Indigenously controlled tourism as struggle for autonomy: the Pataxó Jaqueira Reserve in Brazil

This study analyses the emblematic experience of an indigenous group in Brazil, the Pataxó, who was able to set up and exercise strong control over an indigenous tourism project: the Jaqueira Reserve. Based on document analysis, interviews, and observations, we show how the Jaqueira Reserve was consolidated not only as a strongly autonomous initiative but also as constituent of a greater quest for autonomy (to craft aspired livelihoods conducive to cultural revitalization and environmental protection). The Pataxó experience shows that indigenous tourism can be an instrument in greater indigenous struggles, and as such can develop not only despite marginalization but also against it.En este estudio, se analiza la experiencia emblemática de un grupo indígena en Brasil, los pataxós, que logró instalar y ejercer un fuerte control sobre un proyecto de turismo indígena: la Reserva Jaqueira. Con base en el análisis de documentos, entrevistas y observaciones, mostramos cómo la Reserva de Jaqueira se consolidó no solo como una iniciativa fuertemente autónoma, sino también como componente de una mayor búsqueda de autonomía (para construir medios de vida conducentes a la revitalización cultural y la protección del medio ambiente). La experiencia de Pataxó muestra que el turismo indígena puede ser un instrumento de luchas indígenas mayores y, como tal, desarrollarse no solo a pesar de la marginación, sino también en contra de ella

Large-scale land acquisitions aggravate the feminization of poverty : findings from a case study in Mozambique

The local implications of large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs), commonly referred to as land grabs, are at the center of an exponential production of scientific literature that only seldom focuses on gender. Our case study aims to contribute to filling this analytical gap. Based on structured interviews and focus groups, we investigate local experiences in the lower Limpopo valley in Mozambique, where a Chinese investor was granted 20,000 hectares in 2012. Our findings show that land access in the affected area varied prior to land seizure due to historical land use differences and after land seizure mainly due to non-universal compensation. Furthermore, we show that as farming conditions deteriorate, a trend toward both the feminization of smallholder farming and the feminization of poverty is consolidated. Succinctly, as available land becomes increasingly constricted, labor is allocated differently to alternative activities. This process is by no means random or uniform among households, particularly in a context in which women prevail in farm activities and men prevail in off-farm work. As men disengage further from smallholder farming, women remain directly dependent on fields that are smaller and of worse quality or reliant on precarious day labor in the remaining farms. We contend that the categories female-headed and male-headed households, although not inviolable, are useful in explaining the different implications of LSLAs in areas in which gender strongly substantiates individuals’ livelihood alternatives. © 2018 The Author(s)Fieldwork for the study entitled “Large-scale land acquisitions aggravate the feminization of poverty: Findings from a case study in Mozambique” was funded by the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography, and the foundation Forskraftstiftelsen Theodor Adelswärds Minne.</p

Södertörns högskola vt 2005 Sambandet miljö och utveckling i syd C-uppsats i miljövetenskap Do plants change their defence strategy from a structural defence to a chemical one as a response to heavier herbivory?

Abstract To the main part, this paper is the result of a literature survey and to the minor part of a field survey. The study is found on the question of, if and why unpalatable plant species invade heavily grassed rangelands and if plants change their defence strategy from a mechanical defence to a chemical defence if the herbivory pressure increase. I conclude that defended plants do invade heavily grassed rangelands if the rangelands lose essential recourses (often nutrients) and/or the defended plants are strongly avoided by mammalian herbivores. I also conclude that plants do go from a mechanical defence strategy to a chemical strategy if their environment loses essential recourses under a threshold. This firstly depends on that mechanical defended plants can not develop a complete defence if they suffer from a shortage in the nutrient supply, and secondly of that plants in resources rich environments often have lager possibilities of responding to herbivory with regrowth. They do not therefore have to defend them self as hard as plants in environments with low supply of recourses.

Habitat Change and Demography of Primula veris: Identification of Management Targets

