Cultural valuation and biodiversity conservation in the Upper Guinea Forest, West Africa

Fraser, James Angus and Diabaté, Moussa and Narmah, Woulay and Beavogui, Pépé and Guilavogui, Kaman and de Foresta, Hubert and Braga Junqueira, André (2016) Cultural valuation and biodiversity conservation in the Upper Guinea Forest, West Africa. Ecology and Society, 21 (3): 36. ISSN 1708-3087

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Abstract

The cultural valuation of biodiversity has taken on renewed importance over the last two decades as the ecosystem services framework has become widely adopted. Conservation initiatives increasingly use ecosystem service frameworks to render tropical forest landscapes and their peoples legible to market-oriented initiatives such as REDD+ and biodiversity offsetting schemes. Ecosystem service approaches have been widely criticized by scholars in the social sciences and humanities for their narrow focus on a small number of easily quantifiable and marketable services and a reductionist and sometimes simplistic approach to culture. We address the need to combine methods from each of the “three cultures” of natural science, quantitative social science, and qualitative social science/humanities in conceptualizing the relationship between cultural valuation and biodiversity conservation. We combine qualitative data with forest inventories and a quantitative index of cultural value to evaluate the relationship between cultural valuation and biodiversity conservation in Upper Guinea forest in Liberia, West Africa. Our study focuses on “sacred agroforests,” spaces that are associated with Mande macro-language speaking groups such as the Loma. We demonstrate that sacred agroforests are associated with different cultural values compared with secondary forests. Although biodiversity and biomass are similar, sacred agroforests exhibit a different species composition, especially of culturally salient species, increasing overall landscape agro-biodiversity. Sacred agroforests are also shaped and conserved by local cultural institutions revolving around ancestor worship, ritual, and the metaphysical conceptual category “salɛ.” We conclude that to understand the relationship between cultural valuation and biodiversity conservation, interpretivist approaches such as phenomenology should be employed alongside positivist ecosystem service frameworks.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Ecology and Society
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2300/2303
Subjects:
?? ecology ??
ID Code:
80380
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
12 Jul 2016 10:00
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
23 Mar 2024 00:44