Paper short abstract:

To understand conservation threats, interventions and local responses in the Moluccas we must acknowledge their biocultural distinctiveness, transitional biogeography, and varied socio-cultural forms. In this review of selected issues we suggest revising received notions of 'biocultural diversity'.

Paper long abstract:

International conservation attention, local responses to ecological degradation and the application of global environmentalist rhetoric came relatively late to the Moluccas. This is largely because these Indonesian islands were among the last frontiers to be opened-up for resource extraction and economic development in modern times, and because they were politically as well as geographically marginal. This paper argues that if we are to understand the shape and implications of these new social and scientific interventions, we need to take into account what is bioculturally distinctive about the area in relation to the transitional biogeography of Wallacea. The special characteristics of the Moluccas are contingent upon – and encompass – a diversity of socio-cultural forms which reflect connections both with New Guinea to the East, and a complex history of contact with global currents coming from the West. In examining the emerging pattern of conservation discourse we find a cacophony of different voices marking various aspects of this conjuncture, but which are all strangely innocent of the long-term dynamic of historical ecology which underpins them. The paper tries to show how different ecologies and human cultural populations interact to produce particular conservation impacts. It suggests that this might require rethinking what we mean by 'biocultural diversity' from a comparative perspective.