2. Outline
• About BRINCC Expedition
•Why engage with communities?
•Types of engagement
•People centered research on BRINCC
•Building capacity for conservation
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www.brinccexpedition.org 2
7. About BRINCC Expedition
Social Team
• Participatory Mapping
• Resource and land use
• Political Ecology
• Economics of resource use
• Anthropology
Biodiversity Team
• Gibbons
• Amphibians
• Butterflies
• Small Mammals
• Nocturnal Mammals
• Birds
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8. About BRINCC Expedition
People Orientated Research
• Participatory and GIS mapping of
• Community forest and traditional
forest
• Sites of cultural and spiritual
importance
• Ecosystem services
• Social science research focussing on
• Land use by local people
• Livelihoods and forest resources
• Economic value of forest resources to
communities
• The political ecology of land use by
local people and companies
Biodiversity Surveys in Community
Forest
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9. Why engage with local communities?
• Building good relations
• Mutual benefit
• Local knowledge, history, background and context
• It’s their land!
• Poor and remote, marginalised communities
Without local communities the landscape doesn’t make any sense
• Influencing spatial planning process
• Community prioritised conservation
• High Conservation Value (HCV) assessments
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10. Types of Engagement
• Partnership
• Collaborative Research
Increasing Level of Engagement
• Participatory Research
• Consultation
• Permission Seeking
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13. BRINCC Social Research
Resource Use and Land Use
• Focus Group Discussions (e.g.
timelines and seasonal calendars)
•Pebble Distribution Method
•Formal and informal interviews
•Questionnaires
•Types of forest and use patterns
•Species used for food, medicine,
trade, construction, fuel etc
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14. BRINCC Social Research
Social Anthropology
• Aim: to understand how areas
of habitat and species relate to
traditional culture.
•Participant observation
•Informal Interviews.
•Researchers were postgraduate
students from same ethnic
background.
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15. BRINCC Social Research
Political Ecology
• To understand the process
by which land rights, mining
and logging concessions are
granted
•Understanding the power
relations between and within
the community regarding
decision making
•Tracing the investment and
supply chains for extractive
resources
•Mapping the actors and
stakeholders involved
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16. BRINCC Social Research
Livelihood Economics
• Analyse the transition between
subsistence and market based
economy
•Gain understanding of local
perspectives on impacts on
livelihoods and forest
•Understand concerns and
benefits of resource extraction to
the local communities
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17. Training and Capacity Building
Local People
• GPS training
• Biological
Research
• Local to Latin
Names
Students
• Research Design
• Fieldwork Experience
• Data Analysis
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18. Conclusions
•Engagement can be powerful but the level of engagement must be
suitable to the context and setting
•It’s not wilderness if people live there
•Take it slowly, try to gain a broad understanding before detailed
research
Two final thoughts:
•Don’t raise expectations
•Investigate data rights and discuss this openly with the communities
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