Knowledge and power in a “disputed forest” : participatory research in French Guiana Amazonian Park

Abstract

This paper analyses conflicts and alliances between knowledges in the largest national park in the European Union, the Guiana Amazonian Park, in a peculiar overseas indigenous context. On the one hand, the international objectives of nature protection are realised against the colonial backdrop of the expropriation of land from the Amerindian peoples. On the other hand, the valorisation of cultural heritages, of which anthropological knowledge is an important ally, clashes with decades of assimilationist policies, which have weakened the reproduction of local knowledge. In this “disputed forest” the common objective of preserving biological and cultural diversity is conditioned and affects the fragile local balances, generating conflicts, misunderstandings and unprecedented alliances.