Amanda Stronza

Texas A&M University, Ecology and Conservation Biology, Faculty Member

Texas A&M University, Applied Biodiversity Sciences, Faculty Member

Texas A&M University, Rangeland, Wildlife, and Fisheries Sciences, Faculty Member

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I am an anthropologist, professor, and photographer, with nearly 30 years of conservation field experience in the Amazon and other parts of the tropics, most recently in the Okavango. I am passionate about wildlife and the people who live closest to wild animals all over the world. In 2007, I co-founded the Applied Biodiversity Science Program at Texas A&M University, a doctoral training program for students in the social and biological sciences committed to working with local communities and policy makers to solve on-the-ground conservation challenges. As part of that, I developed an Amazon Field School in my long-term study site in Peru, aimed at helping graduate students gain field experience in conservation. I was a Visiting Professor with the Okavango Research Institute in 2011 when I began research on human-elephant conflict. In 2013, I co-founded Ecoexist, a non-profit organization in Botswana focused on fostering coexistence between people and elephants. I have published over 40 peer-reviewed articles in a variety of academic journals in the social and natural sciences, with research focused on community-based conservation, wildlife and biodiversity conservation, ecotourism, and common pool resource management.

My contribution to conservation is through social science, studying how cultural beliefs, social norms, institutions, livelihoods, policies, and incentives shape human-wildlife interactions.

Much of my work centers around these questions:

1) What are the incentives and sources of inspiration for people to work together in protecting what they value, whether it be a place, a species, a cultural tradition, or a way of life?
2) In places where people have protected wildlife and wild habitats, what are the predictors of success—what sparked stewardship, among whom, how was it sustained?
3) What influences people to love certain species or feel motivated to care about and protect them? What influences people to feel indifference, antipathy, or fear?

I am currently a Professor at Texas A&M with joint appointments in the Departments of Ecology and Conservation Biology, and Rangeland, Wildlife, and Fisheries Management, and I co-direct the Applied Biodiversity Science Program. I am also producing a documentary film in the Peruvian Amazon about local efforts to curb and control the devastating effects of illegal gold mining.

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Papers by Amanda Stronza

Hunting as a Source of Local and Traditional Ecological Knowledge among Campesinos in Nicaragua

Human Ecology

Partnerships for tourism development

Building community capacity for tourism development, 2008

This chapter discusses the use of effective partnerships to increase various forms of capital ava... more This chapter discusses the use of effective partnerships to increase various forms of capital available for development. In 2003, leaders of three community-based ecotourism partnerships in the Amazonian regions of Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia joined in a six-month comparative study called the 'Trueque Amazonico: Ecotourism Exchanges in the Tropical Andes'. The three ecolodge partnerships - Posada Amazonas, Kapawi and Chalalán - are community managed, though all began as partnerships with either a private tourism company or conservation NGO. For instance, the ecolodge, Posada Amazonas, is the product of a joint venture between a private tour company, Rainforest Expeditions, and the community of Infierno. A contract between the community and Rainforest stipulates that they will share in the construction, operation, management and profits of Posada Amazonas. All three ecolodge partnerships are ultimately aimed at building local capacity for tourism development and strengthening l...

From Collaboration to Conservation: Insights From the Okavango Delta, Botswana

Society & Natural Resources, 2011

This article summarizes 10 years of ethnographic research in the Okavango Delta and describes how... more This article summarizes 10 years of ethnographic research in the Okavango Delta and describes how local communities are collaborating with government, tour operators, and conservationists to manage wildlife through the Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) program. CBNRM channels social and economic benefits to communities in exchange for their participation in wildlife conservation. Benefits include secured access to land, institutional support, employment, and share of profits from wildlife tourism. By some accounts, CBNRM has effectively achieved co-management and wildlife conservation; by others, the program has achieved only rhetorical success. We highlight collaboration between social actors at various levels-community, government, tourism industry, international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)-as one indicator of success. We then consider the steps that need to be followed to ensure that collaboration leads to long-term conservation. Experiences from this case may provide insights for co-management and conservation in other places where the fate of biodiversity and local livelihoods are entwined.

Amanda Stronza

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