Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

In the vast field of biodiversity research social sciences still have a difficult standing. We find widespread misconceptions of the role sociology and cultural studies should play when studying potentials for nature conservation. Often the »social view« is regarded as something subordinate to hard scientific facts. Even researchers exploring local, everyday knowledge on biological diversity or human interaction with nature tend to operate with concepts and methods not adequate to their research subjects. Frequently the research into folk knowledge equals a collection or stocktaking of those kinds of knowledges that might be useful for science. The employment of a scientific conception of knowledge, and also of biodiversity becomes problematic. For the idea of biodiversity developed in a rather detached small sphere of society and hardly has relevance in everyday life. Thus, when studying people's knowledge on »biodiversity«, such research methods should be employed which allow people to develop their personal view on the subjects in question so that informants can give their own personal meanings to the world. For my own research on home gardeners' knowledge I opted for episodic interviews with a strong narrative and biographical component, supported by participant observation and group discussions. The gardeners' stories make clear that their nature perception and management is inseparably linked to their individual biography. Their knowledge on nature and »biodiversity« is woven into their total, constantly changing knowledge on the world — it forms part of their identity. Not only nature is perceived as diverse but also knowledge itself. The gardeners reflect that their knowledge depends on time and space, and that in other situations than their own other ways of thinking and acting might be appropriate.

This contribution aims to give insight into the perception of biodiversity in the past by looking at a historical case study. The study aims to illustrate how people in Brandenburg-Prussia perceived and valued birds between the sixteenth century and around 1930. It also aims to identify the driving forces of bird perception to find out about factors determining the perception of biodiversity. The historical information and evidence discussed in the case study comes mainly from research conducted on archival sources held in the former Prussian State Archive in Berlin. The archival sources reveal five aspects of bird perception: (1) Birds have been valued as nourishment or delicacy, as hunting objects and trading goods; (2) Grain-eating and crop-devastating birds have been feared as vermin. Birds of prey have been feared as a danger to game and livestock; (3) Insect-eating birds have been valued for being beneficial to agriculture; (4) Birds have been subject to anthropocentric and non-anthropocentric ethical considerations; and finally, (5) birds have been valued for their aesthetics. All five aspects will be illustrated by giving some historical examples in the three main sections. In the final section, hypotheses on the significance of the five aspects of bird perception will be discussed. The findings show that the perception of birds is strongly dependent on the level of nutrition of the majority of the population. When there was a shortage of grain and other agricultural produce in the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century, most bird species were predominantly valued as nourishment whereas grain-eating birds were feared as vermin in agriculture. It was only once nutrition of the people improved considerably in mid-nineteenth century, that other aspects of bird perception came to the fore. Aims to preserve insect-eating birds as beneficial animals were expressed and gradually realised. Apart from that, humane-ethical and later, bird-centred ethical considerations fostered bird conservationaims. Aesthetic arguments generally played a secondary role and became significant only in the twentieth century. The food shortage during World War I caused a set-back in conservation thinking and brought basic utilitarian aspects of bird perception to the fore again. Otherwise, the diversity of bird species was generally not an aspect worth discussing. Rather, people were aware of the changes in the abundance of song-birds in general and of certain bird species in particular. From my point of view, the perception of biodiversity follows the same driving forces that are relevant for the perception of birds.

The importance of ecosystem functions for humankind is well known. But only few attempts have been undertaken to estimate the economic value of these ecosystem services. In particular, indirect methods are rarely used, even though they are most suitable for the task. This discrepancy is because quantitative knowledge of changes in ecosystem functions is scarce. This paper presents a user-friendly procedure to quantify the increased N-retention in a renaturated river using easily available data. In a case study of the renaturated River Jossa (Germany) the benefits of increased nitrogen retention caused by beaver reintroduction are determined by using the replacement cost method. The quantification of chemical processes is discussed in detail, as well as the problems of defining an adequate reference scenario for the substitute costs. Results show that economic benefits from the evaluated ecosystem service (€12,000/annum) equal 12% of the total costs of the corresponding conservation scheme.

