Summary: Micha Rahder, doctoral student in Anthropology at the University of California Santa Cruz, under the guidance of Dr. Andrew Mathews, will conduct research on the role of remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) sciences in forest conservation in Guatemalans Maya Biosphere Reserve. Remote sensing technologies, such as satellite imagery, along with GIS computer programs that can analyze complex multi-scalar spatial data, are emerging as key instruments in the global conservation toolbox. This project will investigate the production of scientific knowledge enabled by remote sensing and GIS, and the ways in which this knowledge is used and transformed in application by conservationists. Randers research will address the following central questions: 1) What political and material effects do remote sensing and GIS have in the Petén, and how do the people producing, using, or being described by these sciences grapple with these effects? 2) How do these technologies figure into the production of Natural landscapes and social difference? 3) What new possibilities for contestation or collaboration are emerging along with the rise of remote sensing and GIS technologies in Guatemalan conservation? These questions will be addressed through twelve months of ethnographic research in multiple geographic and institutional spaces, including participant observation among remote sensing scientists and conservation practitioners; in-depth interviews with scientists, conservationists, and local community members; and archival analysis of remote sensing reports and publications.
Intellectual Merit: This project will make a significant theoretical contribution to science & technology studies by examining scientific knowledge production in one of the most impoverished developing countries in the Western hemisphere. The research will also contribute to discussions on the politics of conservation practice, studies of cartography, and discussions of senses of place.
Broader Impacts: Project results will be communicated across disciplines and to conservation organizations working in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, encouraging collaboration between anthropologists, scientists, and conservation practitioners in addressing global conservation issues.
This project investigated the role of remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) sciences in forest conservation in Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve. Remote sensing technologies, such as satellite imagery, along with GIS computer programs that can analyze complex multi-scalar spatial data, are emerging as key instruments in the global conservation toolbox. These rapidly developing technologies allow for new visions of forested landscapes and new forms of social and ecological analysis, and this project examined the production of scientific knowledge enabled by remote sensing and GIS, and the ways in which this knowledge is used and transformed in application by conservationists. Situated in the conflict-ridden Maya Biosphere Reserve — widely recognized as one of the most difficult places in the world to do forest conservation — this project analyzes how Guatemala’s continued history of violence and inequality shape the production of scientific knowledge and its movements and applications as conservation workers attempt to stem the tide of deforestation inside the reserve. Over 12 months of ethnographic research, Micha Rahder examined the production and use of remote sensing and GIS knowledge in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, spending six months in the Guatemalan Park Service’s Center for Ecological Monitoring and Evaluation and six months with a leading international conservation organization, the Wildlife Conservation Society. The research involved participant observation and in-depth interviews with GIS technicians, conservation practitioners, and local community members about the interplay between science and politics in daily life and work inside the reserve. This research revealed the key role that maps and daily monitoring play in maintaining the reserve, and the ways that information and knowledge are closely tied to power. Rather than providing straightforward tools for decision makers or solutions to entrenched problems, the knowledge coming out of remote monitoring serves to help establish and maintain strategic political alliances by standardizing understandings of the complex dynamics of the human and ecological landscape. The maps and reports produced by the Center for Ecological Monitoring and Evaluation transform conflicting narratives of environmental change into a single account with clear causes and effects. And while users interacting with these reports do not always take them at face value, they provide an invaluable tool for shared action and collaboration across institutional and political boundaries. This project makes a significant theoretical contribution to science & technology studies by examining scientific knowledge production in one of the most impoverished developing countries in the Western hemisphere. The vast majority of STS scholarship is focused on the US and Western Europe, and this research addresses the role of chronic inequality, corruption, and violence in the dynamics of politics and knowledge production. The research also contributes to discussions on the politics of conservation practice, studies of cartography and representation, and discussions of the social production of places or a ‘sense of place’. Project results will be communicated across disciplines and to conservation organizations working in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, encouraging collaboration between anthropologists, scientists, and conservation practitioners in addressing global conservation issues.
