Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Biodiversity Education in Singapore (and probably the rest of Southeast Asia)

In many respects education in Singapore is top-notch, especially in Mathematics and most sciences due to a great emphasis on the student mastering the basics of a subject. In recent times however, science has moved rapidly and is quickly becoming a large, interdisciplinary field where the lines between mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology are become very blurred.

This is especially important in biodiversity and conservation. Students are brought up in with the mindset of objectivity and a somewhat mistaken concept of the omission of a "human factor". Our students see science as cold and hard and this extends into the biology students, and the education of our biology students.

Biodiversity studies in the days gone by were relatively more straightforward and less bounded by various factors that we have to consider now. Dr. Terry Erwin fogged a forest to do a species survey. This obviously cannot be done now. Similarly, biodiversity conservation has moved on. Many Singaporean conservation students probably do not know this, but conservation of species was actually a concept started by big game hunters in order to ensure the continued survival of their big game targets. It may sound ironic, but effectively, it is not very different from sustainable fishing. Following the scramble for Africa, where European colonial powers carved up Africa for themselves, they set about establishing game reserves, or national parks for this purpose. This was the start of the so-called "fortress conservation" that we now know that is practiced all over Southeast Asia. Its basic concept is quite clearly stated as in the Wilderness Act of 1964 of the United States which says that "A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.". This means man is excluded from any reserves so designated to protect it's "wilderness".

But what does it actually mean to people in practice? One word: Eviction. Local tribes and "natives" are removed from their ancestral lands to fulfill an essentially Western concept of nature. This brings us to another term: nature. What is nature? How do we define nature? We see this term in many "nature blogs" including this one. Raymond Henry Williams a Welsh academic at Cambridge said that it is "perhaps the most complex word in the English language". Rebecca Solnit, prominent writer and cultural historian, said,"One way to guarantee a conversation without a conclusion is to ask a group of people what nature is". Interestingly however, indigenous peoples often have no concept of nature wilderness or biodiversity. Mark Dowie interviewed an Alaskan Yupik scientist and got this reply: "We have no concept of 'wilderness'. What you call 'wildnerness' we call our backyard. To us none of Alaska is wilderness defined by the 1964 Wilderness Act - a place without people. We are deeply insulted by that concept, as we are by the whole idea of 'wilderness designation' that too often excludes native Alaskans from ancestral lands". The nearest approximation in Yupik of "biodiversity" is "food". In Pima (Native Indians of Arizona and Mexico), the nearest approximation for "wilderness" is "health" or "wholeness".

I cannot help but feel that the coldness of the biology that is taught in Singapore is leaving us behind in conservation thought, at the the era of 1964. Conservation biology students have a hardnosed economics vs biodiversity mindset. No doubt that is important. However, anthropology is quickly assuming a role in conservation biology that our students have so far largely failed to take notice. Take for example 'slash-and-burn'. Singaporeans immediately think: haze, forest loss, animals running out of habitat. But how many realise that shifting 'slash-and-burn' or more correctly, swidden agriculture of native peoples actually create mosaics that improve the fire-resistance of the forests, that it reduces erosion rates of standard tilling and ploughing techniques of farming? Now, I am NOT defending the people who caused the haze, those were due to commercial farmers try to clear land quickly to plant cash crops and exhaust the land. We have to make the differentiation between materialist, commercial burning and subsistence, shifting swidden agriculture. Slash-and-burn do NOT always mean the haze, and people should stop calling for it to banned as they are the only livelihoods for some people who actually through doing so, and they enhance and have actually been actively and positively shaping biodiversity for thousands of years.

But we must be careful. We cannot say that we are condemning these people to a primitive life. A lot of times people and governments use this argument, but it is again a perspective of cold, hard numbers. People should be allowed to live their lives as their ancestral culture dictates. Besides, it is always wrong to evict people who have done no wrong except for living primitively - from a Western perspective. Turn the situation on its head. Imagine forest or nomadic cultures one say became militarily and scientifically strong while living in the forest. Would it be right for them to head out to France to pull down the Eiffel Tower or to London tear down city? Obviously not. We view the environment and landscape differently and we cannot assume we are always right.

