Research

Community-based Fire Management

The need for agricultural expansion has increased fire use throughout the tropics. Even though the Tropical Andes has a long history of anthropogenic fires shaping the natural landscape, fire use here has also increased, aggravating local people’s vulnerability to the changing climate. Little is known regarding the local rules for fire management in this region and how these rules are adapted to fit changing socioenvironmental contexts. This is especially important for Quechua communities which have long-term local institutions for the governance of shared resources in a good portion of the Tropical Andes. Considering fire as both an agricultural tool and a problem -when uncontrolled-, this preliminary doctoral research will study community-based fire management and evaluate how it fits Ostrom’s (1990) design principles for self-governing institutions. I will also document the traditional ecological knowledge and the role of external institutions (multi-level government, protected areas officials, conservationist NGOs) in fire control and prevention on communal lands. I will use participant observation of agricultural burns, key informant interviews, and secondary data revision in at least two Quechua communities in Southern Peru. In the later stages of this investigation, I aim for participatory action research that promotes individual and collective learning and a reflection on fire management practices.

Community-based Forest Conservation

The initial component of this research seeks to understand the individual and integrated contribution of drivers of forest cover loss in peasant communities (PC) that conserve forest lands in a portion of their territory. A combination of socioeconomic and infrastructure development data was used to compare forest cover loss on peasant communities’ lands located in the Andes of northern Peru. An important locally-enacted cause of forest cover change in the region has been the combined effect of the expansion of small-scale grazing, the proximity to a coastal city, road infrastructure inside each community, and a household-based indicator of wealth. This study also aims to evaluate the effectiveness of forest conservation interventions led by rural communities in mitigating forest cover loss, through the creation of conservation areas (or ACP). Using Elinor Ostrom’s approach this preliminary study evaluated factors that enable and limit effective governance of collectively owned forests. The legal framework for private conservation areas was implemented in Peru in 2001 and is an example of an increasingly common conservation strategy in Latin American countries to mitigate environmental degradation.