The goal of the FSC is to
promote environmentally responsible, socially beneficial and economically viable
management of the world’s forests, by establishing an international set of respected
“principles” of forest management which will apply to all tropical, temperate and boreal
forests (FSC, 1994). At present the FSC has developed ten such principles including
compliance of forestry management with national and international laws; tenure and use
rights and responsibilities; indigenous peoples’ rights; community and forests worker’s
rights; and other management principles concerning sustainable forest management. More
than 4,000,000 hectares of forest have been independently certified in 17 countries , and a
number of retailers in the United Kingdom and the United States are selling products from
these forests (J.-P. Jeanrenaud, 1995).
While the FSC is still in its infancy, its inauguration marks a significant step in the
development of international forest conservation policy. It has been able to transcend a
number of professional, organizational and intellectual barriers, although it is too early to
evaluate it in terms of progress on the ground. It has attempted from the outset to be multi-
disciplinary in character, and has sought to integrate biological, social and commercial
criteria in its principles. It articulates a strong ethical position in support of the rights of the
rural poor. The development of the FSC has involved a systematic international
consultative process, involving regional and local participation in decision-making in ten
countries. All major stakeholders have been involved in the consultations involving
environmentalists, representatives of indigenous peoples, industry, etc. This is regarded as
one of its major strengths and lent it legitimacy. Unlike many other international policy
efforts (e.g. the TFAP, ITTA) it addresses biodiversity issues in both North and South,
bringing into focus the impact of forest management practices on biodiversity and forest
quality in the North. Thus, for the first time many Northern forest management practices
are experiencing the same scrutiny as those in the South. The FSC goes some way towards
helping equalize power differences between North and South. Rather than relying on donor
aid to influence forest management, the FSC is unique in that it is designed to use trade and
23
the market as instruments of influence. Through buying certified products, individual

consumers have the potential to support well-managed forests worldwide. It currently
receives funding from the Austrian government, the EEC, ODA, several American
foundations and WWF.
These developments demonstrate that a different type of professional criterion is circulating

at the international level. This reflects neo-populist and neo-liberal approaches to
development and conservation (discussed further in section 5), as well as a change in how
policy-making is actually done. The literature is full of references to the “new
professionalism” and much of it comes from an understanding of the day-to-day lives of
development professionals, their training, mindsets, and the institutions in which they
work. Pimbert and Pretty (1994) summarize much of the earlier literature such as Chambers
(1983; 1992). These authors attack “normal professionalism”, inappropriate science and
professional and disciplinary biases. There are, of course, strong reasons why existing
orthodoxies survive, since they derive from long-established reward and career structures
and from the momentum of established paradigms of conservation and development
thinking. However, such developments as the FSC and the circulation of new policy
approaches in reports and journal articles show that a new approach among international
policy makers and opinion formers is taking shape. Specifically, this has meant a widening
network of international policy makers and other actors (e.g. the leaders of the timber trade,
see below). Also it shows how the principal divide between the two cultures of natural and
social science is being bridged both within individuals and between them. In turn, this may
indicate that historic academic criteria of narrow disciplinary rigour and excellence may
finally show signs of being eclipsed. Lastly, such developments demonstrate how social
and political issues, particularly concerning the implications of conservation for human
welfare, have been accorded a higher priority.
24
Policy practices
As suggested in the introduction to section 4, a persuasive image of policy development is
that of the “rational” policy process, by which (non-problematic) objectives are set and
resources are allocated. However, we question here whether interactions about concepts,
ideologies and strategies follow an orderly cycle of hypothesis, testing and adaptation, in
the same way as, for example, manuals outline the project cycle. This image of the policy
process has long been criticized as a poor model of what actually happens (Clay and
Schaffer, 1984). Instead, we suggest that the development and promotion of conservation
policies can become the currency of politicking, manoeuvring and professional rivalry. A
closer look at the policy process reveals how scientists, policy makers, academics and
communicators tend to compete to establish their own interpretations and definitions of
“biodiversity”. Here we look at two key influences on conservation policy and its
interpretation: the struggle between different conservation ideologies and the tensions
between communicators/fund raisers and policy makers.
Populist approaches to biodiversity conservation have become firmly established. They

appear in many international policy documents such as Caring for the Earth
(IUCN/UNEP/WWF, 1991), the Global Biodiversity Strategy (WRI/IUCN/UNEP, 1992),
Parks for Life (CNPPA, 1993) and Agenda 21. However, it appears that despite the
UNCED mandate for such approaches, the institutional climate is less favourable towards
neo-populist policies now than it was three years ago. For example, WWF-International
established a Biodiversity, Protected Areas and Species Conservation Programme in 1991
to promote a community-based conservation approach. To many outsiders, the work of this
group represented a more socially-oriented approach to conservation, and led many people
to believe that WWF was transforming itself in this direction. This programme was
eliminated in 1995 during a “downscaling” exercise at the organization, however, amid
widespread protest. Critics have claimed that the restructuring in fact reveals an ideological
struggle between the classical and populist approaches to conservation at the international
level (Ehringhaus cited in Tickell, 1995). For example, Tickell (1995) reported that WWF
is divided into two contending schools of thought: the traditionists who believe that
conservation encompasses only animals, plants and protected areas; and a group that
subscribes to more holistic people-oriented philosophy. The recent changes at WWF may
be interpreted as a reaffirmation of the traditionists’ power, although there may be several
other dimensions to this policy discourse.
While undoubtedly many senior conservationists fail to recognize the full implications of
the populist’s model, and a few traditionists do remain, the central management of WWF-
International has made it absolutely clear that the organization remains firmly committed to
community-based conservation. Very few international conservationists would now dare
voice the “fortress mentality” of a couple of decades ago. WWF has long supported people-
focused conservation and has every intention of continuing to promote it, according to the
central management (Martin, 1995). The official reason for this downscaling at
headquarters was decentralization, and the rationale of re-allocating resources to build up
this approach in the field, rather than at the international secretariat which needed to be
streamlined.
However, despite the above rationale, a further explanation may be the growing influence
of the neo-liberal approach on international conservation policy. The proponents of this
approach tend to perceive the emphasis on grassroots work as naive. There are some
powerful internal and external forces pushing to bring economics closer to conservation,
and a desire to address the perceived economic causes of biodiversity loss (and this
approach is discussed in more detail in section 5). For example, WWF has recently made
some of its work on various macro-economic themes special policy issues (e.g. “green
accounting”). The growing economic emphasis resonates too with the approach of the
World Bank’s Global Environmental Facility (GEF) which has a leading role in financing
biodiversity conservation projects. According to Chatterjee and Finger (1994), there have
25
been various confrontations between the neo-populist and neo-liberal approaches to

conservation. Those who promote the latter tend to have increasing political power, and are
either alienating or partly co-opting the former.
This brief example illustrates how ideologies, personalities and institutional practices are
mutually constituted in a context of constantly shifting conflicts and alliances. The
successful development of certain policies appears to be related to the degree of “empire”
or constituency building within organizations. This involves various tactics and strategies,
including deliberate internal consensus building and special modes of institutional
discourse.
While the UNCED process has apparently supported the rise of neo-populism within
conservation, the trend has acquired a distinctive technocratic flavour. Organizations like
WWF and IUCN are being asked to manage some GEF projects, and to submit proposals
for projects on biodiversity that they promise to fund. Both organizations are positively
responding to these opportunities. However, populists fear that a more technocratic
approach will not be concerned with empowerment and capacity building, nor be sensitive
to local problems or issues, but instead will be based on neo-classical economic theory
(discussed in section 5). Despite the neo-populist jargon, the recent GEF guidelines for
community-based biodiversity conservation clearly view communities as “resources” to
achieve conservation as defined by the outside experts (GEF, 1993). There is also concern
that this approach will lend support to a new class of technocratic global environmental
managers (Sachs, 1994).
The recent debate on people-focused policies has also pushed conservation organizations to
reassess and reinforce their identities as “nature conservation”, and not “social
development” organizations. While many agreed about the unproblematic concept of
integrated conservation and development in the 1980s, many conservationists now realize
that it may entail unacceptable costs and trade-offs.
Conservation ideologies alone are not the sole forces shaping policy. Organizations consist
of many intersecting struggles, and disjunctures of knowledge and interests between actors,
which play their part in shaping strategies and agendas. Another dynamic within WWF is
the tension between its “conservation” and its “fund raising” cultures. Some policy staff
have voiced the fear that policy is not driven by field issues, but rather by donors concern
for the charismatic and extinction-prone mega-vertebrates (e.g. panda, tiger, rhino, whale,
etc.). These have become the symbols of the international conservation movement, and
many organizations find it easier to raise money through manipulating the images rather
than promoting its actual policy or field work. Indeed, institutional survival may depend on
these public relations exercises.
While fund raisers and communicators may argue that emotive appeals to save “flagship”
species or the undifferentiated rain forest enrols public opinion of the North by providing a
powerful image and entry point to more complex (and important) “projects”, their
objectives and criteria of success are different to those of policy and field staff. The
business side of the organization values donations, number of members, perceived (rather
than actual) effectiveness, target fulfilment, quotes in newspapers, and maintaining a high
international public profile. A pervasive informal rule is “don’t upset the donors”. In this
sense it can be argued that policy development is in part constrained by its relationship with
the donors, and conservation becomes a construct of the fund raisers. The outcome may
have quite serious implications for the human welfare of local rural actors in developing
countries.
The two examples above give some insights into the dynamics of policy practice, and
reveal some of the contested meanings of conservation at the international level. The
socially constructed nature of “conservation” will now be examined in other arenas.
26
State Functionaries in Biodiversity Conservation

State functionaries are involved in the regulation of the use of natural resources and in the
formulation and implementation of policy. They do not form a homogenous group, since
they occupy different places in the administration (from first secretary to forest ranger), and
their role and effectiveness in implementing biodiversity conservation will depend on the
degree of technical and administrative competence of the civil service. Also, some
environmental protection agencies are not adequately staffed (including those in many
developed countries), with legal work, routine monitoring and basic administration
becoming bogged down in delays.
An important consideration in biodiversity conservation, as with other environmental

policies, is that for many government servants, particularly in developing countries, the
issue of biodiversity is probably of little direct interest, and impinges on their lives only as
a series of regulations or bureaucratic procedures. For many, their main preoccupation is to
keep their jobs, as the following case study of Cameroon illustrates. There are opportunities
for the collection “bureaucratic rents” (bribes) on the part of strategically placed officials in
biodiversity conservation projects and programmes. For example, the issuing of hunting
licences, the inspection and monitoring of CITES, and customs inspections where live
species, ivory and trophies may be exported. The monitoring and reporting systems for
many developing countries are often also hopelessly inadequate. For example, forestry
officials in Cameroon have very few vehicles to visit forest sites, and are sometimes
transported by foreign timber companies. Many officials are in a contractually inferior
position in negotiations with foreign firms which may not be too concerned about keeping
to conservation guidelines. There are too many cases of large-scale illegal smuggling,
either overlooked or run by official bodies. Most instances are highly sensitive and are not
officially documented (or the documentation is suppressed), but there are enough notorious
cases to support the claim that biodiversity conservation is seriously compromised in many
countries — especially but not exclusively in the South.
For example, Ellis (1994) reports that South Africa’s policy of destabilization of
neighbouring countries was closely associated with the rise of South Africa as a key transit
country in the international ivory trade. South African traders, acting in partnership or with
protection from officers of the South African Military Directorate, imported raw ivory from
Angola, Mozambique and elsewhere and exported it to markets in the Far East. This was a
source of income both for the South African secret services and for the individuals
associated with them. There is evidence that counter-insurgency specialists are using
Mozambique as a base for operations inside South Africa, and that they continue to have an
interest in ivory and rhino horn. Former officers of counter-insurgency units have also
found employment as game wardens in national parks. Ellis shows how the South African
conservation lobby has been used by some of the specialist counter insurgency units of the
South African Defence Force, and how proposals for the large game parks along the South-
African Mozambique border have important implications for politics and national security,
as well as biodiversity conservation (1994).
The implementation of CITES and the environmental clauses of ITTA are markers for the
future implementation of the UNCED Biodiversity Convention, and current research being
undertaken by the American Social Research Council on the implementation and
compliance with international accord shows how signing of these accords may be no
indication of a country intending or undertaking to implement them. It is clear that
biodiversity conservation may not be of much professional and personal concern to many
state functionaries at all — and this applies even to personnel in wildlife protection and
forestry agencies in many developing countries.
Entrepreneurs and Corporations
27
The relationship between commercial interests and biodiversity is a vast subject and can
only be touched upon in this paper. In general terms, commercial actors usually exploit a
narrow range of natural resources in any one location or sector, which may have
implications for genetic, species and ecosystem biodiversity. Their profits are linked to
using biodiversity, which is seen as a raw material. The actions and views of entrepreneurs
with regard to biodiversity may be considered to lie along a continuum. At one end there
are distinctly “anti-nature” views of some multinational corporations, while others have
developed distinctly “green” objectives and are seeking mutually beneficial relationships
with local communities. For example, a Cargill executive claimed that they have succeeded
in “stopping bees from usurping the pollen” (cited in Shiva, 1993b). The latter may use a
“green” image as a marketing asset, but be careful that earning it does not reduce their
competitiveness. The recent controversy during mid-1994 over the Body Shop has focused
attention upon the degree of substantive change towards conservationist practice, as
opposed to window dressing. There are undoubtedly examples, in the retail sector
particularly, where the notions of biodiversity and conservation are being used in
misleading ways to sell products without any change in the way the constituent natural
resources are obtained or purchased.
Within this commercial context, much of the contemporary debate is focused on the
contribution of the new biotechnologies and intellectual property régimes to genetic erosion
and conservation; and the impact of the timber trade on biodiversity.
Biotechnology and intellectual property

Historically, Northern countries have had easy access to the biological resources of
developing countries. The colonial relationship underwrote this access. Indeed, over the
past few centuries it was (and still is) access to and control of commercially important
tropical resources which has given Western powers economic advantage in the world
economy. Brockway (1979) illustrates how the acquisition and monopoly of scientific
knowledge played a key role in the development of several highly profitable and
strategically important plant based industries during the colonial era (e.g. rubber, cinchona,
sisal). The acquisition and control of knowledge and resources has taken on a new
dimension with the development of modern biotechnologies and intellectual property (IP)
systems. According to the Crucible Group (1994) access to genetic diversity will be the key
to human survival.
While on the one hand the world is experiencing a decline in the resource base, on the
other there is a proliferation of new biotechnologies which can use genetic resources in
new ways. The growing interest in new biological compounds means that the genes of
many plants, animals and micro-organisms are becoming commercially more valuable and
biotechnology companies are making large investments in screening genetic resources. For
example, gorgonian corals from tropical reefs are being assessed for anti-inflammatory
compounds; traditional medicinal plants are being screened for anti-HIV properties; soils
from tropical rain forests are being studied to find new pesticides and antibiotics. In
agriculture germplasm specialists are screening traditional strains and their wild relatives
for plant and animal breeding programmes (Pimbert, 1993). The vital contribution of
genetic diversity to crop production and medicines is impossible to predict. In industrial
manufacturing it has been estimated that plant resources will recapture the share of the total
industrial materials they enjoyed in the 1920s (Morris and Ahmed, 1992); while in
medicine it is estimated that over 7,000 medical compounds in Western medicine are drawn
from plants (Mshigenio, 1990).
In order to safeguard the time and capital that they have invested in screening and
developing new resources, commercial companies and some governments have pressed for
the extension of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) to biological products, and for a global
“harmonization” of patent systems (i.e., for all countries to adopt the types of IPR system
currently operating in industrialized countries). The most recent GATT agreement obliges
28
all signatories to adopt either a patent or some form of sui generis protection for plant
varieties and micro-organisms. Governments can include IPRs for animals if they wish.
The intellectual property debate is highly controversial, and is seen by many to represent a
new phase in the debate on which genes will (and should) become privatized (Vogel,
1994). On the other hand, the debate has drawn attention to the relationship between
science, business and power in global terms and the impact of IP on local livelihoods, and
the ethical implications of patenting “life forms”. Many believe that IP systems need to be
reshaped to accommodate social concerns (ODI, 1993).
There is concern that the development of modern biotechnologies and IP systems will have
a profound influence on biodiversity and rural communities in the South, and may even
accelerate genetic erosion. During this century a large proportion of the genetic variability
of the world’s major food crops has become extinct, and the conservation and development
of the remaining crop diversity has become an urgent task (Cooper et al., 1992). Four major
reasons are discussed below.
First, it is feared that biotechnologies and IPRs are likely to accelerate genetic erosion by
facilitating the breeding of modern varieties. The genetic base of the modern varieties of
commercial agriculture is very narrow, which is typical of conventional plant breeding
where cycles of selection tend to reduce the level of variation within a plant population.
Intellectual property enhances the incentives towards the development of varieties with the
largest market potential (i.e., widely adapted over large areas) and which suit the needs of
commercial farmers and the marketing and processing industries. Crops that are preferred
by small-scale farmers are usually neglected or abandoned as their relative profitability
suffers. The exercise of intellectual property rights means that seed companies obtain a
higher return on protected varieties than on unprotected varieties. It also establishes a bias
in favour of the newest varieties which emphasize uniformity rather than genetic variability
(Crucible Group, 1994). Since the 1950s the spread of “Green Revolution” varieties of
corn, wheat, rice and other crops has squeezed out native varieties, as farmers replace
traditional varieties with only a few introduced ones. In Indonesia, 1,500 local paddy
varieties have become extinct in the last 15 years (Pimbert, 1993). In Zimbabwe, 2 hybrid
varieties account for 90 per cent of all maize seed planted, and have displaced many
traditional varieties of millet and sorghum (ODI, 1993). Shiva (1993b) illustrates this
global trend in her book Monocultures of the Mind.
Second, it is widely agreed that current IPRs do not accommodate the contributions made
by local farmers to the maintenance of diversity, through their strategies of growing a wide
range of cultivars, and centuries of indigenous experimentation. For example, Azadirachta
indica (the neem tree) has been used for centuries by Indian doctors and farmers. Its
chemical properties have made it suitable for many types of medicines and effective
insecticides. These properties have been known to Indians for millennia, and over the last
seventy years there has been considerable research carried out by scientific institutes in
India itself, but its chemical properties have never been patented. Indeed, under Indian law
agricultural and medicinal products are not patentable. However, since 1985 over a dozen
US patents have been taken out by United States and Japanese firms on formulae for neem-
based solutions and emulsions, and one patent holding company (W.R. Grace) has set up a
plant in India which will process neem seed for export to the United States. They are also
developing a network of seed suppliers, to ensure a constant supply of seeds and a reliable
price. The appeal of the neem tree to these multinational companies is clearly commercial.
There has been a mounting chorus of objections from Indian scientists, farmers and
political activists, who argue that multinationals have no right “to expropriate the fruit of
centuries of indigenous experimentation and several decades of scientific research” (Shiva
and Holla-Bhar, 1993). The debate has stimulated a bitter controversy about the ethics of IP
and what is believed to be “intellectual piracy”. Monopoly control of genetic resources
makes it illegal for local communities to renew biologically their stock without payment,
and it is feared that the seed and breeding stock of vulnerable farmers may gradually
become the intellectual property of national and multinational companies. This has strong
implications for the welfare of farmers and consumers in developing countries since they
29
could be forced to pay high prices for products that they would have formerly provided for
themselves. IP is also seen to undermine biodiversity associated with traditional and low
input agriculture. Brockway (1979) points out that royalty payments on patents, copyrights,
franchises and licences constitute monopoly rent on technology and knowledge, and thus
act as a drain on poor countries.
The commercialization and privatization of biodiversity through IPR can be seen as the
growing power of global capital, which currently has free global access to the products of
traditional knowledge. Discussion on alternative sui generis patent systems and new forms
of co-operation with local communities are slowly growing. For example, the Crucible
Group (1994) review various IP options and alternatives for biological resources within the
global trading system. It argues strongly in favour of protecting farmers’ and community
rights, and suggests that biotechnology may warrant its own sui generis IP system. Some
countries are developing their own response to the IP challenge. For example, in India an
alliance of farmers and scientists is developing an alternative form of intellectual property,
the Gaon Samaj or a collective at the village level which would hold intellectual property
rights (CIPRs — Collective intellectual property rights). These recognize knowledge to be
a social product, subject to local common rights, and give the community the right to
benefit commercially from traditional knowledge (Shiva and Holla-Bhar, 1993).
There are also a growing number of commercial initiatives which seek to co-operate with
indigenous communities. For example, in Latin America, the drug company Shaman
Pharmaceuticals has outlined its intention to return a percentage of profits to all
communities it has worked with. It intends to funnel compensation through a non-profit
organization for the protection of indigenous knowledge and conservation of biodiversity.
The Merk-InBio agreement in Costa Rica is another example of a new model of co-
operation between commercial companies and countries (Reid et al., 1993). It is clear that
there are early signs that countervailing forces, although politically still weak, are making
some headway in defending the rights of vulnerable groups in the face of strong
international commercial pressures.
Third, there is also evidence that the sheer quantity of some biomaterials required from so-
called “wild” collections will contribute to the decline of forest species, coral reefs,
wetlands, etc. For example, medicinal plant material exported from Cameroon to France
between 1985-1991 includes 900 tonnes of Voacanga africana seed; 11,537 tonnes of
Prunus afracana bark for an extract to treat prostatitis in Europe; and 286 tonnes of
Pausinystalia johimbe bark to be sold as an aphrodisiac in sex shops (Cunningham, 1993).
These products are not harvested on a sustainable basis. The total value of imports of
medicinal plants to the OECD countries, Japan and the United States increased from US$
335 million in 1976 to US$ 551 million in 1980.
Finally, the testing of new biotechnologies is considered to be a potential threat to

