The meeting of multiple governmentalities and technologies of participation in protected areas: the case of the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve (Peruvian Amazon)

Diego Palacios,J.P. Sarmiento Barletti

doi:10.1505/146554821833466095

Abstract

This paper analyzes the meeting of different forms of governmentality in the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve (RCA), a protected natural area in the Peruvian Amazon. The variety of practices governing the RCA and the indigenous and non-indigenous populations in its buffer zone, responds to the intersection of socio-historical processes of extraction and conservation. These processes are marked by years of struggle by the indigenous movement to recapture the governance of their territories, resulting in the co-management of the RCA through a negotiated e co-governmentality between the Peruvian state and ECA-Amarakaeri, an indigenous organization. However, while this co-management arrangement permits participatory governance by historically excluded actors such as indigenous peoples, it excludes another population: Andean migrants. This type of governance challenges the role of multi-stakeholder forums related to protected areas and poses questions about the technologies of participation necessary for an equal interaction between the different interests in the governance of protected area.

Highlights

There are two contradictory processes of territorial governance in the Peruvian Amazon: a longstanding one that has involved the extraction of natural resources and colonization of its territory, and a more recent one whose objective is to conserve the biodiversity of its forests (Álvarez 2012, Larsen 2016)
What socio-historical processes have led to the production and overlap of different governmentalities in the réserve communale Amarakaeri (RCA)? How have indigenous peoples contested and negotiated these governmentalities? What are the governmentality challenges stemming from the creation of two arenas of participation in apparent competition with each other? These questions demonstrate the relevance of the RCA as a case study, as it reveals a series of intersections and overlaps between different ongoing processes in this territory, including extractive activities and conservation agendas (Orihuela 2017, Pinedo 2017, 2019)
The legal requirement of having a multi-stakeholder management committee complicates the governance practices of the negotiated eco-governmentality between SERNANP and ECA-Amarakaeri, as it allows for the introduction of other stakeholders with different interests that may be contrary to those of indigenous peoples in the RCA’s buffer zone or SERNANP’s conservationist agenda

Summary

SUMMARY

This paper analyzes the meeting of different forms of governmentality in the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve (RCA), a protected natural area in the Peruvian Amazon. The variety of practices governing the RCA and the indigenous and non-indigenous populations in its buffer zone, responds to the intersection of socio-historical processes of extraction and conservation These processes are marked by years of struggle by the indigenous movement to recapture the governance of their territories, resulting in the co-management of the RCA through a negotiated eco-governmentality between the Peruvian state and ECA-Amarakaeri, an indigenous organization. While this co-management arrangement permits participatory governance by historically excluded actors such as indigenous peoples, it excludes another population: Andean migrants. Este tipo de gobernanza desafía el papel de los foros multiactor en las áreas protegidas y plantea interrogantes sobre las tecnologías de participación necesarias para una interacción equitativa entre los diferentes intereses en la gobernanza de las áreas protegidas

INTRODUCTION

RESEARCH METHODS

Findings

CONCLUSIONS