Paper short abstract:

Drawing on research with both indigenous people and academic and policy workers this paper examines understandings of forest conservation and climate change mitigation strategies in contemporary Amazonia.

Paper long abstract:

Drawing on research with both indigenous people and academic and policy workers this paper examines understandings of forest conservation and climate change mitigation strategies in contemporary Amazonia. It begins by considering both indigenous conceptions of and physical interactions with the environment. Through this focus the paper interrogates ideas of perspectivism and what they may or may not suggest about notions of forest conservation. It also considers the relative utility of academic understandings of indigenous ontologies. The paper then goes on with a similar analysis of contemporary, non-indigenous notions of climate change and climate-change mitigation policies, examining both their practical outcomes as well as their ontological underpinnings. Through this broadly parallel analysis of emic and etic approaches to the Amazonian environment the paper seeks to consider the opportunities and limitations of the latest technical solutions being offered in the arena of International Development. The paper ends by considering the ethical issues surrounding the fact that climate change is itself an outcome of the broader process of development.