Inclusive Protected Area Management in the Amazon: The Importance of Social Networks over Ecological Knowledge

Sustainability

Paula Ungar¹ 

[1] Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Research on Biological Resources, Avenida Paseo de Bolívar (Circunvalar) 16–20, Bogotá, Colombia

关键词: protected areas;    knowledge;    co-management;    Colombia;    Amazon basin;   

DOI  :  10.3390/su4123260

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

In the Amacayacu National Park in Colombia, which partially overlaps with Indigenous territories, several elements of an inclusive protected area management model have been implemented since the 1990s. In particular, a dialogue between scientific researchers, indigenous people and park staff has been promoted for the co-production of biological and cultural knowledge for decision-making. This paper, based on a four-year ethnographic study of the park, shows how knowledge products about different components of the socio-ecosystem neither were efficiently obtained nor were of much importance in park management activities. Rather, the knowledge pertinent to park staff in planning and management is the know-how required for the maintenance and mobilization of multi-scale social-ecological networks. We argue that the dominant models for protected area management—both top-down and inclusive models—underestimate the sociopolitical realm in which research is expected to take place, over-emphasize ecological knowledge as necessary for management and hold a too strong belief in decision-making as a rational, organized response to diagnosis of the PA, rather than acknowledging that thick complexity needs a different form of action. Co-production of knowledge is crucial for governance, but mainly not for the reasons for which it is promoted.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.