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Beyond conservation ideology and the wilderness
Author(s) -
Pretty Jules N,
Pimbert Michel P
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
natural resources forum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.646
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1477-8947
pISSN - 0165-0203
DOI - 10.1111/j.1477-8947.1995.tb00588.x
Subject(s) - wilderness , threatened species , ideology , natural resource , natural (archaeology) , set aside , protected area , wilderness area , positivism , aside , environmental ethics , conservation psychology , sociology , political science , environmental planning , environmental resource management , politics , geography , ecology , biodiversity , economics , law , art , philosophy , literature , archaeology , habitat , biology
There are close to 8500 major protected areas, covering some 5% of the world's land area. Many countries have more than 10% of their area set aside for conservation purposes. But this increase in designated conservation has been accompanied by a strong ideology that people are bad for natural resources. Policies and practice have, therefore, both encouraged exclusion and discouraged local participation. As a result, social conflicts have grown in and around protected areas, and conservation goals themselves have been threatened. Conservation science itself needs rethinking. It has been dominated by the positivist and rationalist paradigm, in which professionals assume they know best and so can analyse and influence natural resources in the ways they desire. But if natural resources are to be conserved, then the skills, knowledge and needs of local people will have to be built upon. This will require radical reversals in current professional thinking and practice .