Discursos sobre exploração de recursos naturais renováveis e conservação da biodiversidade
Dr. Guadanin gave an instructive overview of the conceptual and terminological problems at the crossroads between social anthropology and natural resource management. The talk emphasized renewable natural resource use by 'traditional' human groups, but it appears that efforts to generalize knowledge about such use stumble on the definition of 'traditional' and get trapped in a labyrinth of reifications. We discussed the need to clarify concepts, as well as the relative impacts of extractivism and land use change on biodiversity conservation. Renewable natural resource use by whoever does it will be more amenable to study once the people who do the use are sufficiently educated and empowered to formalize their economic activity. In the meantime, researchers may want to complement the social anthropology perspective with a microeconomic approach to solving the most pressing problems.