Estableciendo una interfaz ciencia-gestión-sociedad para la conservación de la biodiversidad y el bienestar humano en la Amazonia: el caso de Madre de Dios, Perú

El objetivo de esta investigación transdisciplinaria fue establecer las bases para una interfaz ciencia-gestión-sociedad para la conservación ambiental y el desarrollo sostenible en Madre de Dios, Perú mediante: (1) la identificación y la caracterización de los actores de la conservación de la biodiversidad y el bienestar humano; (2) el análisis de los puntos de vista de los actores sobre las principales tendencias del desarrollo en la región; y (3) un proceso de involucramiento de los actores desde la academia, el gobierno y la sociedad civil. Los métodos usados incluyeron visitas de campo, entrevistas a expertos, un mapeo detallado de actores, una encuesta a actores y un taller participativo multiactor. El mapeo de partes interesadas identificó a 16 categorías de actores clave dentro de los usuarios directos de los recursos de la tierra, los usuarios indirectos de los recursos de la tierra, el sector público, la sociedad civil y las organizaciones de investigación. Según los actores encuestados, la debilidad de las instituciones gubernamentales y la corrupción son unas de las causas subyacentes a los problemas ambientales y sociales en Madre de Dios, y en particular de la minería aurífera y otras actividades extractivas ilegales e informales. El estudio resaltó también el potencial innovador que existe en la región, que ha sido el hogar de varias iniciativas exitosas para la naturaleza y la gente en las últimas décadas

Impacts of forests and forestation on hydrological services in the Andes: A systematic review

Several Andean countries have planned to restore forest cover in degraded land to enhance the provision of multiple ecosystem services in response to international commitments such as the Bonn Challenge. Hydrological services, e.g. water supply, hydrological regulation and erosion mitigation, are particularly important to sustain the life of more than fifty million Andean people. While rapid and important forest cover changes have occurred during recent decades, critical information on the impact of forestation on hydrological services has not yet been synthesized in the context of Andean ecosystems. We define forestation as the establishment of forest by plantation or natural regeneration on areas that either had forest in the past or not. To help improve decision-making on forestation in the Andes, we reviewed the available literature concerning the impacts of forestation on water supply, hydrological regulation and mitigation of erosion and landslides. We also examined available data on the most relevant hydrological processes such as infiltration, evapotranspiration and runoff in forest stands. Hydrological services from native forests were also included as a reference state for comparing processes and services provided by forestation. Following systematic review protocols, we synthesized 155 studies using different methods, including meta-analyses and meta-regressions. Results show that forestation has had clear impacts on degraded soils, through reducing water erosion of soils and risk of moderate floods, increasing soil infiltration rate by 8 and topsoil organic matter (SOM). We found that 20 years of tree plantation was sufficient to recover infiltration rate and sediment yield close to the levels of native forests whereas SOM, soil water storage and surface runoff of native forests could not be recovered by forestation in the time scales examined. The benefits in terms of hydrological regulation are at the expense of a reduction in total water supply since forest cover was associated with higher water use in most Andean regions. Forestation with native species was underrepresented in the reviewed studies. The impact of forestation on landslides has also been largely overlooked in the Andes. At high elevations, exotic tree plantations on Andean grasslands (e.g. páramo and puna) had the most detrimental consequences since these grasslands showed an excellent capacity for hydrological regulation and erosion mitigation but also a water yield up to 40% higher than tree plantations. People engaged in forest restoration initiative should be aware that hydrological services may take some time for society and the environment to show clear benefits after forestation

Research priorities for the conservation and sustainable governance of Andean Forest landscapes

The long-term survival of Andean forest landscapes (AFL) and of their capacity to contribute to sustainable development in a context of global change requires integrated adaptation and mitigation responses informed by a thorough understanding of the dynamic and complex interactions between their ecological and social components. This article proposes a research agenda that can help guide AFL research efforts for the next 15 years. The agenda was developed between July 2015 and June 2016 through a series of workshops in Ecuador, Peru, and Switzerland and involved 48 researchers and development experts working on AFL from different disciplinary perspectives. Based on our review of current research and identification of pressing challenges for the conservation and sustainable governance of AFL, we propose a conceptual framework that draws on sustainability sciences and social–ecological systems research, and we identify a set of high-priority research goals and objectives organized into 3 broad categories: systems knowledge, target knowledge, and transformation knowledge. This paper is intended to be a reference for a broad array of actors engaged in policy, research, and implementation in the Andean region. We hope it will trigger collaborative research initiatives for the continued conservation and sustainable governance of AFL

Land System Science In Latin America: Challenges And Perspectives

This article reviews the current status, trends and challenges of land system science in Latin America. We highlight the advances in the conceptualization, analysis and monitoring of land systems. These advances shift from a focus on the relationships between forests and other land uses to include a greater diversity of land cover and land-use types and the processes and interactions that link them. We then provide a biome-level typology of social-ecological land systems (SELS) as an approach to help connect local-level realities to regional processes and we discuss how this approach can help to design more socially inclusive land systems. We also discuss the increased role of distant socio-economic and ecological interactions that connect these SELS to global processes. Combined, these insights support a research agenda for land system science in the region that can develop more accurate and integrative monitoring of land change and their social and ecological consequences, better understand different stakeholder perspectives within a context of livelihood diversification, and encourage institutional feedbacks to govern land systems influenced by distant drivers. © 201726-27374

Mapping and characterizing social-ecological land systems of South America.

ABSTRACT.- Humans place strong pressure on land and have modified around 75% of Earth's terrestrial surface. In this context, ecoregions and biomes, merely defined on the basis of their biophysical features, are incomplete characterizations of the territory. Land system science requires classification schemes that incorporate both social and biophysical dimensions. In this study, we generated spatially explicit social-ecological land system (SELS) typologies for South America with a hybrid methodology that combined data-driven spatial analysis with a knowledge-based evaluation by an interdisciplinary group of regional specialists. Our approach embraced a holistic consideration of the social-ecological land systems, gathering a dataset of 26 variables spanning across 7 dimensions: physical, biological, land cover, economic, demographic, political, and cultural. We identified 13 SELS nested in 5 larger social-ecological regions (SER). Each SELS was discussed and described by specific groups of specialists. Although 4 environmental and 1 socioeconomic variable explained most of the distribution of the coarse SER classification, a diversity of 15 other variables were shown to be essential for defining several SELS, highlighting specific features that differentiate them. The SELS spatial classification presented is a systematic and operative characterization of South American social-ecological land systems. We propose its use can contribute as a reference framework for a wide range of applications such as analyzing observations within larger contexts, designing system-specific solutions for sustainable development, and structuring hypothesis testing and comparisons across space. Similar efforts could be done elsewhere in the world. Copyright © 2022 by the author(s)

Productive Diversification and Sustainable Use of Complex Social-Ecological Systems: A Comparative Study of Indigenous and Settler Communities in the Bolivian Amazon

Agricultural and forest productive diversification depends on multiple socioeconomic drivers—like knowledge, migration, productive capacity, and market—that shape productive strategies and influence their ecological impacts. Our comparison of indigenous and settlers allows a better understanding of how societies develop different diversification strategies in similar ecological contexts and how the related socioeconomic aspects of diversification are associated with land cover change. Our results suggest that although indigenous people cause less deforestation and diversify more, diversification is not a direct driver of deforestation reduction. A multidimensional approach linking sociocognitive, economic, and ecological patterns of diversification helps explain this contradiction