Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
basically excludes local people. Neoliberalism has also created new networks linking
states governments, conservation NGOs and private businesses that share the same
or very similar values. Becky Mansfield (2007) writes of a new political economy
of the oceans that may undermine conservation imperatives, including local involve-
ment in protected areas such as the biosphere reserves whether they are on land or
in the ocean. At the core of this is the notion of the commons and that of property
rights, collective or individual privatization, and the imposition of quotas in the new
enclosures. What is frequently at issue is open access and the nurturing of, for
example, rapidly declining fish stocks for future sustainable use. However, quotas
are often set very generously and often ignored. Although the more radical policy
of declaring no fish zones in certain places has seen significant benefits, they are few
and far between and very difficult to establish even, perhaps especially so, in such
pristine environments as the Antarctic Ocean.
Luxury ecotourism resorts define themselves as private-sector, profit-driven
companies and are frequently the unstated locations for respected natural history
and wildlife films (Christophers, 2006; Duffy, 2010). Brockington
et al
. (2008) argue
that the conservation and tourist industries invariably work together to produce the
best possible spectacle for their customers and viewers. Together with their associated
merchandising, both are primarily consumptive experiences involving resource
extraction, alienation and commodity fetishization. However, as Duffy and Moore
(2010) write in their study of elephant back tourism in Thailand and Botswana, the
tourist industry has provided alternative employment for elephants and their mahouts,
and in Thailand, thanks to the god Ganesha, elephants are seen as more than just
a basic commercial enterprise. They have intrinsic worth and neoliberal approaches
to nature have inadvertently served to reinvent some traditional practices. In 2008,
the owner of a tourist enterprise, Elephant Life Experience, organized an elephant
fashion show featuring clothes with patterns taken from elephant paintings to cele-
brate National Elephant Day. The show was designed to draw attention to elephant
conservation: the Art by Elephants Foundation and the artificial insemination
programme organized jointly by the privately owned Maesa Camp and the Elephant
Hospital at the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre. The event reached television
newsrooms and YouTube.
No one strategy or approach is going to be effective on its own and many
conservationists argue for multifaceted strategies and continuous and meaningful
dialogue among all parties concerned in order to understand the challenges - illegal
hunting, habitat loss, rapid human population increase, development, etc. - and to
derive realistic but effective actions to arrest a generally worsening situation. Thus,
in relation to promoting positive attitudes to wildlife conservation among local
peoples inhabiting the Serengeti, Jafari Kideghesho argues that the following range
of practical measures would produce positive outcomes:
•
Balancing the costs of wildlife conservation with benefits by ensuring that
the benefits are sufficient to offset the conservation-induced costs and
contribute notably to poverty reduction.
•
Enhancing conservation education to provide people with basic knowledge
and clear understanding of the long-term consequences of their actions on
species and habitats and the legal and policy aspects pertaining to wildlife
conservation.
