Vol. 7 · No. 1 · 2003

Jeffrey A. McNeely

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Mobile peoples - pastoralists, shifting cultivators, and hunters and gatherers -depend directly on nature's goods and services for their survival. As their cultures evolved over hundreds and thousands of years, they learned how to live within nature 's constraints, often involving specific means to conserve the ecosystems upon which their welfare depended. Indeed, it could be argued that the rich biodiversity that characterises their territories is a direct result of their cultures: the areas of richest nature are in fact cultural landscapes.