Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares
Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares (PhD in Environmental Sciences, Autonomous University of Barcelona, 2016) is an ethnoecologist working as a post-doctoral researcher at the Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS), University of Helsinki, Finland. He is interested in biocultural approaches to conservation, focusing mostly in the study of Local Environmental Knowledge of indigenous peoples. He has undertaken extensive fieldwork in Bolivian Amazonia, Costa Rica, Madagascar and Kenya, mainly working with local communities. He has written more than 75 scientific publications, including several policy briefs and dissemination materials. Thus far in his research career, he has received several awards, including with Olli’s Prize 2014 from the University of Helsinki, the Catalan Research Prize on Environmental Sciences (2015), and the PhD Extraordinary Award from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (2019).
Address: Department of Biosciences
P.O. Box 65 (Viikinkaari 1)
FI-00014 - University of Helsinki
Helsinki, Finland
Address: Department of Biosciences
P.O. Box 65 (Viikinkaari 1)
FI-00014 - University of Helsinki
Helsinki, Finland
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Papers by Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares
in Bolivian Amazonia. We conducted structured interviews to capture local perceptions of availability and change in the stock of thatch palm (Geonoma deversa) among the Tsimane', an indigenous society of foragers-horticulturalists (n = 296 adults in 13 villages). We analyzed whether perceptions of availability match estimates of abundance obtained from ecological data and whether differences in perception help to explain harvesting behavior and local management of thatch palm. Perceptions of availability of G. deversa are highly contingent upon the social, economic, and cultural conditions within which the Tsimane' have experienced changes in the availability of the resource, thus giving a better reflection of the historical, rather than of the ecological, dimensions of the changes undergone. Although local perceptions might fall short in precision when scrutinized from an ecological standpoint, their importance in informing sustainable management should not be underestimated. Our findings show that most of the harvesting and management
actions that the Tsimane' undertake are, at least partially, shaped by their local perceptions. This paper contributes to the broader literature on natural resource management by providing empirical evidence of the critical role of local perceptions in promoting collective responses for the sustainable management of natural resources.
in Bolivian Amazonia. We conducted structured interviews to capture local perceptions of availability and change in the stock of thatch palm (Geonoma deversa) among the Tsimane', an indigenous society of foragers-horticulturalists (n = 296 adults in 13 villages). We analyzed whether perceptions of availability match estimates of abundance obtained from ecological data and whether differences in perception help to explain harvesting behavior and local management of thatch palm. Perceptions of availability of G. deversa are highly contingent upon the social, economic, and cultural conditions within which the Tsimane' have experienced changes in the availability of the resource, thus giving a better reflection of the historical, rather than of the ecological, dimensions of the changes undergone. Although local perceptions might fall short in precision when scrutinized from an ecological standpoint, their importance in informing sustainable management should not be underestimated. Our findings show that most of the harvesting and management
actions that the Tsimane' undertake are, at least partially, shaped by their local perceptions. This paper contributes to the broader literature on natural resource management by providing empirical evidence of the critical role of local perceptions in promoting collective responses for the sustainable management of natural resources.
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, an indigenous society of Bolivian Amazonia where the scientificdiscourse of anthropogenic climate change has barely reached. Specifically, we con-ducted a Randomized Evaluation with a sample of 424 household heads in 12 villagesto test to what degree local accounts of climate change are influenced by externallyinfluenced awareness. We randomly assigned villages to a treatment and controlgroup, conducted workshops on climate change with villages in the treatment group,and evaluated the effects of information dissemination on individual climate change perceptions. Results of this work suggest that providing climate change informationthrough participatory workshops does not noticeably influence individual perceptionsof climate change. Such findings stress the challenges involved in translating betweenlocal and scientific framings of climate change, and gives cause for concern about how to integrate indigenous peoples and local knowledge with global climate change policy debates.