GENETICS Carl Zimmer’s

COMMENT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Are CONSERVATION A call to involve TECHNOLOGY Lithium mining in
new history of algorithmic works by robot young people and locals in Chile’s Atacama puts people
heredity p.489 artists or artists’ robots? p.490 coral-reef protection p.492 and ecoystems at risk p.492
SANJIT DAS/PANOS PICTURES

Women in Odisha, India, where in 2014 the Dongria Kondh forest tribe won a lawsuit to stop a bauxite mine from opening.

The global south is rich in

sustainability lessons
Educators must share how communities in the developing world manage
environmental change — a Western bias limits progress, argues Harini Nagendra.

I
n a Bangalore slum, Dhanalakshmi connection to nature shapes her actions, building an irrigation tank: ‘to support
tends six plant pots balanced on a wall. even though she lives far from the animals, cattle, birds, and all other living
They contain shoots of holy basil (or countryside. Such attachments are shared beings, and the service at all times of (the
tulasi, Ocimum tenuiflorum). I asked her by many people around the world. They goddess of water) Ganga Devi’1.
why she does this, in a cramped space with run through centuries of Indian thinking In the early twentieth century, Mahatma
an unreliable water supply. She told me that on sustainability: nature offers material Gandhi fought poverty and injustice through
the plants replace her tiny roadside kitchen benefits; it is part of people’s cultural peaceful civil resistance. He championed
garden, which she lost when the street was identities and often viewed as sacred. Pro- local production, education, health care
widened. The wind blew the basil seeds into tecting nature also confers social merit. A and self-sufficiency. Inspired by Gandhi’s
the pots. “How can one turn away a guest, stone inscription from ad 1340 describes ideas, members of the Chipko and Appiko
even if they come uninvited?” she said. the motivation of Chenneya Nayaka, environmental movements hugged trees
D h an a l a k s h m i’s d e e p, p e r s on a l the ruler of a region near Bangalore, for in the 1970s and 1980s to prevent them

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 COMMENT

from being felled2. In 2014, after 12 years

of campaigning, the Dongria Kondh forest
tribe in India’s Odisha state won a lawsuit
to stop a bauxite mine from opening and
ruining the hillsides that they revered and
depended on for food.
These strongly rooted local movements
have brought sustainability issues into
every­day conversations in India. They have
inspired generations of activists. Yet most
university courses on sustainability omit
them. Teachings still have a Western focus,
even in India. Most books on sustainability
frame the discourse in terms of Earth’s finite
resources and rising population.
The limited Western view of sustainabil-
ity is stifling progress, just as the world faces
crises over water,
climate change, “Excessive
energy and biodi- consumption,
versity. That view inequity
also does a disser- and social
vice to the variety injustice are
a n d c r e a t i v i t y not questioned
of thinking and enough.”
actions on sustain-
ability in societies across the globe. Develop-
ing countries face the most acute challenges
in this regard, yet they have the widest gaps
in knowledge. Solutions that work in one
place might fail in another. Excessive con-
sumption, inequity and social injustice are
not questioned enough.
At Azim Premji University in Bangalore,
my colleagues and I see sustainability dif-
ferently. We have moved away from framing
it exclusively around limits to growth and
conserving natural resources. Instead, we
emphasize the connections between com-
munities, ecosystems and social justice. In
an online course, for instance, we discuss
the ‘3 Fs’ — finitude (or limits), fragility
and fairness (see [Link]/2t3rfdd).
As well as university students, from under- Most of the sustainability workshops I’ve Much is left out from these accounts.
graduate to postgraduate level, we teach attended in the past three years in India Political economist Elinor Ostrom, in her
bureaucrats, educators, corporate executives focused on reducing resource use. We influential work on the commons4, dem-
and practitioners through online courses discussed emissions cuts, recycling and onstrated the powerful capacity of people
and in-class curricula. the circular economy while sitting in air- when they are organized in collectives.
Sustainability education must be more conditioned rooms in luxury hotels, sipping Discussions of increasing consumption are
globally inclusive. Only then can the dis- bottled water. Poverty, environmental jus- largely absent from classic writings on sus-
cipline deliver the transformative change tice and governance were not mentioned. tainability, despite the cases for sufficiency
the world needs, rather than tinkering with Most ‘classic’ writings on sustainability made by twentieth-century Indian think-
business-as-usual. present people as the problem, not as a col- ers. German economist Ernst Friedrich
lective source of strength. These include Schumacher, whose book Small Is Beautiful
LOCAL DIFFERENCES Garrett Hardin’s 1968 essay The Tragedy of (Blond & Briggs, 1973) championed local,
Sustainability is usually discussed as if ‘one the Commons, Paul Ehrlich’s 1968 book The sustainable technologies that empower peo-
size fits all’. Calls to action target the individ- Population Bomb (Sierra Club/Ballantine ple, was inspired by Gandhi and the Indian
ual: plant a tree, ride a bike, compost your Books) and The Limits to Growth, a 1972 economist J. C. Kumarappa.
food scraps (see [Link]/2rwsupi). report by Donella Meadows and colleagues. In our courses, we shine a light on these
Or they focus on markets and corpora- For example, The Population Bomb opens issues. And we show our students how
tions: invest in renewable energy and green by describing the streets of Delhi in 1966 iconic local movements in the global south
buildings. On these terms, local contexts are as “alive with people” — eating, washing, have been just as influential in their regions
irrelevant and materials matter more than sleeping, visiting, arguing, screaming, as US environmentalists such as John Muir,
people — buying an electric car is ‘green’, urinating, clinging to buses and herding Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson were in
even if the cobalt for its battery might have animals. An obsessive focus on overpopu- theirs. In Latin America, for example, the
come from a small-scale artisanal mine with lation has led to millions of forced steriliza- concept of buen vivir (living well) has wide-
horrific labour conditions. tions worldwide3. spread resonance. It espouses harmony with

