La biodiversité, outil d’intégration transnationale des discours et pratiques de gestion forestière communautaire et territoriale

Abstract

Since the 1990s, forest governance is increasingly inserted into globalization processes in the framework of international policies aiming at reducing deforestation, conserving biodiversity and fighting climate change. Facing these issues and the relative absence of local communities into international arenas, community forestry organizations created national and transnational networks. An example of such networks is the Mesoamerican alliance of people and forests (AMPB), created in 2010 and gathering at the same time indigenous peoples and forest communities. One of its main challenges is the construction of common claims among highly heterogeneous actors with often opposed traditions, especially regarding the issue of biodiversity. To what extent transnational community networks contribute to articulate biodiversity scales? Based on a discursive analysis, this paper studies how AMPB’s leaders articulate the diversity of representations on biodiversity among its members through the transnational harmonization of community and territorial forest management practices. The analysis is based on direct observations led in Mexico, Guatemala and Peru, and semi-structured interviews with AMPB’s leaders and partners. This paper seeks to renew the debate around the place of biodiversity in environmental governance as an integration tool in the light of a new actor, transnational community networks. It aims at bringing a renewed perspective on the possible articulations between biodiversity scales, actors and sectors.