wollastoni wrote: ↑Tue Apr 16, 2024 6:24 am
The good practice is to have a guide who will ask before entering a "land" the cost and negotiate it. Usually a pack of cigarettes + few dollars will make the job. If you don't negotiate "before", then they will ask you to pay "to leave the land"... and here the cost can be huge as you are seen as a very rude man that should be punished for his rudeness.
This is virtually universal, including in USA.
Look at it from the landowner's perspective. They work the land, they work it hard. But things are rather consistent.
Then you show up with your butterfly net.
You are bringing nothing to their life, whether in Montana or Ecuador. Your presence can be of zero benefit. In fact, quite the opposite: your presence is likely to be a problem.
First, the common anecdote which I've advised many times: "never trust a white man." Locals think it's odd coming from me, but it's true. They well known that historically white men bring problems, they virtually never improve any situation. They're always up to something. This works in Montana too: what good have urban or suburban people ever brought? Answer is "nothing".
At one roadblock it was quickly explained "no white men allowed past, no exceptions" (I understand the local language.) Despite having a local guide, that was set in stone. The only way we got past after 30 minutes was because we'd brought a third person with a relative in the destination village. On Guadalcanal, several researcher friends who are white, born on Guadalcanal, are not allowed in some remote areas, so have to send Guadalcanal natives. These researchers KNOW they are not permitted there, and know better to push their luck because they are at serious risk of physical injury or death.
Second, your butterfly net. What are you doing here? The worst answer is "I'm looking for endangered butterflies." Oh, what bad could possibly come from your good intent? Well, if you find one and report it, their land could be inundated by (in USA) USFWS, BLM (Bureau of Land Management), etc. and the next thing they know they've lost the grazing rights on 1000 acres. God forbid you find an arrowhead too.
You bring nothing to the table, you're only a problem.
The same in rural/ remote foreign areas. You bring nothing but problems. They already know that butterfly lives on their land, they don't need you to tell them. And they don't need more of your type running around smashing gardens and making noise. Oh dear, you ran out of food, you got hurt. Well, then somebody has to care for you...more of a drain.
Those who precede you have already put a nail in your coffin. Many pretend to be hikers or ecologists or whatever, but actually represent the interests of mining, logging, or other unwanted concerns. Nothing good came of them- what good can come from you. Who are you really?
On that, even collectors cause problems. I arrived at the Solomon Islands Dept of Natural Resources office to get an export permit. Sitting down with the #2 guy, my friend, I said that and his eyes lit afire, and as dark as his skin was I could see the red flush of extreme anger. Two very well known lepidopterists had come into country unannounced, collected, and skipped the country. To say that the DNR staff was angry is an understatement. "NO PERMITS!" took a while to get past, even when I had established interpersonal and professional relationships.
How would you feel if you came home to find that your brother's family was playing volleyball in your back yard and drinking your sodas and beer? It's universal that property ownership, whether personal or communal, is to be respected. So by showing up in Arizona ranch land or the deepest of Amazon, you're breaking a globally universal social norm, if nothing else.
As wollastoni cited, acknowledging land rights is respectful. In many cultures, the simplest, cheapest gift is expected. In Fiji, one brings Kava as a gift for the chief- even though they have PLENTY of Kava. Then, you will sit and drink that Kava with them. In Idaho, you go from farmhouse to farmhouse to find out who owns the land you want to explore, provide a simple gift (perhaps cigarettes, perhaps some 30-30 ammo) and maybe load some cow manure. Whether Fiji or Idaho, AFTER they get some of your time to analyze you, you might be granted access. And if you are, you may get the huge benefit of a ride, a guide, and free dinner.
If you don't take the time to respect the landowners, or if you think it's stupid, you have nobody to blame for being kicked out. There rules may differ slightly between Omaha and the Nile Delta, but at the core they're the same. Respect or pay the price.
