A Proposal for defining the geographical boundaries of Amazonia

A group of European experts came together for a two day workshop at the Joint Research Centre, Ispra, to discuss a proposal for defining the geographical boundaries of Amazonia. The experts represented a wide range of scientific disciplines from climate studies to phytogeography. A concensus approach was taken to developing a concept. The final proposal was reached with the agreement of all the participants. This proposal has two key elements; the entire hydrological Amazon and Tocantins river basin and two additional areas located outside of it which are dominated by Amazonian type forests.JRC.H.3-Forest Resources and Climat

A political ecology of frontier dynamics in the northern Colombian Amazon

The Amazon is the land of the unknown and untameable, emblem of the wild, the uncontrolled, where life blows up. This natural richness makes the northern Amazon, especially the Caquetá department, a territory of particular interest for different extractive industries. In the last century, neoliberal policies have fostered colonization and the dispossession of local inhabitants. However, these processes are resisted by bottom-up movements and revolts. This research wants to analyze frontier dynamics in Caquetá by describing these contrasting discourses and the imaginaries in dispute. The dominant discourse is studied through the analysis of the national public policy of the last sixteen years. Then, the local imaginary is analyzed by describing the process of resistance of farmers and local movements. This process grows out of the construction of an alternative discourse, based on a relational epistemology and radical interdependency between beings, and challenges the western dualist and hegemonic system and worldview.The Amazon is the land of the unknown and untameable, emblem of the wild, the uncontrolled, where life blows up. This natural richness makes the northern Amazon, especially the Caquetá department, a territory of particular interest for different extractive industries. In the last century, neoliberal policies have fostered colonization and the dispossession of local inhabitants. However, these processes are resisted by bottom-up movements and revolts. This research wants to analyze frontier dynamics in Caquetá by describing these contrasting discourses and the imaginaries in dispute. The dominant discourse is studied through the analysis of the national public policy of the last sixteen years. Then, the local imaginary is analyzed by describing the process of resistance of farmers and local movements. This process grows out of the construction of an alternative discourse, based on a relational epistemology and radical interdependency between beings, and challenges the western dualist and hegemonic system and worldview

Soil mycobiota in agroecosystem: influence of land use and management

The present work investigated the biodiversity of soil fungi of agricultural areas differently managed by means of new generation sequencing technologies – NGS. The main object of this research was the analysis of the fungal biota in the Colombian soils, especially that of the upper Andean agro-environment. The study area was located in the region of Boyacá between 2800 and 3200 m asl. and characterized by different form of soil appropriation (apple and peach orchards, 10-year-old wood, and uncultivated grass field). Moreover, a case study has been analysed in Italy where metagenomic of soil micobiota was pictured in a production farm, in three plots differently managed in terms of fertilization, pesticide and tillage application: conventional, organic, no-tillage. Chapter I represents the general introduction of the thesis. Chapter II focuses on the practices of soil appropriation in the indigenous and urban Colombian contexts, both from biologically and socio-culturally point of view. The southern region of Colombian Amazon was taken into consideration, since this region constitutes an important model for the traditional utilization of natural resources and a fundamental basis for the definition of strategies for ecosystem management. In Chapter III the focus is on the mycological knowledge of Colombian soils based on data published in scientific research papers. Published data on diversity of native soil microfungi reported for the different natural regions of Colombia were analysed and compared. Some of the most relevant aspects of the country's mycological diversity are discussed and the most frequently registered species and genera, as well as the references for each of them, are presented. In Chapter IV the soil mycobiota in the Colombian High-Andean agro-environment is assessed through high-throughput sequencing technology. The chapter depicts the entire soil fungal community from qualitative and quantitative point of view in areas with different land use. The bootstrap-based clustering analysis highlighted that different land use strongly influences the soil mycobiota: the uncultivated and cultivated areas are characterized by abundant presence of some exclusive species. Differences in fungal species composition is consistent with the clustering analysis on higher taxonomic hierarchical level composition. Chapter V reports data collected in a case study planned in the Italian agro-environment context. The results showed that various agricultural management practices and seasonality influence the composition of the soil mycological community in agroecosystems, through a metagenomic picture. Metagenomic analyses show that the highest richness indices correspond to soils under organic production systems, while the non-tillage system showed the most divergent communities, with their own composition, prevalence and seasonal trends. Finally, the Chapter VI represents a sort of perspective for those areas subjected to conventional management and strongly polluted by pesticides that could be remediated and led towards a sustainable agriculture. The usefulness of soil fungi as key tools for the sustainable bioremediation of chemical pesticides in the soil is discussed as a strategy for the recovery of the quality of degraded agricultural soils. The results of this study provide insight into the complexity of micobiota of managed soils under different farming systems, with the ultimate goal of better understanding the multiple mechanisms governing soil quality and to develop an environmentally sound management that improves production, allowing the maintenance of ecosystem diversity and the wellness of human communities linked

