Research, conservation, and protected areas in Latin America: an incomplete store

Abstract

Feinsinger,  P.,  Pozzi,  C.,  Trucco,  C.,  Cuellar,  R.L.,  Laina,  A.,  Cañizares,  M.,  Noss,  A.  (2010). Research,  conservation,  and protected areas in Latin America: an incomplete store. Ecosistemas 19(2):97-111.

Latin America boasts an overwhelming diversity of protected areas (PAs) in every sense: size, climate, habitat, administration and goals, numbers and kinds of personnel, and socio-cultural context. These PAs must no longer be perceived as guarded enclosures whose only purpose is to preserve the nature inside. Scientific research (inquiry) must play a leading role in more integrated management approaches to the PA in the context of the whole landscape. Scientific inquiry, whether basic or applied, must involve not only professional researchers and students but also PA personnel and other people (indigenous and non-indigenous) who often inhabit the PA and almost always the semi natural  matrix  surrounding  it.  Many  such  "non-professionals"  are  naturally  capable  of  performing  high  quality  research  to  resolve  local concerns  in  conservation  and  management.  We  present  case  studies  ranging  from  incomplete  stories  in  APs  of  Argentina,  Cuba,  and Colombia to the nearly complete story of a Bolivian AP. Lack of recourses or administrative interest contributes to the current incompleteness of many stories, as does paternalism.