Begossi, Alpina. 2000. "Conservation Ecology, Human Ecology and the Management of the Commons." Presented at "Constituting the Commons: Crafting Sustainable Commons in the New Millenium", the Eighth Conference of the International Association for the Study of Common Property, Bloomington, Indiana, USA, May 31-June 4.

Abstract

"This study deals with the importance of ecological concepts and models that have been useful in the management of the commons. Conservation ecology and human ecology are areas of research that have been contributing with tools that are useful to detect the local use of natural resources, individual tactics and strategies, territories, and the distribution of knowledge on natural resources among members of a population. Starting with some principal theoretical foundations of ecology, I will develop aspects of human ecology and of patterns of scale that have shown its usefulness in local management. To illustrate the application of such ecological tools, I give examples of the rubber-tappers from the Upper Juruá Extractive Reserve (Acre, Amazon), of the caboclos from the Jaú National Park (Negro River, Amazon) and of the caiçaras from the Atlantic Forest Coast, living at state parks and protected areas along the coast of Rio and São Paulo."