Forest Ethnography
Behind the Scenes
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3402627 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ayonghe Akonwi Nebasifu (0000-0002-9603-0102), Sakah Bernard Nsaidzedze, Efuet Simon Akem |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Publication date | 2025-09-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of Qualitative Methods (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1609-4069 • E-ISSN: 1609-4069 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/16094069251385436 |
| OpenAlex | W4414785729 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 23 |
Ethnography has increasingly gained prestige in the forest arena, challenging various assumptions about people-nature relations. The importance of participant observation in navigating turbulent forest environments is often overlooked, as demonstrated in the lead author's dissertation, "Knowledge Integration in Co-management," a 6-year study with the People of the Mount Cameroon National Park (MCNP) published in 2022. We argue that revisiting behind-the-scenes encounters during fieldwork is crucial for addressing criticism of ethnography's inadequacy in capturing the material and moral conditions that explain human behavior. These insights can enhance the depth and validity of ethnographic research, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the complex dynamics at play. This paper reflects on behind-the-scenes experiences, contextualized by identity and representation, conservation cluster variances, and research ethics. We describe the dynamic nature of events and obstacles of travelling during field work and how forest ethnography behind the scenes was pivotal to navigating them. It concludes by discussing why these components in the use of forest ethnography matter in counteracting fieldwork challenges and what they imply for studying complex co-management settings
Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies
Conservation Is Our Government Now
Swamplife
Protected areas and poverty
Traditional ecological knowledge and the aesthetic appreciation of nature
Wild-ing the Ethnography of Conservation
The Oxford Handbook of Multimethod and Mixed Methods Research Inquiry
Indigenous Peoples' Concerns About Loss of Forest Knowledge
Expressing agency in antagonistic policy environments
Quantifying local community voices in the decision-making process
Capitalism and Conservation
The Limits of Ethnography Versus the Poverty of Theory
Finding “Fields” in the Field
Ethnography in Social Science Practice
Co-management institutions, knowledge, and learning
Academic Anthropology and the Museum
Community-based Participant-observation (CBPO)
Patchwork ethnography
The importance of contextualization. Anthropological reflections on descriptive analysis, its limitations and implications
| Highly cited | No |
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