Abstract
The field of political ecology has striven to balance a focus on symbolic and materialist aspects of humanenvironment relations. Event ecology has emerged not only as a major materialistic approach for the study of human-environmental relations, but also as an important set of critiques of political ecology's supposed lack of ecology and overreliance on a priori assumptions about the linkages between local environmental changes and macropolitical economic phenomena. This article discusses the origins and progress of event ecology, while demonstrating its strengths and limitations vis-à-vis the development of political ecology research. Based on participant observation and interviews conducted among local residents of a small village (a quilombola community) in a state park in São Paulo, Brazil, I propose a collaborative event ecology that combines the rationale of event ecology with critical perspectives inspired by political ecology's focus on power relations, conservation and justice. Unlike the strict application of event ecology, I contend that scrutinizing events other than researcher-oriented ones may help us better understand why some places achieve conservation while others do not. The article concludes that assessing conservation effectiveness and change through environmental outcomes alone risks being seen as socially unjust in the eyes of locals while posing a real threat to local livelihoods and community-based development expectations.Key words: collaborative event ecology, conservation with justice, quilombola communities, Atlantic Forest, Brazil.
Highlights
Drawing on the case of a recently recognized quilombola community within a nature conservation unit in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, I propose a collaborative event ecology that combines the rationale of event ecology with critical perspectives inspired by political ecology's focus on power relations, conservation, and justice
Some potential pitfalls of event ecology and reconstruction of its trajectory. These discussions of methodology and political ecology are to some extent an outgrowth of Vayda's earlier idea of "progressive contextualization" as a method for human ecology (Vayda 1983)
I argue that in order to do so, one should initiate research by first scrutinizing the reality on the ground, based on a combination of the researcher’s position and the views of the people most directly affected by whatever event is at stake. This is the importance of incorporating empirical research in political ecology: a combination of a researcher's observations and questionnaires, for instance, allows him/her to grasp what is going on behind the scenes, on the ground, face-to-face, and through daily life interactions with locals and other interest groups
Summary
These discussions of methodology and political ecology are to some extent an outgrowth of Vayda's earlier idea of "progressive contextualization" as a method for human ecology (Vayda 1983). Government agencies and conservation NGOs see the region as an intact and pristine environment, whereas in reality, when seen through the eyes of local individuals and communities, the region provides completely distinct meanings, histories, socioeconomic utility, and interpretations of ecology Another example of conflicting views of nature is the study conducted by Robbins (2003a,b). I argue that in order to do so, one should initiate research by first scrutinizing the reality on the ground, based on a combination of the researcher’s position and the views of the people most directly affected by whatever event is at stake This is the importance of incorporating empirical research in political ecology: a combination of a researcher's observations and questionnaires, for instance, allows him/her to grasp what is going on behind the scenes, on the ground, face-to-face, and through daily life interactions with locals and other interest groups. Biologists may tend to overlook poverty, whereas a sociologist could miss on-the-ground connections between poverty and natural resource quality, quantity, access, and control
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