Society Culture and Environmental Adaptability in Central and South America

This paper constitutes an in-depth and comparative review of three recent anthropological studies of environmental adaptability in Central and South America. In an attempt to overcome the dualism of former ecological anthropology, Arizpe, Paz and Velßzquez (1996), Wilbert (1998), and Santos-Graneros and Barclay (1998) bring nature and society into a common framework aimed at understanding human adaptation, as well as the changing relations of human societies to natural environments. The paper discusses the ideas and arguments contained in these three books by focusing on the cultural dimensions of human adaptation to the environment. It then examines the local and global patterns of resource management. The paper concludes with a few remarks on how to link anthropological research on indigenous survival in the context of deforestation and modernization with policy recommendations.

The Yasuni-ITT Initiative: Oil Development and Alternative Forms of Wealth Making in the Ecuadorian Amazon

The design of economic instruments for the protection of ecological wealth in Latin American countries poor in financial capital, but rich in biological diversity poses very specific challenges. This article examines some of the interests, claims, discourses and values of a range of social actors (government officials, business leaders, international development planners, intellectuals, indigenous representatives, and activists) involved in defining the future economic use of the Yasuni National Park, a Biosphere Reserve for Humanity located in the Amazonian Region of Ecuador, a small oil-producing country in Latin America. Two alternative development projects for this region are currently being debated by the government, the oil industry and civil society. The first one involves the development of a large oil and gas field in the Yasuni National Park, while the second proposes a financial mechanism by which Ecuador would be compensated for not exploiting the vast reserves of heavy crude lying underneath the park. Researched over a two-year period by combining social anthropology, ecological economics and various political and economic approaches to development policy, this case study illustrates the unique problems posed by the incorporation of the natural capital of ecosystems in economic decisions. Negotiations of trade-offs between development and conservation, it is concluded, cannot be properly understood without reference to morally framed notions such as work, productivity, ownership, exchange, reward and responsibility.

Partnerships for Sustainable Forest Management: Lessons from the Ecuadorian Choco

This paper analyses comparatively the development of two coalitions for the sustainable forest management of remaining portions of the Ecuadorian Chocó owned by indigenous communities. One coalition, a network of environmental NGOs, promotes the co-operative commercialisation of community timber and puts pressure on timber merchants to raise the price they pay to producers. The other comprises a large forestry and wood-processing group which has joint ventures with a number of indigenous communities, and which is now seeking green certification for its logging operations. Both coalitions operate locally by promoting and implementing community forestry projects, and nationally by participating in the elaboration of Ecuador's new forest law. Various activities promoted by the two coalitions are compared: land titling; local-level conservation; the building of new community institutions; local-level social development; attempts to reform wood markets; and policy reform at the national level. The paper attempts to explain why both coalitions have tended to stereotype traditional Chocoan forest dwellers according to fixed ethnic categories, while overlooking their basic economic needs, values and development aspirations. Local communities have benefited from these partnerships in terms of land titling and training, but have not seen improvements in what they value most, the adequate provision of health and education services. The paper ends with a discussion of the factors contributing to the successful building of pro-poor coalitions

Anthropological Encounters with Economic Development and Biodiversity Conservation

Current debates on the ecological crisis and on shared responsibilities for the maintenance of the earth's commons raise fundamental anthropological questions, but anthropologists have yet to engage fully with them, or with the paradigm of sustainable development. This chapter offers a personal account of encounters between anthropology, biodiversity conservation, and economic development. Authors examining the links between biological and cultural diversity are reviewed, and recent studies of conservation and development policies critically assessed.

Time and Memory in Indigenous Amazonia: Anthropological Perspectives

Book review of Time and Memory in Indigenous Amazonia: Anthropological Perspectives. Carlos Fausto and Michael Heckenberger, editors. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2007. Foreword by Manuela Carneiro da Cunha, ivx + 322 pp., maps, figures, tables, notes, references, index. $ 65.00 ISBN 13: 978-0-8130-3060. [www.upf.com]

Review Time and its Object

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