biodiversity because it alters the wider ecosystem. Biosafety issues are a major concern of
some observers as some new products are known to have adverse ecological and
epidemiological consequences. For example, in the North biotechnologists are trying to
make some commercial plants more tolerant to frost. A gene which triggers ice nucleation
in plant cells has been isolated and eliminated from certain bacteria. When the ice-minus
bacteria is sprayed on a crop, it is meant to displace the naturally occurring ice-forming
bacteria, and the plants do not freeze when they normally would (Shiva, 1993b). There was
a public outcry when the researcher was allowed to conduct a field test, and a group of
citizens and environmental interest groups filed a suit against the United States National
Institutes of Health for approving the project. There is a strong possibility that the frost-
preventing bacteria might be swept up into the upper atmosphere and disrupt the natural
formation of ice crystals, which could affect the local climate if not the global climate. As
Shiva points out, many Northern governments and companies are taking their trials to
countries in the South with little or no regulation, in order to avoid public protest and court
injunctions. This charge parallels that of the dumping of hazardous waste and marketing of
30
hazardous chemicals by companies of the North in developing countries, where regulations

are not in place or not implemented.
The Timber Trade

Threats to forests are among the most serious environmental problems of the late twentieth
century (Myers, 1979; WRI, 1985). Not only do forest destruction and degradation have
major implications for local and global climate patterns, but loss of forest also threatens
global biodiversity. Various studies have identified the role of the timber trade in the
degradation of tropical, temperate and boreal forests (Marshall, 1990; Hurst, 1990; Horta,
1991; Marx, 1994; Dudley et al., 1995).
In the 1980s the European Timber Trade stated that no tropical timber was traded in
Europe, and that forest loss was due to problems of “overpopulation” and the collection of
fuelwood in the South. However, Friends of the Earth challenged these claims by revealing
that about one third of the world’s international tropical timber did in fact come to Europe
(cited Dudley et al., 1995).
Much of the world’s timber continues to come from primary, natural or old growth forests,
which is leading to loss of habitats and biodiversity. Logging can cause enormous damage
to remaining stands of trees, particularly if recommended techniques of “treading lightly on
the forest” are ignored. The technologies of environmentally sound logging are known, but
are very often totally ignored. Logging roads also act as migration routes for settlers
leading to further destruction of forests (Witte, 1992). Case studies of Russia and
Cameroon in this paper amply illustrate these points. Other recent studies have focused on
the intensification of management in secondary forests (e.g. plantations). Modern
management systems and greater mechanization often result in simplified biodiversity and
other detrimental ecological effects (Dudley, 1992).
Over the past few years ownership of forest enterprises has become concentrated in the
hands of a few transnational companies, which have enormous economic power and
political influence, both formally and informally. For example Marx (1994) reveals how
the Japanese Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsubishi Bank, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
(along with their numerous subsidiaries) have become the largest corporate family in the
world, and are all involved in the timber trade. The Corporation structures the timber deals;
their Bank finances them, and their Heavy Industries supplies equipment for logging,
processing and shipping.
Due to their political and economic power, some multinationals are known to be logging in
national parks and other protected areas, and to operate outside the framework of
international law. Much of the mahogany sold in the United Kingdom and United States
comes illegally from Indian reserves in Rondônia (Brazil) and elsewhere (Dudley et al.,
1995). Logging companies usually have short-term logging leases, and demonstrate little if
no concern for good forest management, or indigenous peoples’ rights (Horta, 1991). Much
forested land, which was previously under state control, has recently been privatized
(particularly in Central and Eastern Europe). Large tracts of forests are quickly being
converted to cash with serious implications for biodiversity in the North. (The case of
Russian forests is discussed further below.)
The global demand for timber has also greatly increased, with particular implications for
deforestation pressures in South-East Asia (particularly Japan, South Korea, Taiwan,
Malaysia and Indonesia). Demand for wood and wood products has rapidly increased in the
newly developing countries, and has become the motor for deforestation in the Asia-Pacific
area and elsewhere. Some logging companies based in these countries, having exhausted
their home supplies, have moved to countries as far away as Canada. Mitsubishi, for
example, is behind the giant ALPAC project that controls some 70,000 square kilometres
of boreal forest in Alberta, Canada. It also owns Crestbrook Forest Industries, which is
31
being sued by Revenue Canada for transfer pricing. Mitsubishi continues to be a major
buyer of old growth logs from McMillan-Bloedel, and has frequently played a role in the
exploitation of natural forests (Marx, 1994).
Further studies have exposed widespread illegal felling operations; intra-firm trade and
transfer pricing are often characteristic features of transnational corporations involved in
the timber trade (see Marshall, 1990 for a discussion of corruption in the timber trade in
Papua New Guinea). Among other things, such trade is known to involve an under-
measuring of timber volumes, misclassification of species, under-declaration of profits,
payment of tax in low tax countries, underestimation of timber values, violations of native
land claims, violation of pollution standards, etc. Not only do such procedures allow timber
companies to make quick and large profits, without paying for any of the environmental
and social costs of their operations, but forest-exporting countries are losing legitimate
revenues. It has been estimated that only 10 per cent of timber logged in Brazil is exported
legally (Dudley et al., 1995).
Finally, there have been profound changes in forestry and timber technology. Recent
technological changes in the forestry sector allow previously uncommercial stands of trees
to be converted to woodchip, which further encourages clear felling. Previously untouched
stands of trees are now being harvested by their virtual physical removal, with the most
drastic implications for biodiversity.
However, despite ample evidence of these negative impacts of the timber trade on
biodiversity, there are also signs of new forms of co-operation between environmental
NGOs and some companies within the timber trade. Dwindling tropical timber resources
are beginning to threaten commercial interests, and according to one environmental
spokesman many companies are beginning to see the “writing on the wall” and privately
admit to it (J.-P. Jeanrenaud, 1993). In 1991 WWF-UK established a “1995 Group” of
wood-using companies committed to phasing out by December 1995 the sale and use of all
wood and wood products that do not come from well-managed forests as defined by the
Forest Stewardship Council’s “Principles and Criteria”. There are currently twenty-three
companies, ranging from large retailers, major purchasers such as British Rail, to smaller
companies which are committed to reaching this target. They are required to write an action
programme detailing how the company will reach its 1995 target, and to phase out
immediately all labels claiming sustainability until a credible independent certification
system for timber is established (Jeanrenaud and Sullivan, 1993). The 1995 Group trades
over £ one thousand million worth of wood products, almost 10 per cent of total wood
consumption in the UK, and more than 35 million customers shop in their stores each week
(J.-P. Jeanrenaud, 1995).
Martin Laing, Chairman of John Laing plc, wrote in March 1994:
I implore all wood using companies to...be bold and join WWF’s 1995 Group, which
is committed to phasing out the sale of wood and wood products that do not come
from well-managed forests by December 1995 — as Laing Homes already has. We
should see environmental achievement as a welcome business opportunity — not as a
threat (cited in Dudley et al., 1995).
However, this collaboration must not be over-emphasized, since it is recent and is still
dwarfed by the prevailing contradictory nature of the relationship between the timber trade
and biodiversity conservation. Indeed there is currently an industry backlash against
conservation in many developed countries. In January 1995 the Financial Times reported
that a leading North American publisher was planning to join forces with the forest
products industry to “blunt environmental protests against forest practices in the US and
Canada”. In Australia, loggers have violently clashed with environmentalists to bring a halt
to further logging in many areas of old-growth forest. The executive director of the New
South Wales Forest Products Association was filmed saying:
32
If we have to physically confront those people who’ve opposed us for so long then so
be it; maybe the time has come. And I’d say to the people in industry, if you are
going to do that, use your common sense and make sure it’s not being filmed when
you do it (cited in J.-P. Jeanrenaud, 1995).
The Prime Minister, Mr. Keating, condemned the loggers for their “intolerable violence”,
and censored the director on television and in the press forcing him to make a public
apology (J.-P. Jeanrenaud, 1995). In Japan, Mitsubishi sent out hundreds of thousands of
letters defending logging activities, and blaming poverty as the real cause of forest
destruction. The company produced a comic book for Japanese high schools refuting the
environmentalists’ claim. The Japanese Minister of Education subsequently recalled it as
“propaganda for a single company” (Marx, 1994).
Thus the evidence for a growing mutuality of certain commercial and environmentalist
interests is mixed. It appears that commercial interests can be aligned with concerns for
biodiversity conservation if intensive advocacy work and networking are undertaken, as
WWF-UK has done. However, some cautious observers are concerned that, by working
with industry, conservation objectives may get lost or watered down. In the case outlined
above, WWF-UK is confident that negative publicity and public pressure will lead timber
traders and retailers to align themselves with the more reformist conservation lobby.
However, it is clear that the timber trade has the incentives and the resources to be a strong
countervailing force.
Local Agrarian Groups

Local agrarian groups are those who use a range of natural resources either as use values or
for petty commodity production. Access to this range of natural resources is therefore
crucial to livelihoods. There has been much recent interest in the role of biodiversity in the
livelihoods of local agrarian communities (see Scoones, 1992 for a comprehensive
bibliography). This research has lent support to the argument that local communities can
potentially play an important role in biodiversity conservation (Pimbert, 1993). There are
numerous case studies which show how local communities rely on an enormous variety of
products: fuelwood, fibre, bush meat, medicines, vegetables, craft materials, etc. It has been
estimated that three quarters of the world’s population relies on wild foods for its
livelihood security, and that 80 per cent relies on traditional medicine for primary health
care (Pimbert, 1993).
Some of the best known examples come from studies of tropical rainforest communities,
particularly in West Africa and Latin America. For example, the report of an ethno-
botanical study in twelve villages around the Korup National Park in Cameroon, contains a
35 page appendix of local medicinal species, seeds, vegetables, fruits, spices, roots,
mushrooms, and other species used by local people (Thomas, 1989). Falconer and Koppell
(1990) review the major significance of so called “minor” forest products to local
communities in West Africa.
Other communities in less diverse environments also use a wide variety of species for food
and medicine. For example, the Pokot pastoralists are known to use some 61 plant species
for food and 118 for medicine. They are known to have an exceptionally detailed
understanding of fodder species. They can identify species to promote milk or meat
production, and for wet- or dry- season fodder (Barrow, 1991). Similarly, in Nepal, surveys
have shown that Nepalese farmers use between 70 and 130 species of fodder trees,
(Robinson and Thompson, 1989). Local knowledge of species and varieties is of course not
isolated to so-called wild foods. There are well known examples of diversity in cultivated
crops. For example women rice growers in India are reported to recognize and use over
100, mostly indigenous, varieties of paddy (Shiva and Dankelman, 1992).
Gender
33
A number of case studies reveal the varying importance of species variety to different
categories of rural people — primarily on the basis of gender and class, and especially in
times of crisis, food shortage or outright famine. There are three major reasons why a
gender perspective in biodiversity erosion and conservation is important:
(i) Women may be key actors in biodiversity conservation since their knowledge of
natural resources may be differentiated from men’s, and in some instances greater than
men’s;
(ii) The value of biodiversity to women in rural areas in the South may be particularly
important on account of their patterns of access to a wide variety of plants for food,
medicine, and other household uses;
(iii) Therefore, the effect of agro-ecological change and biodiversity erosion may impact
women in different ways than men.
Let us examine each of these hypotheses in turn.
Shiva and Dankelman argue that women have traditionally played a silent yet central role
in management and sustainable use of biological resources and life support systems. Their
relationship with the environment is holistic, multi-dimensional and productive. Western
research and technology are undermining the control women have over these systems and
breaking down linkages that made evolution possible. Successful management of biological
resources depends on women’s control over environmental systems. This role of women
must be respected and reinforced if conservation of genetic diversity is to succeed (Shiva
and Dankelman, 1992).
In general terms there are cautionary comments from Jackson (1994), who argues that we
should beware of linking gender issues too tightly with biodiversity conservation. It is
possible to produce counter-evidence that shows that women resist conservation. There
should be no a priori grounds, she says, for assuming an affinity between women’s
interests and those of environmental protection and conservation in the Third World. She
argues that environmental conservation frequently seems to be based upon coercive social
relations, and that the emancipation of women, or other dominated groups, may not
necessarily create a breakthrough for conservation; rather there are possibilities for break-
downs of eco-order. Also, Fairhead and Leach (1992) warn that “the importance of
differences of agro-ecological knowledge can be over-stressed as a basis for assessing
people’s differential capabilities, adaptability and flexibility in agriculture”.
Against these cautionary remarks about the specificity of women’s knowledge of natural
resources and therefore of biodiversity, there are arguments that since women are major
users of the natural environment they have a wide knowledge of natural resources, based
upon the exclusive or dominant use of many species of wild and cultivated plants, animals,
fuel, fibres, fodder and medicines. Their work and knowledge are based on linkages within
production systems (i.e., ecological systems), which are crucial to maintaining ecological
stability.
For example, it is argued that women’s knowledge can make a potentially important
contribution towards international genetic resource conservation with regard to fuelwood
scarcities, since women predominantly collect fuelwood in many different countries
(Agarwal, 1986; Ki-Zerbo, 1981; Nagrobrahman and Sambrani, 1983). However, it is only
occasionally that diversity of fuelwood species is the major problem, rather than the
increasing scarcity of biomass overall, although both problems probably co-exist widely
(see the case study on Tamil Nadu, below). Also, it does not necessarily follow that
women’s knowledge of fuelwood species is separate from and superior to that of men, just
because women usually do most of the work in collecting fuelwood. Bakweri women in
south-west Cameroon are involved in gathering a vast range of diverse products from the
tropical forest: wild foods, spices, medicines, various fuelwood species, leaves used for
plates and wrapping, and products for income generating activities such as basket-making.
34
Although men are also involved in gathering a range of products, they tend to specialize in
wood products, hunting and honey collection (S. Jeanrenaud 1991).
Women hill farmers in Dehra Dun in India know and use over l45 species of forest plants.
However, knowledge is declining as indigenous forest declines. In Kenya, women use 65
indigenous species of plants for food and 99 for medicine. Factors affecting selection of
indigenous species include abundance, ease of access, preparation requirements and
palatability (Rocheleau et al., 1989). Women are also involved in wildlife utilization in
South Africa, where they hunt birds and rodents and collect insects. They spot large game
when gathering, and stop activities to tell men. Large game management has negative
impacts on women, because such animals destroy crops and may make travel dangerous
(Hunter et al., 1990). Evidence from Kenya demonstrates the importance of wild foods and
medicinal plants for supplementing diets and increasing their variety. In the rainy season
when cultivated foods are not available, there are many wild foods collected by women
which are rich in protein and minerals. Wild foods also substitute for meals when away
from home and during times of famine, and for preventing illness (Wanjohi, l987).
Hoffmann-Kuehnel (1989) termed this women’s knowledge of the “survival economy”
because of their identifying, growing, conserving and processing wild and indigenously
cultivated plants in Africa. In conclusion, the application of knowledge differentiation of
species diversity in livelihood strategies along gender lines is highly variable and site
specific.
The next hypothesis is that local biodiversity may be more valued by women and contribute
more to their welfare than to men’s. A number of examples support this view. It might be
expected that use and knowledge of local species are highly correlated, but the point made
above that use of may imply knowledge of, but does not necessarily imply control of those
resources. Sometimes, a higher value of species diversity to women is a result of them
being excluded from the control of and consumption of a narrower range of the most
important (and if marketed, most lucrative) sources of income. Women then become
marginalized to common property and wild foods.
Evidence from the Tukanoan Amerindians of Colombia shows that, in the rainy season,
insects (beetle larvae, ants, termites, and caterpillars) can contribute up to 26 per cent of the
crude protein in women’s diets (l2 per cent for men). Women do not have the same access
to game and fish as men and so consume more insects. On some days insects are the only
source of animal food for women. Insects have a very rich energy value per l00 grams,
providing an essential contribution to dietary diversity and daily consumption needs
(Dafour, l987). In Ghana, women depend heavily on forest based gathering and processing
for income. The roots of Parkia bicolor are gathered by women and beaten into sponges
and sold in rural and urban markets. The gathering of food wrapping leaves (of the
Marantaceae family) is the main source of income for many women. In Kumasi market in
Ghana hundreds of traders and leaf gatherers sell their bales of food wrapping leaves.
Women are also involved in the processing of logs into chew sticks. Also, 90 per cent of
the traders of non-timber forest products in Kumasi market are women. Trade of such
products provides a source of cash income for family food, clothing, school fees, and farm
investment (Falconer, l990).
Studies in Kenya illustrate that gathered plants are more important to the poor than to the
rich. The collection of wild products tends to be gender and age differentiated: women
prefer wild vegetables (they appear during the rainy season and provide an inexpensive
food source during a time when food supplies are decreasing); children prefer fruit; men
prefer fibre and medicinal plants. Two species of fruits are sold in markets: Tamarindus
indica and Ximenia caffra. Wild resources are gradually decreasing (Maundu, l987). To
take an example from India, in Uttar Pradesh it was found that women were responsible for
the management of tree resources for food, fodder, fuel and household items. 33 per cent of
women’s income was derived from forest and common land (for poor women it was 45 per
cent), while men, on the other hand, rely on off-farm employment, and only obtain l3 per
cent of income from forest common land (FAO, l987). A final example comes from Kenya,
35
where in times of drought, survival strategies may be gender specific. Wild foods became
more important in the diet, resulting in greater collection activity, largely by women. “One
man’s field becomes another woman’s commons during drought” (Rocheleau, 1991). Wild
foods are often collected from private fields, but with communal access to wild foods found
in the bush and from boundaries and paths.
Finally, it may be argued that biodiversity erosion — a reduction in the local availability of
a range of species — will affect the welfare of women more than that of men. Women are
often affected more immediately than men by environmental degradation because they are
usually involved on a day-to-day basis with household food security, fuelwood collection,
water collection and water quality. Therefore their workload may be increased in the
fulfilment of these gender-defined tasks. Shiva and Dankelman (l992) argue that the shift
from subsistence to commercial agriculture has led to reduction in women’s sphere of
influence, and an increasing dependence of women on men for extension services, seeds
and the handling of tools and money. The loss of control over natural resource management
is thought to lead to loss of women’s knowledge and intellectual integrity with regard to
forestry, plant and animal genetic resources. It results in the de-skilling of women. Shiva
and Dankelman further argue that the effects of the introduction of new agro-technologies
results in the loss of biodiversity and replacement of local varieties (1992). This in turn is
thought to lead to the increased vulnerability of women due to loss of sources of food,
fodder and minor forest products. Also, natural evolutionary and local breeding
mechanisms will be undermined by new biotechnologies, thus threatening life-support
systems.
The rural poor

