ABSTRACT
‘Culture’ has begun to matter to conservationists who realize that among the beliefs, meanings, and practices shared by a local population there are some that can aid in the conservation of nature. In New Zealand, the Maori concept of kaitiakitanga, which conservationists considered an indigenous resource management term, formed the basis of the Resource Management Act of 1991 (Kawharu, 2000; cf. Roberts et al., 1995). In Malaysia, conservationists supported the National Geographic explorer and ethnobotanist Wade Davis’ urgings to publicize the Penan people's resistance to logging within their territories by setting up blockades against powerful timber corporations as ‘icons of resistance for environmentalists worldwide’ (Davis and Henley, 1990). 1 In Madagascar, conservationists gauged the Malagasy notions of fady and dina (taboos and community laws) as instruments of an indigenous conservation ethic drawn to serve a global agenda (Andriamalala and Gardner, 2010; Jones et al., 2008). In each of these cases, conservationists have begun to plumb the mission of ‘saving nature’ out of local cultural ideas and institutions, moving away from a victim—victimizer model that considers nature being torn asunder by culture.
