IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/inseej/343116.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Erosion of Biodiversity and Culture: Bankura District of West Bengal as an Illustrative Locale

Author

Listed:
  • Deb, Debal

Abstract

The decimation of biodiversity at the species, genetic, and ecosystem levels as a direct consequence of the industrial resource use mode is well documented in human ecology and conservation literature. Not only wild biota but also domesticated crop landraces have been pushed to extinction by industrial land-use systems. The process of biodiversity erosion impinges on, and is augmented by, the decimation of local cultural elements, such as food cultures, the vocabularies of local languages, house architecture, and an inchoate appreciation of the non-use value of biodiversity, i.e., beyond its instrumental value. This process of biocultural erosion is evident in the district of Bankura, West Bengal, India, and this article collates evidence from over two decades of my research on the biodiversity and cultural elements of the region. The replacement of a traditional eco-centric ethic with an industrial ethic, and its consequent impacts on biodiversity and local cultural traditions in this region, is illustrative of the global process of biodiversity loss.

Suggested Citation

  • Deb, Debal, 2022. "The Erosion of Biodiversity and Culture: Bankura District of West Bengal as an Illustrative Locale," Ecology, Economy and Society - the INSEE Journal, Indian Society of Ecological Economics (INSEE), vol. 5(01), January.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:inseej:343116
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.343116
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/343116/files/The%20Erosion%20of%20Biodiversity%20and%20Culture.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.343116?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Faber, Malte & Petersen, Thomas & Schiller, Johannes, 2002. "Homo oeconomicus and homo politicus in Ecological Economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 323-333, March.
    2. Andy Hector, 2011. "Diversity favours productivity," Nature, Nature, vol. 472(7341), pages 45-46, April.
    3. Natalia Brzezina & Birgit Kopainsky & Erik Mathijs, 2016. "Can Organic Farming Reduce Vulnerabilities and Enhance the Resilience of the European Food System? A Critical Assessment Using System Dynamics Structural Thinking Tools," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-32, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Frings, Oliver & Abildtrup, Jens & Montagné-Huck, Claire & Gorel, Salomé & Stenger, Anne, 2023. "Do individual PES buyers care about additionality and free-riding? A choice experiment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    2. Ali DOUAI, 2007. "Wealth, Well-being and Value(s): A Proposition of Structuring Concepts for a (real) Transdisciplinary Dialogue within Ecological Economics," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2007-18, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    3. Funk, Matt, 2008. "On the Problem of Sustainable Economic Development: A Theoretical Solution to this Prisoner's Dilemma," MPRA Paper 19025, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 08 Jun 2008.
    4. Nhu Tuyên Lê & Marjolijn Bloemmen & Roxana Bobulescu & Claudio Vitari, 2015. "Microeconomic degrowth: The case of Community Supported Agriculture," Post-Print halshs-01923276, HAL.
    5. Heinzel, Christoph & Winkler, Ralph, 2006. "Gradual versus structural technological change in the transition to a low-emission energy industry: How time-to-build and differing social and individual discount rates influence environmental and tec," Dresden Discussion Paper Series in Economics 09/06, Technische Universität Dresden, Faculty of Business and Economics, Department of Economics.
    6. Veisten, Knut, 2007. "Contingent valuation controversies: Philosophic debates about economic theory," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 204-232, April.
    7. Faber, Malte & Petersen, Thomas, 2012. "The Environmental Aspect of “Making People Rich as the Top Priority” in China: a Marxian Perspective," Working Papers 0526, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    8. Salladarré, Frédéric & Guillotreau, Patrice & Debucquet, Gervaise & Lazuech, Gilles, 2018. "Some Good Reasons for Buying Fish Exclusively From Community-Supported Fisheries: The Case of Yeu Island in France," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 172-180.
    9. Lee-Peuker, Mi-Yong & Klauer, Bernd, 2010. "Bringing about institutional change in public brownfield management: The case of Saxony-Anhalt (Germany)," UFZ Discussion Papers 5/2010, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Division of Social Sciences (ÖKUS).
    10. Hugo Herrera & Birgit Kopainsky, 2020. "Using system dynamics to support a participatory assessment of resilience," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 342-355, September.
    11. Becker, Christian, 2006. "The human actor in ecological economics: Philosophical approach and research perspectives," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 17-23, November.
    12. Christian U. Becker & Jack Hamblin, 2021. "Conceptualizing Personhood for Sustainability: A Buddhist Virtue Ethics Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-13, August.
    13. Oliver Froer, 2003. "Using Stated Preference Methods for Biodiversity Valuation. A critical analysis," Diskussionspapiere aus dem Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre der Universität Hohenheim 217/2003, Department of Economics, University of Hohenheim, Germany.
    14. Johanna Jussila Hammes, 2021. "The Impact of Career Concerns and Cognitive Dissonance on Bureaucrats’ Use of Benefit-Cost Analysis," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 80(2), pages 409-424, October.
    15. Yi Wang & Zhanguo Zhu & Feng Chu, 2017. "Organic vs. Non-Organic Food Products: Credence and Price Competition," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-23, April.
    16. Bebbington, Jan & Brown, Judy & Frame, Bob, 2007. "Accounting technologies and sustainability assessment models," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2-3), pages 224-236, March.
    17. Malte Faber & Ralph Winkler, 2006. "Heterogeneity and Time," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(3), pages 803-825, July.
    18. Francesca Galli & Alessio Cavicchi & Gianluca Brunori, 2019. "Food waste reduction and food poverty alleviation: a system dynamics conceptual model," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 36(2), pages 289-300, June.
    19. McGarraghy, Seán & Olafsdottir, Gudrun & Kazakov, Rossen & Huber, Élise & Loveluck, William & Gudbrandsdottir, Ingunn Y. & Čechura, Lukáš & Esposito, Gianandrea & Samoggia, Antonella & Aubert, Pierre-, 2022. "Conceptual system dynamics and agent-based modelling simulation of interorganisational fairness in food value chains: Research agenda and case studies," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 12(2).
    20. Pelletier, Nathan, 2010. "Environmental sustainability as the first principle of distributive justice: Towards an ecological communitarian normative foundation for ecological economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(10), pages 1887-1894, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agribusiness;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:inseej:343116. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inseeea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.