Indigenous collaborative research for wildlife management in Amazonia: The case of the Kaxinawá, Acre, Brazil

Capacity-building workshops for co-researchers, interviews, community dialogs, and wildlife monitoring surveys.

Wildlife is a key food source for Indigenous people in the Amazon. This collaborative research examined the variations in hunting and the availability of wildlife in Kaxinawa territory on the Peru-Brazil border. Conservation and resource management efforts are more successful when based on collaboration, respect, and integrate Indigenous knowledge. "The results of this study suggest the relevance and value of long-term participatory studies to complement short-terms academic studies of biodiversity and natural resource use and management." (p. 2718)

In the collaborative research project, the Kaxinawa Indigenous people participated in the design and execution of the project. The key research questions were developed by the Kaxinawa, based on what was important to them, and used their knowledge of their land.

Indigenous people's knowledge of their land is accurate. Conservation efforts are more likely to succeed if they are based on respect, community collaboration, and integrating local Indigenous knowledge with western scientific knowledge. Indigenous control of their territory is essential for conservation and for sustainable economic stability.

wildlife monitoring surveys, self-reporting hunting data, interviews

The research created the foundations for a resource management plan for the Kaxinawa territory. Significantly, the names of the Kaxinawa co-researchers were listed as co-authors in the academic publication.

"The present study demonstrates how potential biases in collaborative research are outweighed by its advantages in providing ecological knowledge needed for sound management, and validates the strategy of increasing local communities' involvement on natural resource conservation research." (p. 2727)

Conservation
Science