Jaguars in the Commons: Napo Runa Perspectives on Human-Jaguar Conviviality

Neoliberal conservation practices are increasingly contested, with calls for more convivial ways of preserving the natural environment, which move beyond capitalist and naturalistic logics. Discussions of conviviality shed light on the importance of the Commons and existing institutions that shape human-nonhuman interactions. Drawing on 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork, including participant observation and semi-structured interviews in several indigenous communities of the Ecuadorian Amazon, this article explores human–predator relations and the active role of jaguars within an indigenous forest Commons. Negotiations over human-jaguar institutions occur through forest encounters, creating an everyday conviviality between local indigenous people and the beings of the forest. The analysis shows that both human and nonhuman agency constitute the foundations upon which institutions for coexistence and forest resource management are built. Accordingly, this article argues for an expanded understanding of the Commons that recognizes nonhumans as co-constitutors of Commons, which offer a pathway toward more sustainable human–environment interactions.