Between development and environmentalism: The case study of conservation efforts in YUS area, Papua New Guinea
Abstract
Social sciences have unique capacities in understanding the deep complexity of socio-ecological systems. To prevent biodiversity loss is not just a question of nature protection.
It is also a question of intricate socio-cultural and economic factors, and conditions that determine the nature of human-nature coexistence. In this way, collaborative ethnographic methods, combined with an evaluation of conservation efforts, can help researchers to include and understand all the perspectives involved in socio-ecological systems.
A good demonstration of this would be a pilot ethnographic research in Papua-New Guinea, which I conducted in 2018. I focused to the local people's attitudes towards nature conservation in Yawan and Kotet villages in Papua New Guinea.
Thanks to the close cooperation with locals, I was able to understand their interpretation of nature conservation surrounding their villages as a "business or work opportunity." Conservation efforts were welcomed when providing development and economic income and dismissed when preventing one. The conception of nature was not perceived through its ecosystem values and services, but as means to bring in more working opportunities.
Since local's expectations clearly differed from those of conservationists (a condition endangering successful cooperation between both parties), there was a strong need for a social scientist to help to understand the situation and provide some insights to both parties. Social scientists often undergo a great range of roles during qualitative research.
This gives them a great advantage in gaining access, orienting themselves, and carefully analysing and understanding complex socio-ecological systems. Given this example, the contribution that social sciences can provide to the biodiversity agenda is the enormous capacity to understand the human role and position within ecosystems, further helping to establish more successful environmental efforts, and therefore preventing biodiversity loss.