Aims
The primary aim is produce a time line of landmark interactions between communities
that have
determined the direction and mode of human socio- economic development within the wider context
of current debates on sustainability and environmental management.
The secondary aim is to create
a bridges between events as nodes of human development
illustrating a sequence of thirteen themes of human exploitation of natural resources resources, a
sequence leading to their current manifestations in contemporary issues of sustainable
development.
It is argued that what is
missing in debates about sustainable development is the critical
contribution provided by the long-term history of captalism. This is particularly important if we are
to
generate a more complete understanding of the relationship between human decision-making under
conditions of uncertainty and imperfect information about future consequences. In particular, we
need to define what lessons we are we to learn from the variable experiences of human groups and
their ecological interaction in different parts of the world? We are thus interested in the types
of
social, cultural and institutional mechanisms employed to achieve sustainable outcomes under our
present global context where consumerism pervades all cultures, societies and groups under
conditions of chronic resource uncertainty as a consequence of environmental fluctuations.
Such questions and dilemmas
have always been the preserve of pre-industrial societies, but are
now a central concern in research directed at the study of sustainable outcomes for our own world
of mass communications and production. For example, the spatial and temporal variability of
resources constitutes a persistent form of risk with which human societies - in the past and
currently - have to cope. Additionally, the interactions among species in a food web and their
relationships to nutrient cycling, water flow, soils and biogeochemical cycles are complex,
nonlinear and are governed by time lags, thresholds and discontinuities. Because the ecosystems
to which humans are coupled are self- organising evolutionary systems, their behaviour is
inherently unpredictable. A characteristic feature of these human-dominated systems renders their
understanding and management difficult. Small disturbances at local scales can precipitate
qualitative changes at larger scales.
A key question here is, to
what extent have communities both now and in the past, acquired such
knowledge and incorporated it into resource management plans? With respect to sustainability,
human societies have for millennia employed a diversity of resource management practices, all with
varying impacts ranging from conscious practice of conservation and stewardship, to those leading
to degradation and catastrophic outcomes for the immediate environment. Such practices have
included forestry management, coppicing, swiddening, crop-rotation practices, protection of
specific habitats, and the management of wetland, river and estuarine systems. For example, North
American Chisasibi Cree hunters rotate trapping areas on a four year cycle to allow population of
beaver to recover, in addition to managing fish on a 5- l0 year scale, and caribou on an 80-l00 year
scale. The small-scale movements of Sahelian herders are designed to mimic the variability and
patchiness of the landscape. While in Hawaii, entire river valleys were managed as integrated
farming systems, from the upland forest down to the coral reef. Range reserves of African herders
act as a 'bank' of forage that serves as a buffer to disturbance. Sacred groves in some areas of
India absorb disturbance by serving as fire-breaks for cultivated areas and villages.
These examples, and a plethora
of others that might readily be invoked, stand in contrast with
resource exploitation that took off in the 15th century with its focus on short-term returns
and profit
maximisation, consistent with a view of the natural world as stored capital, and amenable to
rational economic analyses. It is for this reason that debates on the nature of sustainable resource
use must begin to incorporate the wealth of historical knowledge that constitutes the history of
human ecological experience.
An important part of any historical
knowledge base demonstrates that these strategies of resource
utilisation are not neutral, and reflect specific social and ideological contexts. For this reason,
management practices cannot be categorised as conferring a simple functional role; they are
indivisible from social, political and institutional mechanisms, and it is in this sense that we need
to
understand how ecological knowledge is constructed; i.e. not as a simple encoding of observations
of the natural world, but as a deeply embedded eco-social dynamic. Central to this notion is the
way that cultural values operate within a socio- ecological grid which acts to both enable and
constrain collective and individual action. It is here we encounter the territory of rule based actions
and the role of social and cultural mechanisms and institutional controls in generating sustainable
management outcomes.
Themes
Cities at war
The first capitalist communities
began to develop in 13th century Europe and one obvious
indicator of this profound social change is the rapid increase in the concentration of people
in towns and cities.There was a four-fold increase in the rate of formation of new towns
between 1200 and 1300.
The city of Genoa was
the first urban centre to attain the status of a world economy based
on new ideas of monetary exchange and growth in maritime traffic.
Commercial power struggles
between the rapidly growing North Italian cities quickly
escalated to war, in which Venice and Florence, governed by merchant families and their
cliques, came to dominate world trade.
