Un segon "boom" d'exploració d'hidrocarburs amenaça l'Amazònia peruana

Una ràpida proliferació de concessions per a l'exploració i l'explotació de petroli i gas, sense precedents, amenaça l'Amazònia peruana. La quantitat de superfície sota concessió va camí de cobrir el 70% de la regió, amenaçant la biodiversitat i les poblacions indígenes de la regió. Aquesta és una de les principals conclusions a què han arribat dos investigadors de l'Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA), de la UAB, i de l'ONG Save America's Forests amb seu a Washington DC, que han documentat, per primera vegada, tota la història d'activitats hidrocarburíferes de la regió i han realitzat projeccions de futur per als propers cinc anys.Una rápida proliferación de concesiones para la exploración y explotación de petróleo y gas sin precedentes amenaza la Amazonia peruana. La cantidad de superficie bajo concesión va camino de cubrir el 70% de la región, amenazando la biodiversidad y las poblaciones indígenas de la región. Esta es una de las principales conclusiones a que han llegado dos investigadores del Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnología Ambientales (ICTA) de la UAB y de la ONG Save America's Forests, con sede en Washington DC, que han documentado por primera vez toda la historia de actividades hidrocarburíferas de la región y han realizado proyecciones de futuro para los próximos cinco años.A rapid and unprecedented proliferation of oil and gas concessions threatens the megadiverse Peruvian Amazon. The amount of area leased is on track to reach around 70% of the region, threatening biodiversity and indigenous people. This is one of the central conclusions from a pair of researchers from the Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA) of UAB, and the Washington DC-based NGO Save America's Forests, who have, for the first time, documented the full history of hydrocarbon activities in the region and made projections about expected levels of activity in the near future

Globalized conflicts, globalized responses. Changing manners of contestation among indigenous communities

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552Altres ajuts: Fundació Autònoma SolidàriaIn a globalized world, environmental conflicts affecting indigenous communities (including hunter-gatherer groups) have intensified and grown in their transnational character. These changes have affected the choice of manners of contestation of these groups, favouring in some cases the emergence of alternative responses based on the use of new technologies and scientifically gathered evidence. In this chapter, we examine these interlinked changes, describing also - through two case studies- an emerging methodology of scientific enquiry that aims to enable indigenous communities to lead scientific activities and confront conflicts through a truly bottom-up approach. The chapter ends discussing how, despite the potential of such new manners of contestation, the power imbalances that currently underpin many indigenous conflicts are first to be addressed

The atlas of unburnable oil for supply-side climate policies

To limit the increase in global mean temperature to 1.5 °C, CO2 emissions must be drastically reduced. Accordingly, approximately 97%, 81%, and 71% of existing coal and conventional gas and oil resources, respectively, need to remain unburned. This article develops an integrated spatial assessment model based on estimates and locations of conventional oil resources and socio-environmental criteria to construct a global atlas of unburnable oil. The results show that biodiversity hotspots, richness centres of endemic species, natural protected areas, urban areas, and the territories of Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation coincide with 609 gigabarrels (Gbbl) of conventional oil resources. Since 1524 Gbbl of conventional oil resources are required to be left untapped in order to keep global warming under 1.5 °C, all of the above-mentioned socio-environmentally sensitive areas can be kept entirely off-limits to oil extraction. The model provides spatial guidelines to select unburnable fossil fuels resources while enhancing collateral socio-environmental benefits.</p

The atlas of unburnable oil for supply-side climate policies

To limit the increase in global mean temperature to 1.5 °C, CO2 emissions must be drastically reduced. Accordingly, approximately 97%, 81%, and 71% of existing coal and conventional gas and oil resources, respectively, need to remain unburned. This article develops an integrated spatial assessment model based on estimates and locations of conventional oil resources and socio-environmental criteria to construct a global atlas of unburnable oil. The results show that biodiversity hotspots, richness centres of endemic species, natural protected areas, urban areas, and the territories of Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation coincide with 609 gigabarrels (Gbbl) of conventional oil resources. Since 1524 Gbbl of conventional oil resources are required to be left untapped in order to keep global warming under 1.5 °C, all of the above-mentioned socio-environmentally sensitive areas can be kept entirely off-limits to oil extraction. The model provides spatial guidelines to select unburnable fossil fuels resources while enhancing collateral socio-environmental benefits