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 COMMENT

Protesters in administration ignored

Bhopal march the knowledge of local
against proposed communities. Officials
dams on India’s failed to appreciate
Narmada River. the fragile social and
ecological interconnec-
tions in these densely inhabited, biodiverse
landscapes.
Our students tell us that some of these
findings come as a surprise. The fragil-
ity of communities must be considered
alongside ecosystems. No technology, no
matter how good, is a magic silver bullet.
Narratives such as Dhanalakshmi’s can
contradict widely held assumptions — for
instance, that strong ties to nature exist only
in pre-industrialized societies.
Some students have reversed their
opinions. For instance, those who initially
supported diverting water from full rivers
into others that ran dry now understand
the importance of maintaining river-
basin flows for ecosystems and communi-
ties. Practitioners have been sufficiently
inspired by these examples of ecosystem
management through fire and grazing to
begin altering their approaches to working
with communities.

GRASS-ROOTS CAMPAIGNS
There are hundreds of environmental
movements across Asia, Africa and Latin
America. Although they are diverse, they
have features in common. Such movements
emphasize environmental justice and tend
to emanate from local cultures. They are
often led by women’s collectives, and use
non-violent means of protest. They ques-
tion the industrial route to development and
champion collective action. Social justice
and the rights of nature are given the same
prominence as limited resources. Multi-
generational thinking often features.
nature, prioritizing community well-being from setting controlled fires in the forests For example, in 2008, catalysed by a
SANJEEV GUPTA/EPA/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

and respecting plurality of thought5. From of the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger coalition of indigenous groups, Ecuador
Nepal to Mexico, indigenous communities Reserve. The community warned policy- became the first nation to incorporate rights
have managed forests and prevented poach- makers of the consequences, but they did of nature in its constitution5. Bolivia followed
ing in locally run reserves. Those fenced off not listen. Without control through burn- suit in 2009. These rights include protection,
by governments have fared much worse. ing, the invasive shrub Lantana camara restoration and respect for existence.
We dissect lots of case studies in our ran riot, choking vegetation and reducing Grass-roots campaigns can be powerful
courses and workshops. One clear lesson is fodder and food7. A well-meaning policy, in questioning unsustainable paradigms
that transplanted solutions often backfire. influenced by ecological ideas about succes- and changing minds, even when they
For example, a ban on livestock grazing sion, has ended up damaging the forest as don’t prevail. For 33 years, the Narmada
degraded the ecosystem of the Keoladeo well as relationships between the tribe and Bachao Andolan mass social movement
National Park — a region of wetlands the forest department. has marched and brought court cases to
in Rajasthan that is rich in bird life. The Technologies, too, can bring more harm stall dam construction on India’s Narmada
Indian government introduced the policy, than good. In the push for solar energy, River, which runs from Madhya Pradesh to
following US practices, to protect suppos- land has been acquired forcibly from poor the Arabian Sea. It did not stop the dams, but
edly pristine landscapes from trampling. farmers. In Nepal and India, replacing tra- it has raised awareness of the consequences
Cattle were duly ejected from Keoladeo in ditional mud-lined irrigation tanks and for people and places of big, top-down
1982. But the diversity of birds and other channels managed by farmers with cen- developmental projects.
wildlife plummeted — the canals became trally managed cement-lined canals has Local groups tackle a wide range of issues.
clogged with weeds and grasses, which increased maintenance costs and damaged In Indian cities, groups such as Hasiru
were previously eaten by the cattle6. social capital. The canals silt up, and farm- Dala work with poor rag pickers to collect
Community relations are important. ers no longer meet and work together to and recycle waste. In Bangalore, residents
In 1974 in southern India, the indigenous repair them. are liaising with municipal authorities,
Soliga tribe was banned by the government In all these cases, a science-focused cattle grazers and fishers to restore the

