Dissertation Research: Forestry Culture, Language, Institutions and Power in Mexican Forest Management

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The focus of this dissertation research is the role of silviculture in political debates over community forest management in Oaxaca, Mexico. Recent ethnographic studies of laboratory science have highlighted the role of laboratory cultures. This study builds upon these approaches to look at forest management in the field, rather than in the research laboratory, using silvicultural science as lens to look at interactions between foresters and non-foresters. In the last 20 years there has been a worldwide shift in forest management responsibility from state forests services to forest communities and private owners. Mexico parallels these trends, and over 80% of forest land is owned by communities and municipalities. Foresters have been trained to work effectively in bureaucracies, but are not used to communicating with private land owners and community members. This research seeks to pinpoint what kinds of rhetorical techniques are most effective in communicating knowledge about the forest and building broad based legitimacy for forest management activities. A particular focus will be the extent to which foresters' and non-foresters knowledge about the forest is integrated into management recommendations. This research will tie together a history of Mexican silviculture and state forestry institutions, with a history of local communities, so as to put into context the present-day political debates about forest management. It will trace the connections between the discourses used by foresters, and the creation of technical knowledge, power and legitimacy for foresters. It will also look at how different stakeholders' historical experiences and institutional locations affect their knowledge about the forest, how they argue for and support their own forms of knowledge, and their own agendas in the forest.