Ethnoecology, Resource Use, Conservation And Development In A ...

upon biological science. Evidence of customary management systems based upon
wholly different premises was encountered in this study (chapter 5). The culturally
prescribed patterns of behaviour involved in this, in the structural context of the
systems of belief and practice that underlie them, can be regarded as a group-level
cultural adaptation, encoded symbolically and concerned with regulation of human
exploitation of the natural environment. The individual technical knowledge that would
be required for conscious management is not accessible. In its absence, it may be
that covert mechanisms for avoiding the depletion of game and other forest
resources have evolved.
The greater part of the data, however, falls within an area of overlap between
the perspective, derived from the biological sciences, upon which the research
programme was based, and the ways in which Wapishana collaborators organise and
articulate their knowledge about natural history. The two systems of thought are
shown to be compatible to a large degree, and the levels of correspondence among
the ethnoecological and ecological data sets is spectacular, considering the
incompleteness of much of the former and the geographical disparity of the two. The
results are consistent with DeWalt’s thesis, in that ethnoecological methodologies
have been demonstrated to generate accurate, site-specific data most of which is
compatible with the theoretical framework provided by the biological sciences
In practical terms, the value of ethnoecology in providing baseline biological data
has been demonstrated. The limitations shown by this method suggest its major
utility to be as a complement to, rather than a replacement for, conventional
methodologies in field biology. The results of this study endorse the suggestions of
previous writers (Townsend 1995) that ethnoecological data can provide a body of
baseline data amenable to testing by biological research methods. However, I believe
this understates its value somewhat, and this is the theme of the next chapter, which
is concerned with current and potential practical applications of ethnoecology.