Species variety may be important to those with limited income and access to private
resources, especially land, and particularly in times of environmental stress such as
drought. Coping strategies of poor rural people in times of food shortage often include use
of wild foods. In particular, those who do not have access to adequate private resources
(e.g. agricultural land) rely upon common property resources where wild foods are found
(see de Waal, 1989; McGlathlon et al., 1986; Agarwal, 1990 for examples in Africa and
India respectively, and Blaikie et al., 1994 for a review). Conversion of forests and
uncultivated land may reduce biodiversity in the sense that the variety of species used as
dietary supplements, and as scarcity foods at certain seasons and during times of food
shortage, will be reduced. It is reasonable to assume that this process will have detrimental
impacts on poorer sections of rural populations.
One of the few detailed case studies of this process has analysed the reduction of common
land in Tamil Nadu, India and its impact on species diversity and the users of common land
(Blaikie et al., 1985; 1992). The local situation was governed by such factors as population
density, farming system and other local ecological variables. However, it was clear from all
sample sites that a process of social and economic differentiation was taking place, and that
weaker sections of the population (e.g. tribals and scheduled castes) were being
economically and spatially marginalized onto a shrinking and degraded commons.
Common land and forest land itself was being encroached upon both legally and illegally.
The volume and diversity of products from the different categories of land are shown in
Table 5. For each of the categories of resource an inventory was made of the most
important plant species (not listed here for lack of space, but see Blaikie et al., 1985:28). It
is clear from this list that local livelihoods relied upon a very considerable range of species.
For example, 10 species were identified as sources of green manure, six as edible fruits
(almost certain to be an underestimate), ten as construction timber, and five as condiments
and spices. This case study focuses on an important general point regarding the relationship
between biodiversity and the welfare of the rural poor. It is that the impact of biodiversity
erosion on the rural poor must be considered in the wider context of economic and social
marginalization. Many have inadequate access to agricultural land and other privately-held
resources and are pushed into waste land, common land, or into squatting illegally in state
36
forests. Decline in the availability of diverse resources from uncultivated, wild or semi-
wild habitats thus impacts particularly on the rural poor (Agarwal, 1990; Jodha, 1991).
Table 5
Common property resources and land classification in Tamil Nadu, India
Source: Blaikie et al., 1985:27
The notion of “the community”

As we have already emphasized, it is important to take an overall view of the actors
concerned in biodiversity within an agrarian political economy. One of the main themes of
this paper is that the biodiversity issue in agrarian societies in the South revolves around
competition for scarce resources, strategies for gaining access and struggles which
sometimes involve direct physical confrontation as well as the creation, use and
manipulation of legal means. There is a comforting and misleading notion of “community”
which is used in many conservation documents. It has become a social construction which
policy makers and foreign donors need and upon which they base assumptions about local
management of resources. Anderson (1983) talks of “imagined communities” which meet
policy objectives. In reality, “communities” are often highly differentiated — along lines of
gender, age and wealth, for example — and therefore their members may have very
different perceptions and definitions about biodiversity. Also, the implications of
biodiversity loss — as well as the costs of conserving biodiversity — must be differentiated
according to wealth, gender and age. There is a need to “deconstruct” the notion of
community. This issue will be discussed in more general terms below.
There are other problematic conceptual areas at the interface between agrarian groups and
policy makers’ images of them. The notion of the conservation of the natural resource base
and of the community’s existing use patterns may constitute a form of “enforced
primitivism”. Even where local people use a wide variety of species which may be crucial
to their livelihoods, they may want different lifestyles. Jeanrenaud (1991) showed that even
in the same community there was a wide range of views about the rainforest — some
valued its products, while others wished to see it converted to other uses. Linking
biodiversity and cultural preservation may require a kind of enforced primitivism
unacceptable to local people.
37
There may be further divergences of values put on different species, where use value in the
short-term may identify different species than those identified on biodiversity conservation
grounds. Whereas conservationists value high forest, some case studies show that most of
the locally valued species are within secondary forest. For example Thomas et al. (1989)
show that only 18 per cent of the most valued medicinal plants were found in high forest,
the rest came from secondary forest and cultivated areas. Leach and Fairhead (1994) draw
attention to the importance of bush fallow to local subsistence rather than high forest.
In summary, biodiversity conservation, as with other conservation policy in general,

demands that the whole “cast of actors” concerned is identified, along with actor’s interests
in the elements that comprise collectively the notion of biodiversity, how they go about
pursuing their objectives and their source of power to reach them. In biodiversity
conservation, social mapping is just as important as ecological mapping. An example of
this approach has already been given for the Nepalese terai (Brown, 1994).
A case study concerning a national park in Zambia (Abel and Blaikie, 1986) illustrates the
ideas of competition, different identifications and meanings of natural resources, and the
strategies of different actors. The Lwangwa Valley is a national park, which can be viewed
as an assemblage of resources, together constituting an ecosystem and containing valuable
biodiversity. There are a number of groups interested in components of this system or, in
the case of scientists in the system as a whole and its contribution to biodiversity. Table 6
identifies these groups, their interests and how they pursue them. The outcome of this
configuration of interests since this paper was written is instructive. The authors came to
the conclusion that most of the actors could get most of what they currently required from
the park at the same time as most of the conservation criteria were being fulfilled. This
required a “deal” between the local actors and the outside agency which had its own
conservationist criteria. What the authors did not consider at the time of writing the paper
was the prevailing unequal distribution of power. An appeal to democratic negotiation
towards an environmentally friendly outcome may be attractive to donors, but it was
essentially an optimistic one. A number of IUCN reports have noted that the participatory
design of the subsequent project failed, and local “communities” did not secure the benefits
of conservation or project resources. Instead it was the chiefs (the leaders of the local
communities) and project personnel themselves who benefited. Here actors pursued their
own “projects” with the political resources available to them. The methodological point is
well illustrated — that peoples’ involvement with biodiversity is often contingent and
unwitting, and will involve competition with others.
Table 6
Interest groups, a national park and wildlife policy in Zambia
Group Position in political Source of power Interest aims with regard Direct means to
economy to national parks reach aims
and wildlife
Hunter- Incorporated and Limited, but chiefs retain Source of meat; land for Stealth; “poaching”;
cultivators marginalized; labour some influence. In direct cultivation; ivory; rhino firearms (some modern).
extracted; hampered by opposition to National horn; honey; etc. A little
hunting laws; excluded Parks and Wildlife Service employment with National
from most valuable parts of bureaucrats and guards, Parks and Wildlife Service
trophy trade. except in crop protection Safari firms, tourist
and predator control. organizations.
Safari Small companies controlled Astute informal Right to hunt in best areas Vehicles and modern
hunters by expatriates with support negotiations; profitability and obtain high-quality firearms; use of local
from Zambian shareholders, — funds for lobbying, etc.; trophies with very high rate trackers and local
a few politicians and ability to earn foreign of success. knowledge; areas close to
Zambian bureaucrats. Ad exchange. national park boundaries are
hoc links with Wildlife excellent hunting areas due
Conservation society and to higher densities there.
Save the Rhino Trust.
Conservation Connected to top Zambian Lack of informed opinion in Conservation of species, Lobbying; publicity;
38
pressure politicians; ad hoc alliances Zambia; individuals also with individuals using publications; conservation
groups with safari hunters; most have other skills essential to wildlife for recreation and education; fund anti-
members are expatriates, Zambian economy; opinion sport hunting. poaching efforts; many
many with influential posts. formers and “national members are Honorary
conscience” on Rangers.
conservation.
Bureaucratic Includes politicians as well Political, administrative and Individuals benefit from ad Legislation; budget
bourgeoisie as senior career bureaucrats. thorough control of product hoc informal agreements; as allocation; policy-making;
Control state apparatus to (directly and indirectly); opinion enhancement in patrimony. Backed by
secure access to capital form major part of the international arena; as powers of the state (police,
(loans, etc.) to manipulate dominant urban alliance of earner of foreign exchange army, national Parks and
prices. Because of this mineworkers, urban in line with urban interests. Wildlife Service, etc.);
control, senior bureaucrats entrepreneurs, big business establishment of parastatal
must be part of any interests, politicians, tourist organization.
executive decisions bureaucrats.
concerning national parks.
Scientists Direct and indirect access to Science as legitimation; Development of “rational” Publications; individual
foreign aid for Zambia. Zambia (particularly urban policies based on access to decision makers,
Access to highest positions élites) dependent on “knowledge”; pursue both national (bureaucratic
of political power, often on international aid and individual careers bourgeoisie) and
individual basis, but very therefore indirectly on (recognition, esteem, international (various aid
unevenly. Allied to local international opinion; little research funds, etc.). agencies).
conservation forces to formed scientific opinion in
promote some of their aims. Zambia to question and
refute various scientific
theories.
Source: Abel and Blaikie, 1986
4. INSTANCES
The three case studies that follow illustrate the actors and processes involved in
biodiversity issues. They have been chosen partly to provide information on lesser known
areas and themes, and partly to draw out more general links between welfare and
biodiversity and lessons for policy. The case studies consider contemporary examples of
temperate forests with special reference to Russia, tropical forests and wildlife in
Cameroon, and marine biodiversity issues with special reference to whales.
Russian Forests
For many years the environmental spotlight has focused on the threats to the biodiversity of
the world’s tropical forests. However, in the last few years it has become apparent that
threats to the biodiversity of temperate forests have been, and are becoming, increasingly
severe. The debate about temperate forest issues is relatively new, promoted in part by the
WWF publication Forests in Trouble: A Review of the Status of Temperate Forests
Worldwide (Dudley, 1992), which throws light on the worldwide state of temperate
forests.
Temperate forests account for about half the earth’s forest cover, and are found for the
most part in Russia, Canada and the United States. While temperate forests have fewer
species compared to tropical rainforests, they often support a huge diversity of organisms.
For example, the leaf litter of the Pacific north-west forests is very rich in arthropods, and a
single Douglas fir has been found to support more than 150 species of mycorrhizal fungi
(Barnett, 1992).
Temperate forests are also home to significant groups of indigenous people who rely on
forests for their livelihoods, including the Sami people of Lapland; the Yakut, Khants,
Mansis, Udege and Altai of Siberia; the Inuit of the boreal regions; Maoris of New
39
Zealand; aboriginal people in Australasia, tribal groups in northern India, etc. (Dudley,
1992).
While statistics show that the area of temperate forests has remained stable, or even
increased, over the past fifty years, the figures mask regional losses and a worldwide loss
in forest quality. As Dudley (1992) points out, primary forests have been cleared and
replaced with plantations which do not support the same range of species or ecological
functions. The expansion of plantations and clear felling of pristine forest have also had
negative impacts on indigenous people, who are usually pushed aside for commercial
interests, and lose valuable aspects of their livelihoods. The main threats to the biodiversity
of temperate forests are considered to be continued logging of old-growth temperate forest
intensification of forest management as a fibre crop for producing pulp; and deterioration
of forests through air and water pollution.
Russia contains 25 per cent of the world’s known wood reserves, almost double those of
the Amazonian forest (Scott and Gordon, 1992). It contains 70 per cent of the world’s
boreal forests, of which an estimated 40 per cent are old-growth types. The taiga or
coniferous forests consist mainly of spruce, larch and fir, with some pine, cedar, birch,
aspen and ash (Petrof, 1992). They are home to bears, elk, foxes, martens, ermine, the rare
Siberian tiger; and a variety of birds including the threatened red-crowned crane species.
Russian forests are also home to around 26 ethno-cultural groups, including the Buriat,
Mansis, Khant, Yakut and Udege (Greenpeace, 1993).
It is estimated that 130 billion tons of carbon are stored in the boreal forests of Russia
(compared to an estimated 80 billion tons in the vegetation of the Amazon) thus making
Russian forests a globally important store of sequestrated carbon. It is feared that clear
felling of Russian forests will have potentially important consequences for the
environment, such as increased CO2 emissions, soil erosion and transformation of once-
forested areas into swampland (Greenpeace, 1993).
Under Communist rule, timber was felled for the USSR’s domestic market and for export.
The latter was an important source of revenue, amounting to US$ 3.75 billion in 1989
(FAO, 1991), but was considered small compared to the size of the resource (Barr, 1988).
Under the Soviet régime, forests were undoubtedly mismanaged and over-cut (Komarov,
1981:14). With the disintegration of the USSR and consequent social and economic
upheavals, tree felling declined by state-owned companies by between 30 and 50 per cent.
However, the political changes have introduced new actors, foreign and national, to the
Russian forestry scene, and unleashed new social and economic forces which have
important implications for Russian biodiversity. In the case of Russian forests many of the
actors already discussed appear.
Central authorities
With the drive to establish a free market economy and to generate foreign exchange in the
new Russian Republic, plans are underway to exploit forest resources by large-scale
harvesting and export of minimally processed timber. New economic reforms are
increasingly linking Russia to the global economy, and transnational timber companies are
either already present, or are “lining up to loot Russia’s pristine boreal expanse”
(Greenpeace, 1993). Stringent economic demands from the World Bank are also
encouraging rapid resource utilization and a consequent increase in the rate of tree felling
(Grigoryev, 1992). According to the deputy chairman of the Federal Forest Service:
Over-exploitation of forest resources, violations of ecological and forestry regulations

