A Socio-Ecological Assessment of the Potential for Vegetable Gardens in Elementary Schools Across an Urban Tropical Watershed in Puerto Rico

School vegetable gardens provide environmental services and social benefits that can have a wide impact in communities and cities, while preparing future generations for more sustainable ways of living. For a school to create and sustain a vegetable garden, both social and physical environment (soils) must be favorable. We evaluated 20 elementary schools in the Rio Piedras watershed of San Juan, Puerto Rico. At these schools, we surveyed school principals to identify social factors that are considered opportunities and constraints to establishing and sustaining a school garden. We also described the physical and chemical properties of the soils from the most suitable locations for vegetable gardens in the schoolyards. For social factors, some schools had discontinued gardening because of dwindling funding, waning interest of teachers and parents. Through in-person interviews, principals identified factors that help in implementing and sustaining long-term vegetable gardens: engagement of stakeholders, sponsorship, gardening skills and logistics, and curriculum integration. For ecological factors, the destruction of crops by exotic iguanas was also a reason that stopped school garden activities in some cases. Generally, school soils were highly disturbed, with high bulk density and low nutrient availability. The soils will require considerable remediation and management to sustain vegetable gardens in Rio Piedras schools. A social-ecological approach like that used here could be used to evaluate school gardens at other jurisdictions to increase the likelihood of success of gardening activities

Social Acceptability of a Sustainable Forestry Industry in Puerto Rico: Views of Private, Public, and Non-Profit Sectors

Sustainable forestry is key to increase the adaptive capacity and resilience of regions exposed to extreme atmospheric events. Understanding social acceptability of forest management practices through a public dialogue that involves a diversity of stakeholders is important to define management policies and strategies. Here, we inquire about social acceptability of a sustainable forestry industry in Puerto Rico by convening a set of local experts from private, non-profit, and public sectors through focus group discussions. We presented three scenarios characterized by different elements of sustainability. Discussions included organizational and management considerations, potential products and markets, and the impact of extreme weather events. The results show that greater agreement was observed within groups than across groups. Most of the private sector participants valued mainly financial viability, while the public and the non-profit sectors gave more importance to social equity and environmental protection. This suggests that there is no single ideal model; thus, participation from all sectors in subsequent conversations would be worthwhile to seek a model that would work for most of the stakeholders. As a next step, we suggest expanding the stakeholder consultation effort to delineate a clear road map that can inform sustainable forestry planning at the local level

Social Acceptability of a Sustainable Forestry Industry in Puerto Rico: Views of Private, Public, and Non-Profit Sectors

Sustainable forestry is key to increase the adaptive capacity and resilience of regions exposed to extreme atmospheric events. Understanding social acceptability of forest management practices through a public dialogue that involves a diversity of stakeholders is important to define management policies and strategies. Here, we inquire about social acceptability of a sustainable forestry industry in Puerto Rico by convening a set of local experts from private, non-profit, and public sectors through focus group discussions. We presented three scenarios characterized by different elements of sustainability. Discussions included organizational and management considerations, potential products and markets, and the impact of extreme weather events. The results show that greater agreement was observed within groups than across groups. Most of the private sector participants valued mainly financial viability, while the public and the non-profit sectors gave more importance to social equity and environmental protection. This suggests that there is no single ideal model; thus, participation from all sectors in subsequent conversations would be worthwhile to seek a model that would work for most of the stakeholders. As a next step, we suggest expanding the stakeholder consultation effort to delineate a clear road map that can inform sustainable forestry planning at the local level