Book Review: Conservation Refugees: The Hundred-Year Conflict between Global Conservation and Native Peoples by Mark Dowie

The push to save the wilderness, wildlife and rivers, whether on the North American Continent or in the Amazon, or in Burma, seems such a worthy goal. It underlies much of the work of conservation groups and activist such as Green Peace Rainforest Networks.  Sierra Club has a great leadership role in this regard and many conservations and environmentalist have contributed to or supported such efforts.  It is a rude awakening to discover in reading Dowie’s book that what was thought to be a ‘good deed’ was not the whole story. His book, The Conservation Refugees, reports on how these efforts were consistently and intentionally, in many cases, undermining and even destroying native cultures and whole populations in the name of saving nature.  Dowie reports how the National Park system was created on the backs of such tribal destruction.

Dowie tells a startling story, with extensive references, of the creation of Yosemite National Park. It was widely held that the wilderness was uninhabited, wild so to speak. The few natives that were thought to be living there were seen as in the way of the conservation of nature and the wild.  The National Park Service was ordered to forcibly remove them from the new designated boundaries. They were driven out several times based on a belief that they were uninvolved in the health of the wilderness. The tribes crept back in repeatedly to tend to what hey considered a sacred duty to manage their role in the forest health. It was decades before it was clear the significant management practices they had for creating healthy forest eco-systems.

The local people had what Dowie calls “traditional ecological knowledge” (TEK) which was utilized to engage in fostering healthy ecosystems. Such practices included controlled burning to regenerate the forest, managing streams to increase healthy fisheries and transporting and transplanting species based on an understanding of companion species that promoted vitality of the forests. The Miwok tribes who lived in Yosemite for over two hundred years, having inhabited the forests that are now Yosemite, had no word for “wilderness” in their language. They had for generations been involved in managing the forest eco-system, long before European settlers arrived.  What Europeans saw as wilderness were well managed forests and ecosystems.

Dowie reports that the Yosemite model of removing Native Peoples who had the TEK, became a Global model, in fact, it is called the Yosemite Model. It has now spread around the world as part of the conservation movement and has undermined the health of ecosystems by removing the very people who hold the TEK in managing for real sustainability, long term viability or forests and robust living ecosystems that support life for all of us. Businesses who are supporting conservation and eco-sustainability may want to check out Dowie’s work. It extensively documented with information and stories not seen elsewhere, with the exception of Kat Anderson in Tending the Wild. But Dowie’s book points to the Global systematic adoption of a model that destroys Native People cultures and lives and by doing so undermines the very intention of the conservation movement. What are you supporting with you business practices in philanthropy, building and supply decisions?

Interview with a Tribal Elder shortly to follow this story.