Discounted knowledges: farmers' and residents' understandings of nature conservation goals and policies

Local Biodiversity Action Plans are the preferred policy mechanism for sett ing and delivering local biodiversity targets in the UK. This paper reviews the kind of knowledge conservation scientists envisage being used to ident ity and set local targets and explores the means of incorporating local kno wledge into this process. We use a case study of a wildlife Enhancement Sch eme (WES) on the Pevensey Levels, East Sussex, to reveal the understandings that local farmers and residents have of the nature conservation goals and practices associated with the scheme. Drawing on the findings of in-depth discussion groups, we show how farmers challenge both the monopoly of knowl edge conservationists profess about nature, and the enlistment of farmers o n the scheme as 'technicians' motivated solely by financial rewards, rather than as knowledgeable experts who also have emotional attachments and ethi cal values for nature. Local people use their knowledge of both local farme rs, and the industry in general, to challenge the assumption that farmers c an be trusted with delivering nature conservation goals. in the absence of a commitment by central government to agree widely-held environmental stand ards, and a more democratic process of making judgements about what local n ature is worth conserving local residents challenge existing processes desi gned to conserve nature that are driven by the knowledge and practices of o fficial experts alone. The findings of the study suggest that a widening of the knowledge base on which the goals and practices of nature conservation are founded, and a more deliberative process of making decisions about wha t nature is important locally will secure and strengthen public support for local biodiversity action plans. (C) 1998 Academic Press.