1 Sep 2016

New advances building the Participatory and Intercultural Fire Management in Venezuela (Part 1)

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Kavanayen Pemón Indigenous Community workshop and Assembly September 1, 2016 New advances and agreements in the Pemón Indigenous community of Kavanayén, Gran Sabana, for the construction of the Intercultural and Participative Fire Management in Canaima National Park, Venezuela. During year 2016, the research group of the “Building the case for integrating Indigenous and academic knowledge into a participatory and sustainable fire management policy” project, supported by British Academy, UK,  and coordinated by the Royal Holloway University of London and Simon Bolivar … Read More
14 Mar 2016

Why bridging traditional knowledge and environmental science matters

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Although there is growing recognition of the relevance of local knowledge systems for conservation and environmental management, Western science continues to value quantitative data on a relatively small number of variables. Local ecological knowledge, on the other hand, qualitatively integrates complex situations over different spatio-temporal scales and across disciplines to provide holistic interpretations. Engagement with local ecological knowledge is typically to validate it through scientific knowledge, and/or to assimilate it within Western worldviews of nature and the environment e.g. community … Read More
12 Jan 2016

Are Community Owned Solutions against progress?

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It’s often been argued that, increasingly, Indigenous communities, especially younger generations, are evolving towards more ‘Western’ lifestyles while leaving behind traditional indigenous practices, thus making the communities ‘less indigenous’. In this discourse, there is a Western ideal representation of indigenous communities as ‘primitive noble savages’ which often contradicts the actual day-to-day practices and customs of indigenous communities. It is important to make it clear that the ‘community owned solutions’ approach does not intrinsically favour traditional practices or prevent communities from … Read More
3 Dec 2015

Why Community Owned Solutions

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Why are we advocating community owned solutions? Highly marginalised groups, such as Indigenous peoples, are generally represented as ‘poor’, ‘backwards’ and ‘requiring help’. This deficit model too often prevails at all levels of policy and decision making, where government and market-led approaches to sustainable development are generally designed by external experts. Many of these policies propose generic, blueprint solutions which may undermine already existing local solutions. The Cobra Collective has shown that Indigenous peoples and other marginalised groups are a … Read More
23 Nov 2015

Taller en Caracas, Venezuela: ¿Cómo encontrar y compartir soluciones comunitarias propias?

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La perspectiva de un participante November 23, 2015 Recientemente apoyamos desde la IBG-Venezuela/ACOANA la organización y ejecución del Taller de entrenamiento para facilitadores comunitarios: ¿Cómo encontrar y compartir soluciones comunitarias propias? Un nuevo enfoque para la participación comunitaria (7 de noviembre 2015), impulsada con perseverancia por el equipo COBRA, liderado en esta oportunidad por Jay Mistry, con el apoyo de la profesora Bibiana Bilbao (Universidad Simón Bolívar), en su visita a Venezuela.   Participé en el taller con interés renovado … Read More
15 Aug 2015

First meeting of the Participatory and Intercultural Fire Management Network

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  Sharing experiences and developing action plans Between the 8-11 July 2015, more than 60 Indigenous, institutional and academic representatives from Venezuela, Brazil, Guyana and the UK came together at the Estación Científica Parupa, with the support of the Comunidad Indígena Kavanayén, Gran Sabana, Venezuela. This first meeting of the Participatory and Intercultural Fire Management Network aimed at exploring ‘community owned’ Indigenous fire management i.e. fire management practices that emerge out of the traditional wisdom and experiences of Indigenous communities … Read More

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