From Tom Lovejoy, Heinz Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment.

• Author: Lovejoy, Thomas E.
• Position: FROM READERS - Letter to the Editor

[on lauding the science-based approach]

In 1989 at the request of COICA (the Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon), I chaired that body's very first meeting with conservation organizations in Washington. It marked an important transition from an era where indigenous groups had been represented largely by anthropologists to one in which they not only represented themselves but also had formed their own organization. Since then, the role of indigenous peoples with conservation has grown and become more complex.

The picture presented by Mac Chapin in the last issue is of close to uniform failure of large, powerful, and rich NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) to engage seriously with indigenous people. I know first hand and from on the ground that that is far too monochromatic a picture and that NGOs take these issues seriously.

Except in areas where there are no indigenous...