Emerging paradigms in environmental conservation and management

Abstract

Concepts of environmental conservation and management are directly linked to the practice of development. Development has been seen as not only an instrument to increase production, but also to remove poverty. But anti-poverty schemes in India have not been sustainable and are conditioned by the kind of finance available for their implementation. Multi-lateral aid, in particular, appears to be faulty in conception itself. Schemes that were earlier developed by community organisations for their own survival have now paradoxically been turned around to fleece them. Financial institutions, governments, courts, and technocrats have appropriated the innovative ideas of sustainability and conservation invented by communities. The notion of participation has permitted governments to slowly retreat from their social responsibilities. Empowerment requires that communities be entrusted with actual power, but, in fact, the “rights” of people have been converted into “responsibilities” that they will have to undertake if they want a share in the proceeds. In addition, people have been denied access to resources and evicted from the commons. All these actions appear to be allied to the central theme of privatising public resources. This paradigm of conservation has been challenged by an equally powerful mode of protest that has unleashed public campaigns to protect the social ethic.