U.S.-Mexico Doctoral Dissertation Research: Chiles and Forest Conservation in the Southern Yucatan

9911911特纳这一美国-墨西哥奖项将在克拉克大学比莉·特纳教授的指导下，帮助支持埃里克·凯斯在尤卡坦南部的博士论文工作。这项研究将研究墨西哥尤卡坦半岛南部地区商品辣椒生产的扩大，以及这种活动在减少热带森林和周围生物圈保护区内森林砍伐的同时增加小农福利的想法。这项研究将集中于三个因素：辣椒种植的环境限制，辣椒营销的经济回报，以及辣椒种植如何与开发和保护中的关键因素联系起来。保护热带环境的愿望和认识到个人依赖这些环境谋生，导致了将保护与发展联系起来的尝试。集约农业经常被认为是一种战略，使农民能够增加他们的经济福利，同时限制耕地总量，从而有助于保护具有高度生物多样性、碳储存潜力或考古和历史遗迹的生态系统。利用人种学、调查、生态研究和遥感等多种方法，并与墨西哥南部边境环境研究机构El Colegio de la Frontera Sur-ECOSur的研究人员合作，这项研究将增加我们对保护和发展战略的理解。

9911911TurnerThis U.S.-Mexico award will help to support doctoral dissertation work of Eric Keys in the southern Yucatan under the supervision of Prof. Billie Turner of Clark University. The research will study the expansion of commodity chile peppers production in the southern Yucatan peninsular region of Mexico and the idea that this activity increases small-holder welfare while reducing deforestation within a tropical forest and surrounding biosphere reserve. The study will focus on three elements: the environmental limits on chile peppers cultivation, the economic rewards of chile marketing, and how chile cultivation links to critical agents in development and conservation. The desire to preserve tropical environments and the realization that individuals depend on those environments for livelihood, leads to attempts to link conservation with development. Intensive agriculture is frequently proposed as a strategy that enables farmers to increase their economic welfare and, at the same time, limit the total amount of land cultivated and thus helps to save ecosystems high in biodiversity, carbon-storage potential, or archeological and historical remains. Using diverse methods such as ethnography, surveys, ecological research, and remote sensing, and in collaboration with researchers at the El Colegio de la Frontera Sur-ECOSUR, a Mexican research institute for southern border environmental research, this study will increase our understanding of conservation and development strategies.***