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Community-based conservation and social change amongst South Indian honey-hunters: an anthropological perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2009

Paul Nicholas Anderson
Paul Nicholas Anderson
Affiliation:
Institute of Ecology and Resource Management, University of Edinburgh, Kings' Buildings, Edinburgh EH9 3JU, Scotland.
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Abstract

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This article reconsiders the use of financial incentives for securing the participation of ‘local’ people on conservation programmes by raising several less discussed social consequences which such incentives may entail. To this end, it outlines the involvement of a South Indian honey-hunting ‘tribe’ with an ecodevelopment programme and the market economy, noting how commercializing ‘traditional’ livelihoods may increase the general ‘standard of living’ but undermine the social ‘fabric’ of the community and aid in the rationalization of custom. It concludes by suggesting that social development should precede economic development for communities in transition between subsistence and commodity-orientated economic practices.

Keywords

Commodificationcommunity-basedconservationecodevelopmenthoney-huntingIndiasocial change
Type
Research Article
Information
Oryx , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , January 2001 , pp. 81 - 83
Copyright
Copyright © Fauna and Flora International 2001

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