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

本论文研究的重点是在瓦哈卡州，墨西哥社区森林管理的政治辩论中造林的作用。最近关于实验室科学的人种学研究强调了实验室文化的作用。本研究以这些方法为基础，在实地考察森林管理，而不是在研究实验室，利用造林科学作为视角来考察林农和非林农之间的相互作用。在过去的20年里，世界范围内的森林管理责任从国家森林服务部门转移到森林社区和私人所有者。墨西哥也有类似的趋势，超过80%的林地归社区和市政当局所有。林务人员受过培训，可以在官僚机构中有效地工作，但不习惯与私人土地所有者和社区成员沟通。本研究旨在确定哪种修辞技巧在传播森林知识和为森林管理活动建立广泛的合法性方面最有效。一个特别的重点将是林农和非林农关于森林的知识在多大程度上纳入管理建议。这项研究将把墨西哥森林栽培和国家林业机构的历史与当地社区的历史联系起来，以便将目前关于森林管理的政治辩论纳入背景。它将追踪林农使用的话语与林农技术知识、权力和合法性的创造之间的联系。它还将研究不同利益相关者的历史经验和机构位置如何影响他们对森林的认识，他们如何论证和支持自己的知识形式，以及他们自己在森林中的议程。

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.