Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Prospects for biodiversity and environmental conservation can be analysed by
identifying the space- and time-based parameters of change processes. Analytical
approaches include quantitative spatial-environmental methodologies, along with
quantitative and/or qualitative assessments of economic, political, and historical
factors (e.g., regression-tree statistics and rule-based, expert knowledge analysis)
and 'threat analysis' in conservation-centred approaches. Core techniques include
Geographic Information Science (GIScience), cross-regional comparisons, and
remote sensing analysis. Potential 'win-win' scenarios offer combinations of equita-
ble socioeconomic development, on the one hand, and favorable environmental and
biodiversity outcomes, on the other hand (Adams et al., 2004; Naughton-Treves
et al., 2005; Zimmerer, 2006a; 2006b). The potential existence of this combination
is frequently complex, yet it is often of primary interest. Identifi cation of potentially
favorable combinations of conditions suited to the design and establishment of pro-
tected areas (PAs), for example, is a high priority for biodiversity conservation.
Successful expansion of initiatives for biodiversity conservation is linked, in
several cases, to well-developed concerns for human rights and environmental
justice. Such concerns are centred on biodiversity conservation measures that have
led to the loss of resource access and livelihood among local inhabitants (Peluso,
1993; Neumann, 2004). The latter include poorer, less socially powerful, and, in
many cases, indigenous people. These people reside and practice land use in many
of the tropical and less-accessible areas that are prioritised for biodiversity conserva-
tion. The often long-term and still unfolding relations of these people to biodiversity
and biodiversity conservation have become a major subject of geographic research
(e.g., through the approaches of political ecology and cultural ecology). Indeed if
much biodiversity-related environmental geography perceives people as a threat to
biodiversity, then the perspective of human rights and environmental justice can be
seen as inverting the focal point. Here the question of how biodiversity initiatives
may pose a threat to people becomes the primary focus. Biodiversity conservation
initiatives, often framed as global and integral to sustainability policies, have become
a main avenue for development programmes at national, regional, and local scales
in many places across the world - this elevation of biodiversity distinguishes the
present historical moment.
Cultural activities often do support certain types of biodiversity and, more gener-
ally, are interwoven with various biodiversity-infl uencing processes. These relations
have led to interest in biodiversity that exists in close relation to the activities and
habits of people (e.g., utilised and known-about biota) in relation to cultural diver-
sity (e.g., livelihood practices, food customs and cuisine, ethnic and language group
differences) and sociocultural and development change processes (e.g., increased
infl uence of commodifi cation, market relations, and labour migration). Geographic
contexts range widely for these intensive interactions between biodiversity and
humans (Naughton-Treves et al., 2006). Analysis of human-environment interac-
tions in such contexts include local- and region-scale differences in land use activities
that range from utilitarian and 'backyard'-type to deeply cultural and religious
practices (Hecht, 2004, Zimmerer, 2004). Accelerating change tends to typify these
interactions. The biodiversity of agricultural plants and ecosystems ('agrobiodiver-
sity') in Africa, for example, is on the verge of becoming subject to technology-based
advances in 'bio-fortifi cation' - the process of creating, either through conventional
breeding or genetic modifi cation, and subsequently disseminating genetically
improved food crops with enhanced levels of bio-available micronutrients.
