The political ecology of local environmental narratives: power, knowledge, and mountain caribou conservation

Political ecology seeks to address notable weaknesses in the social sciences that consider how human societyand the environment shape each other over time. Considering questions of ideology and scientific discourse,power and knowledge, and issues of conservation and environmental history, political ecology offers analternative to technocratic approaches to policy prescriptions and environmental assessment. Integratingthese insights into the science-policy interface is crucial for discerning and articulating the role of localresource users in environmental conservation. This paper applies political ecology to addresses a gap in theliterature that exists at the interface of narratives of local environmental change and local ecologicalknowledge and doing so builds a nuanced critique of the rationality of local ecological knowledge. The waysthat we view nature and generate, interpret, communicate, and understand the "science" of environmentalproblems is deeply embedded in particular economic, political, and ecological contexts. In interior BritishColumbia, Canada, these dynamics unfold in one of the most rigorously documented examples of thenegative effect of anthropogenic disturbance on an endangered species – declining mountain cariboupopulation. Science notwithstanding, resource users tell narratives of population decline that clearly reflecthistorical regularities deeply embedded in particular economic, political, and ideological constructionssituated in local practices. This research assesses these narratives, discusses the implications, and explorespathways for integrating local knowledge and narratives into conservation science and policy. A moreinformed understanding of the subjectivities and rationalities of local knowledges can and should informconservation science and policy.