Ana Violato Espada, a doctoral researcher at the University of Florida, organized a community exchange among users of six Brazilian Amazon extractive reserves to emphasized collective inquiry, experimentation grounded in experience, and the wealth of social learning related to community timber management. Ana is a Ph.D. student in the Forest Resources & Conservation program, advised by Dr. Karen Kainer.
The community exchange was part of Ana’s fieldwork (May 2018 to September 2019) for her thesis, which consisted of extensive data collection using diverse and complementary methods.
Drawing on a decade of experience working in community-based forest management in the Amazon, Ana applied a participatory action research approach, using multiple participatory tools to engage people and emphasizing participation and action towards Sustainable Forest Management.
This constituted an innovative methodological approach to participatory action research that is replicable in natural resource co-management contexts elsewhere.
Learn more about the exchange in the latest edition of Tropical Forest Update.
![](http://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/sfrc/files/2020/11/esp2.jpg)