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 COMMENT

Key topics to explore include how

ANDRESSA ANHOLETE/AFP/GETTY
c om mu n it i e s re s h ap e t r a d it i on a l
approaches to grapple with twenty-first-
century challenges, how they address
gender and caste inequities, and how
philosophies and faiths influence people’s
attitudes to nature. For example, Kudum-
bashree, the Foundation for Ecological
Security and the Deccan Development
Society are enabling women farmers, fish-
ers and grazers to take the lead in public
decision-making. The Dongria Kondh
tribe’s belief that each component of the
landscape has sacred significance shaped
its rejection of commercial mining8.
Sustainability curricula cannot rest on
just-so stories. A set of universal principles
needs to be derived, while respecting local
contexts. Ostrom’s framework4 for govern-
ing shared resources is a good basis. Local
crafting of rules, limiting free riders through
monitoring, and strong local leadership are
used in such disparate cases as community
forests in Nepal, Subak irrigation systems in
Indigenous people protesting in Brasilia over the government’s failure to safeguard their land. Bali’s rice fields, alpine grazing commons
in Switzerland and Satoyama agricultural
Kaikondrahalli and Jakkur lakes. Across much harder — to transform world views landscapes in Japan.
rural India, community groups collaborate and dismantle unsustainable paradigms of Science and technology can only go so
to protect local forests, create sustainable jobs development and growth. far. Without understanding alternative
and provide incomes while protecting bio- Sustainability needs to be defined as imaginations — such as the cosmology of
diversity. Agro-ecological initiatives such as encompassing natural resource conserva- the Dongria Kondh or the compassion of
the Deccan Development Society in Medak tion as well as social justice and collective Dhanalakshmi — we limit our power to
district, the Foundation for Ecological Secu- action. Such world views must go beyond effect change. ■
rity in Anand and the Timbaktu Collective purely utilitarian concepts of nature. Edu-
in Anantapur district work with farmers to cators should tailor their lessons to be more Harini Nagendra is professor of
restore forests and common land, and to g lob a l ly inclu- sustainability at Azim Premji University,
promote organic methods of farming and sive. The United “Researchers Electronic City, Bangalore, India.
soil-friendly crops such as pulses and millets. Nations Environ- from the e-mail: [Link]@[Link]
To encourage networking and dialogues, ment Programme, global south
1. Nagendra, H. Nature in the City: Bengaluru in
the Vikalp Sangam or Alternatives Conflu- the UN Educa- should lead the Past, Present and Future (Oxford Univ. Press,
ence, a non-profit collaborative discussion tional, Scientific study projects, 2016).
forum and website, documents grass-roots a n d C u l t u r a l and funding 2. Guha, R. How Much Should a Person Consume?
Environmentalism in India and the United States
experiences ([Link]). Organization and
agencies (Univ. California Press, 2006).
Governments can help to scale up such initi- Future Earth, a 3. Connelly, M. Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to
atives. For instance, a programme of the state global research
should provide Control World Population (Harvard Univ. Press,
government of Kerala called Kudumbashree hub for sustainabil- support.” 2008).
4. Ostrom, E. Governing the Commons (Cambridge
works with women’s groups on empower- ity, should develop Univ. Press, 2015).
ment, livelihoods and sustainability. more diverse educational and outreach 5. Gudynas, E. Development 54, 441–447 (2011).
6. Lewis, M. Conserv. Soc. 1, 1–21 (2003).
Governments and grass-roots initiatives materials. Academics, indigenous and local 7. Madegowda, C. Econ. Polit. Wkly 44, 65–69
cannot solve all sustainability issues in iso- communities, practitioners and environ- (2009).
lation, especially in a country such as India mental activists must all be involved. 8. Tatpati, M., Kothari, A. & Mishra, R. The Niyamgiri
that is accelerating towards an industrial- To expand the range of cases examined, Story: Challenging the Idea of Growth without
Limits? (Kalpavriksh, 2016); available at
ized and urban future. We just have to look researchers must document contempo- [Link]
outside our classroom windows to see the rary grass-roots attempts to engage with
negative impacts of India’s relentless growth. sustainability in the global south, such as
But sustainability and conservation are those discussed here. A good start is the CORRECTION
dismal disciplines. The next generation Seeds of a Good Anthropocene project run In the Comment ‘Cybersecurity needs
needs cases of hope to counter narratives by Future Earth. This shares case studies women’ (Nature 555, 577–580; 2018),
of gloom and doom. And they need to and tools to support positive visions of the photo of female programmers was
know that successes can be found on their futures that are socially and ecologically captioned incorrectly. They were at the
doorstep, not just in the West. desirable, just and sustainable. More exam- US Army Ballistics Research Laboratory
ples should be drawn from Africa, Latin in 1962, not working on ENIAC at the
GLOBAL LESSONS America and Asia. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania in the 1940s.
Sustainability curricula must be rethought. global south should lead study projects, Also, the figure of 57% cited for women in
It is important to learn about, teach and and funding agencies should provide the US workforce was actually for women
communicate ways to reduce resource financial support at the scale needed to in the US professional workforce.
consumption. It is even more crucial — and maintain such leadership.

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