Community exchange among users of six Brazilian Amazon Extractive Reserves on September 19, 2019. Photo courtesy of Ana Violato Espada.
Ana Violato Espada, a doctoral researcher at the University of Florida and participant in the BNRGI Workshop and session at the 2020 Integrative Conservation Conference, has published a report on her community forestry research in the Brazilian Amazon. Ana organized a community exchange among users of six Amazonian Extractive Reserves to emphasize collective inquiry, experimentation grounded in experience, and social learning related to community timber management. The community exchange was part of Ana’s dissertation fieldwork (May 2018 to September 2019). Drawing on a decade of experience working in community-based forest management in the Amazon, Ana applied a participatory action research approach, using multiple participatory tools to engage people and emphasizing participation and action towards Sustainable Forest Management. Her innovative methodological approach to participatory action research is replicable in natural resource co-management contexts elsewhere.
Read more about the community exchange and Ana’s research here:
Espada, Ana Luiza Violato and Kainer, Karen A. (2020) “Fellowship Report: An ITTO Fellowship in the Brazilian Amazon has helped a doctoral researcher organize a community exchange among users of six sustainable-use forests and promote social learning on community-based forest management.” ITTO Tropical Forest Update 29 (3): 20-24.