Community-Based Forestry and Timber Certification in Southeast Bolivia

Initiatives promoting community forestry in South America have significantly increased over the past decade. Many of these efforts have concentrated on indigenous lands where a large proportion of commercially valuable forests are located. One such project, among the Chiquitano Indians of Lomerio in southeast Bolivia, is examined here. Interviews with Chiquitano leaders, NGO and development organisation workers, and forest and sawmill workers, as well as ethnographic research in Chiquitano communities, are used to describe problems faced by the project in establishing forest management activities, organizing labour, administration, paying wages and distributing benefits. The author argues that many of the problems that the Lomerio project is experiencing can be traced to fundamental conflicts between Chiquitano culture and the values that necessarily accompany market-based development efforts such as community forestry. The research suggests that the key to success in Lomerio will lie in moulding the organisation of the project in ways that reflect Chiquitano patterns of work and production, and reconciling the demands of market economics with the values of reciprocation that permeate life in Chiquitano communities

Persistent Infiltration and Impaired Response of Peripherally-Derived Monocytes after Traumatic Brain Injury in the Aged Brain.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause for neurological disabilities world-wide. TBI occurs most frequently among the elderly population, and elderly TBI survivors suffer from reduced recovery and poorer quality of life. The effect of age on the pathophysiology of TBI is still poorly understood. We previously established that peripherally-derived monocytes (CCR2⁺) infiltrate the injured brain and contribute to chronic TBI-induced cognitive deficits in young animals. Furthermore, age was shown to amplify monocyte infiltration acutely after injury. In the current study, we investigated the impact of age on the subchronic response of peripherally-derived monocytes (CD45hi; CCR2⁺) and their role in the development of chronic cognitive deficits. In the aged brain, there was a significant increase in the number of peripherally-derived monocytes after injury compared to young, injured animals. The infiltration rate of peripherally-derived monocytes remained elevated subchronically and corresponded with enhanced expression of CCR2 chemotactic ligands. Interestingly, the myeloid cell populations observed in injured aged brains had impaired anti-inflammatory responses compared to those in young animals. Additionally, in the aged animals, there was an expansion of the blood CCR2⁺ monocyte population after injury that was not present in the young animals. Importantly, knocking out CCR2 to inhibit infiltration of peripherally-derived monocytes prevented chronic TBI-induced spatial memory deficits in the aged mice. Altogether, these results demonstrate the critical effects of age on the peripherally-derived monocyte response during the progression of TBI pathophysiology