Hegemonic and emerging concepts of conservation: a critical examination of barriers to incorporating Indigenous perspectives in protected area conservation policies and practice

Abstract

ABSTRACT The establishment of Canada's protected areas mirrored their development throughout the New World, using an exclusionary model of conservation reflecting the hegemonic nature/culture dichotomy. There has been increasing criticism of the colonial and postcolonial impacts resulting from this exclusionary model: new concepts developed to better link Indigenous peoples and conservation lands (e.g. cultural landscapes, socio-ecological systems, resilience and bio-cultural conservation) have thus been developed. But the existing paradigms and dichotomies that buttress the exclusionary model – including a linear, static view of nature, a deep seated discourse equating human presence with ecosystem destruction, the concept of wilderness, differing concepts of recreation/work and the nature/culture split – have proved more difficult to supplant that anticipated, and have restricted progress in moving these new concepts from theory to practice. This paper reviews these concepts and barriers and buttresses these theoretical critiques with practical insights from a study in a co-managed park in the Yukon Territory, Canada. The existing role of outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism in protected areas is a particular focus in examining the barriers to developing new conservation discourses which allow for a more meaningful engagement from Indigenous peoples. A pyramid of potential changes is suggested to encourage future incremental change.