Fall Semester 1996
Monday, September 30, 1996
Glen Green, CIPEC
Postdoctoral Fellow in Remote Sensing. "Determining
the Physical Basis for Remotely Sensed Spectral Variation in
a Missouri Oak-Hickory Forest."
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Monday, November 11, 1996
Brian Orland,
University of Illinois, Urbana, Department of Landscape
Architecture. "Environmental Perception, Environmental
Data Visualization, Public Participation: Moving Ahead
On All Fronts."
Abstract
Natural systems change slowly and impacts become evident only
with the passage of considerable time. This apparent resilience
of the impacted system may mask changes that are impossible
to halt and irreversible. Implementing public policy changes
to slow such change is confounded by three principal aspects
of the change process: First, the initial evidence of
change is small in extent and severity. It is difficult
to mobilize public opinion in the face of almost insignificant
impacts. Second, at later stages in the change process
the absolute level of change may be significant, but the evaluator
may have habituated to the changing conditions and therefore
be less sensitive. Third, interactions within environmental
systems are inherently complex and many (most?) involved in
decision-making may not understand what is going on.
These issues can be addressed by the use of computer modeling
to create reliable estimates of the changes expected to occur,
and by the use of computer visualization to communicate the
implications of the predicted changes.
SmartForest is an example of an integrated visualization and
modeling tool designed to address these combined needs.
It has grown out of a longer program of studies of public perceptions
of environmental change. This presentation will show examples
of past work, and suggest directions for new activities.
It will address issues such as the validity and accuracy of
the representation systems, as well as the needs to represent
the dynamics of changing systems and the uncertainties inherent
in computer modeling.
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Monday, November 20, 1996
Ana Cristina Barros, CIPEC
Visiting Scholar and Researcher at IMAZON (Institute of Amazon
People and Environment, Belem, Para, Brazil). "Logging
in the Eastern Amazon: Patterns, Problems, and Potential for
Natural Forest Management."
Abstract
The Amazon Basin is still largely forested and contains tremendous
timber stocks. In recent years the wood industry has grown explosively,
especially in the Eastern Amazon. There is not one, but many
wood sectors influenced by the composition of the forest, transport
and marketing options, local socioeconomic systems and availability
of investment capital in different areas. Logging activities
in all of these cases leads to the depletion of timber resources
and consequent expansion of the deforestation frontier in the
Amazon. Recent research results show that forest management
practices are feasible but broadly ignored. These practices
would radically reduce the time between logging episodes in
the same area while maintaining the forest and its productivity.
Technical information about sound practices of natural resource
use does not appear to influence governmental policies or the
use of the timber resources. Awakened by this fact, forestry
scientists are devoting more attention to the role of institutional
arrangements inside the timber sector.
The first part of the presentation will focus on the history
of the timber sector in the Eastern Amazon, its patterns, damages
and perspectives of forestry management techniques based on
IMAZON results. Then I will examine how IMAZON and other research
groups are approaching the weakness of the government to control
forestry activities as well as the first attempts to include
the users of the forest resources in research projects.
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Monday, December 2, 1996
David
Dodds, CIPEC Postdoctoral
Fellow in Land Use / Land Cover Analysis. "Do the Miskito
Live in Harmony with Nature? Conservation, the Sustainability
of Indigenous Subsistence, and Eco-Development in a Honduran
Biosphere Reserve."
Abstract
This paper addresses potential conflicts between an indigenous
Miskito community and conservation efforts in the Rio Platano
Biosphere Reserve of Honduras. During the last twenty years,
biosphere reserves have been created throughout Central America
to protect areas of remaining biodiversity, often in territories
occupied by indigenous peoples. In many cases, biosphere reserve
management plans maintain an unstated assumption that local
peoples live in harmony with nature, with static levels of population
and needs for future resources. Thus, whether indigenous subsistence
systems are sustainable or not is an important question relevant
to the success of biosphere reserves and livelihood security
for indigenous peoples in such reserves. In the Miskito community
of Belen, subsistence focuses on swidden agriculture complemented
by fishing, gathering, care of domestic animals, and minimal
hunting. Miskito males also work for wages as divers and canoe
men in the Honduran lobster export industry. Is the Miskito
way of life sustainable, socially and ecologically?
I assess the Miskito subsistence system as socially sustainable
because it provides a relatively good living. Children maintain
good nutritional status by weight-for-height, though they are
short for their ages. For the Belen Miskito, life expectancy
at birth and the infant mortality rate are similar to Honduras
nationally. However, Miskito subsistence is ecologically unsustainable
over the long term. A formal projection model, employing data
for present rates of population growth, agricultural fallow
cycles, and deforestation patterns, indicates that Belen will
run out of arable lands in 60 years. However, the model also
quantifies the ameliorating effects of development interventions
through slowing rates of population growth (with family planning)
and deforestation (with use of green manure to shorten fallow
times). Such findings raise difficult questions regarding the
competing goals of preserving biodiversity and maintaining indigenous
rights to self-determination, land, economic development, family
planning, and sustainable resource use over the long term.
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