Conservation, ecological justice and harm to nature - Environmental Harm: An Eco-justice Perspective - page 96

Carbon emission trading schemes may be oriented toward similar ends.
How this is to be achieved, however, is of considerable importance to
those who already live in the forests and have done so for generations.
Traditional knowledge includes forest-related knowledge associated
with the use and management of forest species, and the broader
understanding and management of forest eco-systems. Examples of
such knowledge include use of herbal medicines, nutraceutical products,
food and beverage. For many, the forest exists as a site of not only
wood products (for cooking, for furniture, for musical instruments)
but non-wood products such as medicines, foods, spices, fodder for
animals and for a multitude of other purposes including aesthetic and
spiritual. Interestingly, fuel wood constitutes up to more than 70 per
cent of wood removals in the Asia and the Pacific and 90 per cent in
Africa (FAO, 2011).
Traditional management of forested environments affects the
composition of flora and fauna, and the biological diversity of these
areas. This is captured in the notion of 'biocultural diversity' which
merges concerns with cultural diversity and biological diversity into
one unified framework for understanding the links between nature and
culture (FAO, 2011). It is claimed that traditional forest management
not only has shaped the structure and composition of forests around
the world, but it has done so in ways that have enhanced biodiversity
beyond that of the so-called pristine conditions with no human
presence (FAO, 2011) - a point that is especially important in regards
to particular definitions of conservation and conceptions of the benefits
of conservation.
It is important that traditional users of forests not be excluded from
what is, for many, the key source of their livelihood and subsistence.
This means allowing traditional activities and harvests to occur, in
part since these have historically been central to the overall ecological
health and wellbeing of regions. Governmental schemes such as REDD
and the like, as well as NGO and private business driven conservation
schemes, need to acknowledge the 'invisible' uses of the forest, and the
longstanding ecological benefits arising from this.
The potential contribution that a multifunctional, multiple-
value forest resource might make to climate change cannot
be realized unless REDD arrangements are better aligned
with broader forest governance reform. REDD and carbon
capture could reduce multiple functions to a single function
- to the great disadvantage of local users. (FAO, 2011: 95)