Coming back to Singapore and biodiversity and conservation education, can the reader see what we are lacking now? I hope you do. If not, I will say it here: anthropology. The current system we have will allow us (although some people will dispute it) to produce good biodiversity scientists coming from a Western perspective. But until the system changes and students have to learn cultures and social perspectives of biodiversity and conservation of indigenous cultures, we will NEVER see a prominent, successful CONSERVATIONIST as it requires a balanced, global perspective. I leave everyone with a speech from Roy Sesana, a G//ana bushman elder from the Kalahari in Botswana which he made when he received the Right Livelihood Award from the Swedish Parliament in 2005 for the courageous fight he put up in trying to tell the world of his people's right to remain in their ancestral land.

"Right Livelihood Award address, Stockholm, December 2005

My name is Roy Sesana; I am a Gana Bushman from the Kalahari in what is now called Botswana. In my language, my name is ëTobee' and our land is ëT//amm'. We have been there longer than any people has been anywhere.

When I was young, I went to work in a mine. I put off my skins and wore clothes. But I went home after a while. Does that make me less Bushman? I don't think so.

I am a leader. When I was a boy we did not need leaders and we lived well. Now we need them because our land is being stolen and we must struggle to survive. It doesn't mean I tell people what to do, it's the other way around: they tell me what I have to do to help them.

I cannot read. You wanted me to write this speech, so my friends helped, but I cannot read words - I'm sorry! But I do know how to read the land and the animals. All our children could. If they didn't, they would have all died long ago.

I know many who can read words and many, like me, who can only read the land. Both are important. We are not backward or less intelligent: we live in exactly the same up-to-date year as you. I was going to say we all live under the same stars, but no, they're different, and there are many more in the Kalahari. The sun and moon are the same.

I grew up a hunter. All our boys and men were hunters. Hunting is going and talking to the animals. You don't steal. You go and ask. You set a trap or go with bow or spear. It can take days. You track the antelope. He knows you are there, he knows he has to give you his strength. But he runs and you have to run. As you run, you become like him. It can last hours and exhaust you both. You talk to him and look into his eyes. And then he knows he must give you his strength so your children can live.

When I first hunted, I was not allowed to eat. Pieces of the steenbok were burnt with some roots and spread on my body. This is how I learned. It's not the same way you learn, but it works well.

The farmer says he is more advanced than the backward hunter, but I don't believe him. His herds give no more food than ours. The antelope are not our slaves, they do not wear bells on their necks and they can run faster than the lazy cow or the herder. We run through life together.

When I wear the antelope horns, it helps me talk to my ancestors and they help me. The ancestors are so important: we would not be alive without them. Everyone knows this in their heart, but some have forgotten. Would any of us be here without our ancestors? I don't think so.

I was trained as a healer. You have to read the plants and the sand. You have to dig the roots and become fit. You put some of the root back for tomorrow, so one day your grandchildren can find it and eat. You learn what the land tells you.

When the old die, we bury them and they become ancestors. When there is sickness, we dance and we talk to them; they speak through my blood. I touch the sick person and can find the illness and heal it.

We are the ancestors of our grandchildren's children. We look after them, just as our ancestors look after us. We aren't here for ourselves. We are here for each other and for the children of our grandchildren.

Why am I here? Because my people love their land, and without it we are dying. Many years ago, the president of Botswana said we could live on our ancestral land forever. We never needed anyone to tell us that. Of course we can live where God created us! But the next president said we must move and began forcing us away.

They said we had to go because of diamonds. Then they said we were killing too many animals: but that's not true. They say many things which aren't true. They said we had to move so the government could develop us. The president says unless we change we will perish like the dodo. I didn't know what a dodo was. But I found out: it was a bird which was wiped out by settlers. The president was right. They are killing us by forcing us off our land. We have been tortured and shot at. They arrested me and beat me.

Thank you for the Right Livelihood Award. It is global recognition of our struggle and will raise our voice throughout the world. When I heard I had won I had just been let out of prison. They say I am a criminal, as I stand here today.

I say what kind of development is it when the people live shorter lives than before? They catch HIV/AIDS. Our children are beaten in school and won't go there. Some become prostitutes. They are not allowed to hunt. They fight because they are bored and get drunk. They are starting to commit suicide. We never saw that before. It hurts to say this. Is this ëdevelopment'?

We are not primitive. We live differently to you, but we do not live exactly like our grandparents did, nor do you. Were your ancestors ëprimitive'? I don't think so. We respect our ancestors. We love our children. This is the same for all people.

We now have to stop the government stealing our land: without it we will die.

If anyone has read a lot of books and thinks I am primitive because I have not read even one, then he should throw away those books and get one which says we are all brothers and sisters under God and we too have a right to live.

That is all. Thank you."

*Note: He is not Christian, he made the speech in native language and this was the best translation in English.

No comments: