Survivor’s Notebook: Public Enemy #1 (Part 1)
Traditional people across the world are being forced from their homelands in the name of wildlife conservation. These same people, who have preserved the Earth for generations, are now prohibited from practicing their traditions in their homelands.
THE WAR BETWEEN the traditional world and the modern world is waged on many fronts. Perhaps none of them is so well hidden as the battle between wildlife conservation and indigenous human rights. In the past decade, some global activists for indigenous (traditional) human rights have labeled conservation as the biggest enemy to traditional peoples, surpassing the threat of extractive industries (mining, oil drilling, logging, etc.). Such a claim may be surprising until the facts are uncovered.
The main concept behind wildlife conservation is that humans are a threat to wildlife and that, in order to preserve nature, human contact with nature must be limited in certain areas that have been designated as protected zones. These are areas where wildlife is allowed to thrive and diverse species, some of them endangered, are able to exist free from the threat of human ambitions.
On the face of it, these appear to be noble intentions. As we know, humanity has caused and continues to cause massive, catastrophic destruction to nature. In this case, it makes sense that nature be protected from humanity. However, the context in which all of this is taking place exposes another contradiction presented by the modern, colonial society. Along with that contradiction comes many destructive actions in the name of preservation of life.
To start with the bigger picture, let’s first look at the social structure in which this conservation movement is based. This modern system has not slowed in its exploitation and destruction of nature. While conservationists cry for help to save the endangered species, the society they are based in continues to exploit the Earth and humanity in order to supply us with our food, clothes, cars, cell phones, etc. Conservationists and their supporters will most continue to enjoy these modern conveniences as they continue to fight for their cause. With an annual salary of about $825,000, the president of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) can afford to enjoy everything this corrupt system has to offer.
It turns out that wildlife conservation is a big business. WCS, one of the largest conservation organizations in the world has an annual budget of $20 million for Meritah (Africa) alone. Outside of the near $1 million that goes directly to its president’s payroll, the rest of the money raised by this organization is supposedly used to protect and manage about 500 protected sites in over 60 countries. Funding sources for these projects include industrial nations, the World Bank, large corporations, non-profits and individuals.
Conservation efforts also provide funding incentives for industrial countries that exceed the internationally recognized limits on pollution. The countries are able to “offset” the damage they are doing to the Earth by investing in these protected zones. The idea is that the plant life in these areas will help absorb the pollution produced in these industrial nations. This investment, then becomes an excuse used by these countries to continue their destructive business as usual. Ironically, this wildlife is expected to absorb and purify the polluted, toxic air and water with no consideration for the damage it will cause them. This is “conservation” at work.
One may argue that any investment by these countries to preserve nature is better than none at all. The conservation groups made it a goal over the last 20 years to increase the amount of protected areas globally to 10% of the world’s surface. By the end of 2009, 12% of the Earth’s land mass was considered protected by these organizations with the support of the governments in the countries where these areas were marked. This means that the remaining unprotected 88% of the Earth is still fair game for destruction and exploitation.
Our focus this time is not why the whole Earth doesn’t deserve to be protected. We won’t investigate why the modern human is unable to see himself as a part of nature and willing to live in harmony with it. These are good questions for another time, however our current focus is on the practice of wildlife conservation and the effect it has on the traditional people of the world. For the modern human being who considers himself to be separate from nature and wildlife, it may not seem strange that we can go to parks, forest preserves or national forests and never see a human home. In fact, a house would most likely seem out of place and be a cause for complaints to local police. Such a person with the nerve to build a house in a place reserved for nature would be labeled a squatter or a trespasser or some other polite word for criminal and be forcibly removed from the protected area. The average American will likely be convinced that this is the right thing to do.
Let’s relate this scenario to a forest in Meritah, or maybe South America, any place in the world inhabited by people with a rich cultural heritage, who have cared for the land for hundreds or maybe thousands of generations. The people not only depend on this land for their food, clothing and shelter, their sacred sites are there, their ancestors are buried there, and their Deities reside there. They have cared for this land so well that the environment is clean and beautiful. Many of these areas are home to a huge diversity of animal and plant life, all living in harmony together with humans.
These places attract the attention of certain foreigners who appear as guests for a brief moment and then leave. Some time later, some government officials, accompanied by military, announce that all the people of the region must relocate because it is now a protected area and has to be protected from them. In cases where the natives are given the “option” to stay, it is only under heavy restrictions to their traditional lifestyle and survival systems such as hunting. Those who attempt to continue to live their lives as they have since times now considered ancient are treated as criminals. Meanwhile, “well-meaning” Americans, who want to ease their guilty conscience about the damage their country is causing the environment, donate generously to help eject these native people from their traditional homeland. These donors are overlooking the obvious fact that these lands were already being preserved. If not, they would not have attracted the attention of conservationists!
This is the story for tens of millions of traditional people who have become refugees, not because of war in their country, but because parasitic, invader cultures claim that they know how to care for the land better than the traditional people have cared for it for thousands of years. With their livelihood completely disrupted, they are forced into foreign territories to adapt to a foreign lifestyle. Often this means poverty and oppression for the displaced people. As usual, the legitimacy of these invaders is enforced by the same military forces that protect the interests of oil wells and diamond mines. The victim is still the same, the traditional societies and their traditions.
Lands now under the protection of global conservationists have become grounds for safari, game hunting and tourism
This has been happening since the national park system in the US was established with the forced relocation and/or slaughter of the “Native Americans” from their traditional lands in the 1800s. While the big conservation organizations claim to work hand in hand with the indigenous people, they often make dishonest and false claims that areas they are protecting were uninhabited and that no indigenous people were displaced or that they relocated voluntarily. If the native people do move “voluntarily”, it’s because the invaders (conservationists) have made it impossible for them to continue to live their traditional lifestyle. Native people are reclassified by conservationists as settlers, as if they are new to the area. The same people who have preserved these lands successfully for generations are reclassified as criminals and trespassers on their own land in the name of preservation. Meanwhile, legal activities on these lands are often changed to include game hunting, safari and tourism.
Native people are being forced from their homes by the thousands to make room for entertainment for the rich with the full backing of the world’s largest governments, financial institutions and armies, which are the biggest agents of destruction in the world, all in the name of preservation of life. What a contradiction! It should be no surprise that there is now a global movement against this contradictory idea of conservation which traditional people have declared to be the number one threat to their survival.
How long will the modern humans arrogantly refuse to acknowledge the wisdom of the traditions? If the agenda is to preserve the wildlife, traditional cultures globally have proven themselves to be masters of it. If the honest question is how we can preserve the Earth, maybe instead of going to remote areas of the world and forcing their inhabitants into exile, we could seek to learn how to live as they do. The truth is that we would rather live in the illusion that we can exist outside of nature. We would not accept a traditional lifestyle no matter how much we pretend to care about the well-being of the Earth. We will support our governments in continuing the destruction of the world so we can continue to enjoy our modern conveniences. Meanwhile we will support efforts to force others to do the same by stripping them of their traditional homelands and forcing them into a do or die situation in modern cities and refugee camps. How will these millions of refugees pass down their traditions to their children and grandchildren? Their traditions are tied to the land.
The fight goes on as traditional people fight for their right to exist. The spirit of evil wears many masks. Is it your face or is it mine? In this war of ideas, human ambitions are the ammunition. The bullet that will kill you is the one you don’t see coming. Pay attention...
In the next edition, we will examine some more specific examples in this ongoing struggle and the victories and defeats along the way.