The Arc of Justice: Indigenous Activism and Anthropological Intersections

This article discusses the intersections between anthropological and Amazonian indigenous activism over a four decade period. It takes the distinctive approach of Shelton Sandy Davis as a framework to demonstrate the difficult trajectories of activism for both indigenous peoples and anthropologists. I provide examples from my own experiences working with indigenous organizations in Peru and Ecuador. Este artículo documenta la intersección entre el activismo de las indígenas amazônicas y antropólogos durante un periodo de cuatro décadas. Uso la perspectiva distincta de Shelton “Sandy” Davis cómo un marco lógico para demonstrar las trayectorias difíciles de activismo. Uso ejemplares de mi propio trabajo en Perú y Ecuador, trabajando con organizaciones indígenas

Indigenous territories and tropical forest management in Latin America

Using data from Latin America, the authors argue that fundamental changes must take place in the legal recognition and demarcation of indigenous territories if indigenous peoples are to fulfill their potential as resource managers for threatened tropical forest ecosystems. The authors compare different national land tenure models for forest-dwelling indigenous peoples (contained in national Indian, agrarian, and protected-area laws in Latin America) and a model proposed by indigenous organizations in Latin America. The conventional models emerged during an era when most governments were more concerned with the rapid occupation and exploitation of frontier zones and the assimilation of indigenous peoples. Recent attention to the environmental degradation of these areas and the need to create alternative models of land use and development have directed attention to the potential contribution of indigenous peoples to the conservation and management of the vast tropical forests of Latin America. The authors find that indigenous peoples must be given some degree of control over their territories and resources. They contend that for successful management of tropical forests there must be a new type of partnership between indigenous peoples, the scientific community, national governments, and international development agencies. This relationship should be a contractual one, in which indigenous peoples are provided with juridical recognition and control over large areas of forest in exchange for a commitment to conserve the ecosystem and preserve biodiversity.Municipal Financial Management,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Forestry,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform

Applied science facilitates the large-scale expansion of protected areas in an Amazonian hot spot

Meeting international commitments to protect 17% of terrestrial ecosystems worldwide will require \u3e3 million square kilometers of new protected areas and strategies to create those areas in a way that respects local communities and land use. In 2000–2016, biological and social scientists worked to increase the protected proportion of Peru’s largest department via 14 interdisciplinary inventories covering \u3e9 million hectares of this megadiverse corner of the Amazon basin. In each landscape, the strategy was the same: convene diverse partners, identify biological and sociocultural assets, document residents’ use of natural resources, and tailor the findings to the needs of decision-makers. Nine of the 14 landscapes have since been protected (5.7 million hectares of new protected areas), contributing to a quadrupling of conservation coverage in Loreto (from 6 to 23%). We outline the methods and enabling conditions most crucial for successfully applying similar campaigns elsewhere on Earth

Applying Asset Mapping to Protected Area Planning and Management in the Cordillera Azul National Park, Peru

Participatory conservation efforts are now common throughout regions of high biodiversity in the developing world. Standard approaches to participatory conservation begin with need-based assessments that identify human-induced ecological threats and livelihood deficiencies, but this focus on “threats” and “needs” tends to reinforce perceptions of rural people as predatory, poor and dependent. We examine the theoretical, conceptual, and methodological application of an alternative, “assets-based” approach to participatory conservation and the co-management of natural resources in areas of high cultural and biological diversity. As a case study, we report on the implementation of an asset-mapping activity applied in the buffer zone of the Cordillera Azul National Park in north-central Peru. Data were collected by community facilitators in 53 communities within the park’s buffer zone. These data encompass local knowledge systems, community visions for the future, and innovative livelihood strategies compatible with conservation goals. By focusing on these social assets, this approach demonstrates the ways in which positive, pre-existing cultural characteristics may be used to plan and guide the management of a protected area. We describe how this approach has helped to empower local communities and to improve dialogue and transparency between disparate stakeholders. We also include a discussion of the challenges and limitations of this asset-mapping activity

A new approach to conservation: using community empowerment for sustainable well-being

The global environmental conservation community recognizes that the participation of local communities is essential for the success of conservation initiatives; however, much work remains to be done on how to integrate conservation and human well-being. We propose that an assets-based approach to environmental conservation and human well-being, which is grounded in a biocultural framework, can support sustainable and adaptive management of natural resources by communities in regions adjacent to protected areas. We present evidence from conservation and quality of life initiatives led by the Field Museum of Natural History over the past 17 years in the Peruvian Amazon. Data were derived from asset mapping in 37 communities where rapid inventories were conducted and from 38 communities that participated in longer term quality of life planning. Our main findings are that Amazonian communities have many characteristics, or assets, that recent scholarship has linked to environmental sustainability and good natural resource stewardship, and that quality of life plans that are based on these assets tend to produce priorities that are more consistent with environmental conservation. Importantly, we found that validating social and ecological assets through our approach can contribute to the creation of protected areas and to their long-term management. As strategies to engage local communities in conservation expand, research on how particular methodologies, such as an assets-based approach, is needed to determine how these initiatives can best empower local communities, how they can be improved, and how they can most effectively be linked to broader conservation and development processes

Shared Principles of Restoration Practice in the Chicago Wilderness Region

We describe the rules, norms, and strategies (institutional statements) that characterize ecological restoration across 10 organizations in the Chicago Wilderness region. Our use of Ostrom’s IAD ADICO grammar tool is novel in both context (non-extractive resource management) and data type (qualitative interviews). Results suggest that, in contrast to a focus on rules in the literature, restoration is overwhelmingly guided by strategies (institutional statements void of tangible or emotional sanctions). Moreover, a small, but critical set of norms exist. From over 1,700 institutional statements extracted, we found a suite of rich principles that guide behavior in all of the organizations: (1) qualify, don’t quantify; (2) listen to the land; (3) practice follow-up; (4) do no harm; (5) respond to sanctions from the land; (6) balance diverse internal stakeholders; and (7) balance diverse external factors. These principles suggest that Chicago Wilderness restorationists have a strong shared understanding upon which collective action and adaptive management occurs