Editorial: Conflict, Ecological Justice and Rights
2006; Palgrave Macmillan; Volume: 49; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1057/palgrave.development.1100292
ISSN1461-7072
Autores Tópico(s)Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development
ResumoIn November 2005, I listened to the silver haired Jane Goodall at an Earth Charter celebration in Amsterdam. 1 I joined the audience in a standing ovation for her inspiring work through the Roots&Shoots 2 programme founded in Tanzania1991.Emerging from her concern for chimpanzees and the people who lived in the rain forests of Tanzania her global organization engages tens of thousands of young people around the world to show care and concern for human community, animals and the environment.The pleasant image of global scientific knowledge coming together with compassion and care to support both the lives of gorillas and people threatened by foresters was, however, rudely shattered in my correspondence with Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt one of the authors of this journal issue.She asked me: 'Often global Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) talk about things that are not important to local peoples' lives ^about illegal logging or illegal mining.If space permitted, I would have written about the 'Save the Gorilla Foundation', which is working in places like Congo where the poor communities are killing each other for coltan or diamond.Who cares for the gorilla when the stomach is empty?I would not care at all, would you?' 3 I thought I did care.Indeed I recalled the time when I visited the local SID Chapter in Ruhenghiri in 1991 and was sent off to visit the mountain gorillas made famous by another animal scientist Dian Fossey of 'Gorillas in the Mist' (Fossey, 1983).I did not relish stomping through wet rain forest with other Europeans led by guides with machetes.Nor did I enjoy being covered in mud and eventually being knocked down by a young male gorilla into the stinging nettles.But I thought it was important to create the nature reserve and appreciated that the proceeds from the film, visits to Fossey's house and the Gorilla Centre created an economically viable form of eco tourism. 4One I thought much better than poaching.I was suitably shocked at the illegal selling of hands of gorillas in the local markets.I saw the preservation of the gorilla as a good in its own right, and as a tourist attraction it was helping to feed local people and boost the economy.The question that had always haunted me though, was what happened 3 years later to the women and children walking in the rain under blankets to and from markets in that unbelievably green country side.The point is not that gorillas, or nature ^and the work to protect them ^are unimportant but the problem, and the potential solutions, cannot be seen independently of the needs and struggles of peoples affected by the same processes. 5
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