The political ontology of protected area co-management: worlding and nature perceptions among stakeholders

Abstract

Political ontology reveals the processes of domination at play in the enactment of realities in a(post-) colonial context. In this article, we illustrate the implications of the power asymmetries inherent in conservation and co-management of protected areas involving Indigenous populations. We do so by exploring the case of Pilón Lajas in the Bolivian Amazon region, an area with double legal status as an Indigenous Territory and Biosphere Reserve. Drawing from our ethnographic fieldwork, we describe how indigenous relational ontology and the modern ontology of 'cultural diversity' are enacted by different stakeholders, and analyse critically the problems that arise for protected area management owing to the domination of a single ontology in a context where different ontologies are enacted. We finish by presenting our argument that solving such problems requires a cognitive justice approach.

Institutional rearrangements in the north Luangwa ecosystem: Implications of a shift to community based natural resource management for equity in protected area governance

“…Equity also necessitates acknowledging that people affected by environmental interventions frequently face knowledge production that often goes against their own interests and values [ 66 ]. There is therefore a need to prioritize local peoples ways of knowing and being-in-place and then aligning them to NGOs and government interventions rather than retroactively including communities after decisions had been made [ 67 , 68 ]. This approach would have wider impact on implementation of equitable conservation strategies in the global south were implementation of conservation are driven by countries and NGOs in the global north.…”

The impact of ancient Mesoamerican cities on long-term environmental sustainability: the view from historical ecology

“…This, together with the cosmology that the ka'ax has owners and lords, indicates land-sharing type management models, on the one hand, and the domain of relational ontologies, on the other. Based on relational ontologies, the concept of "nature" is a culturally minority notion that represents a Western belief with a strong Christian (Edenic) imprint in which society is separated from the environment (Denevan, 1992;Gambon and Bottazzi, 2021). In contrast, many indigenous peoples perceive relational webs between humans and non-humans that must be kept in balance to achieve profound sustainability of life (De la Cadena, 2015).…”