ABSTRACT

The challenges of protected area management are now widely acknowledged as being both ecological and social. Anthropology, a field with subfields that span natural and social science approaches and methods, has had a long history of engagement in the study of human-environment relationships. We will argue in this chapter that anthropology, and particularly collaborative, cross-subfield practices of anthropology, can be well suited to improving protected area management (see also Brosius, 2006; West and Brockington, 2006). It captures nuances and variations in formal and informal or illicit resource use patterns by both humans and animals over time, and helps trace the cultural and the ecological significance of such patterns. This, in turn, can enable more intelligent formulation of policy for complex multi-use sites. Fine-grained and long-term anthropological studies enhance our understanding of micro-regional shifts in density, ecology, and behaviour and how to put these insights into practice for conservation.