The research is conducted in the River Basin (Macizo de Cobán, — Guatemala), where the principal causes of threat of the biological diversity are the expansion of the exploited surfaces for agriculture and the prevalence of crops with a high dange The integration of strategies that promote watershed protection into peasants' production systems is typically associated with increased costs at the farm-household level. Against this background, the paper deals on one hand with the quantification of these costs, and on the other hand with the possibilities to compensate the peasants for these costs by introducing the policy instrument of payment for environmental services (PES). The paper focuses on payments for water supply, which is increased by environmentally friendly farming techniques that also aim to protect biodiversity. A linear programming model, which is based on empirical household data, will be used to calculate the income of farm households that differ with regard to the environmental services they generate. The income losses experienced by the farmer as a consequence of adopting systems, which provide more environmental services, will be the guideline for determining the amount of the compensation. Through the creation of different scenarios that reflect different payment schemes for environmental services and varying frame conditions, the paper shows whether the application of the PES instrument is feasible.

Due to the recognition that many areas of the world that contain high levels of biodiversity are cultural landscapes inhabited by indigenous and local communities, the significant role such communities play in preserving natural resources has been underlined in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). In particular, the Convention calls for the acknowledgement and wider application of local knowledge systems being embedded in traditional lifestyles as they can contribute to the conservation of biodiversity. The purpose of this contribution is to analyse the role of indigenous communities and local knowledge systems in the global environmental debate. It draws on an ethnographic case study of communities living adjacent to protected areas in Guatemala. The operative paradigm, that underlies the anthropological perspective, indicates that an understanding of the cultural context is essential to the success of any initiative designed for the sustainable conservation of natural resources. Accordingly, the applied approach assumes that indigenous environmental knowledge has to be encountered as a social product integral to the respective cultural system it has been generated in. Equally, human cognitive understandings of nature are culturally embedded, bounded to locality and intertwined with the broader context. This implies a multidimensional reality in which diverse economic, social, political and historical aspects intersect. The field-based research is concerned with these contextual dimensions of indigenous knowledge, whereas the particular purpose aims to explore the significance of cultural values such as social identities related to the local landscape and beliefs in the intimate attachment of humans to nature that are closely tied to natural resource use patterns, subsistence activities and ritual practices that define indigenous perceptions of the natural environment.

The name Guatemala is derived from the Nahuatl , which means <land of trees>. Guatemala is home to a unique mix of plants and animals. The country's biological diversity is among the highest in Central America and it ranks among the 25 most plant-rich countries in the world. Increasing conservation efforts in this region are crucial to preserving Guatemala's wealth of ecosystems. As a case study, the region of the has been chosen. The area contains one of biodiversity's hotspots, consisting of large areas of cloud forest. Degradation and loss of forest cover is caused mainly by slash-and-burn increased agricultural expansion to grow subsistence crops (e.g., corn and beans), forest clearing for cash crops (e.g., cardamom and coffee), extraction of firewood (the only domestic fuel of rural inhabitants), local demand for construction, illegal logging increasing demand for commercial forest products (particularly of the reserve's primary and old-growth forest) and finally, the clearing of forest for cattle grazing. Slash-and-burn is becoming a pushing method that is destroying the most intricate part of the tropical nutrient cycle and continues to degrade and destroy this biologically rich region. Due to the socio-economic conditions and the pressure on resources in the Macizo de Cobán, it is almost impossible to conserve forest as a pristine area. Therefore, environmental measures must be implemented to mitigate the loss of biologically diverse forests. Revisions from Ferraro and Kiss (2002), Nasi et al. (2002), Vosti et al. (2002), Chomnitz (1998), Espinoza and Smyle (1999), about incentives for conservation clarify that direct payment to land owners could pay the way out of forest decline. To elucidate the problem at the local level, interdisciplinary data from bird populations and environmental measures in the Macizo de Cobán will be used. Based on this data policy recommendations for forest conservation will be made.

