Collaborative Wildlife Management and Adaptation to Change: The Tamshiyacu Tahuayo Communal Reserve, Peru

Abstract

Resume Collaborer a la gestion de la faune et s'adapter au changement: La reserve communale de Tamshiyacu Tahuayo, Perou On se sert d'une recherche sur la reserve communale Tamshiyacu Tahuayo, au Perou amazonien, pour demontrer la flexibilite des systemes de gestion de communaute lors de reactions aux changements de conditions sociales et ecologiques ainsi que le role de la recherche biologique dans l'information de ce processus. Une attention particuliere est portee aux problemes specifiques des populations mobiles ainsi qu'aux cycles d'abondance et de reduction des ressources locales qui en resultent. Resumen La gerencia comun de la fauna y la adaptacion al cambio: La reserva comunal Tamshiyacu Tahuayo en el Peru Se utiliza un estudio de casos de la Reserva Comunal Tamshiyacu Tahuayo en Per amazonico para demostrar la flexibilidad de los sistemas de gestion comunitaria al reaccionar ante los cambios sociales y las condiciones ecologicas asi como el papel de la investigacion biologica en la informacion de este proceso. Una atencion particular es dedicada a los problemas especificos de las poblaciones moviles asi como a los ciclos de abundancia y de reduccion de los recursos que resultan de estos problemas. Introduction The Tamshiyacu Tahuayo Communal Reserve (TTCR) in northeast Amazonian Peru was created through a coalition of local communities and researchers in response to large-scale hunting, fishing and logging by outside commercial interests. It is unusual in two respects: first, the extent to which communities have retained control over management in a government-created protected area; and secondly, the way in which communities' decisions about their own natural resource use have been informed by collaborative biological research. The TTCR covers an area of 322,500 hectares of uninhabited lowland Amazonian forest 100 km south of the state capital of Iquitos in Loreto, Peru (see Figure 1). The surrounding area has a low population density, with a total of about 6,000 local residents in the Tahuayo, Tamshiyacu, Yarapa and upper Yavari Miri river basins. A tributary to the Tahuayo river, the Blanco, is the main point of entry into the reserve on the western side: the initiative to create the reserve came from communities on the Tahuayo and Blanco rivers. The people of this region are mostly riberenos,--detribalised riverside dwellers (Bodmer 1994, Pinedo et al. 2000). Many ribereno families have historically highly mobile lifestyles, moving from place to place in order to meet changing demand for forest products from national and international markets. In some cases this history stretches back to early colonial times; others have only recently left their indigenous communities. The communities discussed in this case study practise a mixture of different types of small-scale resource use--farming, hunting, fishing and extraction of forest products--primarily for subsistence, with excess produce sold to markets. Their ethnic origins, the mix of different resource uses, the balance between subsistence and market activities, and their degree of mobility all vary greatly. What they have in common is their reliance for at least part of their livelihoods on highly dispersed natural resources spread over extensive areas. Because of this, many of the challenges they face with respect to natural resource rights, management and conservation are similar to those of other mobile peoples. The concept of community conservation rests on the premise that there is a common interest between conservationists and local people: a desire to limit uncontrolled exploitation by outsiders and safeguard the natural resource base for the future. Often, this involves establishing secure and exclusive land and resource rights for the local people. However, applicability of this model to people who use dispersed resources over extensive geographical areas is ambiguous. …