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To design viable strategies to implement sustainable forest management, tools are
needed that allow the understanding and management of the driving forces behind
conflicting opinions and divergent solutions. The approach of Thompson et al.
(1990) to cultural theory—because of its descriptive power—may be an ideal basis
to create such tools. The possibility of determining empirically the cultural bias of
the actors and groups involved is fundamental to this approach. The authors conducted
a pilot study in the eastern Amazon region to explore the possibility of characterizing
individuals according to the four types of political culture defined by Thompson et al.
The findings indicated that the empirical classification of individuals is possible but
complex. A relation between the types of political cultures and perceptions of
sustainable forest management was observed. A systematic elaboration of adequate
indicators and assessment methods is crucial in exploring the potential of transferring
the theoretical approach into practice.