Community management of waste recycling: The SIRDO

At the beginning of 1978, a group of families were awaiting access to low-cost housing in Mérida, a city on Mexico\u27s southeastern coast. Some units were equipped with a new drainage system called SIRDO (Integrated System for Recycling Organic Wastes), and families interested in living in the experimental block where the SIRDO was to be installed could be given housing right away. Three years later, families in another community located in the crowded Valley of Mexico decided to try the system in their own neighborhood. Women have played a crucial role in learning to manage the technical, economic, and social aspects of a new, community-based technology and, in so doing, have strengthened their own standing within their families and communities. They also have become the principal managers of a system that both improves sanitary conditions and offers possibilities for community-based income-earning activities. This issue of SEEDS tells the story of these women and their communities, and the changes brought about through the introduction of this new technology

Learning to MERGE: Managing Ecosystems and Resources with Gender Emphasis

Unpublished Bookhttps://nsuworks.nova.edu/hcas_dcrs_facbooks/1059/thumbnail.jp

Learning About Women and Urban Services in Latin America and the Caribbean

In 1978 when the Population Council formulated a program to learn more about low-income urban women’s access to services, the dearth of information was striking, particularly in contrast to the emerging body of information delineating access to credit, extension, membership in rural institutions, and representation in local governments. Access to services was much less well-defined owing to the diverse cultures that meet in the urban environment, the mobility of city life, and the fluidity of households. Urban development planners, researchers, and those involved in community action projects in a number of South American cities were approached to find out what they knew, and there was much interest on the part of urban planners in learning how their programs affected men and women differentially. The interest of these diverse groups called for a long-term approach. Three working groups on Women, Low-Income Households, and Urban Services evolved in Kingston, Jamaica; Lima, Peru; and Mexico City, Mexico. Much detail is provided in this volume on how these groups function and arrive at their priorities. Rather than confining this report to a lengthy internal document, this work was brought to the attention of a broader audience through summary articles

Road building, land use and climate change: prospects for environmental governance in the Amazon

Some coupled land–climate models predict a dieback of Amazon forest during the twenty-first century due to climate change, but human land use in the region has already reduced the forest cover. The causation behind land use is complex, and includes economic, institutional, political and demographic factors. Pre-eminent among these factors is road building, which facilitates human access to natural resources that beget forest fragmentation. While official government road projects have received considerable attention, unofficial road building by interest groups is expanding more rapidly, especially where official roads are being paved, yielding highly fragmented forest mosaics. Effective governance of natural resources in the Amazon requires a combination of state oversight and community participation in a ‘hybrid’ model of governance. The MAP Initiative in the southwestern Amazon provides an example of an innovative hybrid approach to environmental governance. It embodies a polycentric structure that includes government agencies, NGOs, universities and communities in a planning process that links scientific data to public deliberations in order to mitigate the effects of new infrastructure and climate change

Administración comunitaria del reciclamiento de desechos: El SIRDO

A comienzos de 1978, un grupo de famílias esperaba que le adjudicaran una de las casas comprendidas en un proyecto de viviendas económicas en Mérida, una ciudad de la costa sudeste de México. Algunas casas contaban con un sistema de drenaje nuevo llamado SIRDO (Sistema Integrado de Reciclamiento de Desechos Orgánicos), y las familias interesadas en vivir en la manzana experimental donde se instalaría el SIRDO, podrían ocupar su casa inmediatamente. Tres años más tarde un otro grupo de familias de una comunidad situada en el populoso Valle de Mexico resolvieron ensayar el sistema en su propio vecindario. Las mujeres han desempeñado un papel esencial en este proceso, reforzando con ello la posición que ocupan dentro de sus familias y de la colectividad. Han llegado a ser además las principales encargadas del manejo de un sistema que, aparte de mejorar las condiciones sanitarias, ofrece la posibilidad de realizar actividades comunitarias productoras de ingresos. Este número de SEEDS cuenta la historia de estas mujeres, de las comunidades en que viven, y de los cambios ocasionados por esta nueva tecnología. At the beginning of 1978, a group of families were awaiting access to low-cost housing in Mérida, a city on Mexico\u27s southeastern coast. Some units were equipped with a new drainage system called SIRDO (Integrated System for Recycling Organic Wastes), and families interested in living in the experimental block where the SIRDO was to be installed could be given housing right away. Three years later, families in another community located in the crowded Valley of Mexico decided to try the system in their own neighborhood. Women have played a crucial role in learning to manage the technical, economic, and social aspects of a new, community-based technology and, in so doing, have strengthened their own standing within their families and communities. They also have become the principal managers of a system that both improves sanitary conditions and offers possibilities for community-based income-earning activities. This issue of SEEDS tells the story of these women and their communities, and the changes brought about through the introduction of this new technology

Charles Wagley's legacy of Interdisciplinary Graduate Research and Training Programs at the University of Florida

When Charles Wagley moved from Columbia University to the University of Florida (UF) in 1972, he established the Tropical South America Program. In this program he began an enduring legacy at UF of interdisciplinarity, collaborative research and training focused on the problems and solutions of tropical development, and support for students as future leaders. Reaching out to agricultural researchers and other social science disciplines, Wagley later co-founded and directed the Amazon Research and Training Program (ARTP), and remained active even after his retirement in 1983. The ARTP built on Wagley's strategy of supporting student research and building collaboration with partners in Latin America, and innovated in bringing in visiting professors from different disciplines, developing new interdisciplinary courses, and networking among Amazonian scholars in different countries. Wagley's most lasting contribution is the Tropical Conservation and Development (TCD) program, which grew out of the ARTP to become an internationally-recognized interdisciplinary graduate program focused on the intersection between biodiversity conservation and the well-being of people in the tropical world. Drawing on participation from over 100 faculty affiliates in 27 academic units at UF, since 1980 the ARTP and TCD programs have trained over 400 graduate students from two dozen countries