Conservation Science Policies Versus Scientific Practice: Evidence from a Mexican Biosphere Reserve

摘要

This paper interrogates the activities, perspectives, and positions of scientists conducting research in Sierra de Huautla Biosphere Reserve, Mexico. Biosphere reserve conservation models are specifically designed for a sustainable integration of social and natural environments, a mandate that relies on both natural and social scientific research to improve conservation of nature and human well-being. Seen through the analytical lens of a social worlds/arenas framework, integrative scientific research in this particular case proves to be challenging in practice and fraught with paradoxes and contradictions. The findings suggest that academic and institutional factors (funding, publication avenues, and scholarly status) force, or at least strongly invite, scientists to pursue academic research agendas which, in fact, may conflict with or override the researchers' own commitments to meaningful conservation research work and interventions. This case highlights structural concerns over biosphere reserve-specific governance issues in Mexico, and integrative human-environment scientific practice in conservation in general.