Fall Semester 1997
Thursday, September 18, 1997
Mark
Twery & Morgan
Grove, USDA
Forest Service, Burlington, VT. "Decision Support
Software for a Social Ecological Approach to Forest Management:
A Work in Progress."
Abstract
The U.S. Forest Service has begun to develop an integrated,
structured, and systematic set of concepts, measures, tools,
and techniques for ecological and silvicultural analysis for
the purpose of enhancing the decision-making process for natural
resource management. Specifically, the Burlington, VT research
unit of the U.S. Forest Service, referred to as Integrating
the Ecological and Social Dimensions of Forest Ecosystem Management,
has developed a suite of user-friendly forest resource inventory,
analysis, and decision-support software tools to help forest
managers make more informed decisions about how they manage
their forests. This suite of decision support software tools
is known collectively as NED.
The goal of NED is not to develop deterministic models that
tell people how to manage their land. Rather, our goal is to
gather and organize the most relevant and current forest management-related
research into a set of systematic and structured tools that
will help forest managers make more informed choices and decisions
about what actions to take to manage their forests. For example,
based upon research on wildlife, aesthetics, silviculture, forest
health, hydrology, and ecology, the Forest Stewardship Planning
Guide draws upon the most current research to help forest landowners
and managers identify and prioritize their management goals
and to assess the compatibility or potential conflicts between
their goals.
The development and incorporation of social systems analysis
tools into NED remains incomplete. Indeed, although researchers
in the social sciences have studied the social dynamics of natural
resource use for much of this century, many forest managers
(both owners and resource professionals) remain unfamiliar with
the results. Increasingly, however, forest managers have asked
for an integrated, structured, and systematic set of concepts,
measures, tools, and techniques for social analysis that would
complement their forestry and ecology backgrounds.
This presentation will describe the approach, current status,
and future directions of the Forest Service's NED software.
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Monday, September 22, 1997
Edwin Castellanos, Doctoral Candidate, Environmental
Science, School of
Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University. "Seasonally
Dry Forests of Guatemala."
Abstract
This presentation reports on my visit to Guatemala last May.
This exploratory trip took me to two regions of the country
which will be described in this talk. First, I visited the northern
part of Peten near the Mexican border in areas located within
the Mayan Biosphere Resource, the largest track of tropical
forest in Mesoamerica. Various organizations are working in
that region to introduce agroforestry techniques to the local
communities who have traditionally relied on slash-and-burn
subsistence farming.
The second part of the trip took me to the dry slopes of Eastern
Guatemala near the border with Honduras. The development agency
Prozachi is helping local communities implement management plans
to make sustainable use of their coniferous, communal forests.
At the same time, other institutions are trying to protect the
neighboring cloud forests found at higher elevations, now threatened
by the advance of coffee plantations.
Edwin Castellanos is in his fifth (and hopefully last) year
in the Ph.D. in Environmental Science program in SPEA. He has
worked for Dr.
J.C. Randolph for the past two years in the area of Forest
Ecology. His current research includes work on below-ground
carbon budgets and nutrient cycling and decomposition processes
in forest ecosystems.
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Monday, September 29, 1997
Emilio
Moran, Professor and Director, Anthropological Center
for Training and Research in Global Environmental Change (ACT)
and Co-Director, CIPEC. "Amazonian Deforestation and
the Structure of Households."
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Monday, October 27, 1997
http://www.cpc.unc.edu/bios/bilsborrow.html
Richard
E. Bilsborrow, Professor, Carolina
Population Center, University
of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. "Population, Migration,
and Deforestation in Latin America: Overview and Case Study
of the Ecuadorian Amazon."
Abstract
I will first briefly review pertinent theories about the linkages
between human population and deforestation, focusing on extensification
of agriculture and internal migration as key intermediate processes.
Then, following an overview of trends between population and
forest cover in the region based on cross-country data from
the 1960s to the 1990s, I will describe in more detail findings
to date from various analyses of the effects of agricultural
colonists on deforestation in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Plans for
extending the research in the future will also be outlined.
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Friday, October 31, 1997
Steven
A. Sader, Professor, Department
of Forest Management, Director, Maine
Image Analysis Laboratory, University of Maine. "Land
Cover/Land Use Change Research in the Peten District of Northern
Guatemala."
Abstract
Rates and trends of forest clearing in the vicinity of the
Maya Biosphere Reserve will be presented with reference to socioeconomic
driving forces influencing recent forest change. The design
and current status of a new research project in the Peten district,
funded through NASA's Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE) Land Cover/Land
Use Change Science Program, will be reviewed.
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Friday, November 7, 1997
Warren Sanderson, Professor, Department
of Economics, State
University of New York, Stony Brook. "HIV in Botswana
and Namibia: Is Population Pressure on their Fragile Ecosystems
a Thing of the Past?" Presented in conjunction with
the Population Institute for Research and Training (PIRT)
and the Economic
History Workshop.
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Monday, December 1, 1997
Benjamin Orlove, Columbia
Earth Institute. "Anthropological Contributions
to the Study of El Niño Events."
Abstract
This talk examines three different areas of anthropological
research on El Niño events. The first is the study of
indigenous forecasts, systems by which small-scale food producers
anticipate El Niño events and modify their productive
strategies. The second is the comparative study of the use of
modern scientific El Niño forecasts by national governments.
The third is the anthropological study of atmospheric scientists,
particularly the discussions of forecasts and predictions within
scientific communities and in wider public circles.
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Monday, December 8, 1997
Catherine Tucker, Environmental Research Coordinator,
CIPEC. "What's the
Difference Between Private and Communal Forests? Linking Data
from Satellite Images, Vegetation Analysis, and Household Surveys
in a Honduran Community."
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