Contrasting Colonist and Indigenous Impacts on Amazonian Forests

Abstract: To examine differences in land use and environmental impacts between colonist and indigenous populations in the northern Ecuadorian Amazon, we combined data from household surveys and remotely sensed imagery that was collected from 778 colonist households in 64 colonization sectors, and 499 households from five indigenous groups in 36 communities. Overall, measures of deforestation and forest fragmentation were significantly greater for colonists than indigenous peoples. On average, colonist households had approximately double the area in agriculture and cash crops and 5.5 times the area in pasture as indigenous households. Nevertheless, substantial variation in land‐use patterns existed among the five indigenous groups in measures such as cattle ownership and use of hired agricultural labor. These findings support the potential conservation value of indigenous lands while cautioning against uniform policies that homogenize indigenous ethnic groups.     

怒江流域森林资源的本土利用调查与分析

基于怒江流域北段高黎贡山自然保护区周边4个社区的森林资源利用状况详细调查数据,运用建房频率计算农村地区建房周期、气干密度换算薪材材积等方法,分别依本土居民的建材、薪材、围栏（篱）用材和非木材林产品（NWFPs）4种森林资源利用方式,计算、分析怒江流域北段森林资源当地利用的消耗量和消耗结构。结果显示：怒江流域北段建房材消耗量0.10 m³ /a·人,薪材3.87 m³/a·人,农地围栏用材0.019 m³/a·人,年户均采集以菌类和中药材为主的非木材林产品73.95 kg。表明消耗量最大的利用形式是薪材,而非传统认为的建房材和农地围栏材;农村社区木楞房、木片房和农地围栏“长期留存”,而薪材流量大“库存小”的表象,是导致认识偏差的原因。调查社区的地理位置、社区规模和民族组成等在怒江流域北段具较强代表性,结果可为调查区森林资源可持续经营提供参考,也可为高黎贡山（怒江）国家级自然保护区的科学管理提供依据.     

A study on the dilemmas of resource utilization and tourism in Africa

This paper explores,explains and discusses issues around the dilemma between local conservation of natural resources(often,endangered species and habitats)and tourism needs in Africa.Often and in constitutional terms,local people have a right to exploit and use resources endowed in their local area.However,tourists often are interested in viewing the vegetation and animal resources undisturbed.Inevitably,there is an undeclared animosity of values and interests between local communities and tourists and state agencies.As a result,the dilemma is thus of governance.The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the governance dilemma of resource utilization and tourism in Africa in a bid to create an informed stewardship framework for sustainability.This is achieved by way of case studies and narratives from Africa.As such,this paper will be a review literature on how different communities perceive tourism and derive livelihoods from their immediate environment.It also explains how the external factors influence local needs and interests.A more sustainable and operational framework that reduces friction among stakeholders is suggested.     

黑臭底泥土著微生物促生对磷的影响

土著微生物促生是一项低成本高效率的河湖黑臭底泥原位修复技术,然而向底泥中投加药剂可能会影响上覆水水质。为探讨该技术对水环境的不利影响,实验研究了城市湖泊黑臭底泥修复过程中上覆水中磷浓度和底泥中磷含量及形态的变化。结果表明,在投药深度为泥面以下15 cm,微生物营养剂（BE）和生物解毒剂（MT）的投加量分别低于60mL/m3和70 mL/m3的条件下,上覆水总磷（TP）浓度低于地表水环境质量Ⅲ类（湖库类）标准值。投加微生物促生剂（BE和MT）导致上覆水磷含量升高,并促进了上覆水中藻类的增长。复配投加硝酸钙能减少上覆水中磷含量及藻类生物量,从而抑制微生物促生剂对上覆水磷浓度的影响。另外,投加微生物促生剂及硝酸钙到底泥中后,底泥磷含量以及磷形态组成的变化均不明显。     

Predicting how defaunation-induced changes in seed predation and dispersal will affect tropical tree populations

The loss of large animals due to overhunting and habitat loss potentially affects tropical tree populations and carbon cycling. Trees reliant on large-bodied seed dispersers are thought to be particularly negatively affected by defaunation. But besides seed dispersal, defaunation can also increase or decrease seed predation. It remains unclear how these different defaunation effects on early life stages ultimately affect tree population dynamics. We reviewed the literature on how tropical animal loss affects different plant life stages, and we conducted a meta-analysis of how defaunation affects seed predation. We used this information to parameterize models that altered matrix projection models from a suite of tree species to simulate defaunation-caused changes in seed dispersal and predation. We assessed how applying these defaunation effects affected population growth rates. On average, population-level effects of defaunation were negligible, suggesting that defaunation may not cause the massive reductions in forest carbon storage that have been predicted. In contrast to previous hypotheses, we did not detect an effect of seed size on changes in seed predation rates. The change in seed predation did not differ significantly between exclosure experiments and observational studies, although the results of observational studies were far more variable. Although defaunation surely affects certain tree taxa, species that benefit or are harmed by it and net changes in forest carbon storage cannot currently be predicted based on available data. Further research on how factors such as seed predation vary across tree species and defaunation scenarios is necessary for understanding cascading changes in species composition and diversity.     