and poor forest management during the last decades have drastically depleted forest
resources; if timber continues to be logged at the present rate, assuming there is no
waste in timber processing methods, climax forests will be completely destroyed in
40-60 years (Pisarenko, 1990).
40
The new Forest Act, which was adopted by the Russian Federation in March 1993, was
intended to be a significant step towards the conservation of the forest and was an example
of the “new thinking” (novoe myshlenie) which was being called for in policy-making at
the time. However, there are serious concerns about the Act. There is less opportunity for
public participation in the decision-making process, and although powers have been
devolved to local authorities, there are fears that they are influenced by corruption.
The disintegration of the former Soviet Union and resulting loss of centralized control has
led to an institutional and regulatory vacuum. There is currently much uncertainty about
ownership and control of forest resources, generating conflicts between federal, regional
and local administrations. The new Forest Act does not resolve the ambiguities, and has left
the door wide open for regions to write their own forestry laws, which may conflict with
federal forest management goals and priorities (Grigoryev, 1993).
There is concern that some foreign companies are taking advantage of this lack of clarity,
and gaining access to Russia’s rich forest resources. For example, there is currently much
controversy over attempts of the South Korean Hyundai Corporation to log the upper Bikin
River basin. The Corporation wants access to more than 300,000 hectares of the Bikin
River watershed to cut one million cubic metres of wood each year for thirty years (Petrof,
1992). The environmental impact assessment conducted for this watershed forbids cutting,
and the Russian Ministry of Ecology has recommended that the lands be protected and
transferred to the control of the 2,000-3,000 Udege people, who live in and depend on the
forests. However, despite a Russian Supreme Court decision supporting the veto of logging
rights, the regional administration is continuing to take steps which would allow logging
(Gordon, 1993).
There are new conservation policies for forests, such as the plan to increase special forests
where cutting is restricted from 24 to 27 per cent of the total, and legislation to increase
designated ecologically fragile areas (Rosencratz, 1991). However, environmentalists are
concerned that not enough forest is being preserved, and that planned clear felling
operations could have negative ecological side effects. It is often reported that the legally
required environmental impact assessments are overridden or ignored by local or regional
administrators wishing to earn hard currency, revealing the weakness of Russian
environmental protection legislation.
Local authorities
While Russian forestry officials are virtually powerless to control the activities of either
national or foreign logging companies, it has become apparent that local administrative
bodies often stand to gain from the institutional upheavals. For example, the new Forestry
Act proposes to give local authorities the right to carry out sales of forest resources. Under
the old régime long-term concessions of forestry land were given to a number of
government entities. Given the low salaries paid to local officials, and the fact that they will
control large forest resources easily converted into hard currency, it is feared that the
situation will create an enormous potential for corruption, and attract the Russian criminal
structures (Grigoryev, 1993). Greenpeace (1993) reports that local and regional
administrators are actively seeking foreign investments, and promoting joint ventures, often
on very poor terms. It is not hard to imagine that as these actors seek to safeguard their own
livelihoods (often through corruption) the biodiversity of Russia’s forests will be further
threatened. Indeed it has been suggested that some people in Russia have an economic
interest in easing regulatory standards and their enforcement (Petrof, 1992).
Multinational companies
The Russian case also sheds light on the political and economic power of the transnational
timber companies, attracted by the absence of effective environmental regulations, cheap
concessions and huge timber reserves. In the Russian Far East and Siberia they include the
41
South Korean conglomerate Hyundai, the Japanese C. Itoh and Company, the US timber
giant Weyerhauser, and Norwegian companies. Finnish companies are also co-operating in
the Karelia region of Russia. As pressure mounts to stop the destruction of tropical
rainforests, international companies are looking elsewhere for cheap sources of wood. For
countries like Korea and Japan, Siberia provides a cheap and reliable source of timber close
to home. For example, in 1991 a group of 10 Japanese trading firms signed a five-year US$
1.4 billion agreement with the Russian Federation to harvest timber in the Siberian region.
Japanese firms will provide US$ 700 million worth of construction and lumber processing
equipment in exchange for a total of 6 million cubic metres of raw lumber and 400,000
cubic metres of processed wood (Dudley and Stolton, 1994). It is clear that there are
enormous profits to be made by all sides.
It has been suggested that foreign timber import companies have more impact on forests
than companies operating within Russia (Dudley and Stolton, 1994). Large amounts of
timber are starting to appear on the international market, and are being offered to firms in
the West. Much of this timber is thought to have been illegally felled, and although foreign
companies are often not directly involved in operations, they provide lucrative markets to
keep the trade alive.
Environmentalists
Environmental groups in Russia and abroad are alarmed at the potentially disastrous
implications for forestry of these social and economic forces. There is concern about
threats to old-growth forests and protected areas, increasing pressure on endangered
species such as the Siberian tiger and brown bear, and land degradation and pollution
through poor forestry practices. International environmental organizations such as
Greenpeace and WWF have become increasingly involved in investigating Russia’s
environmental problems. For example, WWF-US (1993) published a major report on the
biodiversity of Russia, and identified problems in a range of bioregions and sub-regions.
WWF-UK has also been involved in looking at the environmental impact of the global
timber trade in economies in transition (Dudley and Stolton, 1994), and has identified many
urgent environmental problems facing Russia. The Taiga Rescue Network (currently based
in Sweden) is concerned with environmental problems of boreal forests and frequently
draws attention to the plight of Russian forests. The Russian environmental movement is
relatively new, and has only recently started to collaborate with outside environmental
organizations to protect its forests.
A major environmental concern is that clear cutting (the main technique used to exploit the
forests) is extremely destructive. Of the 4 million hectares of Taiga land harvested each
year, 90 per cent are clear-cutting — a technique which engenders loss of top soil, siltation
of streams, damage to fish breeding sites, lowered tree regeneration and reduced biological
diversity. When exposed to the sun after logging, the frozen peat-rich soils thaw and tend
to become weed infested swamps (Petrof, 1992). There is also a tendency for multiple-
species forests to be replaced by forests dominated by a single tree species. The large-scale
river transport of logs has also damaged river systems (Dudley and Stolton, 1994).
Another environmental issue is that protected areas and natural forests are coming under
increasing pressure from the forest industry. For example Weyerhauser is negotiating a
joint venture with Russia along the coast of Khabarovsk in the Russian far east, which
would open up one million hectares of forest land for exploitation. This area, with
extensive tracts of old-growth forest, is ecologically important and is home to the
indigenous Orochi people (Barnett, 1992). Weyerhauser has already built a loading dock
near Khabarovsk and hopes to go into Siberia before the end of the century. Local
environmentalists are opposed to Weyerhauser’s proposed clear cutting methods of the
Botcha River basin, and the Russian Ministry of Ecology has recommended that it be
protected as a nature reserve because of its high level of biodiversity.
42
Regulations designed to protect reserve areas are also often abused. For example, when
North Korean loggers encroached upon a legally protected nature preserve in Siberia, the
Soviet authorities gave precedence to the logging agreement over state law (Petrof, 1992).
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous people often find themselves caught between the state and foreign timber
companies. Over the past few years there has been a resurgence of political activity, and
independent political structures have begun to appear throughout the Russian north (Petrof,
1992). Some indigenous peoples are clearly aware of the threat from outsiders to their way
of life and natural resources. The Spasenie Yugri (Save the Yugra), an association formed
in 1989, is a collection of the Khants, Mansis and Nenets peoples. They declared their
forests off-limits to logging and mineral prospectors in 1989. Despite laws banning
resource exploitation without the permission of local inhabitants, legislation is often not
upheld, and local people have been arrested when they have tried to prevent trees being cut
down on their lands. However, throughout Russia, local citizens’ groups are beginning to
demand an economic base to develop their own livelihoods and the right to determine how
Russian forests should be used. The rights of local people to land and their livelihoods are
supported by national and international environmental groups (see, e.g., Greenpeace,
1993).
This case study reveals some key political and economic processes which contribute to
biodiversity erosion: the globalization of capital in general and the role of transnational
timber companies in particular. The unstable and rapidly changing political context of the
former Soviet Union is clearly serving the interests of many national and international
actors as they reap the financial benefits of logging; these same actors seem to have little if
any interest in conservation. Their activities may be undermining links between
biodiversity and the welfare of indigenous groups. This context raises questions about the
relevance and effectiveness of international and national conservation policies. Formidable
political obstacles stand in the way of conservation, making it not much more than a dream.
It suggests that biodiversity and human welfare may be better served by tackling other
areas of the political economy, in particular the need to control the activities of
transnational corporations.
A Case Study of Biodiversity in Cameroon

Cameroon is a tropical country endowed with outstanding natural resources of global
significance. Within its national territory, it has 188,000 km² of dense humid evergreen
forest, and therefore possesses highly valuable timber resources as well as great
biodiversity which is a characteristic of this type of forest. A wide range of other ecological
zones are also found, some of which are of limited extent and rare on the African continent.
These resources (timber, biodiversity, areas of outstanding natural beauty and scientific
interest) must be managed in an integrated way (Alpert, 1993).
Cameroon is the only West African country that still possesses large reserves of tropical
and sub-tropical forests. They cover over 70 per cent of the national territory, and rank
third in area in Africa after those of Zaire and Gabon. The moist dense evergreen and semi-
deciduous forests have important commercial value, and are the main subject of relevance
to the International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA). These areas also have a high
degree of endemism and species diversity.
The commercially important areas lie in the humid zones in the south of the country, and
particularly in the south-east; the central and western parts have already been heavily
logged for commercially exploitable species. However, the savannah forests of the central
and north of the country also fulfil important roles in providing fuelwood for the local and
urban population, a habitat for wildlife, and soil and water conservation functions. Dense
43
forest in the more humid south also provides soil nutrients and land for cultivation by slash
and burn techniques for the majority of the rural population.
Therefore, although ITTA only concerns itself with the commercial value of the moist
tropical evergreen and semi-deciduous forests in the south and east of the country, the other
functions of forests in Cameroon are much wider and are relevant to conservation issues in
general and specifically to biodiversity conservation. Forests provide a variety of habitats
for endangered species and therefore forest destruction is an issue for the Biodiversity
Convention itself, and the livelihoods of the majority of rural people. In the medium term
population growth (from approximately 12.5 million in 1994 to an estimated 17 million by
the year 2000) is likely to affect substantially the demand for forest in terms of both land to
cultivate and fuelwood. In the main commercial areas in the semi-deciduous and evergreen
areas, population densities are lower than in the north and west, and commercial
sustainability is likely to be the dominant issue there. In the north, sustainability is
threatened by a fuelwood shortage where use is currently well over the rate of maximum
sustainable cut in most areas (Ndjatsana, 1993). Overall it is estimated that in the next
fifteen years fuelwood will become the major forest product of Cameroon (FAO/UNDP,
1988:3).
It is estimated that 80,000-150,000 hectares are deforested every year in Cameroon (UNEP,
1992:18) mainly as a result of shifting cultivation (often following the partial clearance by
logging). UNEP also states that 200,000 hectares of forest are being cleared per year by
agriculturalists alone (1992:6). FAO has estimated that one million hectares of forest were
cleared between 1976 and 1986 (1988). Estimates vary widely but the rate of forest loss is
undoubtedly rapid. Commercial exploitation has increased over the last ten years, but
harvesting methods are frequently wasteful and primitive, rates of extraction being often
less than 5 cubic metres per hectare. Many species are felled and left on the ground, since
the research and marketing has not been carried out to exploit more than a small proportion
of species. In addition, other vegetation and the topsoil are frequently damaged so that
natural regeneration of the forest is slow. Only 15 per cent of logging is carried out by
national companies, and the greater proportion by foreign-owned companies. Levels of
processing in country also remain low.
Moving now onto biodiversity specifically, the humid tropics in general are the principal
global repository of biodiversity, and it has been estimated that over half the number of
species on earth exist in rain forests (Wilson, 1988). Cameroon is one of the most
important countries in the world in terms of all the three components of biodiversity.
Recording to date has identified 297 species of mammals, 848 species of birds, 300 species
of anurans, 9000 species of plants, with at least 156 endemic species, and 45 on Mt.
Cameroon alone (Gartlan, 1989). Therefore the Biodiversity Convention and the CITES
accord are of utmost relevance to conserving biodiversity in Cameroon.
Policy history
Timber in Cameroon’s forests has been exploited for many years, especially the last thirty.
Currently, Cameroon is the sixth world exporter of tropical timber, and the third largest in
Africa. Illegal production is estimated to be on the order of half official production.
Approximately 150 timber exploitation licences have been delivered, of which only 23
were to Cameroon nationals (who were responsible for 10 per cent of total production).
Fifteen of the seventeen international companies active in the country each produce more
than 40,000 m³ per year and dominate production. Trends over the last four years have
shown a marked increase in the share of total annual area licensed to Cameroon nationals,
however. (Ndjatsana, 1993:36).
The history of forest policy in Cameroon is marked by the absence of effective legislation
and regulation to ensure a sustainable forest estate in the way envisaged in general terms by
the Biodiversity Convention and by the environmental clauses of the ITTA. Until their
44
suspension in February 1992, licenses for felling were granted without any consideration
for land use planning. Since then, licensing has been replaced with concessions awarded to
the highest bidder; such concessions are subject to land use planning. However, the
national management of forests is beset by problems, as outlined in the FAO/UNDP
Tropical Forestry Action Plan (1988). The verdict of this report on the current sixth
National Plan is that “... reading the Plan, one sees it has not accorded a very high priority
to the forestry sector....[and] the part of the plan concerned with the forestry sector is not
integrated into an overall policy for environmental protection and the development of rural
areas nor within a co-ordinated framework along with plans for agricultural and livestock
development” (FAO/UNDP, 1988:6). Thus the policy and planning context into which
ITTA and the Biodiversity Convention will be inserted is one which lacks efficient
planning, monitoring and control in the field and is characterized by disorganization among
a multiplicity of different organizations.
The protection of wildlife and special sites

Most of Cameroon’s nine national parks are located in the savannah and Sahel regions.
Virtually, all reserves besides the Kimbi River and Mbi Crater Game Reserves were created
by the French between 1932 to 1950. The two others were created in 1963, following
independence. Also after independence, the five northernmost and largest reserves were
transformed into national parks by order of the Secretary of State for Rural Development,
and were provided with basic tourism facilities.
By 1971, Cameroon, responding to international pressure, designated the Douala-Edea

Reserve in the central coastal area and Korup Reserve on the border with Nigeria as
wildlife parks for scientific purposes. Wildlife exploitation was prohibited, timber
exploiters evicted, and local residents economically dependent upon exploiters “re-
educated”. By 1974, the Douala-Edea Reserve had an appointed Conservator and guard
post. Full park status has, however, been frustrated by discovery of oil in Cameroon’s
coastal areas and the possibility that the Douala-Edea area may hold important oil reserves.
The Korup Reserve became a national park in 1982. Two tropical parks were also
established: the Dja National Park, which sits astride the transition zone from the coastal
forest to the Congo forest proper, and the Pangar-Djerem Park which extends from the
Guinea Savannah into tropical high forests, thus transecting the floristically interesting and
scientifically important savannah-forest transition. At present, however, this park is
isolated, undeveloped and full of poachers.
Conservation efforts
In similar circumstances to the setting up of the Ministry of Environment and Forests
(MINEF), the Office Nationale de Développment des Forêts (ONADEF) was established as
a result of the IMF structural adjustment programme in February 1990 (ONADEF, 1990).
ONADEF is intended to give logging concessions on a more rational basis, taking into
account overall land use planning criteria. However, it is widely reported that concessions
are still being given in contravention of the government’s own land use criteria (e.g. they
are given inside national parks and forest reserves such as in the Campo Reserve).
ONADEF is also charged with making larger concessions to fewer and better capitalized
entrepreneurs, in view of the fact that a huge number of smaller concessions (under 25,000
hectares), reserved for Cameroon nationals, have been made (between 60 and 230 over the
past two to three years), and these do the most environmental damage. The concessionaries
are local people and are under-capitalized; often, logs are sold to larger (and foreign-
owned) companies. There are rumours (repeated by USAID officials on national television
during April 1993) that an immense concession (800,000 hectares) has recently been
granted to a French company (Société Forestière Industrielle de DIMAKO) in the south-
east. This and other foreign-controlled companies have frequently been cited both publicly
on television and privately by Cameroonian forestry officials as paying little attention to
45
good forestry practice and maintaining a sustainable forest estate, such as conserving the
uneven age characteristics of the forest, minimizing the damage to remaining stands,
protecting key species, employing dry-skid techniques, replanting quality species, etc. The
Ministry and ONADEF simply do not have the personnel or transport to monitor the
activities of concessionaries, and often rely on the data of the latter for monitoring
purposes. Given the political connections of the biggest companies mentioned elsewhere in
this report, it is highly unlikely that infringements, even if they were discovered, would
prompt any action on the part of the government.
Turning now to actions of direct concern to biodiversity conservation, during the period
between signing and ratification of the CITES treaty, the management of wildlife was
divided among at least four ministries, which tended to dissipate and fragment any policy
initiative. Overall administration of wildlife in general, and the overview of implementation
of the CITES convention in particular, received very little concerted attention. Except for a
handful of senior wildlife officers, knowledge of CITES and the Biodiversity Convention
in the four ministries concerned is severely limited. For example, the absence of a report
about the outcome of the Washington Convention was scarcely noticed for a period of
years. This delay between signing and ratification was also noted for other environmental
accords by UNEP (1992:40). Most recently, the administration of CITES under the
Directorate of Wildlife was moved from the Ministry of Tourism to MINEF in 1992. No
one was specifically given overall responsibility for the implementation of CITES, and it
was only at the prompting and uphill efforts of one or two senior civil servants that any
official action was taken. As UNEP has noted:
Cameroon’s adhesion to these various [international environmental] conventions has

not necessarily translated into domestic implementation measures. Therefore it is not
surprising that these conventions, once they are signed, go unheeded. This is due to
the small number of national intermediaries who are responsible for transforming the
international obligations into domestic laws, which eventually need to be translated
into concrete measures... (1992:40)
CITES is relevant in Cameroon because of the ivory smuggling, trophy hunting and
lucrative traffic in exotic birds that take place. For example, one grey African parrot fetches
US$ 2,500 in the United States; there have been well-attested instances of cases of airline
officials being forced to load crates of parrots onto aircraft for illegal export. The most
notorious ivory smugglers are currently Korean and Chinese road workers, who buy tusks
from local poachers, saw them up and smuggle them out in containers by sea. Smuggling
across the open border with Nigeria also occurs.
Changes in actors’ behaviour

