Speaking of fire: reflexive governance in landscapes of social change and shifting local identities

Abstract

The concept of reflexive governance has to a large extent emerged from an increasing recognition of the need to consider different meanings of nature in the environmental policy-making process. Yet, so far, little attention has been paid to creating conditions for reflexive governance among different actors in intercultural settings, particularly in the context of environmental conflict and strong cultural change among indigenous peoples. This paper reviews three participatory research projects carried out in the Gran Sabana in Canaima National Park, Venezuela, which facilitated dialogue among indigenous people regarding their conflicting views of fire, in part by developing community-wide critical reflections on processes of cultural change and identity formations. These experiences suggest that once marginalized environmental knowledge is publicly acknowledged within the context of endogenous cultural processes, indigenous people feel more confident to engage in dialogue with other actors, thus allowing the emergence of reflexive environmental governance.

Community owned solutions for fire management in tropical ecosystems: case studies from Indigenous communities of South America

“…Colonial explorers, missionaries and naturalists were the first to advocate a negative narrative of traditional fire use as degrading and harmful to the environment, exacerbated in recent years by scientists, the media, politicians and tourists [41]. In the Gran Sabana, Canaima National Park, Venezuela, for example, the derogatory phrase 'Pemones los quem ones' (crudely translated as 'Pemón the pyromaniacs') has generated considerable conflict over fire management between state resource management actors and Indigenous peoples, reflecting wider Indigenous struggles over territorial land claims and self-determination [33]. Similarly, the conservation discourse in Brazil which has historically believed that all anthropogenic burning, including Indigenous, is destructive, has also been widely adopted by powerful interest groups such as the 'ruralistas' (bloc of large pro-agrobusiness landowners) as part of the political narrative contesting Indigenous rights to land [5].…”

“…R. Soc. B 371: 20150174 (INPARQUES) and the Caroni Electricity Company (formerly EDELCA, now CORPOELEC) [33]. These intergenerational divides between young Pemó n and elders have led to a decline in prescribed burning, which in turn has led to a build-up of flammable biomass and an increase in large-scale wildfires in the late dry season in some areas of the Gran Sabana [34,35].…”

Sharing Multiple Perspectives on Burning: Towards a Participatory and Intercultural Fire Management Policy in Venezuela, Brazil, and Guyana

“…Invitations were extended to Indigenous communities and governmental and research organizations who actively participated and took part in previous long-term participative action projects and fire collective experiments promoted by the authors in the central region of the Guiana Shield region of Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana [5,19,[25][26][27][28]36] (see also footnote 4 in Results Section). Indigenous communities and organizations belonging to: Pemón's Arekuna, Kamarakoto, and Taurepang peoples from the Gran Sabana region in Canaima National Park, Venezuela; and Makushi and Wapishana peoples from Roraima in northern Brazil and from the Rupununi region in Guyana attended this workshop.…”

Linking well-being with cultural revitalization for greater cognitive justice in conservation: lessons from Venezuela in Canaima National Park

“…Social change is leading to a decline in prescribed burning, which appears to result in critical accumulation of flammable biomass buildup in some areas of the Gran Sabana (Sletto 2006(Sletto , 2008, and is contributing to differences in perceptions and knowledge of fire management between youth and elders (Rodriguez 2007, Sletto andRodríguez 2013). Young Pemon from Kumarapapay, for instance, who have been subject to rapid social change and are more in contact with assimilation policies, are little aware of the important role of prescribed burning for preventing large destructive fires.…”