1. Negotiating science & resource management in rural communities
Sophie Haines
7th October 2017 UK-Belize Association meeting, Oxford

2. Introduction Infrastructure, anticipation, governance, knowledge
How are diverse knowledges negotiated in environmental interventions in developing countries?
Preliminary findings

3. Context Small developing states Policy and funding developments
Social dimensions of watershed management initiatives

4. Environmental knowledge in practice
Historical contexts of watershed assessment & management
How do ‘scientists’ and ‘non-scientists’ interact?
Translating environmental knowledge
Rural residents and scientists, government representatives, land developers, NGOs, civil society organisations
Participation & translation (beyond science vs tradition)
Emerging technologies, scientific practices, environments

5. Methods 4 months April-August 2017
Ethnography, interviews, surveys (research assistants), focus groups, participatory mapping, meetings, farm visits, expeditions…

6. Watershed work in Belize
Previous and ongoing research
Diverse
Fragmentary
Limited social/cultural dimension
Political and historical ecologies
NGO, government, industry, community controversies
Different types of…
Boundaries, responsibilities, scales
Governance, engagement

7. Headwaters protection in the citrus belt
CBO co-manages national park
Potable water – direct environment-health connection
Responsibility and scope of the problem
Water quality science – means and ends
Getting money, putting in metered systems?

8. Resource negotiation in Maya lands
Communal land rights context
Extensive NGO engagement (and suspicion)
Experiments in resource use and governance
Watershed meanings
- foraging in tourist ruins vs sustainable tourism models and efforts to increase tourism income (cf Medina)

9. Emerging themes Top-down and bottom-up Nature, infrastructure, bodies
‘Brokers’: inhabit and traverse multiple roles

10. Acknowledgements Next Steps Data analysis Belize research conference
Community meetings, stakeholder workshop
Outputs… (input welcome!)
Acknowledgements
UKBA, research participants and hosts Economic and Social Research Council (UK) Institute for Social and Cultural Research (Belize) University of Belize: NRM & ERI Zinnia Bobadilla, Santiago Choc, Adelia Choc