There is little evidence that the performance of ONADEF has been significantly different
from its predecessors. Three pilot projects have been started since 1990, and most of the
training, research, inventory and mapping work are being undertaken by international and
bilateral aid organizations. Environmental awareness amongst the forest administration is
generally low, except for a few senior people. This has started to change recently, however,
with the reorganization of MINEF and the UNEP initiative in publishing its multi-
disciplinary and multi-institutional mission report on the environment in Cameroon.
Nature is generally considered a free and non-scarce good rural people — until its
resources are at the point of disappearing. Only then have grassroots organizations come
into being to protect what remains. In the Kilum Mountain area, for example, where the
soil erosion and drinking water problem has become acute after two decades of continuous
logging, local people are becoming increasingly aware of the degradation of their
environment and have created institutions to express their views. Clearly, the issue of
property rights is central here, and the lack of effective state action, in terms of encouraging
responsibility for forest and wildlife resources through the development of clear property
rights, has resulted in a failure to bring about a change in behaviour of local people —
46
insofar as it is they, rather than timber companies, who are responsible for forest clearance.
Also, the limited environmental education of the public (through schools, for example), has
been confined to small numbers of forest dwellers who live inside designated parks and
reserves. In these cases, more sustainable alternative agricultural technologies, which
minimize the use of shifting cultivation and wildlife hunting, are being promoted —
although on paper rather than in practice. In more general terms, the structural conditions
which incite rural populations to expand agricultural land into the forest are still in place
outside forestry and national park project areas.
Overall, it is difficult to identify any clear modifications of behaviour which have improved
the conservation of the forest and its biodiversity. Many donors, for example, are doing
similar things in various parts of the country simultaneously. As a Canadian diplomat told
the authors: “Cameroon says yes to everybody. But this creates a lot of problems when it
comes to implementation of its policies, or for that matter international environmental laws.
It also leads to confusion and contradiction because different donors all have the
permission to do the same thing”. For different reasons, Cameroonian forestry officials also
accede to requests for special concessions and tax free exploitation permits to French
lumbering companies and other foreign firms involved in the lucrative timber industry.
The most significant internal actors are high ranking politicians, civil servants,
entrepreneurs, local authorities and/or chiefs and members of the public. As one official in
the Ministry of Equipment and Forests remarked, “It is not necessarily the man who owns
the chain-saw who plunders the forests, but those who do business with him”, implying that
despite the legal exploiters with licenses there are also numerous actors engaged in illegal
trade. The key internal actors are those senior officials who organize logging concessions.
In the context of wildlife conservation and CITES, and the circumstances of its signing and
ratification by Cameroon, it can be seen that the Biodiversity Convention will probably
face problems of implementation similar to those raised above. Cameroon signed the
Washington Convention in 1973. There had been prior discussion of Cameroon’s position
before the convention among a number of senior administrators and scientists, but there
were no funds for a delegation to attend, and the protocol was signed by the Cameroonian
ambassador to the United States. Apparently, the ambassador failed to write a report to the
sub-department of wildlife, or it was lost (accounts differ) and ratification was not made
until eight years later. Very little action was taken after the Washington Convention, and
Cameroon was not party to, and did not attend the Bonn Convention in 1979. The CITES
Secretariat wrote a report in late 1977 regarding large exports of endangered species, and a
CITES official visited Cameroon when it was discovered that a member of the Wildlife
Department had been forging the signatures of the Minister and the Director of the
department on a large scale and enriching himself in the process, and also that a
considerable proportion of export of specimens from Cameroon did not originate there but
from neighbouring countries, especially the Central African Republic. It was only then that
an enterprising senior member of the department felt he had to make the case for
ratification to the government, which did so in June 1981.
On paper, there is considerable evidence of policy initiatives to conserve wildlife and their
habitats. The central objectives of CITES and the Biodiversity Convention are shared by
many of the current wildlife projects, but means to reach them are restricted. CITES is
meant to restrict trade in these animals, while projects and the Biodiversity Convention
seek to conserve through protection, education and alternative resource use. Therefore,
attention should be confined to enforcement officials and those who hunt endangered
species.
Implementation of wildlife regulations has always been problematic, and those of CITES
are no exception. Certificates of origin and export permits are used as means of
surveillance, and there are Wildlife Officers at Yaoundé and Douala airports. But Obam
(1992:215) states that Cameroon’s forests and savannah are being exploited in such a
chaotic and disorganized manner as to threaten their very existence, and cites evidence of
47
massive poaching which has become increasingly commercialized and promoted with
sophisticated weapons on a large scale. Also, there is a long history of venality on the part
of officials, with guns hired out to poachers by the very enforcement officials who are
supposed to police wildlife. Permits are sold for large sums for the export of 5000 kg of
ivory at a time when the standard Permis Speciale de Grande Chasse allowed a maximum
of 25 kg of “found” ivory — as opposed to ivory from a hunted elephant.
In the period between signing and ratification of CITES, there were a few significant
instances of attempts to enforce regulations. The case of Lepère versus the State is one. In
September 1977, the chief of Service for Wildlife and Forests, the Conservator of Forests
for the Central South Province and the Provincial Judicial police for the Central South
discovered three and a half tonnes of ivory in a store in Yaoundé belonging to a French
businessman, Mr. Lepère. The tusks were seized and Lepère taken to court. However, the
Magistrate Court and the Court of Appeal retained judgement in his favour and he was
eventually acquitted. Nonetheless, the Ministry of Agriculture then petitioned to the
Minister of Justice against the decision of the two courts, citing the signing of the
Washington Convention by Cameroon and the country’s subsequent adherence to that
convention. The matter has since been referred to the Supreme Court and remains
unsettled. The Minister of Justice at the time wrote to the Conservator of Forests (who had
originally made the seizure and had insisted upon the application of the law), to say that “a
higher authority” had dissuaded him from settling the case according to the law. When the
Conservator persisted, he was advised that his position was not safe and that he should take
a year’s absence from his post for some further training in Europe. In the same year, the
head of the Wildlife sub-department, who was never informed of the time and place of the
hearings, appealed to the Head of State with a copy of the letter sent to the Ministry of
Justice — no further action was taken. Six months later, all the ivory had disappeared from
the Yaoundé store. To the best of the knowledge of the then sub-department head, Lepère
never got the tusks back. Besides, the tusks were not and could not have been auctioned as
stipulated in Section 65 of the law, since they were court exhibits. This would have
required a court clearance which was never requested or granted. What happened to the
ivory remains a complete mystery. In 1982, all the officers who were in Forestry at the time
of the Lepère case were called to testify to the police about the disappearance of the tusks.
Since then nothing has been said to any of them. There are many other examples of this
nature, all of which illustrate the profound problem.
Is biodiversity being conserved in Cameroon?

The question is difficult to answer in a rigorous way, since it is not the government but a
disparate group of bilateral and multilateral agencies who are planning and initiating action.
Also, these various activities are not dedicated specifically to biodiversity but share some
of the same objectives. However, these other multifarious activities may, in a cumulative
and sometimes haphazard manner, help to assist biodiversity conservation.
Evidence of efforts to conserve forests and utilize them in a sustainable manner may be
found in the following areas: natural forest development, reforestation, logging
infrastructure, training of personnel and sustainable and improved forest management. The
last involves the sustained planting of quality commercial timber, the maintenance of all (or
almost all) the biodiversity and protection functions of the forest, controlled logging to
restrict damage to other trees, and careful monitoring with accurate and truthful submission
of information to the ITTA secretariat. Evidence for the promotion of a sustainable forest
estate is meagre in practice, since the degradation of commercial reserves and the clearing
of forest by agriculturalists go on unabated. There are too many persistent rumours, some
of which are reported here, of some flagrant as well as multiple minor infringements of the
regulations that do exist.
On the other hand, a less pessimistic view is that sustainable forestry in the West African
context is a difficult objective, given the many technical and political obstacles that exist.
48
According to this view, it is more reasonable to expect and emphasize learning and
institution building, rather than quick results. This view is not shared by the present
authors, for reasons discussed in below.
It is unlikely that the signing and ratification of CITES caused any decrease in the rate of
poaching, or any increase in the resources made available to the Department of Wildlife.
The budget of the department amounts to 1 million FCFA (US$ 1,949), and the director of
the department does not have a vehicle. The low density of wildlife and protection officers
on the ground (one for every 1,000 km²) and local rent-seeking behaviour at all levels of
the service have also made enforcement ineffective. Reports of hunting in protected areas
point to increasing trapping, on both commercial and subsistence bases. The rate of wildlife
taking is judged to be non-sustainable in the areas studied. Large-scale ivory smuggling
continues, and the behaviour of target groups remains virtually unchanged.
Elephant populations continue to fall. Forest clearance has limited elephant to remaining
forest areas (particularly in the south-east and in protected areas such as forest reserves). It
is probably true to say that the pressures to hunt elephant for ivory and to eliminate what is
considered a feared pest have risen in the past fifteen years, but there has been no
concomitant increase in resources allocated for their protection (Government of Cameroon,
1991; Tchamba et al., 1991).
Hunting for bush meat has also remained at a high level. More sophisticated firearms are
now being used (sometimes by soldiers and gendarmes or lent by them to others).
Frequently, non-local hunters pay the village chief a small fee to poach on a commercial
scale. Cross-border smuggling of both ivory and bush meat to Nigeria and the Central
African Republic are growing problems.
Recent studies of the distribution of a wide range of other endangered species in CITES
Schedule A (e.g. the African elephant, Preuss’ monkey, chimpanzee, drill, red-eared
monkey) around Mt. Cameroon (Gadsby and Jenkins, 1992) indicate serious depletion of
many, and the danger of extirpation of a smaller number. (For studies of particular species
or reserves in Cameroon, see Infield, 1988). Data on present populations as well as figures
are non-existent; it is thus impossible to make a credible quantitative estimate of the
changes in populations of endangered species before and after signing and ratification of
CITES. All that can be said is that many experienced ecologists consider that most of the
species on Schedules A and B continue to decline, but with considerable variation
depending on species and area.
Most attempts to promote wildlife conservation and enforce CITES have taken the form of
bi- and multilateral projects, as is also the case of sustainable forestry. The objectives of
most of these projects tend to concern the institutional and scientific preconditions of
wildlife protection (inventories, mapping, research, training, awareness creation, socio-
economic studies, further project preparation). There are, for example, currently 17
elephant projects, of which only four are partially or wholly funded, including the
Nyassoso Project, the Mount Kilum Forest Project and Korup National Park.
Factors explaining the degree of biodiversity

conservation
Cameroon has experienced a deepening economic crisis since the mid-1980s, the reasons
for which are multiple and open to varying interpretations. First, there has been a
precipitous decline in the real value of exports: while the quantity of agricultural exports
(cocoa, coffee, cotton, rubber, etc.) rose by 25 per cent between 1983/4 and 1992, its value
fell by 47 per cent (UNEP, 1992:5). The combined decrease in oil prices and the
FCFA/US$ exchange rate has meant that the price of oil lost 42 per cent of its value
between 1984 and 1985, and the decline has continued ever since. Timber is the only
exception to this trend, with a production peak of 625,000 tonnes being reached in 1983/4,
49
and more or less maintained to date. Prices rose from 49,000FF/t to 73,000FF/t in the same
period, resulting in an increase in export earnings of 42 per cent. However, this was not
enough to offset an overall decline in the value of exports in the natural resources sector
from 265,000 million FCFA in 1984/5 to 178,000 million FCFA in 1989/90 (a decline of
33 per cent). (As of September 1995, US$ 1=FCFA 513, but was de-valued massively in
1994/5).
Second, and partly related to decline in the terms of trade, state revenues declined by 45 per
cent in the period from 1984/5 to 1991/2. Cameroon has experienced acute difficulties in
repaying foreign loans, and faces a rapidly mounting foreign debt. By June 1991, its
external debt stood at 1,300,000 million FCFA, practically 2.5 times the present national
budget. In September 1992, France provided a bilateral loan of 30 million FCFA, three
months before the World Bank required repayment of its own loan in a situation where it
was obvious that Cameroon would default. The political implications for Cameroon’s
abilities to insist upon compliance of the largest (French) logging companies with ITTA
and national regulations are discussed below. However, Cameroon withheld 4.3 million
FCFA and paid the World Bank only 25.7 million FCFA, with the result that all loans were
suspended in April 1993, and, if Cameroon were still unable to pay by July, it would then
be asked to repay all arrears without exception.
Third, there are longer term reasons for the pronounced economic decline. Poor economic
management, institutional structures of government which discourage market-efficient and
competitive behaviour, excessive government expenditure and poor state revenue
generation are some of the reasons given by the World Bank (1992b). The first Structural
Adjustment policies were imposed by the IMF and the World Bank in 1988. The short-term
impacts of this policy were a sharp reduction in government expenditure especially for
“unproductive purposes” and a contraction in state employment.
The implications of the economic crisis for implementation of ITTA and CITES and
compliance with the environmental conventions discussed above are not difficult to
identify. First, there has arisen an acute difficulty in paying the salaries of public servants
even after the massive salary reductions of between 20 and 37 per cent in January 1993.
Sometimes they are suspended for three months at a time, and particularly in more remote
areas for even longer periods. For other entire units of the civil service, payments have
been suspended altogether, amounting in effect to an unofficial retrenchment of the civil
service. It is reported that during late 1993, growing unrest and lawlessness by civil
servants, particularly in the north, occurred. This retrenchment has further squeezed
investment and development expenditure. Equipment, particularly for transport, remains
poorly maintained, which curtails local monitoring of environmental accords (e.g. forest
protection, anti-poaching). Also, civil servants themselves frequently mentioned that
morale at all levels has been seriously affected. It is a reasonable hypothesis that very low
salaries which do not permit an acceptable standard of living encourage rent-seeking
behaviour. This applies to the local gendarmes which police the traffic of logs on the roads,
to wildlife officers issuing certificates and permits for the export of specimens, as it does to
senior officials. There is a Cameroonian saying “Le salaire c’est pour respirer et les
indemnites c’est pour travailler”, meaning that the salary is just enough to survive and to
induce the employee turn up at the office, but it is the allowances and other pecuniary
advantages which provide the incentives to work in most government agencies.
Another important implication of Cameroon’s economic problems is that it finds itself

beholden to particular foreign interests. The government has been unable to compel foreign
logging companies to comply with either the spirit of ITTA or with its own regulations.
External actors — in this case foreign, especially French-controlled, logging companies —
are widely reputed to pay little heed to guidelines for sustainable forestry. Of the 17
international logging companies operating in Cameroon, nine are French. France is by far
Cameroon’s most important trading partner, and maintains close personal and cultural
relations with its former colony. Therefore French companies enjoy a considerable degree
of political protection at the embassy level, and at least two of the biggest logging
50
companies have high-level family connections in France. Any desire by Cameroonian

officials that international or national guidelines be adhered to or local taxes be paid simply
cannot be enforced. (These assertions are difficult to substantiate, since the
communications on which they are based are by their nature informal, confidential and
often delivered verbally or implicitly.)
Fourth, the undermining of the capabilities of the state to provide good governance is both
a cause and effect of increasing dominance of foreign finance, expertise and
implementation in many aspects of government. This dominance is exercised through a
large number of different institutions. While bilateral aid program staff like to think that
they maintain good relations of co-operation or at least co-ordination between themselves,
their diverse political and developmental objectives do not make for coherent national
policy. It also means that there are many foreign institutions which provide their aid within
the project framework. Their outputs are therefore dispersed, often uncoordinated, and do
little to strengthen the institutional capacity of the government. They also may, or may not,
serve to fulfil the objectives of signed treaties, with which the nation state is expected to
assume responsibility for implementing and complying with.
Finally, economic crisis has led to falling incomes in the countryside and thus to increased
pressures to pursue the commercial exploitation of wildlife, to cut timber illegally and to
clear land for agriculture. The closing down of the Palmol oil palm plantations near the
Korup National Park has led the plantation workers to cut timber for sale in the forest, to
clear land for agricultural subsistence, to poach wildlife and thereby put increasing
pressures on the habitats in the park. While the illegal export of specimens and trophies is
carried out by wealthy entrepreneurs, they rely upon large numbers of poor people to trap
or hunt animals.
This case study of Cameroon is unfortunately not an extreme case and illustrates
widespread problems of biodiversity conservation. The first problem is that implementation
of policies to conserve forests, wildlife and areas of special scientific interest is at a
profoundly depressing level. Policies, paper plans, project workshops abound — but
simply no effective practice. There is virtually no basis for institutions to conserve
biodiversity, since plundering it provides profits or a means of livelihood for very large
numbers of the rural population, entrepreneurs (both national and foreign) and for officials
themselves. The way in which foreign firms can circumvent most national environmental
regulations, as is the case with Cameroon, is widespread throughout West Africa as
Colchester (1993) amply documents. This is one of the most severe challenges for
biodiversity conservation, and one which international conservation policy-making finds
itself largely unable to tackle.
Marine Biodiversity: A Case Study of Whaling

in Greenland
The following case study of marine biodiversity illustrates some of the distinctive problems
of conserving biodiversity in aquatic systems. There is a wide body of literature on the
value of terrestrial biodiversity, and a relative lack of understanding of the importance of
marine systems.
Over two thirds of the globe’s surface is covered by oceans, and the marine realm is
generally considered more diverse than the terrestrial. It contains thirty-one of the thirty-
two animal phyla, fourteen of which are exclusively marine (WRI/IUCN/UNEP, 1992).
Scientists believe that the deep sea floor may contain as many as a million undescribed
species (WRI/IUCN/UNEP, 1992). Tropical coral reefs contain an enormous variety of
species, similar to the variety of species found in tropical forests (Carlton-Ray, 1988). The
array of open oceans and coastal zones reveals a remarkable diversity of environments,
including the recently discovered thermal vents. Although the loss of marine biodiversity is
51
less well publicized and understood than is the loss of terrestrial biodiversity, it is
considered a serious problem in its own right.
Marine ecosystems have many special features compared to terrestrial systems, making
them more complex to understand and to manage. Some of these include fluid boundaries
which shift in time and space, three dimensionality, buoyancy, planktonic dispersal, and
vastly larger size than terrestrial systems (Norse, 1993).
Marine ecosystems are of enormous value to humans, providing many important products
and services. Seafoods provide much of our protein supply; marine photosynthesis ties up
carbon dioxide that would otherwise exacerbate global warming; coral reefs and
mangroves help protect coastal communities; seas have aesthetic value and provide places
for recreation. Marine resources are also proving an exciting source of new anti-viral and
anti-tumour medicines (Norse, 1993).
Unlike terrestrial systems, marine biodiversity is largely an open-access resource, outside

