LB 11-112 - Forest conservation through shared knowledge generation in Southwest Guatemala

Threats to the maintenance and protection of Indigenous knowledge and land stewardship continue to jeopardize our planet’s biological diversity. For example, the forests in Southwestern Guatemala are of high conservation value and home to a well-organized network of Indigenous communities. Meanwhile, due to fragmented government protections and encroaching commercialization, this area is highly exploited. With only 25% of forest cover remaining, measuring biodiversity and employing stable management is paramount. Local empowerment through community-centered conservation provides a promising solution to biodiversity loss. However, ecological research tends to be directive (i.e. “top-down”), while primarily favoring Western knowledge over Indigenous knowledge for conservation. Moreover, empirical studies rarely elevate Indigenous methodologies – an approach that has shown to improve social, ecological, and economic outcomes. In an effort to shift this paradigm, the central aim of this research is to support local governance priorities through the documentation of mammalian and avian diversity in community managed areas using shared knowledge generation methods, as guided by local needs and expertise. In absence of such knowledge, conservation efforts may continue to perpetuate the separation of Indigenous communities from their ancestral lands and rely too heavily on unstable government protections in some of the most biodiverse areas of the world.This research demonstrates the complementary weaving of Indigenous and Western sciences to strengthen modern conservation strategies and support local sovereignty. Specifically, we used a mixed methods approach to broaden research outcomes by employing standardized camera trap protocols, point count surveys, and participatory action research to address the overall project aim. Results from the camera trap study across 6 km2 of mixed agroforestry and communally protected forest revealed over 10 species of medium-sized mammals. These results were expanded by local knowledge of mammals, adding five more ecologically and culturally important species to the list. Meanwhile, point count surveys compiled over 80 species of birds, including threatened species. Some of the observed mammal and avian species are rare to document in the region and are experiencing wide-spread habitat loss, emphasizing the central importance of elevating local knowledge and forest stewardship to increase landscape connectivity. Overall, this research (1) provides a mechanism for land rights advocacy through the documentation of diverse and socio-ecologically important species, (2) can be used to inform communal forest management and conservation, and (3) models a wildlife conservation approach that elevates the well-being of both humans and wildlife and reinforces locally driven and collaborative solutions in conservation.