The power of environmental knowledge: Ethnoecology and environmental conflicts in Mexican conservation

Theory in political ecology emphasizes the role of competing interests in s haping resource use. Although supportive of these approaches, this article draws on the importance of meanings assigned to ecological systems to quest ion how epistemological differences also contribute to environmental confli cts. Following calls to examine the interface between environmental knowled ge and action, consideration is given to ethnoecological constructs of fore sts on Mexico's southern Yucatan peninsula, home to the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. To quiet opposition to the Reserve, government agents increased fi nancial aid to the region in the form of conservation development projects. With the counsel of a Reserve director, local residents effectively used t hese projects to press for an environmentalism based on sustainable resourc e use. This position has associations with a local ethnoecology of land as a place of work. In examining how ethnoecologies played out in contests sur rounding conservation, possibilities for a localized, alternative environme ntalism are discussed, as well as the importance of environmental construct s for research in political ecology.