Reflections on Local Knowledge and Institutionalized Resource Management: Differences, Dominance, Decentralization

In this paper I argue: a) that it is important to examine the differences between the uses of local knowledge in wildlife management as compared to its uses in economic botany and health professions; b) that the application of local knowledge by wildlife resource professionals is decisively shaped by the interests and conditions of state institutions; c) that the processes and structures linking state systems and local peoples are little influenced by the needs and well-being of local resource users; d) that we may nevertheless be at a historical moment in which this long-standing pattern is under increasing stress, as a result of global restructuring and government funding cuts, and in which the opportunities and benefits for change are significant for state and regional institutions, local users, and wildlife.