Birds and bioenergy within the americas: A cross‐national, social–ecological study of ecosystem service tradeoffs

Although renewable energy holds great promise in mitigating climate change, there are socioeconomic and ecological tradeoffs related to each form of renewable energy. Forest‐related bioenergy is especially controversial, because tree plantations often replace land that could be used to grow food crops and can have negative impacts on biodiversity. In this study, we examined public perceptions and ecosystem service tradeoffs between the provisioning services associated with cover types associated with bioenergy crop (feedstock) production and forest habitat‐related supporting services for birds, which themselves provide cultural and regulating services. We combined a social survey‐based assessment of local values and perceptions with measures of bioenergy feedstock production impacts on bird habitat in four countries: Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and the USA. Respondents in all countries rated birds as important or very important (83–99% of respondents) and showed lower enthusiasm for, but still supported, the expansion of bioenergy feedstocks (48–60% of respondents). Bioenergy feedstock cover types in Brazil and Argentina had the greatest negative impact on birds but had a positive impact on birds in the USA. In Brazil and Mexico, public perceptions aligned fairly well with the realities of the impacts of potential bioenergy feedstocks on bird communities. However, in Argentina and the USA, perceptions of bioenergy impacts on birds did not match well with the data. Understanding people’s values and perceptions can help inform better policy and management decisions regarding land use changes

Community perceptions of socioecological stressors and risk-reducing strategies in Tabasco, Mexico

© 2018, AESS. Rural inhabitants in many parts of the world face multiple stressors associated with socioecological and climatic change, yet their risk-reducing strategies have rarely been linked to these stressors. Extant studies present unclear and often unspecific definitions of adaptation or focus on just one type of stressor rather than acknowledging that there can be multiple responses to myriad stressors. In an attempt to overcome some of these gaps, we utilize a typology of adaptation strategies that addresses deficiencies in the current adaptation literature. This research draws on qualitative interview data to examine resident perceptions of water-related socioecological and climatic changes and potential risk-reducing strategies within small rural communities in Tabasco, Mexico. The increased frequency of drought and flooding in low-lying areas near the Usumacinta River has reduced local community members’ ability to sustain their livelihoods. Results from interview analysis show that residents are using four major strategies that they perceive as helping them respond to water-related problems. They are mobility, diversification, communal pooling, and environmental management. Our findings contribute to understandings of rural community risk reduction strategies that may be shared by other rural communities in places around the world experiencing negative climate change impacts

Percepción social de la salinización del agua para uso doméstico en Puerto Madero, Chiapas, México

[ES] La salinización del agua potable en la zona costera representa una creciente preocupación de la seguridad hídrica. Nuestro objetivo fue explorar, a través de entrevistas semiestructuradas, la percepción de la salinización del agua para uso doméstico en Puerto Madero, México, una comunidad fronteriza con altos niveles de migración, y contrastarla con datos cuantitativos de salinidad. La población de esta localidad costera depende sustancialmente de pozos artesanales sin monitoreo gubernamental. Aunque no se encontraron pozos que puedan catalogarse como salinos, los resultados evidencian que los pozos artesanos que presentan valores extremos de concentración de sólidos disueltos tienen incidencia en la salud humana. [EN] The salinization of drinking water in the coastal zone is a growing concern for water security. Our objective was to know the perception of water salinization for domestic use through semi-structured interviews in Puerto Madero, Mexico, a border community with high levels of migration, and then to contrast it with quantitative salinity data. The population of this coastal locality depends substantially on artisan wells without government monitoring. Although no wells were classified as saline, results show that artisan wells that present extreme values of dissolved-solid concentration have impact in human health conditions

Informes de gobierno y paisaje forestal en Tabasco y Chiapas de 1947-1982

The objective of this work is to contrast succinctly the forest public policies that took place in the period 1947-1982 through the government reports of the States of Tabasco and Chiapas (Mexico), through the collection and digitization of State Government reports, supplemented by secondary sources. The method of research was qualitative with an intensive and extensive search of sources, which served to create a database in Microsoft Excel, sorted by keywords. The results are as follows: forest policies in both entities were divergent, while in Chiapas, state governments intermittently promoted forest harvesting, in Tabasco, the main objective was to promote agriculture and cattle raising, at the expense of forest degradation. However, in both cases, fires, deforestation and weak policies caused forest resources to continue to deteriorate.El artículo se propone contrastar de manera sucinta las políticas públicas forestales gestadas en el periodo 1947-1982, a través de los informes de gobierno de los estados de Tabasco y Chiapas (México). Para ello se recopilaron y digitalizaron informes de gobiernos estatales del periodo de estudio, complementados con fuentes secundarias. El método de investigación fue cualitativo con una búsqueda intensiva y extensiva de fuentes, lo cual sirvió para crear una base de datos ordenada por palabras clave. Los resultados son los siguientes: las políticas forestales en ambas entidades fueron divergentes, mientras en Chiapas los gobiernos estatales promovieron intermitentemente el aprovechamiento forestal, en Tabasco, el principal objetivo fue el de hacer producir el campo e incentivar la actividad ganadera, a costa de la deforestación de la selva. No obstante, en ambos, los incendios, la deforestación y las políticas débiles causaron que los recursos forestales continuaran deteriorándose

