Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
of conservation. The interest group who gets the control power treats the land with
their conservation objectives and consequentially affects the indigenous culture.
Therefore, in most of the literatures, power relationships comprise one of the major
aspects in the discussion about how indigenous culture is influenced by the world
culture. This park and people relationship is usually divided by the degree of control
power involvement (Stevens 1997; World Bank 1996; Igoe 2004). On one end lies
entirely central control or a mainstream sovereign, and on the other end lies total
indigenous control. And in between the two extremes are various instances of the
government and indigenous people co-managing the same piece of land.
Apart from the issue of control power, tourism impact is another significant aspect
in the discussion about the literature of indigenous culture transformation. Since
these indigenous lands are targeted as tourism destinations because of their natural
beauty and rich cultures, tourism would gradually become one of the most important
incomes for the indigenous communities. Their life and culture are affected conse-
quentially. These two aspects of influence, control model and tourism, should not be
discussed separately. In fact, they relate to each other and shape the image of indig-
enous culture. In this chapter, I will begin with the discussion of how the indigenous
culture is affected by control power, and subsequently I will add two other dimen-
sions, tourism and development, to create a new relationship model.
CENTRAL CONTROL CONSERVATION MODEL
AND THE INDIGENOUS CULTURE
The varieties of park-people relationships can be described by the degree of power
involvement (Figure  5.1). The traditional national park model, which is entirely
controlled by the central government without any involvement from the indigenous
people, is the strictest conservation model. The most popular definition of “national
park” that is cited as the basic principle internationally is that a national park is one
that is “not materially altered by human exploitation and occupation … the highest
competent authority of the country has taken steps to prevent or to eliminate as soon
as possible exploitation or occupation” (International Union for the Conservation of
Nature and Natural Resources 1980). Thus, conservation is often the main purpose
of a national park conservation model, followed by research and tourism. From this
definition, indigenous settlement and activities are not included in the nature reserve
scene. Any utilization by indigenous people is strongly restricted in the protected
area under the high conservation principle, and many indigenous people are elimi-
nated from the park (West and Brechin 1991). The elimination process results in
indigenous communities totally disappearing from the park or clustering along the
park boundary.
There are three types of consequences for indigenous people who have been
eliminated from the park. The first scenario is when an entire indigenous culture
vanishes. The elimination process here is because of not only the physical relocation
but also the cultural invasion. Many indigenous communities are assimilated by the
mainstream culture and lose their cultural identity gradually. In this type of situa-
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