The Knowledge that Counts: Institutional Identities, Policy Science, and the Conflict Over Fire Management in the Gran Sabana, Venezuela

The cultures of environmental planning agencies shape institutional identities and management interventions. Central to such institutional cultures is knowledge production, which is shaped by political–economic processes, dominant narratives and institutional desires to produce “conservation” landscapes. Through knowledge production, certain scientific knowledge and data are appropriated, while others are excluded. In the case of fire management in the Gran Sabana, Venezuela, a project of policy science draws on selected scientific knowledge and emphasizes remote sensing and quantitative analysis at the expense of indigenous knowledge and prescriptive burning practices. This policy science emerges from an institutional culture that favors fire suppression as a means to recreate a desired, imaginary forest.