the jurisdiction of states, and competitive exploitation is the norm (WRI/IUCN/UNEP,
1992). Whereas protected areas have existed on land for more than a century, there is no
tradition of conserving marine ecosystems. Apart from specific international agreements
and conventions on the management of fisheries, whales and seals, there is a paucity of
international legal agreements for protecting seas. The United Nations Convention on the
Law of the Sea still lacks ratification to bring it into force, and may remain stalled for the
foreseeable future.
The case of whaling in Greenland reveals some of the tensions between indigenous Arctic
groups, and animal rights and conservation bodies. As the other case studies, it thus
challenges the dogma that human welfare and biodiversity conservation are always
harmoniously linked. It illustrates the political power of conservation and animal rights
actors, and the political marginalization of indigenous groups fighting for economic and
cultural survival. It also illustrates how some groups define biodiversity and use uncertain
scientific data to reach their political objectives successfully, at the expense of others —
not because they had at their command a monopoly of scientific facts and a superior logic,
but because their means of promotion and presentation at the global level were more
effective.
Whales have been part of the marine-based economy in Greenland for over 4,000 years.
Prior to Danish-Norwegian colonization in 1721, Greenlanders caught bowhead whales
(Balaena mysticetus). The spiritual beliefs of the Inuit governed the hunters’ relationship
with whales. There was no formalized system of property rights, and the small and
dispersed population had little impact on whale resources.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries European whaling began to dominate the
whaling industry, and by the twentieth century the numbers of some species of whale (e.g.
bowhead) were very much reduced. In the 1940s and 1950s Denmark introduced
European-style whaling to the Greenlanders, using ships with harpoon cannons. Ruthless
commercial exploitation of whales led Denmark to sign the International Convention for
the Regulation of Whaling in 1946. This permits aborigines to catch whales for local
consumption, even when commercial whaling is prohibited.
Denmark formally ended colonial rule in 1953, and in 1979 Greenland achieved Home
Rule and political autonomy from Denmark. As Greenland has become more and more
involved with wider economic and political systems, indigenous customs have been
undermined, and the traditional culturally based mechanisms for regulating and distributing
whale catches have been disrupted.
Greenlanders currently participate in a “co-management régime “ for aboriginal subsistence

whaling, which is set up under the International Whaling Commission (IWC). The IWC
sets quotas for sustainable whaling but leaves the day-to-day management to Greenland.
52
Environmental groups
Environmental groups such as WWF, IUCN and Greenpeace stress the maintenance of
essential marine ecological processes and life-support systems and the importance of
marine genetic diversity. In general they support the sustainable utilization of species and
ecosystems. According to these sources, most of the world’s whale populations have been
hunted. Today only the minke whale, the smallest species, survives in commercial
numbers. For example, the blue whale was slaughtered in tens of thousands each year,
peaking at over 30,000 animals in a single season in the 1930s. The population has never
recovered from the onslaught. It remains critically endangered with less than 1 per cent of
its original numbers despite 25 years of protection. After the most profitable blue whale,
species after species has been targeted and hunted including the fin, humpback, sei, sperm
and minke whales (Greenpeace, 1992a; 1992b).
In addition to hunting, whales are threatened by habitat destruction, over-fishing of prey

species and general threats to the food chain due to changing climate and currents, ozone
depletion, reduction of phytoplankton and zooplankton and, in certain regions, the
accumulation of toxins.
According to some observers, the animal rights perspective is used increasingly in

environmental campaigns, which constrains the activities of indigenous people. IWGIA
maintains that animal welfare and animal rights attitudes have been increasingly
incorporated into the politics of environmental organizations (1991).
Several groups of environmentalists, especially animal rights groups, are strongly opposed
to whaling because they believe that it is inherently immoral. Besides being a symbol of all
the wildlife that mankind is challenged to protect, many regard whales as unique. The main
justification for recent arguments for “cetacean rights” is their intelligence and other human
attributes. Einarsson argues that whales have become such potent symbols because their
image has been anthropomorphized. The author points out that moralizing the natural world
through human metaphors has become a major rhetorical device in environmental
campaigns in Western culture:
In the whale mythology of contemporary environmental discourse, whales straddle

the Cartesian divide between animals and humans, occupying a Pan-like role in these
relations. The moral consequence of humanising whales is great as it transforms them
from being potential natural resources into a very different category of animals; they
become uniquely special. Within this axiom there is no possibility of allowing the
hunting of whales, regardless of the humaneness of killing methods (1993).
While the philosophical issue remains controversial, there is widespread agreement about
the inherent cruelty involved in whaling. Despite advances in explosive harpoon
technology, it is widely believed that there is currently no humane way of killing whales.
To be as effective as possible, harpoons need to detonate close to the brain or central
nervous system. Given that the whale is a moving target and shows little of its body surface
for the gunner to aim at, such accuracy to minimize suffering on the part of the whale is
impossible. Harpoons are also known to inflict terrible but not instantly fatal injuries if they
pass through the smaller bodies of minke whales. The Royal Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA cited in Greenpeace, 1992) has urged a complete cessation of
all commercial whaling (irrespective of conservation arguments) upon the grounds of the
inhumane methods of killing.
Animal rights and environmental organizations often depict people who whale as cruel,
barbaric eco-criminals. Whaling has even been compared to slavery and cannibalism
(Barstow, 1991). Many in the animal rights movement have also accused indigenous
hunters of being primitive and uncivilized.
53
Indigenous people
Local people do not regard harvesting of animals as unacceptable, and regard whales as a
natural resource. According to IWGIA (1991), local fisherfolk have a traditional ethical
code which “reconciles subsistence with co-existence”, recognizing that people too are an
integral part of nature. The ethics attached to hunting and gathering, and to sharing and
manufacturing products is of great local concern. The symbolic relationship to the land and
sea together with their resources governs all aspects of aboriginal life, including social,
cultural and economic spheres. According to their traditions they do not see themselves
superior to animals. Their relationship is characterized by exchange, reciprocity, mutual
respect and friendship. People have to obey certain rules and regulations in their treatment
of animals (Caulfield, 1993).
While the environmental movement and indigenous organizations may be working towards
common goals, their motivations are different. Indigenous people work towards the
maintenance of cultural integrity and survival, while the environmental movement is more
concerned with damage to the environment. The latter often tends to neglect local human
welfare and the possible positive effects of sustainable resource harvesting.
Greenland has had no appreciable political impact upon the international treaty on the
regulation of whaling. Although the treaty was signed primarily to address issues of
commercial whaling, the “aboriginal subsistence whaling” (ASW) part of the Convention
has had a significant impact on whaling in Greenland. When the International Whaling
Commission (IWC) was formed in 1985, it reduced the allotment of minke whales by half
(down to 130 whales per year), and eliminated the catch of humpback whales. The ban has
been seen as very unfair to Inuit hunters and, for some, it has meant a drastic loss of
livelihood, particularly for collective hunters.
Various anti-whaling groups have challenged the ASW régime because it is not considered
“traditional” because hunters use modern technology and markets exist for whale products.
Some groups complain that an indigenous peoples’ harvest will only be allowed if they
continue to live a life which corresponds to an idealized Western concept of an indigenous
lifestyle, and there are concerns about the implications of the implied “enforced
primitivism” for aboriginal subsistence whaling.
Some hunters see the IWC, EEC and environmental groups as foreign powers whose
policies are based on ethno-centric ideas about the relationship between people and
animals. They question why animal rights groups assume that their own views of animals
are right and are accepted by the international decision-making institutions, while theirs are
considered wrong and are ignored. Indeed, even among commentators at the international
level, the pressures of the animal rights and more fundamental environmental groups have
been described as ethno-centric cultural imperialism (Wenzel, 1991). Some hunters feel
that the IWC is dominated by forces bent on halting all whaling altogether and having
Greenland withdraw from the co-management régime. Greenlanders have had to insist on
their rights to the sustainable use of marine mammals under international law. Doubleday
(1992) argues that indigenous whalers are constantly required to justify their actions, by
being subjected to the “inquisitorial” review of their past actions, their present needs and
their probable future. He questions whether “indigenous peoples [are] to be satisfied with
platitudes while neo-colonial attitudes are practiced that exclude them from real
involvement in the negotiations determining the fate of their subsistence hunting and of the
people themselves?”
There is widespread feeling that indigenous groups are fighting for cultural and economic
survival. According to some indigenous perspectives, “sustainable development” means
development in which local people are regulated or even excluded from rights to utilize
renewable resources of their lands.
54
International actors
An international convention on the regulation of whaling was signed in 1950. It was set up
primarily to address issues of commercial whaling, but it enabled “aborigines” to catch
whales for local consumption, even when commercial whaling was prohibited. The
International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) created the IWC in 1985.
The aim was to conserve whale stocks, and thus make possible the orderly development of
the whaling industry (Lyster, 1985). Membership of the IWC is open to any country
adhering to ICRW principles. It has three committees which provide recommendations:
Scientific, Technical, and Finance and Administration. Changes to quotas for whale catches
require a three quarters majority vote.
As the whale has become an increasingly important symbol for the environmental
movement, the IWC has moved away from being primarily a forum of whaling nations.
More and more nations without economic interests in whaling have become members. In
1986 an indefinite commercial whaling moratorium was introduced, but five nations have
continued to hunt.
Doubleday (1992) has criticized the politicization of IWC by whale preservation interests,
arguing that:
...a coalition of anti-whaling nations operating in a clandestine fashion has

circumvented the letter and spirit of the Working Group recommendation that full
participation and involvement of the indigenous peoples are essential for effective
whale management....this coalition of anti-whaling nations which hold the majority in
the IWC meet in private to make deals that ultimately become the “decisions” of the
IWC. Indigenous peoples are not welcomed at these like-minded sessions. In this
way, the advances made by indigenous peoples in the IWC itself are undermined by
the anti-whaling interests.
The IWC is currently the principal international forum for the management of whaling.
However, it is generally believed that the IWC has failed to attain its goal. It suffers from
several weaknesses. There are inherent operational problems, e.g. lack of enforcement
mechanisms (no observer scheme to monitor whaling operations to ensure adherence to
quotas) and the existence of the “objection” procedure which allows governments to opt
out (e.g. Japan, Norway both of which hunt whales in great numbers).
The role of the IWC in Greenland has been very controversial and it has had a significant
impact on subsistence whaling. One of the central problems is that of scientific uncertainty
about the size and boundaries of Greenland’s whale stocks. The conflicting interpretations
of data about stock size, identity and productivity make effective oversight of whaling
difficult (Caulfield, 1993). The scientific committee of the IWC is responsible for
producing data about stock boundaries and size which are used as a basis for setting
management quotas. However, over the years it has become apparent that west Greenland’s
stock of minke whales is in fact part of a larger stock. Given a larger stock, Greenland’s
quota of whales could be higher. It is estimated that 670 tons of whale meat are necessary
to meet nutritional needs. However, quotas allow only 400 tons (Caulfield, 1993).
Although the scientific committee accepts the argument about the whale stocks, it is unable
to change the management boundaries because it is unable to say where the boundary of the
stock “should” be.
The IWC has helped establish the co-management régime for aboriginal subsistence
whaling in Greenland. The Committee is made up of representatives of the hunters, the
Home Rule State (which is responsible for internal regulations, monitoring and
enforcement), the Danish Government and the IWC (which sets the quotas for the minke
and fin whales). While this power sharing régime provides many advantages, Caulfield
(1993) argues that successful co-management is closely linked to the achievement of
meaningful political and economic self-determination. Without this, co-management
55
becomes “co-operation” — indigenous people “co-operating” with the substantive

decisions of external forces. Caulfield thus cautions against viewing co-management as a
panacea for resource conflicts.
This study illustrates many of the themes raised in sections 1 and 2. It shows how various
actors perceive and value a particular species in different ways, and is thus a window on
the contested meanings of biodiversity and the underlying power struggle between actors
shaping resource use. Second, it indicates how scientific investigation and data are
moulded around the interests of a particular group of actors. It is quite legitimate to ask
whether Western science, with all its uncertainties regarding the whale stock and
boundaries, has been superior to local knowledge as a basis for conservation policy in this
case. It thus challenges the platitude concerning the synergy of biodiversity conservation
and human welfare, and on the contrary suggests that indigenous groups have suffered as a
result of conservation. Lastly, the study indicates how the image of the whale has become a
potent symbol for environmental groups, and has been used to mobilize widespread public
support for their practices, and how this overrides the struggle for livelihood at the local
level.
5. POLICIES
Here we review three distinct intellectual paradigms which frame the general approach to
conservation and to biodiversity conservation specifically. Each paradigm has profound
and pervasive effects both on the international discourse about conservation and on policies
themselves in different countries. These paradigms also have fundamentally different
approaches to human welfare, and assume different sets of relations between civil society,
the market and the state.
It is apparent that international conservation policy and practice are undergoing rapid
transformation. Contemporary conservation ideology, at least on paper, represents an
evolution away from predominantly nature preservation to sustainable use of natural
resources, with stronger emphasis on livelihoods and, in more general terms, on human
welfare. Policies which once viewed people as a threat to nature now regard people as
potential partners in sustainable development. However, it must be emphasized that the role
of theory in policy-making (and in conservation policy-making in particular) is one of
persuasion and legitimization through the demonstrable (rather than actual) force of reason.
Thus most institutions appropriate and use theories, or more usually parts of theories, to
persuade others and enrol them in their particular “projects”. This has already been
illustrated by the review of international policy-making by WWF-International in section 2.
It is not surprising therefore that policy and strategy statements are eclectic in their
theoretical exposition. To take an example, the World Bank’s World Development
Report (1992a), while taking a neo-liberal economic approach to the environment and
conservation, also weaves strongly neo-populist strands of thought throughout (e.g. the
links between poverty and environmental degradation). It is thus to be expected that, while
the genealogy of conservation paradigms may be traced to a relatively pure set of mutually
consistent principles, policy and strategy documents can be hybrid.
Conservation has a complex heritage; both the “classic” and “neo-populist” approaches can
be traced back to historical themes within early conservation. While the “classic model”
was always predominant, its history also includes popular environmental movements
resistant to colonial régimes and destructive “development”, and conflicting views about
conservation within many colonial régimes (Grove, 1987). Much of the contemporary
interest in “people-oriented” conservation has its roots in the historical struggles and
strategies of local groups to protect their environments and livelihood interests, and the
more populist conservation thinking in the nineteenth century. The reasons for the early
predominance of the classic model and subsequent growth of the neo-populist and neo-
liberal approaches are complex, but are deeply embedded within world political-economic
56
change (especially decolonization in the South) and the social dynamics of conservation in
particular countries.
However, the somewhat contradictory mixture of classical and contemporary ideas within
the conservation movement is causing some discomfort for two main reasons. First, it
creates new practical dilemmas of how to integrate conservation and development on the
ground with local communities. Second, it creates the potential for new and unknown
political alignments and allies, particularly with grass-roots political organizations and
campaigners for indigenous people’s rights. Third, the two different paradigms have
implications for who designs and controls conservation programmes, and whose agenda
prevails. These approaches are discussed below.
The “Classic” Approach

This approach focuses on environmental solutions to perceived environmental problems. It
is best exemplified by the traditional (exclusionary) national parks and protected area
systems. It promotes conservation “technologies” which are assumed to be known by and
accessible to resource users, which address the apparently physical problems of
environmental degradation.
The wider objective of the protected areas system is to conserve and manage entire
ecosystems and to prevent loss of wild species. Parks and nature reserves are seen as the
key instruments in conservation. The IUCN describes a comprehensive system of protected
areas, which includes ten main management categories. These basically represent a
continuum from no human intervention to increasing emphasis on human use and resource
development. There is a growing science of protected area design and management, and
numerous publications which specify conservation techniques and special practices for
buffer zones. With increasing emphasis on biodiversity conservation, the international
conservation movement is calling for more protected areas (IUCN/UNEP/WWF, 1991;
CNPPA, 1992; Keating, 1993). It is widely agreed that each country should aim to protect a
minimum of 10 per cent of each biome under its care (e.g. forests, wetlands, oceans, tundra,
grasslands, etc.). During the 1970s the total area under protection increased by 80 per cent
(MacKinnon, 1986). Most of the growth of protected areas has taken place in economically
poor, but species-rich tropical countries where the world’s biodiversity occurs and is most
threatened (Myers, 1979). By 1993, there were some 7,000 protected areas throughout the
world, covering 4.8 million km², which represents 5 per cent of the world’s surface
(Pimbert, 1993).
The expansion of protected areas, particularly of national parks, is highly controversial.

