Collaborative Research: Producing Wildlife: Biodiversity Conservation in Dynamic Commodity Landscapes

合作研究：生产野生动物：动态商品景观中的生物多样性保护

• 批准号: 1265223
• 负责人: Paul Robbins
• 金额: $ 26.49万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Madison
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-07-13 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1265223&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Producing; Wildlife; Biodiversity

This project considers the ways in which biodiversity conservation and agriculturally-based livelihoods can exist together in a way that is beneficial to both. It is increasingly well understood that closed park (or 'fortress') approaches to conservation may be insufficient to address the current global biodiversity crisis on its own and that such approaches have sometimes proven destructive to local livelihoods and people. By determining where local agricultural and economic activities also benefit biodiversity, the research seeks to find win-win approaches to preserving wildlife and maintaining livelihoods. This research therefore seeks to determine: 1) the degree to which plantation landscapes (e.g. coffee, tea, rubber) in central India foster native biodiversity; 2) what producer practices and decisions support such diversity; and 3) what socio-economic conditions encourage or discourage biodiversity-friendly production. The investigators hypothesize that specific conditions such as range of plantation area, use of inputs, and the intensity of production encourage habitat appropriate for wildlife. This will be tested using a combination of methods including intensive ecological observation and measurement. The work also stresses how local agricultural choices bear on preserving or thwarting bird and mammal populations of conservation interest. As such, the work involves interviews with local agrarian producers to determine what land management strategies they employ (e.g. fertilizer choice), what conditions favor or discourage such practices (e.g. belonging to a producer cooperative), and the degree to which wildlife is a hindrance to production (e.g. through crop raiding). The research further involves the reconstruction of historical conditions that have led to crop and production choices that exist today, including a survey of changing commodity prices and land cover. The results will likely reveal agricultural configurations and decisions that favor specific wildlife species. The research will also assess the degree to which such systems are sensitive to the vagaries of commodity price shifts as well as local institutional change. These findings can help determine which wildlife species are being maintained in areas distant from sites of controlled conservation effort. Results can inform future policies which encourage and reward local people for maintaining specific crops and cropping approaches of value to biodiversity. The research also stands to open future dialogues on the role of local people in conservation more generally, moving away from confrontational situations more typically associated with community-wildlife interactions. Finally, the study stresses the broadening of conservation attention and direction of resources to heavily humanized places in the world, an urgent question in light of the ongoing global transformation of the earth's surface by people. The project will train numerous graduate students at two United States institutions, as well volunteer citizen science participants in the study region in India. Resulting ecological and economic data, maps, and survey findings will be loaded into publically available websites and findings will be published in academic as well as other outlets.

该项目考虑了生物多样性保护和基于农业的生计的方式，可以以对两者有益的方式共同存在。 越来越多的理解是，封闭的公园（或“要塞”）的保护方法可能不足以解决当前的全球生物多样性危机本身，并且这种方法有时证明对当地的生计和人民证明了破坏性。 通过确定地方农业和经济活动在哪里也使生物多样性受益，该研究试图找到维护野生动植物和维持生计的双赢方法。 因此，这项研究旨在确定：1）印度中部的种植园景观（例如咖啡，茶，橡胶）的程度促进了本地生物多样性； 2）哪些生产者实践和决策支持这种多样性； 3）哪些社会经济条件鼓励或不鼓励生物多样性友好的生产。 研究人员假设特定的条件，例如种植园区域，投入的使用以及生产强度鼓励适合野生动植物的栖息地。 这将通过包括密集生态观察和测量在内的方法组合进行测试。 这项工作还强调了当地的农业选择如何在保存或挫败鸟类和哺乳动物种群中具有保护兴趣的方式。 因此，这项工作涉及与当地农业生产者的访谈，以确定他们采用哪些土地管理策略（例如肥料选择），哪些条件有利于或灰心这种做法（例如属于生产者合作社）以及野生动植物对生产的影响程度（例如，通过作物袭击）。 这项研究进一步涉及重建历史条件，这导致了当今存在的作物和生产选择，包括对商品价格和土地覆盖率变化的调查。结果可能会揭示有利于特定野生动植物物种的农业配置和决策。 该研究还将评估此类系统对商品价格变化的变化以及当地机构变化的敏感程度。 这些发现可以帮助确定哪些野生动植物物种在远离受控的保护工作地点的区域维持。 结果可以为未来的政策提供信息，这些政策鼓励和奖励当地人维持特定的作物和对生物多样性的价值的种植方法。 这项研究还可以在更广泛地开放有关当地人民在保护中的作用的未来对话，从而远离与社区野生动物互动更相关的对抗情况。 最后，这项研究强调了对世界上人性化的地方的保护关注和资源方向的扩大，鉴于人们对地球表面的持续全球转变，这是一个紧迫的问题。 该项目将在两家美国机构的众多研究生培训，以及印度研究区的志愿公民科学参与者。 由此产生的生态和经济数据，地图和调查结果将被加载到公开可用的网站中，发现将在学术和其他渠道中发布。