2007, City life in the midst of the forest: a Punan hunter-gatherers vision of conservation and development.

2007, City life in the midst of the forest: a Punan hunter-gatherers vision of conservation and development. Ecology and Society Ecology and Society (formerly Conservation Ecology) is an Open Access, interdisciplinary journal published by the Resilience Alliance. The journal seeks papers that are novel, integrative and written in a way that is accessible to a wide audience that includes an array of Vol. 12, No. 1,http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol12/iss1/ art18/. The Punan Tubu, a group of hunter-gatherers in East Kalimantan,Indonesia, are used to illustrate the very real trade-offs that are madebetween conservation and development. This group has undergone variousforms of resettlement Re`set´tle`mentn. 1. Act of settling again, or state of being settled again; as, the resettlementof lees s>.The resettlementof my discomposed soul.- Norris. in the 20th century, to the point that some arenow settled close to the city of Malinau whereas others remain in remotelocations in the upper Tubu catchment. This study is based on severalyears of ethnographic and household analysis. The Punan clearly favorboth conservation and development. In the city, the Punan benefit fromall positive effects of development. Child and infant mortality (hardware) infant mortality - It is common lore among hackers (and in the electronics industry at large) that the chances of sudden hardware failure drop off exponentially with a machine's time since first use (that is, until the relatively distant time at which enough mechanical ratesare very low, and illiteracy has been eradicated among the youngergeneration. However, the Punan complain that nothing in town is free.The older generation, in particular, resents the loss of Punan culture.Because of frustration and unemployment, young people often succumb toalcoholism and drug addiction. The Punan do not want to choose betweenconservation and development, between forest life and city life. Theywant to benefit from the advantages of both locations, to enjoy bothfree forest products and the positive aspects of modern life, to go wildboar hunting in the morning and watch television in the evening. Inshort, they want to enjoy city life in the midst Adv. 1. in the midst - the middle or central part or point; "in the midst of the forest"; "could he walk out in the midst of his piece?"midmost of the forest. The samekind of contradiction has led to identity problems. They want to upholdthe traditional life of the hunter-gatherer, but at the same time theyreject marginalization mar��gin��al��ize?tr.v. mar��gin��al��ized, mar��gin��al��iz��ing, mar��gin��al��iz��esTo relegate or confine to a lower or outer limit or edge, as of social standing. and seek integration into the larger society. Inshort, they want integration without loss of identity. The settlement ofSule-Pipa illustrates how some groups have dealt with the contradictionmore successfully. Thanks to good organization and charitable donations,they have secured educational facilities and basic health care, andmarketing costs are reduced by collectively organized road and rivertransportation. The economy of the village is thriving, mainly becauseof the collection of forest products from the primary forest. Remotenesshas saved the community from intensive logging, from uncontrolled andexcessive exploitation of local forest products by outsiders, and fromforest conversion. But few remote communities enjoy the luxury ofcharitable injections of funds, and roads will be built to the remotelocations sooner or later. However, playing for time can help the Punandevelop the capacity and ability to cope with a competitive developedworld and maintain their cultural identity.