Creating world heritage at the margins of the state: wildlife, custom and culture

Abstract

The Garo Hills Conservation Area (GHCA) has been proposed as a UNESCO World Heritage site for the Indian state of Meghalaya. It encompasses several other national parks and forest reserves. The national parks do not have permanent residents, but that is different for a fairly broad buffer zone around them. There, land is communally held and managed, according to customary arrangements. For the GHCA to be realized, land and forest use in these buffer areas should be sustainable, aimed at safeguarding biodiversity, and in line with the cultural heritage of the people who are its title holders. In the buffer zone, shifting cultivation continues to be important, but wherever road connectivity permits, the cultivation of tree crops (as monocultures) gains prominence. People depend for the usage of their land, either for farming or growing tree crops, not only on fellow village residents but also on the animals, plants, and other nonhuman entities that populate it. How does the ontological knowledge which this demands, and the usage of the environment which it enables, relate to the conceptualizations of heritage and custom that are integral to the proposed Garo Hills Conservation Area as World Heritage?