The tropical montane cloud forests of Guatemala need to be protected for their high number of ecological functions and endemic flora and fauna. For that, a complete land use potential and mosaic landscape evaluation was carried out with special consideration of the resources <forest> and <soil>. Processes regarding the forest conversion were investigated, as well as studies with respect to the soil resource potential. The main objectives were the analysis of mosaic landscapes changes. Satellite imaging supported analysis of the land use changes, as well as the determination of the potential of use within the context of the degradation processes, soil evaluation and soil hazards. This has contributed to the achievement of the following aims: (1) to characterise the chemical, physical and biological changes of the soil by traditional milpa land use system in the highlands of Guatemala (Sierra Yalijux); (2) spatial evaluation of the forest cover changes in the same area; (3) illustration of the interrelationship between forest conversion, soil degradation and changes of the micro climate and their theoretically effects on biodiversity. The inclusion of the investigated soil quality and soil differentiation within the nutrient turnover in the tropical mountainous cloud forests might be used as a basis for selection of protected areas as well as for recommendations for reforestation. At the investigation site in Guatemala, many changes occur concerning forest conversion, soil quality and micro climate. Soil quality declines with increasing land use intensity. The soil degradation as a result of agricultural use is high. For example, carbon and nitrogen are reduced in the following consecutive habitats: primary forest > milpa 15 years > milpa 25 years > milpa 60 years > secondary scrub > fallow land. An increase of soil temperature is identified after logging, determined by a false-time-series, which leads to effects on the composition of soil organisms.

Using birds as an exemplary animal group, the human influence on diversity, community structure and nutrition guild composition is examined in tropical montane cloud forest in Guatemala. Human impact is measured as differences in diversity and body mass in both natural forest and secondary forest (as a consequence of slash-and-burn agriculture). A comparison of these measures is made between the two different habitat types. In terms of species richness, α-diversity (punctual diversity) is higher in used habitats than in natural forest. However, the mean body mass per species is lower in secondary growth than in natural forest. The latter implies that the nutritional conditions of birds in natural forest are qualitatively better than in secondary vegetation. The remaining natural forests in the study area in the region of Alta Verapaz are highly fragmented and have been reduced to less than 50 % of its original cover. Some species are considered to be extinct (e.g. Mountain Guan) or are threatened to vanish from the study area like, e.g., Highland Guan, Resplendent Quetzal. Both of these species are dependent on natural forest, the latter because of breeding holes. Both species will become extinct when the last natural forest is gone, which with the current mean national deforestation rate in Guatemala, is within 120 years. The study area is located in the mountain cloud forest zone of the Sierra Yalijux, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala (15°28′N,90°20′W) between 1,900 and 2,550 m. The investigations were conducted within a 102 ha study plot, including both habitat types with equal spatial dimensions. Birds were censused with several standardised methods. The main factor for fragmentation and deforestation — i.e., habitat loss — is slash-and-burn agriculture by peasants. The Resplendent Quetzal was used as an example to explain the limiting factors of the regional populations and estimate their viability.

This paper analyses some of the fundamental causes of deforestation and habitat loss in Guatemala. A literature review indicates that agricultural expansion during the past was highly correlated with discriminatory labour and educational politics. These past politics have repercussions until today, not only on the persistence of rural poverty but also on forest cover loss. After a period of large-scale agricultural and pasture expansion, it appears that spontaneous colonisation has become the single most important direct source of deforestation. Rural non-farm employment, schooling, communal tenure regimes and ethnicity are among the most important parameters of land use decisions. However, contrary to common believes, there is evidence that deforestation is not dominated by subsistence-driven patterns, and that agricultural intensification techniques promoted by several environmental movements increase the demand for additional land.

If scientists plan to solve a given problem which has arisen in the real world they are often forced to collaborate with scientists stemming from various disciplines. From a methodological point of view this actually implies that, while seeking the best solution, several disciplinary research programmes have to be interconnected. This is less to achieve goals like >understanding biodiversity< rather it is to describe the scientific problem of biodiversity in an adequate extension and also to consider the inherent complexity. This is what a simple disciplinary approach can no longer achieve. Hence, it can be taken for granted that research on biodiversity definitely challenges science because the impacts of several scientific disciplines are needed. To grant the quality of such research, a form of evaluation is needed which takes into consideration all different disciplinary and supradisciplinary aspects. Today, generally most of the treatments of evaluation in use are related to a disciplinary basis. However, those disciplinary patterns of assessment are only adequate to some extent for the specific aspects of interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary research. Nevertheless, evaluation should contribute to the success of a research project and it should also be an instrument to manage and assure the quality of a project. To maintain this task for supradis-ciplinary projects as well, this contribution suggests a form of evaluation which is based on full transparency among the various partners during the research process concerning the criteria and a discursive manner of actualising.