Doctoral Dissertation Research: Learning from Community-Led Conservation and Resource Management

What different communities do as they make decisions about conserving and managing their natural resources to build long-term, sustainable solutions is of significant global interest. This doctoral dissertation research examines the impacts of Indigenous conservation and resource management to expand the understanding of how environment and sustainability outcomes can be improved across the world. Indigenous and other local communities have effective and sustainable conservation practices that give rise to sound sustainability outcomes. The research expands scientific understanding of the effectiveness of various conservation efforts in addressing the intersections between environmental adaptations and community life. In addition to providing scientific training for a graduate student in anthropology and interdisciplinary conservation research, the broader impacts of this research involve close collaboration with Indigenous communities. Research results support ongoing conservation efforts by community partners, and with their consent will be disseminated through regional and international Indigenous conservation networks. Findings also inform ongoing collaborative development of an undergraduate Indigenous environmental studies curriculum, thus contributing to long-term capacity development for Indigenous conservation and sustainable resource management. In order to understand the intersections between conservation and community building the investigators use participatory approaches and qualitative and spatial methods such as interviews, focus groups, community and forestry mapping. They test several factors that impact conservation efforts and decision-making in Indigenous communities. The research findings expand understandings of local, regional, and global resource management. The research makes significant contributions to environmental anthropology, environmental management, and conservation science, and the anthropology of indigeneity and land governance. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.