Beings framed
Today we can see one of
the material outcomes of the interactions between the city states
in their art, which, for the first time, placed individuals in the same frame as the spiritual
sphere. The important philosphical legacy is Renaissance humanism, where knowledge
from the classical age of Greece and Rome was applied to frame people in a value system
which stressed human worth and beauty.
Orient meets occident
Europe, although self-sufficient
in its basic needs, strove to satisfied its ever growing wants
for goods to enhance the quality of life. The tentacles of this luxury trade are examplfied in
the overland travels of Marco Polo to China and the vibrant commercial interface of Venice
with Byzantium and Alexandria.
Knowledge bazaar
The search for ever more
natural resources to feed the growing apirations of consumers led
to the gathering and exchange of goods and knowlege from the four corners of the earth.
This was the age of the epic sea voyages of the Portuguese and Spanish whoes economic
goal was to sail to and from the Spice Islands by the quickest routes. The newly
discovered lands were divided between Portugal and Spain and the two countries
commanded trade between Europe and the Indies.
The fall of Byzantium
to an expanding Turkish Empire facilitated the two-way traffic in luxury
goods and ideas between East and West, which added to the development of the European
High Renaissance focused on Florence.
Materials business
Around the year 1503,
there was a rapid expansion of trade in natural resources from the
Indies. Through the preference of the Portuguese, and then the Spanish, to trade with
Northern Europe, markets moved from Venice to Antwerp and Venice was displaced as the
world economy.
Space distance time and science
The combination of free-thinking
inspired by Italian humanism and the ever increasing pace
of exploration, mapped the world conceptually as a relatively small place. New ideas were
spread rapidly by printing. Science based on observation began to be undermine the
perception of man as a divine creation and the Earth was no longer a special place at the
centre of the universe.
Tale of three cities
The shift in the fortunes
of the European cities states continued. Just as Genoa had been
superceded by Venice, and Venice by Antwerp, the tide of trade moved away from
Antwerp. For a brief period Genoa gained, but then the flow of money and goods moved on
quickly to Amsderdam.
Passing of the bow
One of the first applications
of metallurgical science was the invention of small arms. The
initial outcome was that the musket replaced bows and arrows as common long- distance
infantry weapon. This is reflected in the increased cost of war in terms of materials and
knowhow. The musket was also instrumental in the conquest of native peoples using the
outdated technology.
An inquisitive and inventive age
As science expanded and
settled into its specialised fields it also began to be
institutionalised. In England, scientists gathered together to form the Royal Society which
received its charter from Charles II. Thereafter, it began to influence the direction of science
and its commercial applications
The English empire
The verve of colonial
expansion took hold of the English who rapidly became the foremost
maritime nation. This led to the wars with the Dutch and Spanish from which Britain
emerged as a major empire builder. Her command of the West Indian and North American
plantation economies led directly to the slave trade.
A world of beauty and puzzlement
The ever increasing array
of new lands and peoples presented more and more opportunites
for exploiting natural resources. New sentiments emerged directed at the contemplative
value of unspoiled nature. Questions also arose regarding the origins, purpose and
mechanisms of the immense topgraphic variety of the newly discovered lands reflected in
plants, animals and people. Natural history became a respectable activity of the upper
classes, and the increased flow information stimulated efforts to classify living things and
question their origins and relationships.
Europe and the South Seas
A ferment of ideas about
the place of man in nature brewed up in the South Seas. The
romantic descriptions of the Pacific islands and people came from the first impressions of
the early navigators. They, also raised wider environmental issues concerned with the
European interpretation of the Pacific. These are expressed in the work of artists attached
to scientific voyages from the time of Cook to that of Dumont d'Urville. The official reports
expressed contemporary scientific interests and prevailing ideas of man's place in nature.
In particular they have a bearing on the conflict between European artistic conventions and
the desire for accurate portrayal of people and scenery.
Quest for sustainability
It was the development
of landscape aesthetics and the European romantic movement that
first brought environmentalism to the surface. These ideas were bound up with growing
concerns about the deleterous impact of industrial man on nature. The Great Exhibition of
1851 marked Britain's virtual command of the world's natural resources. From this time,
concerns began to be expressed about what was being lost from the social fabric of society
by seeking economic development.