Forum Theatre as a mechanism to explore representation of local people's values in environmental governance: A case of study from Chiapas, Mexico

Abstract Nature degradation, poverty and social discrimination are some of the consequences of unfair decision‐making over environmental resources within rural communities in the Global South. Barriers to achieving fair environmental decisions are entrenched power differences and the lack of representation of the diversity of local values in environmental decision‐making. Using intersectionality and value pluralism as a conceptual base, this is the first paper to examine the potential of Forum Theatre, a performance arts‐based method, to discuss ‘solutions’ regarding power differences and values towards nature in environmental decision‐making. We implemented Forum Theatre in two rural villages in Chiapas, Mexico, framed around conflicts and power differences in eco‐tourism development. Participants felt empathy with the Forum Theatre characters and dissatisfaction over the conflicts, and this motivated them to engage and participate in collective reflections on their own personal experiences with power differences in environmental decision‐making. From these reflections, participants performed diverse ‘solutions’ to the conflicts, bringing to the fore plural interconnected and dynamic values towards nature in these narratives. Despite this, Forum Theatre does not look to ‘solve’ conflicts; it is a safe space to explore how power differences and values towards nature play out in environmental decision‐making. Results offer a promising picture of the potential of Forum Theatre as an opening where participants could discuss power differences and values towards nature. However, establishing its potential as a tool in environmental decision‐making would require engaging those involved in implementing environmental decisions that affect the communities but who operate from other levels of the governance structure, such as policy‐makers and large NGOs. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog

Áreas prioritarias de conservación en la cuenca Usumacinta. La aplicación de un enfoque multicriterio

Las áreas prioritarias para la conservación (APC) se han establecido para proteger regiones biodiversas valiosas del creciente impacto humano. La cuenca transfronteriza del río Usumacinta es un importante reservorio cultural, hidrológico y biológico de Mesoamérica, donde, sin embargo, prevalecen importantes amenazas antropogénicas que han limitado los esfuerzos de protección de los recursos naturales. El presente trabajo desarrolla una evaluación multicriterio (EMC) de aspectos biológicos, hidrológicos y antropogénicos de la cuenca Usumacinta para identificar APC, es decir, aquellas áreas con la mayor aptitud de conservación de acuerdo con su grado de irremplazabilidad y vulnerabilidad. El modelo determina que aunque el 23.7 % del territorio son APC, menos de la mitad se encuentran bajo protección por alguna de las actuales 124 áreas protegidas (AP). Priorizar áreas de conservación dentro del esquema actual de protección de la cuenca facilitaría un manejo sistémico basado en las variaciones biofísicas y sociales regionales, complementando así los esfuerzos locales para proteger las 30 especies vulnerables presentes en la cuenca de los impactos de las actividades humanas. Los resultados del presente trabajo evidencian la importancia de buscar oportunidades de colaboración en materia de conservación transfronteriza, pudiendo incrementar 4.9% (Guatemala) y 0.3% (México) la superficie nacional protegida

Chapter 10: Lessons from the transdisciplinary, international BIOPIRE project

A transdisciplinary group of scientists and industrial, governmental and non-governmental organization partners collaborated to study the sustainability of bioenergy development across the Americas. The research focused on understanding the socioecological impacts of bioenergy in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Uruguay and the US. This chapter reports on how the group was formed through a smaller group that recognized the value of an interdisciplinary approach to studying environmental problems. We discuss the barriers and strategies the team faced when conducting transdisciplinary research and how environmental researchers and scientists can use this knowledge to anticipate challenges associated with transdisciplinary, international research. Lastly, we demonstrate the importance of recognizing environmental management issues as socioecological problems and show that studying them requires transdisciplinary teamwork

A regional PECS node built from place-based social-ecological sustainability research in Latin America and the Caribbean

Sustainability requires a combination of meaningful co-production of locally relevant solutions, synthesis of insights gained across regions, and increased cooperation between science, policy and practice. The Programme for Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) has been coordinating Place-Based Social-Ecological Sustainability Research (PBSESR) across the globe and emphasizes the need for regional scientific nodes from diverse biocultural regions to inform sustainability science and action. In this paper, we assess the strengths of the PBSESR communities in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). We provide an overview of PBSESR literature associated with this region and highlight the achievements of two prominent regional networks: The Social-Ecological Systems and Sustainability Research Network from Mexico (SocioEcoS) and the South American Institute for Resilience and Sustainability Studies from Uruguay (SARAS Institute). Finally, we identify the potential in these nodes to constitute a regional PECS node in Latin America and discuss the capacity needed to ensure such function. The results of the literature review show that while still loosely interconnected across the region, networks play key roles in connecting otherwise cloistered teams and we illustrate how the SocioEcoS network (focusing on transdisciplinary co-production of knowledge towards sustainability) and the SARAS Institute (focusing on innovative approaches for looking at complex social-ecological problems, rooted in slow science and arts) operate as key connectors in the region. We conclude that these organizations combined can embody a Latin American node for PECS, and would thereby not only contribute to regional but also global capacities to advance the sustainability agenda.Incluye referencias bibliográfica