How can social enterprises contribute to sustainable pro-poor tourism development?

“Tourism-Assisting the Poor” has been an important approach in anti-poverty strategy. Studies suggest that the conventional tourism model fails to generate benefits for the poor and to some extent enlarges the gap between the poor and the rich, which subsequently causes more social problems. Pro-poor tourism (PPT) is regarded as an alternative model. Precisely targeted assistance to the poor is the key to initiating this model, while the institutional change and implementation mechanism are essential to run it successfully and sustainably. Social entrepreneurship focusing on social values while adopting modern business philosophy has been introduced recently as an instrument in helping disadvantage population. This paper takes the Smangus community in Taiwan as an example to explore the role of social entrepreneurship and social enterprises in PPT development. It also discusses their implications for the anti-poverty practice in other regions including ethnic areas in China.     

Framework for integrating indigenous and scientific knowledge for disaster risk reduction

A growing awareness of the value of indigenous knowledge has prompted calls for its use within disaster risk reduction. The use of indigenous knowledge alongside scientific knowledge is increasingly advocated but there is as yet no clearly developed framework demonstrating how the two may be integrated to reduce community vulnerability to environmental hazards. This paper presents such a framework, using a participatory approach in which relevant indigenous and scientific knowledge may be integrated to reduce a community's vulnerability to environmental hazards. Focusing on small island developing states it presents an analysis of the need for such a framework alongside the difficulties of incorporating indigenous knowledge. This is followed by an explanation of the various processes within the framework, drawing on research completed in Papua New Guinea. This framework is an important first step in identifying how indigenous and scientific knowledge may be integrated to reduce community vulnerability to environmental hazards.     

The Sustainability of Subsistence Hunting by Matsigenka Native Communities in Manu National Park, Peru

Abstract:  The presence of indigenous people in tropical parks has fueled a debate over whether people in parks are conservation allies or direct threats to biodiversity. A well-known example is the Matsigenka (or Machiguenga) population residing in Manu National Park in Peruvian Amazonia. Because the exploitation of wild meat (or bushmeat), especially large vertebrates, represents the most significant internal threat to biodiversity in Manu, we analyzed 1 year of participatory monitoring of game offtake in two Matsigenka native communities within Manu Park (102,397 consumer days and 2,089 prey items). We used the Robinson and Redford (1991) index to identify five prey species hunted at or above maximum sustainable yield within the ∼150-km² core hunting zones of the two communities: woolly monkey (Lagothrix lagotricha), spider monkey (Ateles chamek), white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari), Razor-billed Currasow (Mitu tuberosa), and Spix's Guan (Penelope jacquacu). There was little or no evidence that any of these five species has become depleted, other than locally, despite a near doubling of the human population since 1988. Hunter–prey profiles have not changed since 1988, and there has been little change in per capita consumption rates or mean prey weights. The current offtake by the Matsigenka appears to be sustainable, apparently due to source–sink dynamics. Source–sink dynamics imply that even with continued human population growth within a settlement, offtake for each hunted species will eventually reach an asymptote. Thus, stabilizing the Matsigenka population around existing settlements should be a primary policy goal for Manu Park.     

Responding to Pressure on Local Natural Resources: the Story of Three Villages in South-Eastern Nigeria

There has been a recent move by development professionals away from formal “scientific” attempts to address problems caused by changing environmental conditions, towards a greater reliance on the innovative ability and indigenous knowledge of local people. This has necessitated a greater understanding of the way in which communities respond to environmental and socio-economic change. Using a model that predicts community responses to pressure on local natural resources, and data collected in three villages in south-eastern Nigeria, an attempt is made to document the way in which people react and adapt to change. It is concluded that with sufficient time communities will usually develop new resource management and agricultural systems. However, where change is occurring rapidly, a facilitator is required to encourage and accelerate local innovation so that farming and natural resource management systems can be appropriately adjusted before severe environmental degradation takes place.     

Coping Strategies in an Ethnic Minority Group: The Aeta of Mount Pinatubo

The particular problems arising in the aftermath of natural disasters in indigenous societies in the Third World, especially in ethnic or cultural minorities, have until now received only little attention in social scientific research. The potential of such indigenous groups to use their traditional knowledge and behaviour patterns in coping with natural disasters has been badly neglected. The example of the Aeta in Zambales, Philippines, a marginal group who were hit directly by the eruption of Mt Pinatubo in 1991, shows how traditional economic and social behaviour can in some measure determine their various survival strategies.