Shifting cultivation and hunting across the savanna-forest mosaic in the Gran Sabana, Venezuela: facing changes

Background Human encroachment and overexploitation of natural resources in the Neotropics is constantly increasing. Indigenous communities all across the Amazon, are trapped between a population rise and a hot debate about the sustainability of hunting rates. The Garden Hunting hypothesis states that shifting cultivation schemes (conucos) used by Amazon indigenous communities may generate favorable conditions, increasing abundance of small and medium wildlife species close to the ‘gardens’ providing game for indigenous hunters. Methods Here, we combined camera trap surveys and spatially explicit interview dataset on Pemón indigenous hunting scope and occurrence in a mosaic of savanna and forest in the Gran Sabana, Venezuela to evaluate to what extent the wildlife resource use corresponds to Garden Hunting hypothesis. We applied the Royle–Nichols model and binomial regression in order to: (1) assess whether abundance of small and medium wildlife species is higher close to conucos and (2) evaluate whether hunters select hunting localities based on accessibility to wildlife resources (closeness to conuco) more than wildlife abundance. Results We find mixed evidence supporting the Garden Hunting hypothesis predictions. Abundance of small and medium species was high close to conucos but the pattern was not statistically significant for most of them. Pemón seem to hunt in locations dominated by forest, where species abundance was predicted to be higher, than in close vicinity to conucos. Hunting scope was focused on the most abundant species located close to the conuco (Cuniculus paca), but also in less abundant and unavailable species (Crax alector, Tapirus terrestris and Odocoileus virginianus). Conclusions Our research provided the first attempt of a systematic sampling survey in the Gran Sabana, generating a quantitative dataset that not only describes the current pattern of wildlife abundance, but sets the base-line to monitor temporal and spatial change in this region of highland Amazon. We discuss the applicability of the estimates generated as a baseline as well as, environmental challenges imposed by economic, social and cultural changes such as mining encroachment for wildlife management.

Road development and Indigenous hunting in Tanah Papua: Connecting the facts for future wildlife conservation agendas

Road development is increasing worldwide. Generally, examples of road building in tropical countries demonstrate that road access can assist the fight against rural poverty, but such developments are also linked to deforestation, pollution, invasions of exotic species, and environmental degradation. For Papua and West Papua provinces (Tanah Papua) in Indonesia, the development of the provincial road network is intended to improve the rural economy, aiming to alleviate poverty within isolated rural areas. However, road development can pose particularly challenging problems to rural and Indigenous communities. Poorly planned roads can be devastating when they provide easy access to illegal hunting that threatens endangered species. In this study, we discuss how road development in Tanah Papua has changed indigenous hunting. Native Papuans have benefited from improved road access, which allows them to sell their agricultural products at local markets. Increased road connectivity has also changed how local people use natural resources and forest products, moving from subsistence to a more market-based orientation. Although policies on infrastructure development including roads form part of Indonesia’s national program, they are not automatically compatible with a sustainable development program in Tanah Papua. To foster more equitable and sustainable road development, government agencies must improve their overall coordination of further road expansion plans by promoting green infrastructure that supports the sustainable use of natural resources in a way that is reconciled with traditional knowledge of local people. Such efforts may also have positive effects on the efforts to protect biodiversity within the wider government conservation agendas.

A collaborative typology of boreal Indigenous landscapes

Climate change and natural resource extraction are transforming boreal forest landscapes, with effects on Indigenous people’s relationship with the land. Collaborative management could enhance the consideration of Indigenous perspectives and limit negative outcomes of environmental change, but it remains the exception rather than the norm. We addressed barriers to involvement of Indigenous people in land management by developing a method to enhance communication and trust, while favouring bottom-up decision-making. We partnered with the Abitibiwinni and Ouje-Bougoumou First Nations (boreal Quebec, Canada) (1) to develop indicators of Indigenous landscape state, (2) to create a typology of Indigenous hunting grounds, and 3) to suggest guidelines for sustainable land management in Indigenous contexts. Through participatory mapping and semi-directed interviews with 23 local experts, we identified factors influencing Indigenous landscape value. Using open-access data, we developed indicators to measure landscape state according to those values. We identified four types of hunting grounds with k-means clustering, based upon biophysical factors and disturbance history. Our results suggest that land management should aim to reduce differences between hunting ground states and consider the risk of rapid shifts from one state to another.

