Speaking of fire: reflexive governance in landscapes of social change and shifting local identities

Indigenous peoples in Canaima National Park, Venezuela, gain confidence to engage in dialogue with other actors when their marginalized environmental knowledge is publicly acknowledged within endogenous cultural processes. This finding emerges from three participatory research projects in the Gran Sabana region that facilitated dialogue among indigenous groups regarding their conflicting views of fire. The studies fostered community-wide critical reflections on cultural change and identity formations, suggesting a pathway to reflexive environmental governance in intercultural settings marked by conflict and rapid social transformation.

Rodríguez, I., Sletto, B., Bilbao, B., Sánchez-Rose, I., & Leal, A. (2013). Speaking of fire: reflexive governance in landscapes of social change and shifting local identities. Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 20(6), 689–703. https://doi.org/10.1080/1523908x.2013.766579