Community-based-conservation (CBC) projects are being initiated to protect wildlife corridors and connect ecological processes across landscapes. The conservation of wildlife in the Maasai Ecosystem of northern Tanzania relies on this approach for protection of migratory species outside of national parks on lands predominately occupied by Maasai pastoralists. The objective of this research project is to explore how the geographical knowledge of local Maasai residents contributes to scientific dialogues regarding CBC initiatives in the region that are based in both conservation biology and GIS (Geographic Information System) mapping. The project, therefore, involves a critical engagement with both local Maasai geographical knowledge and Western conservation science, to propose alternative wildlife conservation measures for the Maasai Ecosystem. The project explores theoretical questions regarding the value and place of indigenous knowledge within science and the politics of resource management, within the context of a political ecology research approach. The project first will ask what a Maasai geography of the region looks like, by exploring Maasai knowledge claims concerning historical as well as contemporary patterns of local ecology, wildlife resource use patterns, Maasai resource use patterns, Maasai-wildlife interactions, and Maasai notions of territoriality. The project will then investigate how dialogues of negotiation and translation can be built between Maasai knowledge and Conservation science by creating a final "text" of negotiation, based on in-depth ethnographic field work, ecological analysis, and participatory GIS mapping. Natural and social science techniques will include integrated use of in-depth interviews, key-informant led transects, group meetings, participant observations, ecological transects, air photo interpretation. In this manner, information obtained through social science methods will be continually reinforced and cross-checked, both geographically and with ecological methods. "Traveling" interviews with Maasai key informants will provide the most essential and innovative method used. By traveling with Maasai during their daily and seasonal land-use activities, ethno-botanical ecological sampling will be coupled with participatory observation and in-depth interviews to gain an understanding of Maasai resource use patterns and knowledge of local ecology. Ecological fieldwork will be conducted at specific sites deemed valuable for wildlife conservation purposes (as proposed by both conservation agencies and local Maasai) to delineate wildlife presence, wildlife-livestock interactions, and vegetation coverage at these sites. Participatory GIS mapping will be utilized to map information obtained through these combined methods. The challenges of translation and the politics of negotiating between competing knowledge claims, an essential component of the project, will be directly addressed throughout the project through self-reflective ethnography, participant observations, and additional interview questions.
By investigating the process of incorporating/integrating local knowledge claims into conservation planning and GIS mapping, this project will directly address the social and ecological complexities involved in building new 'participatory' conservation geographies in human landscapes. By utilizing participatory GIS, the project will contribute to a better understanding of the capabilities of GIS as a technique for the translation and negotiation between different knowledge claims. The urgency with which CBC and participatory GIS mapping projects are being pursued throughout the developing world makes this research question a timely one for policy makers and academics alike. The project informs the theoretical frameworks of political ecology, science studies, GIS and critical cartographic theory, and conservation biology. Studies of local knowledge are often separated from critical reviews of science, and critical science studies is often theoretically removed from scientific productions. By combining the insights of science studies with a politically sensitive investigation of local knowledge and an ecological analysis of local land use, this study will transcend such disciplinary boundaries and open new doors for investigation into human-environment relations. As such, this project will contribute to a better understanding of the various ways in which we mediate the middle ground between conservation and development, people and nature, Western Scientific and local knowledge claims. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.
