Abstract
In the context of over-consumption of natural resources in the name of development and rapid industrialization by a small section of the human population that is rapidly growing, the world is currently faced with a variety of environmental uncertainties. ‘Global change’ covering a whole variety of ecological issues, and ‘globalization’ in an economic sense, are two major phenomena that are responsible for these uncertainties. There is increasing evidence to suggest that the developing countries more than the developed, particularly the marginalized traditional (those living close to nature and natural resources) societies would be the worst sufferers. In order to cope with this problem in a situation where the traditional societies have to cope with rapidly depleting biodiversity on which they are dependant for their livelihood, there is an urgent need to explore additional pathways for sustainable management of natural resources and societal development. Such pathways should be based on a landscape management strategy, that takes into consideration the rich traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) that these societies have. This is critical because TEK is the connecting link between conservation and sustainable development. This paper explores the possibilities in this direction through a balanced approach to development, that links the ‘traditional’ with the ‘modern’, in a location-specific way.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Altieri M A and Liebman M 1988Weed management in agroecosystems: Ecological approaches (Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press)
Anonymous 1971Census of India (New Delhi: Govt of India Press)
Berlin B 1992Ethnobiological classification: Principles of categorization of plants and animals in traditional societies (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton Univ. Press)
Billsborrow R E 1992 Population and development; inUN export group meeting on population, environment and development (New York: United Nations)
Brookfield H and Padoch C 1994 Appreciating biodiversity: A look at dynamism and diversity of indigenous farming practices;Environment 36 6–11; 37–45
Bormann F H and Kellert S R K 1991Ecology, economics, ethics: The broken circle (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press)
Conklin H C 1954 An ethnoecological approach to shifting cultivationTrans. NY Acad. Sci. (Ser. 2) 17 133–142
Dragun A K and Tisdell C 1999Sustainable agriculture and environment: Globalisation and the impact of trade liberalisation (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar)
Dube S C 1998Antiquity to modernity in tribal India vol. 1 (New Delhi: Inter-India Publ.)
Gadgil M and Guha R 1992This fissured land: An ecological history of India (Delhi: Oxford Univ. Press)
Gliessman S R 1990 Integrating trees into agriculture: The home garden agroecosystem as an example of agroforestry in the tropics; inAgroecology: Researching the ecological basis for sustainable agriculture (ed.) S R Gliessman (New York: Springer-Verlag) pp 160–168
Hladik C M, Hladik A, Linares O F, Pagezy H, Semple A and Hadley M 1993Tropical forests people and food: Biocultural interactions and applications to development (UNESCO— MAB Book Series 13, UNESCO, Paris and Parthenon Publ, Carnforth Lancs.)
Ishwaran K 1966Tradition and economy in village India (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.)
Jain S K 1991Contribution to Indian ethnobotany (Jodhpur: Scientific Publishers)
Kayastha S L 1989 Sustainability of metropolitan centres in Third World countries; inPopulation transition in India (eds) S N Singh, M K Premi, P S Bhatia and A Bose (Delhi: BR Publications Corporation) vol. 2
Kunstadter P and Chapman E C 1978 Problems of shifting cultivation and economic development in northern Thailand; inFarmers in the forest: Economic development and marginal agriculture in northern Thailand (eds) P Kunstadter, E C Chapman and S Sabhasri (Hawaii: East-West Center) pp 3–23
Lamb D and Tomlinson M 1994 Forest rehabilitation in the Asia-Pacific region: Past lessons and present uncertainties;J. Trop. For. Sci. 7 157–170
Lambert R D 1962 The impact of urban society upon village life; inIndia’s urban future (ed.) R Turner (Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press)
Messerli B and Ives J D 1997Mountains of the world (Carnforth, Lancs: Parthenon Publ.)
