Dissertation Research: Land-Use in Highland Bolivia: Farm Household Choices and Communal Land Management

该项目支持玻利维亚高原一位文化人类学家的论文研究。这项研究将审查安第斯山脉的土地利用，重点放在允许家庭和当地资源管理机构进行选择的领域。这项研究考察了部门休耕制度，该制度平衡了社区对农业决策的控制和个人农民的决定。该项目将检查农场样本的土壤，以将休耕策略的决策与土壤质量联系起来。研究方法包括参与式观察、对130户农户进行抽样调查、对受访农户和不同农业生态区的30块农田进行土壤采样和分析。这项研究之所以重要，是因为世界上这一地区有定义明确的传统社区资源管理机构。了解特定机构在管理土壤等基础资源方面的成功或失败，对于帮助设计其他地区的保护政策非常重要。

This project supports the dissertation research of a cultural anthropologist in highland Bolivia. The research will examine Andean land-use focusing on the field fallowing choices of households and local resource management institutions. The study examines sectoral fallowing systems, which balance community control over agricultural decisions with individual farmer's decisions. The project will examine the soil on a sample of farms to relate decisions about fallow strategies to soil quality. Methods include participant observation, a sample survey of 130 farm families, and soil samples and analysis from the interviewed farms and a sample of 30 fields in different agro-ecological zones. This research is important because this area of the world has well-defined traditional community resource management institutions. Understanding how specific institutions succeed or fail in managing fundamental resources like soil is important to help design conservation policies for other areas.