PARENT SESSION
Contributed Oral Session 2: Traditional Ecological Knowledge
Monday, August 8, 8:00 AM - 11:30 AM, Meeting Room 513 C, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal
Integrating understanding of ecological and social processes in community forest management.
Dalle, Sarah*,1, de Blois, Sylvie1, Caballero, Javier2, Johns, Timothy1, 1 Macdonald Campus of McGill University, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, Canada2 Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico, D.F., Mexico
ABSTRACT- In managed ecosystems, social processes interact with ecological dynamics at multiple scales. Understanding these linkages is crucial for analyzing ecological changes themselves as well as for evaluating their implications for management. We present a case study in which we examine social-ecological interactions in the management of community forests in Quintana Roo, Mexico. Using remote sensing, spatial analyses, vegetation sampling and interviews we first link changes in forest cover resulting from conservation policies to changes in agricultural land-uses in a shifting cultivation mosaic. We then assess the impacts of these changes at the landscape scale on the distribution, abundance and availability of wild plant resources in the agricultural matrix. Finally, we evaluate how the local people at both the community and the household levels manage and respond to ecological change. The results indicate that although large extensions of community forests have been conserved, the agricultural zones have shifted from being a diverse mosaic of young to old successional stages to a much more homogeneous landscape dominated by younger fallows and shorter fallow periods. In turn, shorter fallow times were found to affect the abundance of certain plant resources in agricultural environments, particularly wild Carica papaya L. and trees used as firewood. However, interviews suggest that most households have adopted strategies to deal with these ecological changes in the agricultural zones. The local approach to resource management and the probable outcomes for biodiversity conservation on community lands are discussed.
Key words: community forest management, social-ecological system, land-use change, biodiversity conservation