Millat-e-Mustafa M 1998 Overview of research in home garden systems; inApplied ethnobotany in natural resource management — Traditional home gardens (eds) A Rastogi, A Godbole and P Shengji (Kathmandu: International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development) pp 13–37
Monasterio M 1994 Traditional prehistoric ecotechnologies for the management of biodiversity in Latin America;Biol. Int. 32 12–22
Ministry of Environment and Forests 1994Ethnobotany in India: A status report (New Delhi: Min. of Environment and Forests)
National Academy of Sciences 1975Under-exploited tropical plants with promising economic value (Washington DC: National Academy of Sciences)
NEPED and IIRR 1999Building upon traditional agriculture in Nagaland (Nagaland: Nagaland Environ Protection and Economic Development; and Philippines: International Inst. of Rural Reconstruction)
Ramakrishnan P S 1992aShifting agriculture and sustainable development: An interdisciplinary study from north-eastern India, UNESCO-MAB Series, Paris and Parthenon Publ, Carnforth, Lancs., UK (republished by Oxford University Press, New Delhi 1993)
Ramakrishnan P S 1992b Tropical forests: Exploitation, conservation and management;Impact Sci. Soc. 42 149–162
Ramakrishnan P S 1993 Evaluating sustainable development with peoples’ participation; inProceedings of the International Symposium. Sustainability — Where do we stand? (ed.) F Franz Moser (Austria: Technische Universitat Graz) pp 165–182
Ramakrishnan P S 1994 Participatory development in managing population pressure on natural resources; inGrowing numbers and dwindling resources (ed.) R Krishnan (New Delhi: Tata Energy Research Inst.) pp 86–96
Ramakrishnan P S 1995 Currencies for measuring sustainability: Case studies from Asian highlands; inDefining and measuring sustainability: The bio geophysical foundations (eds) M Muna-singhe and W Shearer (Tokyo: UN University and Washington DC: World Bank) pp 193–205
Ramakrishnan P S 1998 Ecology economics and ethics: Some key issues relevant to natural resource management in developing countries (Essays in honour of C A Tisdell);Int. J. Soc. Econ. 25 207–225
Ramakrishnan P S 2000a Ethnobiology; inInternational encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences (Elsevier) (in press)
Ramakrishnan P S 2000b An integrated approach to land use management for conserving agroecosystem biodiversity in the context of global change;J. Agric. Resour. Govern. Ecol. 1 56–67
Ramakrishnan P S 2000c Ecology teaching in India and in developing countries;Biol. Int. 39 33–44
Ramakrishnan P S 2001Ecology and development (New Delhi: Book Trust of India) (in press)
Ramakrishnan P S, Chandrashekara U M, Elourd C, Guilmoto C Z, Maikhuri R K, Rao K S, Sankar S and Saxena K G 2000Mountain biodiversity land use dynamics and traditional ecological knowledge (New Delhi: UNESCO, Oxford and IBH Publ.)
Ramakrishnan P S, Das A K and Saxena K G 1996Conserving biodiversity for sustainable development (New Delhi: Indian National Science Academy)
Ramakrishnan P S, Purohit A N, Saxena K G and Rao K S 1994aHimalayan environment and sustainable development (Diamond Jubilee Publ., Indian Natl. Sci. Acad., New Delhi)
Ramakrishnan P S, Campbell J, Demierre L, Gyi A, Malhotra K C, Mehndiratta S, Rai S N and Sashidharan E M 1994b Ecosystem rehabilitation of the rural landscape in south and central Asia: An analysis of issues (Special Publication, UNESCO (ROSTCA), New Delhi)
Ramakrishnan P S, Saxena K G and Chandrashekara U M 1998Conserving the sacred: For biodiversity management (New Delhi: UNESCO and Oxford and IBH Publ.)
Raven P H 1985 Disappearing species: A global tragedy;Futurist 19 8–14
Shiva V 1988Staying alive: Women ecology and survival in India (New Delhi: Kali for Women)
Sinha U P 1993 The demographic situation of tribal population in India; inContinuity and change in tribal society (ed.) M Miri (Simla: Indian Inst. of Advanced Study) pp 217–238
Skeldon R 1985 Migration in south Asia: An overview; inPopulation redistribution and development in south Asia (eds) L A Kosinski and K M Elahi (Dordrecht, Holland: Redistribution Publishing)
Suryakumaran C 1992Environmental planning for development (Colombo: Centre for Regional Development Studies)
Swift and Ingram 1996Effects of global change on multi-species agroecosystems: Implementation plan (GCTE Report No 13, GCTE Focus Office, Wallingford, UK)
Swift M J, Vandermeer J, Ramakrishnan P S, Anderson J M, Ong C K and Hawkins B 1996 Biodiversity and agroeco-system function; inFunctional roles of biodiversity: A global perspective (eds) H A Mooney, J H Cushman, E Medina, O E Sala and E-D Schulz (Chichester: SCOPE, John Wiley) pp 261–298
Vatsayan K 1993Prakriti (New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts)
Venkateswaran S 1992Living on the edge: Women environment and development (New Delhi: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung)
Wali K (ed.) 1992Ecosystem Rehabilitation, vol. 2, Ecosystem analysis and synthesis (The Hague: SPB Academic Publ.)
Woomer P L and Swift M J (eds) 1994The biological management of tropical soil fertility (Chichester: John Wiley)
World Bank 1991Gender and poverty in India (Washington DC: The World Bank)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ramakrishnan, P.S. Increasing population and declining biological resources in the context of global change and globalization. J Biosci 26, 465–479 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02704747
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02704747