FOREST MANAGEMENT-PRACTICES IN THE BAYANO REGION OF PANAMA - CULTURALVARIATIONS

This paper examines the relationship between cultural variation and fo rest management practices in the New World tropics by presenting resul ts from a survey conducted in indigenous and colonist communities in a settlement frontier of Panama. Statistical analyses, focused specific ally on differences between the economic base, forest use, and managem ent practices of indigenous and colonist households, are presented. Th e findings reveal that there are no significant differences between th e indigenous and colonist households in this respect; furthermore, dif ferences that exist among the sample households appear to be linked to access to market and not to cultural variations. (C) 1997 Elsevier Sc ience Ltd.