There is also much debate about the appropriateness of protected area categories in diverse
socio-economic settings. As West and Brechin (1991) point out, the categories remain
ideal, while management practice is often muddled and ineffective on the ground.
Origins
Many writers (including Nash, 1970; Runte, 1979) have examined the inappropriate and
widespread export of the concept of the national park which evolved in the United States to
many countries in the South. (It is widely agreed that the international parks movement
began with the creation of Yellowstone National Park in 1872). The goal of the traditional
park system was to set aside and preserve areas of natural beauty and phenomena from
human exploitation, for the enjoyment of visitors. Boundaries were drawn around special
places, so that they could be set aside from the “ravages” of ordinary use (Hales, 1989).
However, analysis shows that this model of a national park is the product of an affluent
culture, emerging in the context of boundless wealth, and usually in sparsely populated
areas, with urban populations no longer subsisting directly from the land (Nash, 1970).
This original conceptualization of the national park, now embodied within IUCN’s
framework, tends to exclude resident people and use of resources from parks. As a model
57
for countries with entirely different circumstances, it has caused enormous social
deprivation and suffering.
A central critique of the classic approach to conservation refers to its colonial origins in
developing countries. Several authors draw attention to the mythical dimensions of colonial
conservation, suggesting that protected area policies may reveal more about Western eco-
cosmologies and subliminal notions about “human-nature” relationships than “objective”
ecological science. For example, Anderson and Grove (1987) examine the wider
psychological function of the African environment in the European mind. To understand
how and why European ideas have shaped conservation policies in the past and present we
have to understand how nature’s eternity was seen to be symbolized in Africa, and how
man has sought to rediscover his lost harmony with nature. Further, it is suggested that
European-shaped preservationist policies hold vast acreages of land hostage to its romantic
and arcadian myths (Marks, 1984).
Perhaps an important lesson for contemporary ecologists and conservationists is to be

aware of the deep and reiterative relationship between science and the values of society.
Conservation policies will inevitably symbolize the views and values of their authors and
cultures and in this context may be analysed as social constructions. International policy
needs to be open to other eco-cosmologies which may have different views about the
relationships of the human and natural worlds.
In many cases the establishment of national parks has been (and continues to be) closely
tied to élitist interests. For example, in the words of Colonel Mervyn Cowie, an early
preservationist instrumental in the establishment of the Serengeti Park in East Africa,
protected areas were designed to provide “...a cultured persons’ playground”. He believed
that the natives had very little interest in the parks; in fact the main purpose of the parks
was to “protect nature from the natives” (Cowie cited in Gilges, 1992). Some parks also
served important economic functions. For example, Mackenzie (1987) examines the
essential role of wildlife (particularly ivory) and subsidies provided by the “Hunt” in the
economic survival of colonial régimes. He illustrates how the “hunting ethos” and ideas
about conservation became intimately connected to the structures of privilege and power of
the new rulers of Africa.
Impact on local people

Many national parks displace people from their traditional lands and undermine their
common property institutions. Access to resources such as food, fodder, medicinal herbs,
fuelwood and timber, which are crucial to livelihoods, is often restricted. A contemporary
example is the proposed eviction of over 7,000 people from 19 villages from the core areas
of the Kuno area in Madhya Pradesh, India (from March to July 1995) to create a lion
sanctuary. About 90 per cent of the people in the area are Sahariya tribals, forest-gatherers
who make their living by collecting and selling medicinal herbs (Jain, 1995). According to
Parashar (cited in Jain, 1995) “breaking the Sahriyas’ bond with the forest to accommodate
the lions is a perpetuation of the tribals’ growing alienation from the land, caused by
official conservation strategies”.
Without access to traditional land, the land surrounding protected areas is often degraded
due to increasing pressure from local people, and a free-for-all open access situation may
arise. In the long-term this puts pressure on protected areas themselves. Denying access to
traditional lands without providing sustainable land use alternatives can lead to perpetual
land use conflicts between park authorities and local communities which are rarely
resolved. Indeed, open protests, attacks on park guards, poisoning of animals, and
deliberate burning of forests have become common in some developing countries (Ghimire,
1991; 1994 with an example of panda sanctuaries in China, and Pimbert, 1993).
58
Historically the protection of parks and reserves has been based on policing and patrolling
methods, using forest guards in attempts to prevent illegal activities and agricultural
encroachment and to enforce park and reserve regulations. Local people are often subject to
fines or imprisonment if they are caught breaking regulations. These methods have been
notoriously unsympathetic towards local communities, and have encouraged antagonistic
attitudes towards conservation. Also, it has encouraged the appropriation of “bureaucratic
rent” by local officials, such as forest guards, wildlife officers and project personnel. There
is increasing recognition that this “preservationist approach...requires an essentially
militaristic defence strategy and will almost always heighten conflict” (Machlis and
Tichnell, 1985). Furthermore, the logistics and costs of protecting reserve areas in this
manner are often beyond the capability of many governments. Guards rarely have adequate
technical or financial resources for effective management. They tend to be poorly paid and
trained, and have low morale (as the Cameroon case study illustrates). It is widely agreed
that most lack the inclination or capability to identify or address local park-people conflicts
(Wells et al., 1992; Hough, 1988).
Partly in response to these conflicts, the idea of buffer zones is often incorporated into
protected area models. These seek to combine socio-economic development with protected
area management. However, they are notorious for not providing enough land for
sustainable livelihood alternatives; they are often located in risk-prone environments; are
under-funded, “top down” or “blueprint” oriented and of a short-term nature (Pimbert,
1993). The term “buffer” zone clearly expresses a defensive posture, beyond which nature
needs to be protected from people.
The discourse of fortress conservation mentality also changes the way we think about
people living in the vicinity of reserves. “Hunters” become “poachers”; “settlers” become
“squatters” and “land clearing for agriculture” becomes “deforestation” (Brown and Singer,
1991). Local people are acutely aware of these changes in their perceived status. For
example, the Bakweri people from the Etinde forest reserve in Cameroon say that
“protected area legislation turns the locals into thieves” (S. Jeanrenaud, 1991).
Ecological models
People have often been excluded from parks even where there is no proof of resource
degradation. The fact that humans may be instrumental in shaping ecosystems or enriching
biodiversity through management practices has, until recently, rarely been considered
(Rabinovitch-Vin, 1991). Pimbert (1993) argues that a “paradigm shift” is occurring in
ecological thinking and that past management of ecosystems has been based on a far too
static concept. Much recent ecological research points to the importance of understanding
historical information (including human activity) and disturbance processes as important
components of ecosystems. For example, Gomez-Pompa and Kaus (1992) argue that until
we understand that tropical forests are “both artifact and habitat”, we will be advocating
policies for a mythical pristine environment that exists only in the neo-colonial
imagination. (See Behnke and Scoones, 1993 and Abel, 1993 for a review of these models
in rangelands management).
Policies and politics

In the classic approach to conservation, the state (often in alliance with an international
conservation organization) plays a major and leading role in defining the conservation
problem, formulating policy, then implementing it. It promotes “its own” science, appeals
to a (particular) scientific interpretation of the problem, and attempts to use state power and
the institution of state property to impose its policy on civil society. The issues of human
welfare hardly appear on the agenda at all, and conflicts which arise with the imposition of
state appropriation of biological resources are resolved by coercion. Other parallel critiques
of soil and water conservation may be found in Blaikie (1985) and Baker (1981).
59
Why, then, has the national park model of conservation been so widely adopted in
developing countries in the post-colonial era? The answers are embedded within the
political economy and in alliances between political élites. As in the colonial era, national
parks often become the “political tools” or instruments of certain dominant groups, may be
considered symbols of affluence, or ways to attract tourists and foreign exchange. For
example, the Malagasy government is known to be keen to expand its network of national
parks in order to generate foreign exchange through tourism (Ghimire, 1991). It is not
alone, as the Lwangwa National Park in Zambia discussed in section 3 showed. In order to
encourage tourism, the legal status of some forest reserves has been changed to national
park status. Moreover, some foreign aid donors encourage alteration of the status of many
other protected areas into national parks, in order to increase earnings from tourism. Peluso
(1993) argues that many state agencies are interested in linking up with international
conservation interests in order to use the ideology and technology of conservation as a
means of gaining control over valuable resources and recalcitrant populations.
It is also feared that the classic model of parks and reserves is well suited to serve the
economic and political interests of governments and local élites as they seek to benefit from
biodiversity prospecting and the so-called “gene rush”. As genetic materials acquire market
value, protected areas in the biologically-rich developing countries are becoming
commercially significant. All the major pharmaceutical firms are already screening the
genetic resources of Brazil, Costa Rica, China, Micronesia, and other countries. Many
governments are making agreements with multinational corporations for the exploitation of
useful genes in the fauna and flora of protected areas. For example, Mercks —
pharmaceutical company has recently signed a five year bilateral agreement with Costa
Rica’s National Biodiversity Institute (INBio). They pay US$ 1 million for prospecting
rights and have agreed to share royalties on sales of products derived from useful genes
(Reid et al., 1993). There is much concern that these and similar deals will have negative
consequences on local communities. Not only will they fail to receive compensation for
their knowledge and role in enhancing genetic diversity, but locals will be further
marginalized from resources crucial to livelihoods as élites capture the benefits of gene
prospecting in protected areas (Pimbert, 1993).
Summary
It has become increasingly apparent that the classic model of conservation is being seen as
ineffective in reaching the objectives it has set itself, and is being questioned on
ideological, ecological and political grounds. Communities adjacent to protected areas
frequently lose access to those areas and consequently bear substantial costs, while
receiving few benefits in return. As FAO pointed out in 1985, the “profits” of genetic
resource conservation often accrue to people in other countries and regions, and do not
provide benefits to local people. Although benefits are increasingly recognized as global,
significant costs of conserving biological diversity are being borne by those least able to
pay (Wells et al., 1992). Thus while the expansion of national parks and other protected
areas may be seen to be potentially beneficial for biodiversity conservation,
conservationists need to ask whether the means justify the ends.
The history of protected area policy represents a shift in thinking away from the “fortress”
mentality of national parks to more emphasis on sustainable use of natural resources.
Today many forms of protected areas co-exist. McNeely (1988) argues that while national
parks are as important as ever and “as carefully protected as ever”, they must be
supplemented by other kinds of protected areas to meet the broader needs of social and
economic development. Some of these new developments are examined in the following
sections.
The “Neo-Populist” Approach
60
This has re-emerged within the last fifteen years as a response to the failures of the
“classic” approach. It seeks to integrate biodiversity conservation with the needs of local
communities. It is exemplified by the more “people-oriented” conservation programmes,
such as the integrated conservation and development projects (ICDPs), and joint or co-
management schemes which attempt more participatory modes of project formulation and
implementation. The neo-populist approach can be seen to embrace two broad streams of
thinking about conservation. One is conceptually derived from environmentalists and the
other from the social sciences.
Origins
Elements of the populist approach to conservation can be traced back to earlier experiences
within colonial régimes. For example, Grove (1987; 1990) argues that the ideas of the early
conservationists (the “surgeon-botanists”) in South Africa and of the East India Company
were essentially a humanitarian response to the environmental consequences of colonialism
and were relatively holistic ideologies. Many of these ideas were difficult to reconcile with
the driving interests of European capital and posed a threat to the unregulated activities of
the settlers, particularly those whose capital-intensive activities depended on deforestation.
Indeed, in 1880, the Natal Forest Commission published comments on the process of land
alienation and consequent psychological impact on African farmers. Grove (1987) suggests
that contemporary conservation ideologies which identify with the basic needs of peasant
populations have much in common with the ideas of the colonial botanists and much less in
common with the land-alienation strategies of some colonial policies.
The contemporary neo-populist debate has gained strength since the mid-1970s,
particularly since the publication of the World Conservation Strategy (IUCN et al.,
1980), Our Common Future (WCED, 1987), and Caring for the Earth
(IUCN/UNEP/WWF, 1991). There has been a growing awareness of the links between the
environment, development and poverty, and a rebirth of earlier concerns now embodied in
the concept of “sustainable development”. The controversy over national parks has lead to
a new wave of thinking about conservation, particularly over the fate of people affected by
protected area policies. That the poorest sections of the community should bear the costs of
conservation is increasingly questioned on ethical and practical grounds. The key message
to planners is that conservation is an economic and social as well as a biological decision.
Decisions should not be made on biological grounds alone, in isolation from the needs of
local people.
Contributions from other disciplines

Developments within other disciplines (e.g. politics, anthropology, agriculture, forestry)
have also lent support to a new wave of populist thinking within conservation. For
example, a significant impetus comes from work of human rights activists and the so-called
“red-greens” (Adams, 1990). Unlike environmentalists, who tend to conceive of
sustainability in ecological terms, this group takes up the social and political dimensions of
sustainability. Indeed, conservation itself is understood as a central political issue in the
lives of affected communities, because it involves the very basis of their subsistence: their
right to land (Horta, 1991). In the past, traditional conservationists and radicals have had
very different agendas and interests, but today many are converging to form (potentially)
new alliances and a more radical approach to conservation.
For many, the concept of “sustainability” has been stripped of the social and political issues
implicit in the notion as originally acknowledged by the Bruntland Report (WCED, 1987).
Colchester (1992), and Redclift and Sage (1995), among others argue that the promotion of
sustainability is by definition political. It is fundamentally linked to concepts of social
justice and equity, both within generations and between generations, as well as both within
and between nations, but it has been taken over by more technical (ecological) definitions.
According to the WCED (1987) the pursuit of sustainability requires a political system that
61
allows effective participation in decision-making, which is best secured by decentralizing

the management of resources upon which local communities depend, and giving
communities an effective say over the use of resources. It requires promoting citizen’s
initiatives, empowering peoples’ organizations, and strengthening local democracy.
These themes are central to the welfare of marginalized, tribal and indigenous peoples,
particularly forest communities. For example, Colchester (1994) argues that indigenous
peoples across South and South-East Asia are making similar claims: the right to the
ownership and control of their territories, the right to self-determination, and the right to
represent themselves through their own institutions, all of which have their basis in
international law. In the context of human rights, sustainability for forest people throughout
the world means maintaining supplies of natural produce essential to their livelihoods.
Lohmann (1991) claims that community-based management can secure biodiversity far
more effectively than imposed conservation plans. He suggests that the political leadership
provided by grassroots groups might be central to conservation movements, although it
currently it seems too “exotic” even to mention; and that the political rights of villages,
societies and movements should be represented in discussions of conservation programmes.
Without secure land tenure, control of resources, popular decision making and basic needs
provisioning, conservation of natural resources will be unsustainable.
Over the last 15 years a further contribution to community-based conservation has come in
the form of a growing interest in indigenous knowledge, local management institutions and
indigenous technologies. Kiss (1991) argues that there are many examples of where
community management of common-property resources is sustainable and has been
historically common, though Brown and Wycoff-Baird (1992) point out that many
traditional structures are losing their viability in the face of pressures both within their own
societies (population growth) and from without (in-migration of other resource users,
penetration of market forces, political instability). The theoretical insights of the Common
Property Resource Management workshop in 1985 and subsequent publications by Ostrom
(1990) Bromley (1992) and others noted in section 1, have all been central to this
rapprochement with resource users in the South.
An expanding interest in participatory approaches and the development of new associations

such as “user groups” in natural resource management, co-management, and conflict
resolution techniques are key contributions to the populist approach. An enormous
literature on participatory techniques has grown up over the past ten years (see, for
example, Chambers, 1992; Pimbert and Pretty, 1994). However, there is a growing number
of caveats and revisions to the realism of participatory conservation. West and Brechin
(1991), for example, argue that the state of the art in testing and evaluating the new
innovations is simply not advanced enough. They suggest that the international
conservation movement is in for a second major revolution based on shock therapy in the
face of harsh reality and warn against assuming that things are working out better than they
really are.
It is worth discussing some of these concerns here, not so much to counter the neo-populist
paradigm as a whole, but to throw light on some of its more comfortable rhetoric and
insufficiently challenged assumptions.
An emerging critique of the neo-populist approach

First, participatory conservation requires a high degree of skilled inputs, sensitive handling
of the political issues and a long planning horizon. Non-governmental organizations have
been seen as the appropriate institutions — indeed there is a high degree of reflexive
advocacy between the participatory approach, techniques of data collection and planning
and the institutional needs and image of NGOs. While NGOs may be able to provide this
sort of input, the issue of replicability must be raised. Can NGOs expand to provide these
inputs on more than a small, even token, scale? If NGOs expand in size, will their
62
flexibility and capacity for face-to-face dialoguing with local people be compromised?
Thus the “scaling up” debate concerning the future of NGOs in developing countries is
very relevant to the future realism of the participatory approach to conservation. Moreover,
issues of co-option by local élites and government, bureaucratization and corruption have
all taken their toll on the view of NGOs as the ideal vehicle of the neo-populist approach. It
is an open question whether large international organizations can institutionally adapt to the
local specificities which the new paradigm demands. At the present time many of them are
experimenting with decentralizing control of their operations, and attempting to link
international headquarters more closely with their operational divisions.
Second, there is usually competition for resources which comprise biodiversity at the
regional and local level (see the discussion on the “community” in section 3). Therefore,
participatory conservation must not only focus on brokering a compromise between the
outside agency and local people, but also between different local people themselves. Any
political economy is unequal where power will be exercised by certain groups to gain and
maintain access to resources. The experience of the Swedish Development Agency (SIDA)
in its Community Forestry Programme in India is a case in point: forestry planting and
regeneration projects on common lands faced the greatest difficulty in preventing local
landowners and contractors from appropriating most of the timber; the poor, who hitherto
had used the common land, had been excluded from it. Jackson (1994) also points out the
limitations of the participatory approach from a gender perspective. After making sure that
women are represented in decision-making, it assumes that communication is
unproblematic and ungendered. It fails to recognize the extent to which expressed views
reflect dominant/dominated ideologies, “mutedness”, and the unwillingness to express
alternative views where these may generate conflict. Policing of conservation programmes
should be done by consent, along democratic (accountable and fair) rules. Whether this can
be achieved, when the outside agency’s back is turned, or after external funding ceases,
remains an open question. These discomforting thoughts contradict the assumptions of
community and consensus which are crucial to the participatory approach.
Third, participation between local people and outside agencies takes place because there is
a perceived need for conservation, usually on the part of the latter. If the objective of the
project is primarily conservationist, the agenda will usually be based on scientific
information. If the project has an integrated objective of enhancing human welfare through
the promotion of sustainable development, it will be based on socio-economic and natural
science analysis. These dual concerns have resulted in a new generation of projects which
attempt to link the conservation of biological diversity in protected areas with local social
and economic development, called integrated conservation and development projects
(ICDPs) by Wells et al. (1992). Although many of these projects are of recent origin,
various concerns are already emerging. Some observers comment that rural development
aspects have been merely “tacked-on” to conservation projects; or that programmes do not
offer sustainable livelihood alternatives (Ghimire, 1991). In many cases there is a lack of
consultation with local people during the planning process and the benefits from
conservation are not directed to the advantage of local people. (See Brandon and Wells
(1992) for a review of some of the conceptual dilemmas inherent in their design). In most
cases project personnel bring their pre-set agenda to a range of local people for discussion.
The degree to which local people move along the “participation continuum” (from passive
participation through to self-mobilization, Pretty, 1994) depends on the extent to which the
outside agency can get its own way, and how flexible it is in jettisoning parts of its own
agenda in the face of opposition.
Finally, what should happen if local people (or the most powerful groups) want to use and
thereby extirpate natural resources thought important for biodiversity conservation? What
happens if they want to substitute imported materials and non-sustainable technology? The
usual outcome is less participation, a coerced set of priorities, and the familiar outcome of
failure. This means that the outsiders’ scientific agenda may be significantly undermined or
altered, depending on the pattern of local interests and power. Land security and local
control of resources demanded by indigenous groups and their supporters do not
63
themselves guarantee prudent resource use. Colchester (1992) cites a case from Papua New
Guinea where collective land rights are strongly protected by law, but where New Guinean
communities have frequently negotiated away rights over their lands by leasing them to
logging or mining companies in exchange for royalties. Indigenous élites may make land
use decisions for personal gain rather than in the interests of the communities that they are
meant to represent. For example, the indigenous élites in Sarawak very often side with
loggers against local people. But many societies are radically transforming their political
institutions to take account of this problem. Communities have begun to evolve
“Longhouse Associations” run under much more democratic principles than the traditional
institutions, to provide themselves with truly representative leadership (Colchester, 1992).
These points may be taken as a caveat to the uncritical promotion of participatory

conservation. There are many cases of self-mobilized local groups conserving their
environments, and where etic (outside) and emic (inside) agendas coincide. Success stories
in the promotional literature are meant to illustrate and promote a progressive and exciting
paradigm of development and conservation. Yet for every highlighted success (often reified
and selectively reported itself), there are countless stories, accounts and reports of the
problems of the participatory approach. It is simply very difficult to implement — and at
the same time to fulfil externally created agendas for conservation.
Beyond participation to environmental brokerage?

