Knowledge Partnerships: Rapid Rural Appraisal's Role in Catalyzing Community-Based Management in Venezuela

Abstract

In addition to political partnerships, less-explored components of community-based management (CBM) are knowledge partnerships that blend expert opinion and local ecological wisdom into a comprehensive wellspring for environmental decision making. The exclusion through omission of local input in knowledge construction is a consequence of widespread application of positivist methods that are ill-equipped to engage and empower local knowledge. These gaps in the theory and practice of CBM deserve attention. In response, we explored the utility of a participatory research methodology called Rapid Rural Appraisal for gathering local fishery knowledge and formulating knowledge partnerships between expert and local ways of knowing in a Venezuelan watershed. Our research supports Nelson Mandela's assertion that "we must tap the deep understanding for the environment which is inscribed in the experience of those whose lives and well-being depend on it. Active involvement of communities in managing their environment must be the order of the day" (quoted by Harsch 1995, 4).