Investigación aplicada en etnoecología : experiencias de campo

La etnoecología estudia las relaciones entre los humanos y el medioambiente en el que viven, contribuyendo a entender algunos de los problemas socio-ecológicos actuales, como la degradación ecológica o la pérdida de diversidad cultural, desde un punto de vista eminentemente local. Desde el 2006, el Laboratorio de Etnoecología de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona desarrolla proyectos de investigación dirigidos a estudiar factores y dinámicas sociales, culturales, políticas, y ecológicas que ayudan a explicar la relación de sociedades indígenas y rurales de África, Asia, Latinoamérica y Europa, con su entorno ambiental. Huyendo de la dinámica de extracción de información sin retorno a las comunidades, los proyectos del Laboratorio combinan investigación académica con acciones orientadas a la devolución de los resultados de investigación a las poblaciones con las que trabajamos, a la vez que promueven mejoras en el bienestar local y en el uso sostenible de sus recursos naturales.Ethnoecology studies the relations of human beings with their environment aiming at understanding several current socio-ecological problems such as ecological degradation and loss of cultural diversity, mainly from a local point of view. Since 2006, the research team of the Ethnoecology Laboratory (Autonomous University of Barcelona) is conducting research projects focused on the study of social, cultural, political, and ecological factors and dynamics influencing the relation of rural and indigenous communities in Africa, Asia, Latin- America, and Europe, with their environment. Contrary to the common practice of simply extracting information from rural communities, projects at the Ethnoecology Laboratory blend academic research and actions oriented to return findings to the populations where we work and to improve their well-being and sustainable use of natural resources

Institutional mechanisms to keep unburnable fossil fuel reserves in the soil

To limit the probable increase in global mean temperature to 2 °C, about 80%, 50% and 30% of existing coal, gas and oil reserves, respectively, would need to remain under the soil. While the concept of ‘unburnable fuels’ has become prominent, there has been little discussion on institutional mechanisms to identify specific fossil fuel reserves to be left untouched and the financial mechanisms for raising and distributing funds to compensate the right-holders for forgoing extraction. We present an auction mechanism to determine the fossil fuel reserves to be kept untapped – those whose extraction would generate the least rents, ensuring cost efficiency. The auctions could be complemented by other provisions to reap collateral benefits of avoided extraction, for example by prioritizing reserves that coincide with outstanding socio-environmental values that are likely to be disrupted by the extraction of fossil fuels. We also discuss how to raise funds, for example through a fossil fuel producers-based tax, to finance the mechanism compensating right-holders and ensuring commitment. The effective identification of unburnable fossil fuel reserves and the development of accompanying funding mechanisms seems to be the elephant in the room of climate negotiations and we aim at contributing to an overdue discussion on supply-side interventions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions

Textural classification of land cover using support vector machines : an empirical comparison with parametric, non parametric and hybrid classifiers in the Bolivian Amazon

