RESUMO
Indicator taxa are commonly used to identify priority areas for conservation or to measure biological responses to environmental change. Despite their widespread use, there is no general consensus about the ability of indicator taxa to predict wider trends in biodiversity. Many studies have focused on large-scale patterns of species co-occurrence to identify areas of high biodiversity, threat or endemism, but there is much less information about patterns of species co-occurrence at local scales. In this study, we assess fine-scale co-occurrence patterns of three indicator taxa (epiphytic ferns, leaf litter frogs and dung beetles) across a remotely sensed gradient of human disturbance in the Ecuadorian Amazon. We measure the relative contribution of rare and common species to patterns of total richness in each taxon and determine the ability of common and rare species to act as surrogate measures of human disturbance and each other. We find that the species richness of indicator taxa changed across the human disturbance gradient but that the response differed among taxa, and between rare and common species. Although we find several patterns of co-occurrence, these patterns differed between common and rare species. Despite showing complex patterns of species co-occurrence, our results suggest that species or taxa can act as reliable indicators of each other but that this relationship must be established and not assumed.
Assuntos
Anuros/fisiologia , Biodiversidade , Besouros/fisiologia , Conservação dos Recursos Naturais/métodos , Demografia , Gleiquênias/fisiologia , Atividades Humanas , Animais , Equador , Humanos , Modelos Lineares , Modelos Biológicos , Dinâmica Populacional , Análise de Regressão , Especificidade da Espécie , Clima TropicalRESUMO
The lack of concrete instances in which conservation and development have been successfully merged has strengthened arguments for strict exclusionist conservation policies. Research has focused more on social cooperation and conflict of different management regimes and less on how these factors actually affect the natural environments they seek to conserve. Consequently, it is still unknown which strategies yield better conservation outcomes? We conducted a meta-analysis of 116 published case studies on common resource management regimes from Africa, south and central America, and southern and Southeast Asia. Using ranked sociodemographic, political, and ecological data, we analyzed the effect of land tenure, population size, social heterogeneity, as well as internally devised resource-management rules and regulations (institutions) on conservation outcome. Although land tenure, population size, and social heterogeneity did not significantly affect conservation outcome, institutions were positively associated with better conservation outcomes. There was also a significant interaction effect between population size and institutions, which implies complex relationships between population size and conservation outcome. Our results suggest that communities managing a common resource can play a significant role in conservation and that institutions lead to management regimes with lower environmental impacts.
Assuntos
Conservação dos Recursos Naturais/economia , Conservação dos Recursos Naturais/métodos , Desenvolvimento Econômico , África , Sudeste Asiático , América Central , Relações Comunidade-Instituição , Comportamento Cooperativo , Tomada de Decisões , Meio Ambiente , Propriedade , Densidade Demográfica , Fatores Socioeconômicos , América do SulRESUMO
Global consumption continues to generate growth in mining. In lesser developed economies, this growth offers the potential to generate new resources for development, but also creates challenges to sustainability in the regions in which extraction occurs. This context leads to debate on the institutional arrangements most likely to build synergies between mining, livelihoods, and development, and on the socio-political conditions under which such institutions can emerge. Building from a multiyear, three-country program of research projects, Peru, a global center of mining expansion, serves as an exemplar for analyzing the effects of extractive industry on livelihoods and the conditions under which arrangements favoring local sustainability might emerge. This program is guided by three emergent hypotheses in human-environmental sciences regarding the relationships among institutions, knowledge, learning, and sustainability. The research combines in-depth and comparative case study analysis, and uses mapping and spatial analysis, surveys, in-depth interviews, participant observation, and our own direct participation in public debates on the regulation of mining for development. The findings demonstrate the pressures that mining expansion has placed on water resources, livelihood assets, and social relationships. These pressures are a result of institutional conditions that separate the governance of mineral expansion, water resources, and local development, and of relationships of power that prioritize large scale investment over livelihood and environment. A further problem is the poor communication between mining sector knowledge systems and those of local populations. These results are consistent with themes recently elaborated in sustainability science.
Assuntos
Prática Institucional/estatística & dados numéricos , Mineração/tendências , Política Organizacional , Conflito Psicológico , Geografia , Humanos , Prática Institucional/economia , Prática Institucional/normas , Mineração/economia , Peru , Política , Rios , Fatores Socioeconômicos , População Urbana , Abastecimento de ÁguaAssuntos
Humanos , Masculino , Feminino , América Latina , Universidades , Organizações , UniversidadesRESUMO
Este documento es una invitación a la reflexión y al debate para cualificar el trabajo y el rol en la sociedad de las ONG's en América Latina.