Learning to build participatory conservation: contributions from social anthropology

Abstract

This article discusses the role of anthropologists and the contributions made by Social Anthropology to the study and practice of environmental conservation in Chile. Based on three experiences where anthropologists led participatory-conservation processes, we state that Participatory Methodologies together with an ethnographic perspective and fueled by recent anthropological theory can contribute to advance more inclusive and appropriate forms of environmental conservation. While questioning an ethnographic approach disengaged from local political circumstances, we argue for the positioning of anthropologists as agents inside often conflictive processes of participatory-conservation.