Collaborative action research for biocultural heritage conservation

摘要: Given the rapid pace of environmental and cultural change all over the world, including Indigenous hotspots like the greater Amazon-Orinoco basin, innovative strategies are needed to meet the challenge of biocultural conservation. Collaborative Action Research (CAR) focused on the preservation and revitalization of traditional and local environmental knowledge (TEK/LEK) represents a promising approach in this regard. CAR entails cooperation, exchange, and complementary labor between different stakeholders—local communities, scientific researchers, and potentially others—for the purpose of studying and understanding issues of mutual concern and then taking informed measures to address those issues. In contrast to basic research, which is guided by academic questions and geared toward information extraction, CAR is focused on assessing and ameliorating community-defined problems. This chapter …