Monica Gruezmacher
Practitioner Fellow at World Wildlife Fund
Location:
Colombia
Project Title: Redefining Research for the Management and Use of Natural Resources: The Case of Amacayacu National Park and the Indigenous Communities in and around It.
Publications and Presentations: Redefining Research for the Management and Use of Natural Resources
Project Description
In 1991, a new political constitution for Colombia created a Ministry of the Environment and new policies for empowering ethnic minorities, especially indigenous peoples. After this political reform, the National System of Natural Parks (NSNP) implemented a social participation policy called Parks with the People to promote environmental education, buffer area policy, and the joint management of natural resources between the protected areas and the people who live in and around them.
Although institutional policy and attitude have gone through a dramatic transformation within the NSNP, many believe the real challenge is to transform participation policies into actions. This has been particularly true for the protected areas of the Amazon region, most of which overlap substantial areas of indigenous territories. In the last decade, these areas have realized that management decisions need to include the perspective of the different ethnic groups and research needs to yield results applicable for management and use of natural resources.
Monica Gruezmacher will use her Alcoa Foundation fellowship to bring together the main stakeholders involved in the development of research in Amacayacu National Park in Colombia's Amazon region, providing them with a unique opportunity to discuss research issues. She will conduct four main activities:- Gather community perspectives on research needs, topics, and roles.
- Collect NSNP perspectives on research needs, topics, and roles.
- Gather the perspectives of outside researchers.
- Compare and understand the relationship between the different perspectives to generate dialogue and reach consensus.
"In 2005, Amacayacu National Park completed its management plan, which includes actions directed toward the construction of a research agenda that should take into account the indigenous territories with which the park overlaps," said Gruezmacher. "I plan to contribute to this process by helping construct a participatory research plan that includes cultural, socio-economic, and academic perspectives and that will serve as a model for the rest of the protected areas that still haven't begun this process."
She adds that the main objective of her project is to create a research plan that addresses the information needs of the protected area and the local communities simultaneously. This plan will define the roles of each stakeholder and will provide an opportunity for them to strengthen their relationship and continue to give shape to the idea of co-management of natural resources.
Biographical Information
Monica Gruezmacher holds a bachelor's degree in biology from the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá and an M.Sc. degree in biological studies with a specialty in tropical ecology from the Universiteit van Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
She currently is in charge of communication activities for Tropenbos International Colombia, a non-governmental organization that facilitates the formulation and organization of participatory, objective-oriented, and multidisciplinary research and development programs to meet the needs of policy makers and forest users.
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