Indigenous Peoples and Conservation Organizations

CHAPTER 4
Lessons in Collaboration:
The Xavante/WWF Wildlife Management
Project in Central Brazil
Laura R. Graham 1
I. Introduction
In 1990, WWF and the Xavante community of
Etéñiritipa 2 embarked on an innovative project
to protect the integrity and traditional resource
base of the Pimentel Barbosa Reserve in the
state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. The project was
one of the first attempts to integrate indigenous
hunters’ and Western biologists’ understandings
of nature in order to collaboratively construct a
game management plan and prevent overhunting
(Fragoso and Silvius 1997). The stakes were
high for everyone. During the past half century,
the Xavante had come under increasing external
and internal pressure that had begun to erode the
ecosystems of the land they used and threaten
the sustainability of their way of life. Conservationists
saw that the reserve comprised the
largest relatively intact piece of cerrado environment
remaining in South America (Leeuwenberg
and Robinson 1998), and offered the opportunity
to empower the people who lived there to husband
its resources.
The project to promote sustainable hunting did
not originate in isolation. It was conceptually
linked to a broader effort called Project Jaburu
that was conceived by an alliance of members
from Brazil’s Union of Indigenous Nations
(UNI), pro-Indian activists from mainstream society,
and a Xavante culture broker from the
Etéñiritipa community. Beginning in the late
1980s, these parties began to design projects that
would match local needs with the agendas of
national and international funders. The goal was
to help the Xavante become more economically
self-sufficient by building on rather than sacrificing
their cultural heritage and natural resource
base. The hub of Project Jaburu was the Indian
Research Center—a short-lived collaboration,
with lead funding from the Ford Foundation,
among UNI, a university, and the national agricul-