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- Convenor:
-
Will Tuladhar-Douglas
(University of Hamburg)
Send message to Convenor
- Format:
- Panel
- Sessions:
- Tuesday 26 October, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
Bats are a diverse order of mammals and a challenge for conservation biology. Their encounters with human communities are framed in terms of threat (disease) or utility (pollination, indicator species). This panel invites bat anthropologists and the IUCN bat group into conversation.
Long Abstract:
There are more than 1400 species of bats. They are important actors within almost every ecosystem, as pollinators, insectivores, and seed dispersers. Only a few species of bats are actually visible to humans—- fruit bats, some species that have colonized human structures such as houses, bridges and mines, and those bats who once thrived on insect populations around settled agriculture. Echolocating bats occupy a wholly different sensory space, audible only to humans whose hearing is keen or augmented.
Yet the entangled naturecultures of humans and bats are profound: for example, humans host species of bedbugs (Cimex) alongside bats because we shared dwellings with them. In the past 20 years, bats have been postulated as the original host for a number of zoonoses: Ebola, Nipah, SARS, and now SARS-2. The European horror stories of vampires have been replaced with the horror stories of spillover. Bat populations have declined everywhere, driven by land use change, pesticides, and human predation.
In this panel we seek to gather a wide range of anthropological encounters with bats and bat conservation, from studies of bats as medicine to studies of bat biologists. We welcome a wide range of methodologies, from multispecies ethnography through medical anthropology and studies of myth to transdisciplinary collaborations. The panel is co-organised with the IUCN Bat Specialist group as part of an initiative to foster new social science approaches and transdisciplinary collaborations around bat research.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Tuesday 26 October, 2021, -Paper short abstract:
Fruit bats and people regularly interact in fruit plantations. Along India’s Western Ghats, a shift towards commercial, low-management fruit crops, corresponding with labour shortage in a changing economy, may have significant implications for bat-human relationships and conservation in the future.
Paper long abstract:
Interactions of fruit bats and people in fruit plantations have consequences for economics of plantation management, and bat conservation. Along India’s Western Ghats, a shift is seen towards low-maintenance plantations of cashew and areca nut, corresponding with growing labour shortage, in a rapidly changing economy. Both these crops, now expanding in area, provide stable yields, and require relatively lower management or labour inputs than other commercial crops. In my study, I assessed the implications of these changes for fruit bats and perceptions of plantation-associated people about bats. From detailed interviews with cashew and areca-associated respondents (n=91) and my field observations, I found that bats benefitted farmers by feeding on fruit-pulp (not commercially useful) and aggregating nuts under feeding trees or roosts. This helped in easy collection of “ready” nuts, as bats fed on the ripest fruits. In cashew plantations, bats contributed to almost 50% of nut collections, thus substituting for labour costs. Similarly for areca, bat visitations indicated fruit ripening and had implications for management, as the high costs incurred on skilled labour to harvest nuts from tall trees could be reduced. People also organized auctions of bat-aggregated nuts in some areas, and obtained high profits. While bats directly affect nut yields, disease risks from bats may also increase as these plantations may become crucial arenas of bat-human contact. The observed shifts in plantation economies may have significant implications for benefits and risks from bats. Understanding these tradeoffs will be critical for the future of bat-human relationships and conservation outcomes.
Paper short abstract:
Bat Conservation International’s Agave Restoration Initiative is a collaborative, transdisciplinary effort to enhance climate resiliency of natural ecosystems, improving local livelihoods and contributing to the conservation of nectivorous bat species.
Paper long abstract:
Pollinators are critical for functioning ecosystems and economies around the world, but anthropogenic pressures combined with climate change are pushing many species to the brink of extinction. Bat Conservation International has established an Agave Restoration Initiative to protect and restore healthy, functioning ecosystems that support local livelihoods and protect nectivorous bats in the US Southwest and Mexico. By working with a diverse set of partners, this initiative builds strong local support in key areas that enables us to identify culturally and environmentally suitable sites and strategies for agave restoration actions. These actions are not only necessary to create resilient foraging corridors for migratory movements of nectivorous bats, but also to support local community enterprises through investment in local infrastructure (community greenhouses), business opportunities (wildlife-friendly products), and sustainable livelihoods (investment and training in sustainable agricultural and ranching techniques). With insights from ethnoecological and livelihoods research with rural Mexican communities and agave harvesters, we have identified opportunities for enhancing synergies and reducing trade-offs between livelihood and bat conservation goals. Incorporating local forms of knowledge has allowed us to challenge conventional ecological assumptions about the effects of local land uses on agave populations, allowing for the development of more ecologically effective and socially ethical forms of bat conservation. In addition, BCI is developing justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) frameworks for engaging with local communities. This collaborative and transdisciplinary approach allows us to set ambitious goals that enhance climate resiliency of natural ecosystems, improving local livelihoods and saving bat species from extinction.
Paper short abstract:
The social-ecological landscapes of the Mexico-U.S. borderlands expose past and present entanglements among bats, agaves and humans. This multi-species ethnography focuses on the relationship between a regional mescal and bat-agave conservation efforts in Sonora, Mexico and Arizona, USA.
Paper long abstract:
The social-ecological landscapes of the Mexico-U.S. borderlands expose past and present entanglements among bats, agaves and humans. This multi-species ethnography focuses on conservation efforts of bats and agaves in northern Sonora, Mexico and southern Arizona, USA. Engaging bats and agaves as direct ethnographic subjects illustrates the complexities of conservation in these shared environments. This more-than-human framework problematizes dominant discourses related to conservation through an investigation of binational efforts to conserve a threatened agave species (Agave angustifolia haw) and the Mexican long-nosed bat (Leptonycterus yerbabuena), a nectar-feeding bat that relies on flowering agaves during their migration from southern Mexico to southern Arizona. Of specific concern is the over-harvesting of this particular agave, which is the plant used to make mescal bacanora, a regional beverage with deep cultural ties to the area. As the industry grows, bacanora producers are harvesting increasing numbers of wild agave, threatening a primary food source for the pollinator bats in an epoch when bat populations continue to decline. This investigation centers on how a multitude of organisms’ livelihoods shape and are shaped by political, economic and cultural forces. Such an approach provides a qualitative lens to understand the contemporary and historic ways stakeholders on both sides of the international border relate to bats, agaves and conservation. Documenting these human and non-human encounters reveals uneven access to the land and natural resources, helping to contribute to conservation efforts that incorporate local ecological knowledge and promote greater inclusivity among diverse stakeholders.