Integrating Ethnography and Spatial Analysis for Co-management in Indigenous Reserves in Amazonia

Dr. Christopher Shaffer

Associate Professor of Anthropology, Grand Valley State University

Abstract

Indigenous reserves comprise over 25% of the land area and over 50% of protected areas in Amazonia. While Indigenous reserves have proven extremely effective in preventing deforestation and conserving biodiversity, Indigenous Amazonians increasingly face challenges in managing these lands. Such challenges include maintaining the sustainability of resource use despite increasing population densities and changing subsistence practices, preserving traditional ecological knowledge, and defending territories from illegal incursions. In this talk, Dr. Shaffer will discuss his long-term collaborative research with the Waiwai, an Indigenous community in Guyana, South America, focused on co-management of subsistence hunting, cultural mapping, and territorial defense. In his work, Dr. Shaffer integrates qualitative ethnography with quantitative approaches like spatially explicit modeling to understand the cultural context of resource use, model long-term sustainability, and inform community-based management decisions. He will discuss the how such mixed-methods approaches and collaborations between researchers and Indigenous groups are essential for long-term conservation in Amazonia.