Sociotechnical approach to protected areas and traditional communities

Abstract

We explore the relationship between protected areas (PAs) and traditional communities to further the proposition of conservation as a sociotechnical phenomenon. To do this, we use an anthropological empirical approach based on long-term ethnographic studies conducted in Brazil by 2 different researchers who lived among local fishers on the Amazon and Quilombolas in the Cerrado (a savanna). Both studies related to the establishment of terms of commitment between PAs and traditional communities in the context of participatory management. In one case, an agreement between the staff of the Lago Piratuba Biological Reserve and pirarucu fish harpooners from Sucuriju village regarding fishing methods is examined. The other case explores the transformations related to the ban on firebreaks practiced by Quilombola communities in the Cerrado region of central Brazil and the efforts by the managers of the Serra Geral do Tocantins Ecological Station to rehabilitate cultural burns. We find there were benefits to a sociotechnical approach to understanding environmental conservation. The permanence of the harpoon in the Amazon and the rehabilitation of firebreaks in the Cerrado reconfigure conservation and local communities’ techniques. More generally, this perspective can help avoid a reified view of the traditional communities and an abstract perspective of conservation policies. We believe sociotechnical conservation is a transformative approach that can be used to improve conventional conservation perspectives.