Maritime cultural encounters and consumerism of turtles and manatees: An environmental history of the Caribbean

By the mid-eighteenth century, a distinctive maritime commerce in turtle and manatee products existed in the Caribbean. It was especially prevalent amongst English-speaking inhabitants, from the Cayman Islands and Jamaica to the outposts of Costa Rica, Nicaragua and the Colombian islands. Consumption patterns led to a variety of encounters between indigenous Indians, Europeans, Africans and Creoles. Commerce in these natural resources, especially turtles, grew steadily, creating prodigious consumer demands for medical uses, culinary and fashion trends in Europe and the North America by the late-nineteenth century. This study intertwines themes of environmental history, maritime cultural encounters, fisheries and food history. Topics such as indigenous hunting techniques, processing, transportation, marketization, utilitarian and luxury consumerism and evolution of social attitudes towards natural resources are addressed. It is based on contemporary sources and covers various aspects of the supply and utilization of these marine animals over the longue durée.

Oil palm expansion reshapes indigenous hunting: Kadazandusun-Murut bearded pig hunting practices in Sabah, Malaysia

1. The widespread expansion of oil palm cultivation alters land-use, economic relationships, land ownership and access, and social practices across tropical forest landscapes globally. These shifts, primarily driven by broader structural forces of globalized commodity chains and transnational land grabs, profoundly reshape local socio-ecological relationships. 2. In particular, we focus on the socio-ecological dynamics between Kadazandusun-Murut (KDM) hunters of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, and native bearded pigs (Sus babatus; Malay: “babi hutan”), the favored game animal for non-Muslim communities throughout much of Borneo. We conducted 38 semi-structured interviews on hunting practices and meat consumption.3. We found that meat provision was the main motivation for hunting bearded pig and that most rural hunters—and almost half of urban hunters—consume bearded pig meat at least weekly. However, roughly half of respondents also said that their motivations included pest control (kawalan perosak), recreation (hobi), and gifting (hadiah) the meat to community members, including for KDM cultural events and celebrations. Only one quarter of respondents said that selling the meat was a motivation to hunt bearded pig and others reported a taboo on commercial hunting. Pig hunting using guns on foot and by car were the two most popular techniques. Numerous respondents reported that oil palm expansion removed pig habitat and reduced the frequency of hunting by increasing travel times to forested areas and reducing time to hunt due to work commitments. 4. Therefore, our results suggest that while bearded pig hunting is still a central part of KDM culture and diets, oil palm expansion has played a major role in reshaping KDM - bearded pig hunting relationships. In addition, other factors such as wildlife law enforcement and commercialization of bearded pig meat played roles in influencing hunting practices. In this paper, we argue that the social, environmental, and economic effects of oil palm expansion profoundly reshape the hunting practices of the KDM community in Sandakan District, Sabah. We also recommend policies that allow flexible, location-specific management approaches to ensure fair access to the dietary and social benefits of bearded pig hunting, while also promoting the critical conservation needs of bearded pig populations and habitat.

Hunting as ‘Sport’ in Colonial India

This chapter is concerned with the development of hunting as ‘sport’, whereby colonial hunters from the late nineteenth century began to carefully shape the idiom of the hunt, gradually distancing themselves from indigenous hunting methods. By systematically showcasing their skill and sportsmanship, British hunters portrayed their methods and practices as more sophisticated than the older native traditions. This study also elaborates on how different terrains and environments determined the planning and organization of hunts by the British hunters across the presidencies. Rank, authority, and privilege not only operated between the colonizers and colonized, but also within the world of British hunting communities. In contrast to the Company period, hunting became a microcosm of imperial society in late nineteenth-century India, and different sorts of hunts and clubs were open to people of various ranks. In addition, the making of hunting into a ‘sport’ was heavily linked to a discourse of class and race, drawing upon ideas of chivalry and with only the most acceptable hunting practices encoded into sportsmanship. The development of a class-based regime of hunting is evident in the way pig-sticking came to be regarded as the most superior kind of hunt, because it required great skill in horse-riding and horsemanship, presented added danger and utilized the spear rather than the gun. The chapter also explains how technological change in firearms took place and the way in which such changes were related to the transformation of hunting mores in nineteenth-century India.