11 páginas, 3 figuras, 3 tablas, 1 dibujo.-- et al.[EN]: Although the effects of deterministic factors on population viability often are more important than stochasticity, few researchers have dealt with the effect of deterministic habitat changes on plant population demography. We assessed population viability for the perennial herb Primula veris L. and identified targets for management based on demographic data from five different habitat types representing different degrees of canopy closure. We conducted replicate studies at the border of the distribution area and in more central parts. Demographic patterns were similar between the two regions. Most study populations had a positive population growth, and only populations in late phases of forest succession showed consistently negative trends. The populations of open habitats had high seedling recruitment, and the populations of early and middle forest succession had high seed production. The importance of survival for population growth rate increased with increasing habitat closure, whereas the importance of growth and reproduction decreased. Results of the elasticity analysis suggested that the best method to manage decreasing late-successional populations is to increase survival of the largest individuals. The life-table response experiment (LTRE) analysis, however, showed that survival of the largest individuals contributed little to differences in population growth rates of different habitats, whereas seed production and growth of small individuals were more important. Moreover, direct perturbation of the performance of the largest stages showed that late-successional populations would not attain positive population growth even if the largest stages had no mortality at all. We conclude that restoration of recruitment is the only possibility for positive population growth in late-successional populations of P. veris, although the elasticities of recruitment transitions are low. Our results also suggest that retrospective demographic methods such as LTRE constitute an important and necessary complement to prospective methods such as elasticities in identifying management targets.[ES]: Aunque los efectos de factores determinísticos sobre la viabilidad poblacional a menudo son más importantes que la estocasticidad, pocos investigadores han abordado el efecto de los cambios determinísticos del hábitat sobre la demografía de poblaciones de plantas. Evaluamos la viabilidad poblacional de la hierba perenne Primula veris L. e identificamos objetivos para su gestión con base en datos demográficos obtenidos en cinco tipos de hábitat diferentes que representan diferentes grados de oclusión del dosel. Realizamos estudios replicados en el límite del área de distribución y en áreas más centrales. Los patrones demográficos eran similares en las dos regiones. La mayoría de las poblaciones estudiadas tenían un crecimiento poblacional positivo, y solo mostraron tendencias consistentemente negativas las poblaciones en fases avanzadas de sucesión del bosque. Las poblaciones en hábitats abiertos tenían alto reclutamiento de plántulas, y las poblaciones en bosques en sucesión temprana y media tenían alta producción de semillas. La importancia de la supervivencia para la tasa de crecimiento poblacional aumentó con el incremento de la oclusión del hábitat, mientras que disminuyó la importancia del crecimiento y la reproducción. Los resultados del análisis de elasticidad sugieren que el mejor método para manejar poblaciones decrecientes de etapas tardías de sucesión es el incremento de la supervivencia de los individuos más grandes. Sin embargo, el análisis de experimento de respuesta de tabla de vida (ERTV) mostró que la supervivencia de los individuos más grandes contribuyó poco a las diferencias en las tasas de crecimiento poblacional en hábitats diferentes, mientras que la producción de semillas y el crecimiento de individuos pequeños fueron más importantes. Más aun, la perturbación directa del funcionamiento de las etapas mayores mostró que las poblaciones de sucesión tardía no llegarían a tener crecimiento poblacional positivo aun si no hubiera mortalidad en las etapas mayores. Concluimos que la restauración del reclutamiento es la única posibilidad de crecimiento poblacional en poblaciones de P. veris de sucesión tardía, aunque las elasticidades de las transiciones de reclutamiento sean bajas. Nuestros resultados también sugieren que los métodos demográficos retrospectivos, como ERTV, constituyen un complemento necesario e importante de los métodos prospectivos, como las elasticidades, en la identificación de objetivos de conservación.The study was financed by World Wide Fund of Sweden, the Swedish Research Council (to K.L. and J.E), the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (FORMAS) (to J.E.), Östersjöstiftelsen (to K.L.), and a postdoctoral grant from the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia MEC (to M.B.G; ref. EX94 17713636).Peer reviewe

Enriching perspectives : experienced ecosystem services in rural Mozambique and the importance of a gendered livelihood approach to resist reductionist analyses of local culture

Based on a case study from rural Mozambique, we stress that ecosystem services research may be enriched through gendered livelihood approaches, particularly in terms of experienced ecosystem services. Ecosystem services studies have been accused of being gender blind. We argue for the value of open narratives that are attentive to the gender dynamics underpinning the production and reproduction of livelihoods. By focusing on the experienced gender dimension of ecosystem services, livelihood perspectives fulfill the normative role of providing a people-centered means to assess the values of the environment “from below” and can therefore constitute an entry point to a holistic understanding of by whom, how, when, and why the environment is experienced as valuable. Our findings stress the dynamism and plurality of experienced ecosystem services (i.e., they vary across groups and time and cross-cut material and immaterial dimensions), as well as the asymmetrical gendered and fundamentally cultural relations that they enable. Accounting for the experienced gender dimension of ecosystem services is critical to contextualize the environment in people’s lifeworlds and to make understandings of ecosystem services representative of, and instrumental to, people’s voices and agendas. We show how such enriched, diverse, bottom-up ecosystem services perspectives form an essential foundation (together with ecological research) for resisting applications of reductionist top-down categories assumed to represent general local values.Som manuskript i avhandling. As manuscript in dissertation.</p

Södertörn University, spring semester 2005. Environment and development program. Mountain Rainforest Management in Babati District, Tanzania. View over the Haraa forest reserve

Abstract This paper deals with Community Based Forest Management in Mountain rainforests in Babati. This form of management is when the Communities are managing the forest with some help from the Government. I have made a field study to see how the managing is working the mountain forests. I made interviews with chairmen, guards and district council. The purpose with the interview is to give answers to my questions about CBFM and how it is working. I want to see if the CBFM is sustainable in Babati and know if the villagers are satisfied with it. To answer the sustainability questions, studies in Ostroms eight principles for sustainable forest management is made. The main conclusions of the study are: Babati will have a sustainable management if they follow the rules and laws that are made for Community Based Forest Management, if the community gets some kind of benefits for being the manager and they want to take care of the forest in a good way when they are the owners. If there are threats against the villagers like pressure from others villages or corruptions this sustainability can be destroyed. CBFM needs supporting systems, help from the Government, clearly defined boundaries and the basic needs like food and shelter is fulfilled before they can think of the ecosystem health and sustainability

Effects of experimental damage on probability of flowering and phenology in <i>Cardamine pratensis</i>.

<p>The herbivore damage treatment was a combination of feeding by the larvae of the butterfly <i>Anthocharis cardamines</i> and clipping. All responses were recorded the year after the damage treatment. The bars show mean values for 25 tetraploid and 28 octoploid populations for six responses: a. probability to flower and b. first day of flowering. Grey bars are responses for undamaged plants, and open bars are damaged plants. First day of flowering was equal to number of days from first of May until first open flower. Error bars represent±1SE.</p