ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the specifics of an Indonesian cultural context might be integrated within the common package of rationales and practices that have come to define international bird conservation, or more specifically the approach of the BirdLife International Partnership. Drawing on the concepts of frame and governmentality, it argues that a distinct Indonesian bird ethos could emerge through creating more spaces for interplay between the international bird conservation logics operating in Indonesia and the ways of knowing and appreciating birds associated with the popular urban pastimes of keeping, competing and breeding songbirds. These latter practices focus on the individual bird and are characterized by a sophisticated knowledge of song, form, posture and husbandry. This knowledge contrasts with international conservation's focus on species and notions of scarcity, rarity, endemism and diversity. It is suggested that a distinct Indonesian bird conservation approach is beginning to emerge from activities associated with the certification of captive-bred birds and the reintroduction of the Bali Starling (Leucopsar rothschildi). This trend might be amplified through linking bird-keeper interests with the fate of wild bird populations. Demand on the part of bird-keepers for information on the diet and breeding habitats of wild birds and interest in song variations, combined with new media technology, might form a basis for such frame ‘bridging’. In short, this chapter explores processes through which the making visible of local bird-related knowledge practices could lead to a common, but differentiated, international bird conservation ethos.
