Since the 1970s, community-based participatory research methods have gradually gained credit in the field of applied research, leading to epistemic and ethical mutations in research practices with human participants. This article draws on an example of a ecosystemic community-based research, conducted in partnership between academic researchers (Canada and Brazil) and inhabitants of the banks of a river in the Brazilian Amazon, the Tapajós. This example illustrates the tensions that affect the conceptual framework in which ethical issues of research involving human participants are usually raised, particularly the cardinal principles of beneficence and justice drawn from the Belmont Report. This kind of scientific practice involves a redeployment of the researchers responsibilities, between research and action.
Research ethics; Ecosystemic approach; Participatory research; Ethical dilema; Environmental health; Global health; Amazon