CIPEC - Center for the Study of Insitutions, Population, and Environmental Change
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Location and Site Selection Criteria

CIPEC sites are selected according to the following guidelines:

  1. The location1 and sites2 selected within it must contribute data that aim to answer CIPEC's primary research questions.

  2. Processes of deforestation, afforestation, or forest conservation must be present. The constellation of conditions (ecological, institutional, political, socioeconomic) must be appropriate for CIPEC's interests.

  3. The location should be spatially extensive. Sites within it should be significant to globally important processes. They should help to understand widespread processes. Sites that are outliers within such processes may be selected when they help to identify variables that accelerate or retard trends apparent in other similar settings.

  4. A current TM image must be available and clear of cloud cover. Earlier TM or MSS images must also be available so that change over time can be measured.

  5. The forest should be one of CIPEC's major forest types.3

  6. The location (defined by the TM image or overlap with MSS) should include at least 2 sites with different institutional regimes (or combinations of regimes) for forest management.

  7. The sites should fit with at least one of the CIPEC research design types.

  8. Attention should be given to the de jure and de facto institutional status of land in the area, in order to relate it to the CIPEC Forest/Institutional Matrix.

  9. Sites should be accessible for researchers.

  10. All else being equal, less costly sites should take precedence over more expensive (but otherwise equivalent) sites.


     

Definitions:
1Location: distinct areas of geography with a minimum of 2 types of institutional regimes, 1 forest type, and 2 or more sites. Usually coincident with a TM image (or may involve an overlap of a TM image and a MSS image).
2 Site: a specific place within a location, usually defined by a forest area and/or settlements associated with a forest or forests, as identified by institutional regime, forest type, and recognized boundaries. Sites involve entities such as forests, products, settlement(s), user groups, and households.
3CIPEC's Major Forest Types:
  • Tropical Dry Forests: forests located between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer that receive less than 1500 mm of precipitation per year.
  • Tropical Moist Forests: forests located between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer that receive between 1500 and 2500 mm of precipitation per year.
  • Temperate Deciduous Forests: mid-latitude forests of North and South America, distinguished in part by a marked difference in average temperatures between the growing season (summer) and the dormant season (winter).

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Note: CIPEC may add one of these forest types:
  • Tropical Rain Forests: forests located between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer that receive more than 2500 mm of precipitation per year.
  • Temperate Rain Forests: forests of the western USA and Canada located between 45° and 55° north latitude that receive over 2000 mm of precipitation per year.
  • Temperate Coniferous Forests: forests of the eastern USA between 25° and 35° north latitude that receive 1000 - 1500 mm of precipitation per year.
  • Northern Coniferous (Boreal) Forests: forests located above 45° north latitude that receive 500 - 1500 mm of precipitation per year.



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Last Updated: January 13, 2005
Comments: cipec@indiana.edu 
Copyright 2005, The Trustees of Indiana University.