Tigers as kin: Reconceptualising wildlife conservation and development in indigenous/local contexts

Aims: In order to understand the position of indigenous peoples in the global ecological crisis, this project asks, 'how do local and indigenous societies maintain multispecies relations and biocultural conservation amidst externally driven change?'
Importance: In the past 50 years, an increasing proportion of indigenous lands and cultures have come under pressure from the homogenising forces of market-based capitalism and one-size-fits-all conservation and development. Over the same period, 60% of all wildlife populations have been lost. This is not a coincidence. Although indigenous peoples represent <5% of the global population, indigenously managed land still constitutes about 40% of all ecologically intact landscapes across the Earth. In the era of Anthropocene, we need new frameworks and tools to understand how these diverse local/indigenous worlds, where nature and culture intertwine, will maintain biocultural conservation in the face of rapid socio-ecological change.
Rationale: Conservation traces its history to West-centric ideologies that see nature as distinct and separate from humanity. It relies on natural science approaches that allow certain areas to be labelled 'natural', and thus worthy of conservation, while the remaining, where 'culture' lives, can then be 'developed'. Across numerous local/indigenous societies, where conservation operates, nature and culture are not seen as essentially separate. Enforcing externally conceived categories on diverse local human-nature relations had led to conflicts and failures that have continually undermined many present-day conservation programs. This widely relevant work proposes to re-conceptualise conservation research and practice as an interdisciplinary ethical collaboration. Moving beyond critiques, it pushes the current conservation paradigm in a new direction and shows how to meaningfully integrate natural and social sciences, indigenous and western knowledges, and science and ethics.
Research context: This research is based in three ethnic homelands in the Northeast Indian border state of Arunachal Pradesh. There are plans to build nearly 200 mega-dams, highways and monoculture plantations in this once remote multi-ethnic region. Here, an entirely new tiger population was recently identified thriving outside conventional conservation mechanisms. This research, set within the context of the entry of global conservation NGOs, governments and developers, uses the case of the endangered tiger to explore larger questions around the role of local people in global conservation and development. Original multidisciplinary fieldwork will be conducted across these ethnic homelands in the region operating under comparable geopolitical conditions. In each, ecological tools (camera traps, remote sensing) and quantitative survey methods (questionnaires) to study wildlife will be integrated within multi-perspectivist ethnographic approaches to understand the changing nature of human-wildlife relations. Working from the ground up and with local people, this project will understand human-wildlife relations as they exist, on their own terms, destabilising earlier dichotomies. Data across the sites will be combined to understand what allows customary arrangements that support multispecies coexistence to adapt, resist or collapse under external pressures. In addition, this research will also investigate how these pressures (that emerge from, amongst others, free-market economy, policy implementation and climate change), act upon local practices.
Impact: The project will produce 8 academic articles co-authored with local collaborators, a research framework published as a booklet, a cross-departmental interdisciplinary graduate course, 3 non-academic books in local languages (one from each site) on cultural stories of human-wildlife relations, regular articles in popular media, and white papers/policy briefs for UK government/institutions' on environmental policy at home and abroad.

In addition to academic outputs, this research will produce 3 non-academic books in local languages (one each from Idu, Adi and Tagin homelands) on cultural stories of human-wildlife relations, regular articles in popular media, and white papers/policy briefs aimed at policymakers both domestically and overseas. Impacts of these outputs are aimed at:
1. Academia: The impact in academia will be in the form of multidisciplinary academic publications, research framework/protocols, conferences talks and workshops, development of novel training modules and mentorship of UK and overseas researchers.
2. Conservation practitioners (NGOs): Conservation's morally justified goal has been, in some instances, greatly comprised by its problematic execution. A lack of understanding of local histories, cultures and knowledges has led to dramatic events such as a criminal investigation into WWF for alleged violence against indigenous people of the Congo basin, possible eviction of over a million tribal people from Indian forests and East Africans from joint use areas. Academic articles, research and practice framework, and white papers created in this FLF will be shared with UK-based and global conservation organisations including WWF, FFI, WCS and Panthera. This framework, which stresses the need to understand and work within local realities, applies as much to conservation conflicts in India as the conflict between Crofters and geese in the U.K. Research oriented organisations will also benefit from the automated REM camera trap data analysis software. I will work closely with ZSL's CP to inform their global efforts.
3. Policymakers: I will make my research available to UK and international advocacy groups for policy change. These include, for instance, India-based Kalpavriksh and the global International Consortium on Community Conserved Areas (ICCAs), of whom I am a member, which support local/indigenous communities against resource grabs by powerful industry and state actors. Finally, these white papers will also be shared with government departments (e.g. UKAID, DFID, GCRF) and UK-based institutions (e.g. ZSL, WWF) that support conservation and development programs aboard.
4. Local people: (a) Local language publications: Since formal school education is conducted in Hindi/English, most indigenous languages in Arunachal are fast disappearing. Local language books produced in collaboration with local people will act as important repositories of cultural and linguistic knowledge. (b) Local people have previously used my research to lobby the government for more decision-making power over their forest and wildlife. I will continue to share research findings with local bodies and co-write policy memos on locally identified issues of concern. (c) Mentorship: I will mentor local RAs through training in English language and scientific research methods, and facilitate participation in academic conferences. All academic publications will be co-authored by local interlocutors and field assistants. This not only ensures local vetting of research material; it also helps young indigenous people who may wish to pursue further academic studies themselves.
5. Wider public: A key impact will be the reframing of popular discourse on the role of local/indigenous peoples in conservation. This will be done via: (a) Website: Research material generated during the FLF will be made available open source, in highly accessible language, on a dedicated project website hosted by IoZ. (b) Media: I will write at least 2 popular articles per year from Year 2 for widely read magazines (Sanctuary Asia, National Geographic, Mongabay); Indian newspapers (The Hindu, Times of India); regional/state media (The Arunachal Times); and international media (The Guardian). (c) Face-to-face interactions: Being based at ZSL's London Zoo provides opportunities to interact with a range of audience via Science days, Education and Outreach programs in British schools and colleges.