Engaging indigenous and academic knowledge on bees in the Amazon: implications for environmental management and transdisciplinary research.

Simone Athayde,Wemerson C Ballester,John Richard Stepp

doi:10.1186/s13002-016-0093-z

Simone Athayde, Wemerson C Ballester + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.1186/s13002-016-0093-z

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Abstract

BackgroundThis paper contributes to the development of theoretical and methodological approaches that aim to engage indigenous, technical and academic knowledge for environmental management. We present an exploratory analysis of a transdisciplinary project carried out to identify and contrast indigenous and academic perspectives on the relationship between the Africanized honey bee and stingless bee species in the Brazilian Amazon. The project was developed by practitioners and researchers of the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA, a Brazilian NGO), responding to a concern raised by a funding agency, regarding the potential impact of apiculture development by indigenous peoples, on the diversity of stingless bee species in the Xingu Park, southern Brazilian Amazon. Research and educational activities were carried out among four indigenous peoples: Kawaiwete or Kaiabi, Yudja or Juruna, Kīsêdjê or Suyá and Ikpeng or Txicão.MethodsA constructivist qualitative approach was developed, which included academic literature review, conduction of semi-structured interviews with elders and leaders, community focus groups, field walks and workshops in schools in four villages. Semi-structured interviews and on-line surveys were carried out among academic experts and practitioners.ResultsWe found that in both indigenous and scientific perspectives, diversity is a key aspect in keeping exotic and native species in balance and thus avoiding heightened competition and extinction. The Africanized honey bee was compared to the non-indigenous westerners who colonized the Americas, with whom indigenous peoples had to learn to coexist. We identify challenges and opportunities for engagement of indigenous and scientific knowledge for research and management of bee species in the Amazon. A combination of small-scale apiculture and meliponiculture is viewed as an approach that might help to maintain biological and cultural diversity in Amazonian landscapes.ConclusionThe articulation of knowledge from non-indigenous practitioners and researchers with that of indigenous peoples might inform sustainable management practices that are, at the same time, respectful of indigenous perspectives and intellectual property rights. However, there are ontological, epistemological, political and financial barriers and constraints that need to be addressed in transdisciplinary research projects inter-relating academic, technical and indigenous knowledge systems for environmental management.

Highlights

This paper contributes to the development of theoretical and methodological approaches that aim to engage indigenous, technical and academic knowledge for environmental management
Baggethun et al [11] highlight the importance of traditional ecological knowledge systems (TEK) as reservoirs of experiential knowledge that might provide insights for the design of adaptation and mitigation strategies to cope with global environmental change
We present an analysis of a project developed to engage indigenous and academic knowledge on the ecology and management of bees in the Amazon

Summary

Introduction

This paper contributes to the development of theoretical and methodological approaches that aim to engage indigenous, technical and academic knowledge for environmental management. O projeto foi desenvolvido por técnicos e pesquisadores do Instituto Socioambiental (ISA, Ong brasileira) respondendo a uma preocupação levantada por uma agência de financiamento, relacionada com um potencial impacto da produção comercial de mel de abelhas por povos indígenas sobre a diversidade de espécies de abelhas sem ferrão no Parque Indígena do Xingu, no sul da Amazônia brasileira. Erren et al [13] propose that folk knowledge held by non-scientists such as indigenous persons may be manifested in common sense These bodies of knowledge might be compared to the scientific research process, since they are the result of powerful tests of hypotheses by many individuals across time and space. Evidence supports the claim that biodiversity conservation and management projects have been more successful when local knowledge was incorporated in the process [9, 14, 15]

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