A comparison of influences on the landscape of two social-ecological systems

Abstract

a b s t r a c tCase studies of social-ecological landscapes that consider local, spatially explicit land cover changes are necessary for the development of generalised knowledge on deforestation. This study focussed on two indigenous territories of eastern Panama that share the same settlement history, size and location but are perceived by local dwellers to differ in terms of land cover. By considering the territories social-ecological systems made up of Resource Systems, Resource Units, Actors and Governance Structures, following Ostrom's framework for analysing the sustainability of social-ecological systems (McGinnis and Ostrom, 2014), we sought to determine which social-ecological factors could have led to divergent land cover outcomes to address local leaders' concerns and inform future land management strategies. We conducted quantitative, spatial analysis using ArcGIS and multivariate statistics from numerical ecology on land cover data from participatory maps, and household level socio-economic data from semi-structured interviews and surveys. Results illustrate that the Resource System's topography and Actors' socioeconomics, namely number of people at home and household land ownership, are constraining variables on land cover and help explain divergent forest cover. To reconstruct the influence of history and Governance Structure on the landscapes, we conducted qualitative data collection, namely participatory pebble scoring of historical land cover, interviews with key informants, an archival search, and creation of a participatory historical timeline. Historical governmental timber extraction in the region pre-settlement, guided by topography constraints, may have led to degraded Resource Units (forests) susceptible to clearing. The Governance Structure's self-organizing, monitoring and networking activities with outside institutions in scientific projects, enabled by Actors' leadership and social capital, likely encouraged forest conservation in the forest-rich territory. Future land management could therefore benefit from establishment of a local non-governmental organisation to coordinate a communal vision of management and harness external conservation resources. Our findings suggest that inputting both qualitative and quantitative data obtained by participatory methods into Ostrom's framework can help diagnose territories with divergent landscapes, and thereby inform both forest conservation science and local land management.

Contrasting the Effect of Forest Landscape Condition to the Resilience of Species Diversity in a Human Modified Landscape: Implications for the Conservation of Tree Species

“…Notwithstanding this, the impacts of land use disturbance on biodiversity are neither temporary nor fully avoidable [49]. Furthermore, each landscape, on which different land use intensity is superimposed, is a unique socio-ecological system [26] and differs in their moderating effect on the resilience of local species diversity [30].…”

“…Also, despite increasing hope for the conservation potential of forests and trees in modified rural landscapes, there has been growing controversy focusing on the richness, composition, and survival of biodiversity given persistent anthropogenic disturbances [3]. Such controversy is not Land 2020, 9, 4 3 of 19 Secondly, every landscape is a unique socio-ecological system [26]. The spatial patterns of extent, frequency, and intensity of resource extraction in a landscape are driven by elevation [27], accessibility, distance from the villages, and availability of preferred species for specific uses [28].…”

“…The spatial patterns of extent, frequency, and intensity of resource extraction in a landscape are driven by elevation [27], accessibility, distance from the villages, and availability of preferred species for specific uses [28]. This suggests that a particular forest landscape complexity emerges out of a myriad of interactions of anthropogenic and environmental change drivers [26] that are superimposed on the original forest biota. Whether the original biota of a landscape remains resilient depends on the spatial patterns of land use intensity, cross-scale interaction of disturbance regimes [29] and the conditions of existing forest complexity [30].…”

Early REDD+ Implementation: The Journey of an Indigenous Community in Eastern Panama

“…Three years following project implementation, half of the project participants were receiving income from sales of early-maturing fruit, and project participant interviews indicated that they felt their livelihoods had improved [45]. Furthermore, indigenous authorities and villagers from nearby Emberá territories strive to emulate the community in which the carbon project took place, perceiving it as successful in avoiding environmental degradation [83]. Thus, from a people-centered approach or from a community development viewpoint, the Panama carbon project did achieve favorable outcomes.…”

Evolutionary Characteristics and Trade-Offs’ Development of Social–Ecological Production Landscapes in the Loess Plateau Region from a Resilience Point of View: A Case Study in Mizhi County, China

“…They can provide services to humans and maintain biodiversity [1,2]. Currently, SEPLs are affected by multiple disturbances, such as global environmental change and urbanization development under the background of land cover/land-use change (LUCC) [3][4][5]. Land-use change in the Loess Plateau region is significant [6].…”