sustainability
Devil’s Claw Harvesting Helps Ju/’hoansi Women
The Ju/’hoansi San had another good year harvesting, curing and selling devil’s claw tubers from the surrounding Kalahari Desert. About 800 residents of the Nyae Nyae Conservancy and their closely-related neighbors to the west, the !Kung of the N#a Jaqna Conservancy, harvested about 32 tons of the desert plant roots this year, earning them nearly […]
Taking Money from the Devil’s Claws
The sustainable harvesting of roots from the devil’s claw plants growing in the Kalahari Desert, and their careful marketing to international herbal medicine buyers, are returning increasing profits to the Ju/’hoansi. Two different reports last week, from the Namibia Economist and the New Era newspapers, carried complementary stories about the good economic news from the […]
Peaceful Societies Exemplify Ecocentric Living [Panel presentations, part 2]
Alberto Gomes suggests that new images of social and economic relations are needed, ones which abandon human-centered paradigms and focus, instead, on the interdependence of people with the natural environment. Equality, sustainability, and peacefulness, in the new model proposed by Gomes, are intertwined. He demonstrates his arguments with numerous examples from the Orang Asli (“Original […]
Biodiversity and Sustainable Development in Malaysia [unpublished paper review]
The Orang Asli, the Original People of Peninsular Malaysia, have linguistic, ancestral, and spiritual ties to the land that allow them to effectively manage and conserve their natural resources. The Semai, Batek, Chewong, and other Orang Asli peoples “live in areas that are rich in biodiversity,” according to Colin Nicholas, and outsiders, such as loggers, […]