It may be more realistic to talk about negotiation and brokerage, rather than
(unproblematic) biodiversity conservation. In this sense, real participation in the
formulation and implementation of conservation can be viewed as the “best case”, but one
which rarely is achieved, and is certainly not replicable on a large scale. This perspective
prompts two further considerations:
(i) Outside conservation agencies, with their scientific ideological and institutional
characteristics, have to be brought into the analysis. Outside agencies therefore
become part of the solution and the problem, actors in the cast of players as any others.
(ii) The outcomes of conservation projects (e.g. national parks) will only fulfil part of
external agendas. This must be expected, since projects can go against political
economic structures which promote unsustainable use of natural resources only to a
limited extent, without attention being given to other policy instruments at the national
and international levels (which tend to lie outside the focus of enthusiasm of the neo-
populist approach). Second-best policies, if well implemented, are better than “perfect”
policies that are poorly implemented.
Summary
The neo-populist approach derives out of a political reaction and opposition to big
business, the authoritarian state, and dispossession through capitalist expansion and
technological change. In policy terms, the approach seeks to remould the interface between
the majority of society (small farmers, pastoralists, petty traders, artisans, etc.) and the
state. This is done by acknowledging their own agendas and their own technical
knowledge, adapting plans to local conditions, and facilitating conservation through
dialogue and participatory action. This paradigm has become the new conventional
wisdom, particularly in international discourse, although there are still important lags in the
succession from the state-led authoritarian “classic” predecessor. The profound
reorientation of scientists and other development professionals, which is necessary
following the purely intellectual change in approach, takes time. However, this paradigm
too has to be explored and thought through “on the ground” where, as the commentary
above indicates, there are emerging contradictions and problems in converting a new idea
into successful conservation practice. Also, it is being challenged by the resurrection of the
neo-liberal approach, outlined next.
64
The “Neo-Liberal Economic” Approach

This focuses on economic benefits and costs of biodiversity erosion and management. It
emphasizes the central role of the market in regulating the use of natural resources and a
more limited role for the state, which retreats from intervention to fulfil the roles of
standard setting and “refereeing” the proper functioning of markets. The state should
remove “perverse” incentives which encourage non-sustainable use of resources, and
encourage instead the internalization of environmental costs. Partly this approach has come
about from a deeper understanding of the limitations of real-world bureaucracies and the
degree of control which the state and its functionaries have over its citizens; and partly
from the resurrection of a pricist counter-revolution and the dominance of economics in
policy-making.
Theories
The economic approach to environmental management as set out by such writers as Pearce
et al. (1992) is based upon two economic theories — the Meade-Pigou approach to
externalities through regulation (standard setting, command and control) and through taxes
and subsidies, and Coase-based approach on the internalization of externalities through the
establishment of property rights. These may occur at both the local level (e.g. village
forests or ranges with implications for local biodiversity) and at the international level
(with implications for global biodiversity and global warming). Both are developed in the
economic literature on biodiversity. There are also other economic theories regarding
institutional development of property rights (after Hayarin and Ruttan, 1985) where
resource degradation occurs from the under-valuation of those resources because they are
shared. According to these and other writers of the neo-liberal approach, private property
rights will be developed in the case of divisible and definable resources, collective property
for indivisible resources, and state property for those not readily privatizable (e.g. air and
some water bodies). Incentives hold the key to all these developments:
The main priority world-wide is to establish incentives, regulations and safeguards

that lead to proper allocation of resources for environmental maintenance and energy
conservation (World Bank, 1991:151).
Critical questions
It is beyond the scope of this paper to provide a critique of this approach (see Jacobs, 1994;
Redclift and Sage, 1995; and Brown and Moran, 1993 for a discussion), but a number of
questions about policy can nevertheless be raised. First, as with any mono-disciplinary
approach, other considerations which have been analysed by political science and
anthropology are not well integrated (although there are economic approaches to “political”
issues, such as the consideration of transaction costs, game theory and collective action, to
name a few). There are many reasons, however, more usually captured by other social
sciences, which may inhibit market-efficient behaviour. There may be rent seeking,
regulatory capture on the part of governments, and a range of structurally conditioned
agendas of consultants, international agencies and NGOs which all produce second-best
outcomes. Illustrations of all these behaviours are provided in the case studies. It is a huge
assumption that institutional development will necessarily evolve in a benign and
environmentally friendly manner. In so many cases, market-led competition does not lead
to efficient outcomes. Also, there may be collusion between state employees, and policy
makers, business, NGO and élite interests.
Second, in conditions of great scientific uncertainty and insufficient information about the
future actions of other parties, it has proved difficult to broker the preconditions for a
global market for biodiversity. Negotiations have also implied the transfer of very large
sums of money, and the size of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) bears witness to
65
national political pressures acting upon country negotiators. There are also similar
institutional and political difficulties in the fair regulation of markets at the state and local
level (see the Russia and Cameroon case studies).
Third, there are formidable practical and technical problems in executing the preconditions
for a proper valuation of biodiversity and the satisfactory operation of a market that reflects
those values (as discussed in section 1). These steps are, first, to estimate the benefits of
biodiversity, and although a start has been made conceptually, there is a growing awareness
that pricing captures only some values (for a variety of conceptual and data-related reasons)
(see WWF, 1993 for a review). The second task is actually to capture these benefits. It is all
very well for economists to calculate what the benefits should be — if the markets existed
and people responded to them. It is quite another for resources to be created from these
hypothetical values which few can grasp and recognize, let alone pay for. Education at all
levels, international pressure and pump-priming funds are some of the perennial
suggestions for the creation of a properly functioning market made at international
seminars. The third task is the distribution of benefits. These comprise simple
compensatory benefits for resettlement, alternative livelihoods, rents, and the much more
important and complex issue of markets for environmental benefits of biodiversity and
conservation in general. Clearly, this task is one of the most problematic due to a lack of
institutional capacity for implementation. While there are neo-liberal theories concerning
the conditions of appropriate institutional innovations for environmental management,
there are important questions remaining about the past record for the formation of such
institutions, as well as the grounds for optimism for future ones. The fourth task is to
identify who the beneficiaries of conservation should be. The fifth and final task is to see
that benefits (through whatever institutional delivery mechanism) actually get to the owners
of the resources which represent biodiversity.
66
Table 7
Three conservation paradigms
Variable Classic Populist Neo-liberal
Peasant Behaviour ignorant, irrational, virtuous, rational rational, egocentric
traditional community-minded
Diagnosis of environmental environmental solutions socio-political solutions economic solutions
problem
Immediate causes of mismanagement by users mismanagement by state, poor government policies
environmental problems capitalists, transnational and bureaucratic rules and
corporations, big business regulations
Structural causes of over-population, resource distribution, inappropriate property rights,
degradation backwardness, lack of inappropriate technologies institutions, prices, and rapid
foresight, ignorance population growth
Institutional prescription top-down centralized bottom-up participation “market” policies, property
decision-making rights, resource pricing, self-
targeting safety nets
Academic discipline; science; bureaucrat sociology; activist, NGOs economics; development
profession professional
Gender orientation gender blind virtuous but victimized gender myopia
women
Research framework systematic empiricism Rapid/Participant Rural methodological
Appraisal, community as unit individualism
of analysis
Orientation to market not considered exploitation Pareto optimality and
externalities
Model of peasant society conservative, paternalistic egalitarian democratic/liberal
View of collective action deficient essential and unproblematic conditional rationality;
political entrepreneurs
Technology “fortress conservation” agronomic techniques of not specified
conservation
Source: Biot et al., 1995
6. CONCLUSION
The initial identification and definition of the biodiversity problem came from natural
scientists in the North. The problem has a complex scientific basis, and definition,
measurement and understanding of processes are marked by lack of empirical data, and are
subject to the individual discretion of scientists themselves. This is not specific to scientific
research on biodiversity, although the degree of disagreement and “talking past each other”
is related to the complexity of the research field and the variety of understandings about the
subject. Other issues such as sustainability suffer from similar problems.
Unfortunately, it is easier to add up ways in which the concept of biodiversity can be

misused than it is to present a simple solution to the extremely complex problem of
measuring and maintaining biological diversity. The public is unclear on the concept
and scientists cannot give a simple answer (Rodda, 1993).
The privileging of certain species, ecosystems and habitats for conservation over others is
not, and cannot, be expected to be done on scientific grounds alone. Biodiversity is
interpreted in different ways by different actors outside scientific professions as well. Many
actors have a fragmentary and contingent interest in the issue of biodiversity (e.g. a specific
ecosystem or a short list of species of plant or fish). Others are involved in biodiversity
through promoting symbols of conservation (e.g. single issue campaigns in the North),
67
while others may campaign for the preservation of their livelihoods in the face of forest
clearance, dam construction and flooding, or (ironically) the creation of a national park.
Therefore it may be useful for policy makers, international opinion-formers and decision
makers to:
(i) Accept that biodiversity is the stuff of politics. It is an arena of competing interests and
ideas of actors with which any conservation has to deal.
(ii) Accept a plurality of definitions, but define them carefully and understand where they
are coming from by attributing them to those involved.
(iii) Be prepared to link biodiversity with other issues, while at the same time
acknowledging that there are other issues involved which intersect with (some of) the
aims of biodiversity conservation, but which may not share the same final goals.
Human rights, particularly of indigenous people, income distribution, rights to clean
water, education, shelter, etc., and human welfare all are related to biodiversity and its
various values, but these other pressing issues have agendas and goals other than those
of biodiversity conservation.
The issue of biodiversity comprises a number of discourses at the global, regional, national
and local levels. At each, different but intersecting definitions and meanings of biodiversity
circulate, and are linked to the “projects” of other actors. At the global level, the main
policy issue from the scientific view is thus the conservation of global biodiversity and the
governorship of the global commons. However, in the negotiation of international
agreements, persistent inequalities in wealth and the control and use of biodiversity
resources between the North and South invade the scientific agenda with political concerns.
At the local level, the discourse may consist of a struggle between agriculturalists squatting
illegally in the forest, forest dwellers and the state with interests in foreign exchange from
timber exports — each of which values and uses differently the resources that collectively
contribute to biodiversity. These discourses, although referring to the same physical
resources, attach very different meanings to those resources, and are understood in a unique
way by the different actors. There are two main implications. First, since “biodiversity”
means many things to many people, it has become a bandwagon, and the rigour and
precision of debates have been eroded. Some policy makers may believe that they are
conserving biodiversity, while others would not recognize that they were doing that at all.
Some see a national park, a warden sees theft, the displaced see dispossession — the point
is that biodiversity conservation may be all of these.
Second, although to some degree the local levels of biodiversity conservation contribute to
conservation at higher levels (regional and global) in an additive manner, they involve
different actors and concerns. Partly, this has to be accepted, and advocacy for conservation
pursued at a variety of different levels. Also however, this disjuncture also causes serious
problems of implementation (conceived at the international level but implemented on the
ground). Some of these problems can be eased by adopting decentralized, flexible, locally
politically negotiated programmes. However, the call for participatory conservation has to
be realistically appraised.
There are currently three main paradigms for environmental conservation — the
classic/authoritarian, the neo-populist and the neo-liberal. Strategy and policy statements
usually tend to use the language of more than one, although one will dominate. At present
the debate at the international conservation level reflects a shift away from the classic to the
neo-liberal and populist approaches. In terms of biodiversity conservation the two most
opposed and mutually exclusionary are the classic and neo-populist. There is presently a
strong call for a new professionalism and a new approach to conservation, which takes
more account of the distribution of the costs of conservation. It is also recommended that
local knowledge and expertise (both technical and political) to manage natural resources
must be accessed and harnessed through participatory programmes. This new conventional
wisdom has gained credence even against vested personal, institutional and professional
interests among international policy makers and development professionals worldwide. But
68
the full implications of the populist approach are becoming increasingly evident, leading to
detectable backlash against it. The assumptions of community and consensus in the practice
of participatory conservation are far from being problem-free. A plurality of
understandings along with a variety of competing interests (some of them decidedly anti-
conservationist) begs the question of whether negotiations between outside agencies and
local people can be equal. The former have their scientific agendas, and the latter have all
sorts of contingent interests in biodiversity conservation. The usual case is that there is
disagreement between the two parties and also between local people themselves. How far
can, or should, the outside agency push its own agenda? It is helpful for conservation
agencies to consider “advanced” participation as a best case situation, but also own up to
their own agenda and become environmental brokers between actors who are well
understood by the agency.
The economic approach to environmental conservation takes a very different perspective

from that summarized above. The conceptual problems of measuring the value of
biodiversity, and the political reality of appropriating it, still remain formidable obstacles to
the realization of efficiently functioning markets for biodiversity. While the removal of
“perverse” incentives to degrade the environment may be possible at the national level, the
operation of market signals which reflect the true value of conserving biodiversity at the
local level may be a distant reality (as illustrated by the case studies of Russia and
Cameroon).
There are strong pragmatic and political grounds for paying detailed attention to the
impacts of biodiversity erosion and conservation upon human welfare, particularly in cases
where conservation efforts affect local people directly. Pragmatically, coerced and enforced
conservation tends to fail in the long-run. Politically, the abuse of human rights and the
accentuation of inequalities are related to environmental degradation, and conservation
efforts must address these issues too, not exacerbate them.
69
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UNITED NATIONS RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL

UNRISD Discussion Papers are preliminary documents circulated in a limited number

United Nations Research Institute The School of Development Studies/

(41.22) 798.84 00/798.58.50 (44.1603) 456161

Piers Blaikie is professor at the School of Development Studies, University of East

February 1996 Dharam Ghai

1. THE MAJOR ISSUES

(i) How has biodiversity been understood by different groups of people?

 “Biodiversity”: Some Definitions

 A Summary of the Biodiversity Problem

Source: WWF, 1993a:15

According to some observers, conservation of biodiversity is merely a sophisticated

 Biodiversity and Human Welfare

 Biodiversity and Values

Direct and instrumental/use values

Indirect instrumental/use values

 An Illustration of Social Differentiation and

fuel, wild foods, plant medicines, areas

 An Overview of Biodiversity Issues

As ecological science and an understanding of global environmental systems theories have

Even the diversity of human communities is at risk. It is thought that 92 Brazilian

Sociology has not addressed issues of environmental management in the same

The second issue concerns appropriation. Swanson (1992b) expresses it as a problem of a

In summary, the economic approach to the environment is providing a rationale for

 Interdisciplinary Research Initiatives

 UNCED and the Biodiversity Convention

Negotiation of an international agreement on the conservation of biodiversity began in

The Biodiversity Convention contains the following significant points.

• It recognizes that biodiversity is essential to our planetary life-support systems.

(b) International responsibilities and perceived sovereign national interests. UNCED is

 Conclusions about Conceptual Issues of

To understand the political dimensions of biodiversity it is necessary to understand how the

 Policy Makers at the International Level

International conservation policies are largely promoted by international agencies such as

While environmental NGOs continue to struggle for representation at high-level

the market as instruments of influence. Through buying certified products, individual

These developments demonstrate that a different type of professional criterion is circulating

Populist approaches to biodiversity conservation have become firmly established. They

been various confrontations between the neo-populist and neo-liberal approaches to

 State Functionaries in Biodiversity Conservation

An important consideration in biodiversity conservation, as with other environmental

 Entrepreneurs and Corporations

Biotechnology and intellectual property

Finally, the testing of new biotechnologies is considered to be a potential threat to

hazardous chemicals by companies of the North in developing countries, where regulations

 The Timber Trade

Martin Laing, Chairman of John Laing plc, wrote in March 1994:

 Local Agrarian Groups

Let us examine each of these hypotheses in turn.

The rural poor

Source: Blaikie et al., 1985:27

The notion of “the community”

In summary, biodiversity conservation, as with other conservation policy in general,

Over-exploitation of forest resources, violations of ecological and forestry regulations

 A Case Study of Biodiversity in Cameroon

The protection of wildlife and special sites

By 1971, Cameroon, responding to international pressure, designated the Douala-Edea

Cameroon’s adhesion to these various [international environmental] conventions has

Changes in actors’ behaviour

Is biodiversity being conserved in Cameroon?

“Biodiversity”: Some Definitions

A Summary of the Biodiversity Problem

Biodiversity and Human Welfare

Biodiversity and Values

An Illustration of Social Differentiation and

An Overview of Biodiversity Issues

Interdisciplinary Research Initiatives

UNCED and the Biodiversity Convention

Conclusions about Conceptual Issues of

Policy Makers at the International Level

State Functionaries in Biodiversity Conservation

Entrepreneurs and Corporations

The Timber Trade

Local Agrarian Groups

A Case Study of Biodiversity in Cameroon

Marine Biodiversity: A Case Study of Whaling

The “Classic” Approach

The “Neo-Populist” Approach

The “Neo-Liberal Economic” Approach