The conflict in context : an analysis of the southeastern and southwestern colombian regions, 1998-2016

El libro que se presenta a continuación hace parte del esfuerzo investigativo que desde 2015 viene adelantando la Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Relaciones Internacionales de la Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, sede Bogotá, para reconstruir los contextos en que la Fuerza Aérea Colombiana operó como parte del conflicto armado no internacional que se vive en el país, y que parece ad portas de finalizar; ello, en aras de generar insumos que aporten al proceso de construcción de la memoria histórica institucional que desde el 2014 realiza la Dirección de Análisis de Contexto y Posconflicto de la Fuerza Aérea Colombiana, FAC1. Este segundo producto de investigación conserva, en principio, y en términos generales, una rigurosa continuidad con el trabajo desarrollado en el El conflicto en contexto: un análisis en cinco regiones colombianas, 1998-2014. De entrada, y si bien por cuestiones de recursos el equipo se redujo en tamaño, se conservaron las líneas básicas de trabajo y se mantuvo fundamentalmente el mismo esquema teórico y metodológico, fortalecido por el proceso de maduración y elaboración en el tratamiento y análisis de la información. Ello se puede constatar en el primer capítulo, en donde, si bien se alcanza a plantear la posibilidad de transitar hacia un ejercicio de carácter marcadamente explicativo, en definitiva, se prefirió dar continuidad al proceso de análisis e interpretación desarrollado previamente. Por tanto, es relevante el hecho de que haya una agenda clara de trabajo en el perfeccionamiento y profundización de la construcción de contexto para el complejo proceso de construcción de la memoria histórica institucional. No obstante la significativa continuidad planteada, en esta ocasión, y a diferencia del libro publicado, se introdujo una modificación en la concepción y construcción analítica de las regiones. En un cierto sentido, para el desarrollo de la investigación la escala de análisis fue ampliada, para abarcar lo que se denominó como regiones suroriental y suroccidental de Colombia, cuya configuración y delimitación corresponde sobre todo a un criterio territorial que no se corresponde necesariamente con los límites departamentales. De esta forma, las regiones definidas incluyen varios departamentos y subregiones2, delimitadas en relación con las cuencas de los principales ríos que las atraviesan y sus afluentes. Junto a esta delimitación espacial, se definió un periodo de estudio que abarca desde el año 1998 hasta el 2016, sin obviar importantes antecedentes de las décadas anteriores3. Para el equipo investigador es fundamental esta doble consideración: la continuidad en el enfoque y la metodología, los cambios producto del aprendizaje y el afinamiento paulatino de las herramientas de análisis e interpretación. Esto, principalmente, porque resulta claro que el ejercicio de contextos regionales debe mantenerse y mejorarse, tanto para efectos de una mayor claridad en la aproximación académica como desde el punto de vista de la ardua tarea asociada al deber de memoria y al posconflicto en que se inscriben los proyectos desarrollados.Bogot