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Introduction: This chapter juxtaposes Batek environmental ideology with that embedded in the scientific mode of protected areas governance in Malaysia. I will suggest that the local model of environmental relations has global relevance and can help reveal weaknesses in broader (statecentric) claims to biodiversity conservation. One underlying issue will become clear: there is no comfortable fit between scientific and local definitions of conservation. For example, we do not normally recognize as conservationist statements such as the following: if there were no people in the forest, the world would collapse
and it is forest peoples, and not urban peoples who <i>jagaʔ həp </i> (guard the forest). These positions are commonly held among the Batek, who are mobile, forest-dwelling, hunter-gatherers of Peninsular Malaysia. They call themselves <i>Batɛk həp</i> (people of the forest). Elsewhere I develop the argument that this association of ideas is part of a broader expression of environmental stewardship (Lye 2002). The Batek certainly share the general conviction that the environment is degrading at an alarming pace and that there needs to be a radical shift in environmental values. Where they depart from the scientific model is in how they conceptualize and represent <i>people</i>that it is necessary to have people in the forest, guarding it and the world from collapse. This is the theme of this chapters discussion.
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