Beauty and the Beast -Human Rights and Biocultural Diversity Janis Alcorn

Biological diversity and cultural diversity living together create a vibrant, interdependent harmony of "Beauty" that is celebrated by readers of Resurgence. Over 95 percent of the worlds high biodiversity areas overlap geographically with lands claimed by culturallydiverse peoples. But all is not well in these lands of biocultural diversity. Beauty is poor and threatened. The lands of Beauty overlap with poverty and corruption. And they overlap with the territory of a Beast that has increasing dominion to determine the life or death of Beauty. The "Beast" is an unexpected one -- public and private conservation agencies -- a surprise for most people who believe conservation agencies unquestionably represent the defense of Beauty. Yet biodiversity conservation is increasingly viewed as "ecofascism" by the culturally-diverse communities who coexist with biodiversity. Why? Over 130 million culturally-diverse people have become "conservation refugees" after being forcibly removed from their traditional relationship with the Earth, in order to create parks, certified logging concessions, or concession areas for ecological service payments that directly benefit conservation agencies. These and other human rights violations have created deep conflict and suffering from the loss of both spiritual and material resources. Individuals and communities are human rights "holders" of universal rights to an indivisible bundle of civil, economic, cultural, political, property, and environmental rights. Human rights duty-bearers are those who have the opportunity and obligation to create the conditions for the fulfilment of human rights. Duty-bearers have heavy responsibilities in nations that have weak judicial systems and lack legislation that protects human rights. In the lands of Beauty, however, conservation agencies have too often ignored or shirked their human rights duty-bearer responsibilities. Human rights abuse allegations associated with conservation activities include violation of due process, massive forcible resettlements, extrajudicial killings, destruction of property and farms, torture, and other violations of social, cultural, political and economic rights. Indigenous Peoples are particularly vulnerable to having their prior territorial rights violated by conservation programs. Many have raised alarms and documented the abuses for decades. Consultants to conservation agencies from the inside, and nongovernmental organizations like "Native Solutions to Conservation Refugees" from the outside, have proposed solutions. But the disturbing stories rarely reach the public eye, and proposed solutions are seldom heeded without strong external activist pressure.

Conservation agencies and their supporters deny, mask or defend their behavior, trotting out isolated examples. They hijack the discussion from human rights to economics, claiming the "real agenda" of "savages" is to end capitalism. Or they use technospeak to shift the discussion of human rights to one of "conservation trade-offs." Some say this "Lucifer Effect," where bad things are done by good people, is created by the lack of good institutional guidance in situations of great uncertainty and high levels of conflict typical in remote areas. But will yet more institutional policies alone really resolve the problem? Or is something more needed? In the ancient fable of Beauty and the Beast, a lovely princess disguised as a poor merchants daughter is forced to live with a beastly-ugly prince cursed by an evil fairy. In the happy conclusion, Beauty realizes her love for the Beast, and through her love, the Beast is transformed back into a handsome and good prince. The curse can only be broken if the Beast truly loves Beauty and receives Beautys love in return; if not, he is doomed to remain a beast. Likewise, there will be global transformation and harmony only if conservation agencies love the culturally-diverse people who live with biodiversity and the people in turn love the conservation agencies. If not, the destructive relationship will continue. Put in other terms, saving the natural world requires that our moral universe encompass all people and nature in a reciprocal circle, not just a small circle protecting the rights of those who share the same culture. As Chhatrapati Singh, an Indian legal scholar, noted many years ago -- there can be no environmental justice until there is social justice. When visionary leaders have opened space for dialogue, efforts to heal relations and join social and environmental justice agendas have proven successful. In the Bolivian Amazon, for example, communities, rural unions and local governments rejected conservation efforts to protect Manuripi Wildlife Reserve until a process of reflective selfassessment with conservation organization assistance led people to declare their own protected area incorporating Manuripi Wildlife Reserve into the larger 1.4 million hectare area of Filadelfia and Bolpebra, seeking "sustainable conservation with development." After a more loving relationship was established, unlike in fairy tales but more like real marriages, the collaboration has required hard work to use shared values and commitment to resolve problems and celebrate successes together over the longterm. In the Spice Islands of Indonesia, communities renewed brotherhoods to bridge the anger between Muslims and Christians in order to protect their lands against a mining company allied with corrupt government, with quiet assistance from a conservation organization. In South Africa, as part of the peace and reconciliation process, communities that were forcibly removed from their lands to make way for parks have been invited back to their homes. A global peace and reconciliation process to address past human rights abuses in the name of biodiversity conservation was recommended by the World Parks Congress and subsequently proposed to the IUCN World Conservation Congress in 2004. IUCN (a global organization of public and private conservation agencies) accepted the resolution
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but has not taken substantive action on this proposal to date. Over the same period, however, IUCN has celebrated new partnerships with mining and other extractive industries with dubious human rights records. Anger and distrust are increasing on both sides -- conservation organizations confront angry communities who would burn down their forests rather than lose their homes to conservation agencies in many tropical countries. In the USA, conservation organizations face landowners who block forest service agents from crossing their land and destroy endangered species on their property rather than lose control of their lands. As the Buddhist sage Thich Nhat Hanh has written, the path for overcoming anger and defusing its negative effects on the world is to embrace the anger, to love it, to hold it and care for it, to seek the help of the other party as equals in overcoming shared anger -- the same ancient wisdom held in the allegory of Beauty and the Beast -- a wisdom that could benefit conservation agency leadership if it were incorporated into policies and actions. With rising public concern about global warming, conservation agencies are growing in political and financial power -- in 2002, three international conservation organizations (Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, and WWF) had annual revenues of over $1.29 billion. And there are indications that public pressures to create new parks and forest reserves for carbon sequestration will create another 100 million conservation refugees, continuing the cycle of human rights violations. As long as the public believes that conservation is unquestionably good, and does not demand that conservation agencies change their practices, then human rights and biocultural diversity will continue to be eroded by what appear on the surface to be good intentions. An alternative future is possible if we join hands, eyes open, seeking Samdhana -healing wounds and coming together in peace. Janis Bristol Alcorn Dr. Alcorn is a biologist and anthropologist, with more than 30 years experience in conservation and development. She has authored over 100 articles and 5 books. For further background and information, see "Conservations Engagement with Human Rights" published in IUCN Policy Matters 15, pages 115-139, http://www.iucn.org/themes/ceesp/Publications/Publications.htm The final published version of Beauty and the Beast - Human Rights and Biocultural Diversity will appear in the September 2008 issue of Resurgence Magazine. http://www.resurgence.org/magazine/

Beauty and the Beast - Human Rights and Biocultural Diversity, Alcorn, Janis Resurgence Magazine, September 2008