HUMANKIND
AND NATURE

Indigenous Peoples often see themselves and Nature as part of the same complex and delicate web of life. Western worldviews mostly alienated Humankind and Nature from each other: Nature was to be conquered by Man, its gifts were resources to exploit, wildlife was to be fenced-up. This gave way to a pernicious dominant doctrine that dictated the division of the natural world between places to be exploited and recklessly depleted of "resources" and sites to be conserved, fortresses wilderness that only existed in fairy tales. This approach to conservation often led, and still leads, to the eviction of the Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities who have called these places home for millennia. Because of this, they have endured displacement and denial of their rights, a profound injustice, especially when we acknowledge that these are not the ways of life endangering ecosystems, biodiversity and ultimately our own survival as a species. These are ways of life that have protected Nature since long before the concept of conservation was even created. Multiple reports and research have shown that land owned or governed by either Indigenous Peoples or Local Communities harbors much more biodiversity than other "conserved" areas. Though they make up less than 5 percent of the global population, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities percent of the world's biodiversity. Mordecai Ogada, Kenyan wildlife ecologist and conservation policy expert, illustrates this reality by resorting to his knowledge of African languages. In all his years of research and practice in wildlife conservation policy and practice, he still hasn't encountered a word for "conservation" in any African language, simply because it was never a concept governing peoples’ way of living. There is no word because there is no concept. When Nature is not to be destroyed, why should it be conserved?