RURAL FUTURES: INTEGRATING CONSERVATION & LIVELIHOODS
We, the human race, find ourselves at a critical crossroad, where the actions we take today will come to bear not only on our own immediate futures but for the coming generations as well. At the cost of sounding fatalistic, it is indeed a do-or-die situation! The depletion, combined with pollution, of the planet’s natural resources has occurred at such an alarming rate that we have been able to witness its impact in our lifetimes. Despite the best intentions, conservation work to restore the natural balance has not achieved what it had set out to. This has increasingly led to a shift in the approach to conservation, where it is believed that the erstwhile top-down attitude with a single focus on nature restoration will no longer work. The only way forward is to retain people at the centre of the discourse, to understand the root cause of problems and plan ahead for a secure and sustainable future.
Integrating Conservation & Rural Livelihoods
The theme of the first session at the Eastern Himalayas Naturenomics™ Forum, 2017, sought to raise certain pertinent questions confronted by conservationists, when they set about their task of engaging with local communities in their endeavour to protect and preserve natural resources, flora and fauna. By shifting the lens of analysis to a reimagining of rural futures, discussions were centred on the notion that conservation and livelihood practices were inextricably linked, and more urgently so in non-urban contexts.
The session titled ‘Integrating Conservation and Livelihoods’ was co-chaired by Dr Jianchu Xu, of Kunming Institute of Botany in China, who succinctly set out the agenda of the conversation that was to follow. He reiterated how humans have achieved great heights and have come a long way since the beginning of their evolution. Yet, there was also a flipside where human lives came to be marked by uncertainty. Artificial intelligence and technologies have advanced to the extent that it has the potential to make human labour redundant, leading to uncertainties in the job market. In their bid to excel, humans have also exploited natural environments to an extent that the planet now faces a severe crisis in natural resources. Recognizing some of these fallouts of human success, our present epoch has been termed ‘Anthropocene’ given the significance of human impact on Earth’s geology and ecosystems.
Fostering the dialogue on Equitable access to natural resources
Sharpening socio-economic disparities in the world has also shaped a lot of the discussions on conservation practices, where the emphasis has shifted from natural assets to the idea of equitable access to natural resources — a matter that speaks to the heart of the theme of Rural Futures. Dr Sarala Khaling of ATREE, and co-chair for the panel, pointed out that it was imperative to speak of conservation and development in conjunction in the context of the Eastern Himalayan region. Rapid changes that have occurred here, over the last several years, have affected both the environment as well as the livelihoods of the hill communities while poverty has been a persistent problem in the mountains. Hence, while government programmes in these areas focused on eradicating poverty, the environment was placed under further duress.
The panel discussion commenced with presenters raising critical questions about what it means for ‘us’, representatives of urban, educated upper and upper middle-class society to reimagine rural futures for ‘them’, the local, rural populations. While the democratisation of information has taken place with the digital revolution, it is no longer enough to present age old livelihood options to the educated rural youth. We have to rethink the means and tools of our intervention work in order to align outcomes with aspirations. And, in doing so, how do we conceive of long term interventions which go beyond the limiting perimeter of project time and money
Integrate traditional knowledge with modern tools and methods
There was consensus amongst the panelists regarding the fundamentals of doing conservation work in any region of the world. The first and foremost requirement would be a humble approach, where one is open to listening to locals, living with them and experiencing their life to the extent possible. Often times, they themselves offer the best solutions to persistent problems. Secondly, there isn’t any substitute for meticulous planning. And thirdly, effective conservation measures must be linked to an idea of overall benefit and employment. As Dr Xu had pointed out early on in the session, it was not simply enough to do development work and provide evidence for success in material terms. In order for any project to be truly successful there had to be a perception of gain among the people.
An example of such a ground-up approach of giving value to the land on which one is living and harvesting came from one of the panelists. In west of Yunan, sections of wild forests had been auctioned off for the wild harvesting of mushrooms and the auction value of that forest was based on the quality of that area of the forest. Over a short duration of time, locals came to understand that a well-maintained, healthy forest had more value in terms of the products one could harvest from the forest. This offered a comprehensive incentive to communities to look after their landscape, knowing that they could benefit from it.
North-East Council, Balipara Foundation has collaborates with the Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre (CBTC) for raising awareness on sustainable livelihood through bamboo based activities
The key takeaways from the session were that first, it was imperative to have communities at the centre and as the starting point for any livelihood initiative; and, that there was a need for far greater collaborations between organisations that work on livelihoods and those that work on conservation and find that ‘sweet spot’ to work together. Second, in similar vein, Mr Venkateswaran, a veteran of the corporate world, stated that organisations working in the development sector were neglecting a large intellectual resource pool that could be found within corporations, whose only involvement thus far has been to support welfare projects financially. He emphasized the need to use the skill sets that corporates have, to take livelihoods and conservation to the next level. Third, the social impact venture capital that has boomed in recent times has not been able to reach rural areas. It was important to make connections that would link ideas emanating from the lived experiences of rural communities with venture capitalists willing to invest in worthy causes. Fourth, practicality should be the key — to shift focus from larger, long-term goals of a projects to the smaller wins which would promote a sense of wellbeing and more community buy-in. Finally, there was an acceptance that without government support and mainstreaming of flagship programmes for rural livelihood enhancement, the scale of projects and impact would always remain small. For scaling up, the coming together of government, non-governmental organisations and corporations was an urgent requirement.
Naturenomics ™ Stall at the Eastern Himalayan Botanic Ark showcasing craftsmanship of local artisans
The session came to a close with a reinforcement of the idea that the business-as-usual model was no longer valid for the world today. We are co-producing new knowledge systems with the help of new technologies — a form of hybrid knowledge. Not only local knowledge or merely scientific knowledge but knowledge that will be shared and co-produced by all stakeholders involved in the process. As an extension of such a knowledge system, the projects we conceive would then involve a sharing of cost, benefit, responsibility and risk between different stakeholders as well. We need to conceive of new institutions and new relationships to achieve this. To end, imagining a different, better future would depend on the kinds of new relationships we nurture today; we do not just scaling up but scaling out so as to reach out to more people and convince them that such a future is achievable!
Sinjini Mukherjee is an independent researcher and writer. She is a keen observer of the human condition and feels passionately about politics and philosophy. She is also a fierce lover of animals and the ocean.
The Eastern Himalayan Naturenomics™ Forum has been a platform to foster a dialogue on Rural Futures through the concept of Naturenomics™ and multi-disciplinary collaboration and innovation. The “Rural Futures Framework” catalyzes conservation efforts through designing holistic models for human centric, community based conservation to create social-environmental and economic interdependence.
