Fall Semester 1998
Monday, September 21, 1998
Norman
Schwartz,Department
of Anthropology, University
of Delaware. "Why Do Farmers in Peten, Guatemala
Use Practices Incompatible with Resource Conservation."
Abstract
In the 1960's the government of Guatemala opened the sparsely
populated tropical lowlands of Peten to colonists from
the highlands. The population of Peten has grown to about
550,000 in 1998 from about 26,000 in 1964. Most of the
settlers were and still are poor farmers. Many of them
use agricultural practices which deplete soil resources and
thus promote increasing forest conversion. International
donor agencies, conservationists, and the government of Guatemala,
alarmed by the rate of deforestation, have developed alternative
income - producing strategies for farmers which are compatible
with conservation of natural resources. The government
also has created biosphere reserves in Peten. However,
relatively few colonists have adopted the alternatives;
instead, many of them have invaded the biosphere's. Conservationists
argue that in the process of cutting down the trees, the farmers
also are cutting their own throats.
I will describe settler adaptive strategies and (some of)
the cultural, ethnic, legal, political, technical, economic,
and demographic factors that affect and are affected by their
strategies. One tentative conclusion is that under current
circumstances, individual farmers are acting prudently.
However, if all farmers act prudently, their actions will have
a negative impact on the forests. Another conclusion has
led to inadequate knowledge of what farmers in some parts of
Peten are doing. The examination inevitably leads to a
discussion of the comparative advantages (and disadvantages)
of ethnographic and survey research in contemporary Peten.
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Thursday, October 8, 1998
Eduardo Silva, Department
of Political Science, University
of Missouri - St. Louis. "Lessons in Sustainable
Development from the Forests of Costa Rica."
Abstract
Costa Rica enjoys an international reputation as a peaceful,
democratic, and equitable Central American country with a strong
commitment to biodiversity conservation. Various administrations
have worked tirelessly to weave the norms and principles of
the concept of sustainable development into their nation's policies
and institutional framework, especially with respect to the
forest and nature protection. As occurs with all trailblazers,
Costa Rica's efforts to implement a policy of sustainable development
raises a number of questions, which are the focus of this paper.
What tradeoffs between the different components of sustainable
development have the forest and biodiversity conservation policies
of the 1990s generated? How were those policy choices
mad? Are the measures adopted likely to be successful?
By what means can the components of sustainable development
that have been neglected in current policy be incorporated --
especially those related to livelihood -- in order to pursue
a more-integrated policy?
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Monday, November 2, 1998
Ron Rindfuss, Department
of Sociology, University
of North Carolina. "Land Use, Competition
and Migration."
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Last Updated: May 11, 2005
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