Community attitudes towards wildlife management in the Bolivian Chaco
- 24 April 2001
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Oryx
- Vol. 35 (04), 292-300
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s003060530003204x
Abstract
The process of community wildlife management in the Izozog area of the Bolivian Chaco began with participatory field research – self-monitoring of hunting activities and research on key game species. On-going discussions in community meetings have elicited seven wildlife management recommendations: (1) establishing hunting zones, (2) hunting only adults, (3) hunting only males during the reproductive season, (4) hunting only for the family's needs, (5) hunting only abundant animals, (6) protecting plants that are important to wildlife, and (7) prohibiting hunting by outsiders. We compare community attitudes towards these management measures. A majority of communities favour, in decreasing order, measures 7, 4, 6 and 1, communities are divided with respect to measures 2 and 3, and most communities oppose measure 5. Two socio-economic characteristics of communities – location and ethnicity – are associated with patterns of attitudes towards wild-life management among communities, whereas religion, economic activity and community size are not. Izoceño communities are currently reinterpreting traditional beliefs both to support and to oppose active wildlife management measures.Keywords
This publication has 14 references indexed in Scilit:
- Rethinking Tropical Forest Conservation: Perils in ParksConservation Biology, 2000
- The Fate of Tropical Forests: a Matter of StewardshipConservation Biology, 2000
- Arguing Tropical Forest Conservation: People versus ParksConservation Biology, 2000
- Extracting Humans from NatureConservation Biology, 2000
- Natural resource use, crop damage and attitudes of rural people in the vicinity of the Maputo Elephant Reserve, MozambiqueEnvironmental Conservation, 1998
- Challenges to nature conservation with community development in central African forestsOryx, 1997
- A new park in the Bolivian Gran Chaco – an advance in tropical dry forest conservation and community-based managementOryx, 1997
- A reverent approach to the natural worldBioScience, 1996
- From opportunism to nascent conservationHuman Nature, 1994
- The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic CrisisScience, 1967