Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Jahrbücher
; both inl uential treatises in the
establishment of later institutions that promoted
public education and awareness of the natural
environment (Uekötter 2004). Establishment of
museums of natural history, zoos, and botanical
gardens across Europe and America during the
nineteenth century were examples of such
undertakings.
The era of colonialism was then at its height,
so that European ideas of conservation spread
to colonies across Africa and Asia. For example,
in India the British employed Dietrich Brandis,
a German forester and close mentor of Gifford
Pinchot, who implemented a strategy for scien-
tii c forest management. Brandis returned to
Europe with lessons learned in India and shared
these with his European and American col-
leagues. At the time, a scientii c approach to
resource management meant closely monitoring
resources, and in the case of forests, determin-
ing their total volume, their rates of yield and
harvest, and outlining strategies for their extrac-
tion. In India, Brandis put into practice a hier-
archical system of protected lands that prohibited
human use in the more restricted zones.
The hunting tradition in Britain, likewise,
accorded protective status to tracts of land.
Similar traditions in British India allowed for
exclusive hunting grounds that limited human
access. The establishment of parks for wildlife
conservation and big-game hunting, as seen in
British East Africa, provided yet another example
of how conservation strategies were imple-
mented across the globe (Hingston 1931). Impe-
rial Russia also established hunting reserves
during the time of Peter the Great in the 1700s,
with later developments in Russia's conservation
philosophy leading to the formation of a nature
reserve system of which the zapovednik was to
be the most restrictive and excluded all uses
except those for scientii c study (Strebeigh 2002).
This discussion traces the evolution of the
modern conservation movement from a largely
Eurocentric perspective. Yet, it is important to
recognize that conservation beliefs, attitudes,
and practices persisted and continue to persist
in the non-European world. Indigenous ideas of
conservation persevered in pockets despite the
imposition of conservation and management
ideas from outside. For instance, sacred forests
including those on forested wetland sites across
Asia and Africa were protected from overuse
because of their association with local religious
beliefs and deities. Similarly, permit systems
to so-called royal hunting forests were to
control access and use by the general popula-
tion and served a dual conservation purpose.
In other instances, through the granting of usu-
fruct rights, sustainable indigenous resource-use
practices continued side by side with European
conservation strategies.
Wetland protection and management during
this period was given scant attention. In fact, one
would argue that wetland conversions to other
land uses accelerated through the nineteenth
century and well into the twentieth century. Even
so, it is important to recognize this early history
of conservation for the lasting inl uence it had
on the management of natural resources across
the globe. Moreover, and as chapter 14 shows,
with the global awareness of wetlands as criti-
cally important ecosystems, a new era of man-
agement and protection starting during the 1970s
sought to correct the policy missteps of the past.
12.2 Wetland resource management
Natural resource management provides a sci-
entii c and systematic approach to protecting
resources so as to meet ecosystem and societal
needs. Over the past few decades, scientists
have generally agreed that natural resource
management requires an integrated systems
approach to adequately address relevant issues
(Kent 2000a; Turner, van den Bergh and Brouwer
2003; Ramsar Convention Secretariat 2007b). A
systems approach recognizes the complex and
interconnected character of natural and human
systems and implicitly acknowledges the advan-
tages of studying the whole by simultaneously
considering its constituent parts and the interac-
tions therein.
An integrated systems approach requires a
broad understanding of the biophysical and
socioeconomic aspects of natural resources,
their availability, use, and allocation. In the case
of wetlands, it may involve coordinating and
