Title: Local knowledge and environmental responsibility: the case of the Adirondack region of New York

Authors: Charles R. Simpson

Addresses: USA

Abstract: Organisms are linked to specific environments by dependence and information flows. Humans are also ||landed|| through a feedback system of local knowledge that respects sustaining landscapes. Extensive monocultures aligning place functions with the interests of national and global elites destroy the cultural and political basis of sustainability. Wilderness zones, putative corrections to excessive extraction, are another monoculture within the global mosaic, displacing local populations with class-stratified recreation, genetic banking, and ideological ||greening||. New York|s Adirondack region illustrates this, from the replacement of indigenous populations with timber ||mining| and recreational estates to its codification as ||wilderness||, shifting extraction to the global South.

Keywords: wilderness zones; local knowledge; Adirondack environmental protection; land use; vernacular knowledge; environmental responsibility; New York; USA; United States; sustainability; sustainable development.

DOI: 10.1504/IER.2006.053945

Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 2006 Vol.8 No.1, pp.1 - 42

Published online: 13 May 2013 *

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