We work with indigenous and rural communities as well as conservation NGOs to build capacity for locally based monitoring and environmental management programs. We train indigenous and other rural peoples, as well as university students and faculty in participatory methods for large-scale biodiversity, vegetation and soil monitoring. This includes devising novel techniques for use by those who are illiterate and innumerate. Information derived from this work is used to investigate how capacity, governance and data interact to inform decision-making. Funding by World Wildlife Fund-Brasil, The Wildlife Conservation Society, National Science Foundation, The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
Indigenous practices are affected by Christian beliefs, but indigenous cosmology mediates the influence of non-indigenous, Christian worldviews on biodiversity
An examination of how the relationships between indigenous religious systems and the three dominant forms of Christianity practiced in the Guyanese Amazon influences the on-going conversion process between churches, intra-church social networks, pan-community networks, and community cohesion and governance. From this we hope to derive understanding of traditional belief systems and practices interact with different Christian religions to influence taboos in the management of natural resources, including wild animal species. Various people and funded by the National Science Foundation.