From a researcher on "conservation refugees".

• Author: Dowie, Mark
• Position: FROM READERS - Letter to the Editor

I read "A Challenge to Conservationists" with particular interest, as I have just returned from a month in South America researching a book on the history of conservation refugees--people evicted or otherwise displaced from traditional homelands in the interest of conservation. And my last book was a history of American philanthropic foundations, an intriguing subplot of Mac Chapin's article.

As I'm sure World Watch readers are aware, the practice of evicting natives from "protected areas" began in the United States a century and half ago after the creation of Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks, when a dozen or so Indian tribes were summarily removed from the parks, often by force. That process, incidentally, was not stopped until 1969, when the last free-standing Miwok village was evacuated in Yosemite. The creation and defense of "fortress conservation" was in fact inspired by many of the forefathers of American environmentalism. So it should be no surprise that Chapin finds residues of that philosophy in some large American conservation NGOs. That said, I believe the situation is changing, and that at least at the field level in South America, the staffs of CI, TNC, WCS, and WWF are acutely aware of what Chapin alleges--that the spirit of exclusionary conservation survives in the headquarters of their organization alongside a subtle but real prejudice against the "unscientific" native wisdom of indigenous peoples.

However, in key cities of the Amazon watershed and throughout the basin itself, I found and interviewed people who worked either for or in partnership with CI, TNC, WWF, and WCS. While there remains a palpable level of hostility toward "the BINGOs" (Big International NGOs), concerted efforts are being made to improve relations with indigenous peoples and their representatives, often at the insistence of foundation funders. Are relations good? No, neither between native peoples and the NGOs nor between field staff and NGO leadership in the U.S.

I was heartened to hear local executives of the big four in Quito, Lima, and...