Land cover classification is a key research field in remote sensing and land change science as thematic maps derived from remotely sensed data have become the basis for analyzing many socio-ecological issues. However, land cover classification remains a difficult task and it is especially challenging in heterogeneous tropical landscapes where nonetheless such maps are of great importance. The present study aims to establish an efficient classification approach to accurately map all broad land cover classes in a large, heterogeneous tropical area of Bolivia, as a basis for further studies (e.g., land cover-land use change). Specifically, we compare the performance of parametric (maximum likelihood), non-parametric (k-nearest neighbour and four different support vector machines - SVM), and hybrid classifiers, using both hard and soft (fuzzy) accuracy assessments. In addition, we test whether the inclusion of a textural index (homogeneity) in the classifications improves their performance. We classified Landsat imagery for two dates corresponding to dry and wet seasons and found that non-parametric, and particularly SVM classifiers, outperformed both parametric and hybrid classifiers. We also found that the use of the homogeneity index along with reflectance bands significantly increased the overall accuracy of all the classifications, but particularly of SVM algorithms. We observed that improvements in producer's and user's accuracies through the inclusion of the homogeneity index were different depending on land cover classes. Earlygrowth/degraded forests, pastures, grasslands and savanna were the classes most improved, especially with the SVM radial basis function and SVM sigmoid classifiers, though with both classifiers all land cover classes were mapped with producer's and user's accuracies of around 90%. Our approach seems very well suited to accurately map land cover in tropical regions, thus having the potential to contribute to conservation initiatives, climate change mitigation schemes such as REDD+, and rural development policies

The Adaptive Nature of Culture : A cross-cultural analysis of the returns of Local Environmental Knowledge in three indigenous societies

Researchers have argued that the behavioral adaptations that explain the success of our species are partially cultural, that is, cumulative and socially transmitted. Thus, understanding the adaptive nature of culture is crucial to understand human evolution. We use a cross-cultural framework and empirical data purposely collected to test whether culturally transmitted and individually appropriated knowledge provides individual returns in terms of hunting yields and health and, by extension, nutritional status, a proxy for individual adaptive success. Data were collected in three subsistence-oriented societies: the Tsimane’ (Amazon), the Baka (Congo Basin), and the Punan (Borneo). Results suggest that variations in individual levels of local environmental knowledge relate to individual hunting returns and self-reported health but not to nutritional status. We argue that this paradox can be explained through the prevalence of sharing: individuals achieving higher returns to their knowledge transfer them to the rest of the population, which explains the lack of association between knowledge and nutritional status. The finding is in consonance with previous research highlighting the importance of cultural traits favoring group success but pushes it forward by elucidating the mechanisms through which individual- and group-level adaptive forces interact.Peer reviewe

High overlap between traditional ecological knowledge and forest conservation found in the Bolivian Amazon

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552Altres ajuts: FBBVA research grant (BIOCON_06_106-07)It has been suggested that traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) may play a key role in forest conservation. However, empirical studies assessing to what extent TEK is associated with forest conservation compared with other variables are rare. Furthermore, to our knowledge, the spatial overlap of TEK and forest conservation has not been evaluated at fine scales. In this paper, we address both issues through a case study with Tsimane' Amerindians in the Bolivian Amazon. We sampled 624 households across 59 villages to estimate TEK and used remote sensing data to assess forest conservation. We ran statistical and spatial analyses to evaluate whether TEK was associated and spatially overlapped with forest conservation at the village level. We find that Tsimane' TEK is significantly and positively associated with forest conservation although acculturation variables bear stronger and negative associations with forest conservation. We also find a very significant spatial overlap between levels of Tsimane' TEK and forest conservation. We discuss the potential reasons underpinning our results, which provide insights that may be useful for informing policies in the realms of development, conservation, and climate. We posit that the protection of indigenous cultural systems is vital and urgent to create more effective policies in such realms

Activism Mobilizing Science Revisited

Minority groups and marginalized communities affected by extractive industries are increasingly allying with scientists to coproduce new alternative knowledge in order to challenge the data and narratives produced by the company or some state departments. Under the counter-expertise umbrella this process understood as Activism Mobilizing Science (AMS) is characterized by being driven by activists or local grassroots groups, where local and scientific knowledge are merged to coproduce new scientific knowledge. As we show through three case studies - two of uranium mines in Africa and an oil extraction case in the Peruvian Amazon - the main objective of these groups is to understand what are the negative impacts of extractive industry activities, to challenge the company's or state's discourse or data, and to gain legitimacy and visibility. We pose that the empowerment of these groups is as much a result of the newly coproduced knowledge as the dynamics of the AMS process itself