Dissertation Research: Smallholders' Land-Use Strategies and Land-Cover Change in the Nepal Himalaya

了解人类活动对地表的影响是全球变化研究的最大挑战之一。涉及社会文化、经济和生态因素的农业土地利用战略是导致土地覆盖变化的一个主要因素。为了更好地了解如何以及在何种程度上，这种土地利用战略与更广泛的土地覆盖变化，本论文的研究将调查土地利用战略的山区小农户在尼泊尔的拉姆容区，见证了农业战略的重大转变，减少森林和牧场资源，并在过去的三十年增加滑坡。在参与者观察之后，将对60个家庭进行家庭调查，然后对主要受访者进行深入访谈并收集训练样本。这项研究将评估农业和土地使用战略的文化知识和规则共享的程度，以及这些知识和规则如何影响家庭和社区一级的土地使用决定。这项研究还将捕捉一个重要的跨部门的行为者如何看待，管理和改变尼泊尔喜马拉雅山的土地资源-世界上的环境关键地区之一。在这样做时，它将试图填补农业人类学、土地使用和土地覆盖变化研究以及山区资源和环境的民族生态学方面的理论和方法空白。这项研究将告知现有的和未来的社区为基础的保护和发展计划的历史，社会文化，经济和生态的影响有关的土地利用和土地覆盖变化在山区，农业实践在很大程度上依赖于森林，其他共同池资源，牲畜和文化生态适应。此外，它还促进了年轻社会科学家的教育。

Understanding human modification of land surface is one of the greatest challenges in global change research. Agricultural land-use strategies involving socio-cultural, economic, and ecological factors are a major factor contributing to changing land-cover. To better understand how and to what degree such land-use strategies are associated with broader land-cover change, this dissertation research will investigate land-use strategies of mountain smallholders in Lamjung district of Nepal, which has witnessed significant shifts in agricultural strategies, declining forest and pasture resources, and increasing landslides in the last thirty years. After participant observations, a household survey of 60 households will be followed by in-depth interviews of key respondents and collection of training samples. This research will assess the extent to which cultural knowledge and rules of agriculture and land-use strategies are shared and how those influence land-use decisions at household and community level. This research will also capture how an important cross-section of actors perceive, manage, and change land resources in the Nepal Himalaya--one of the environmentally critical regions of the world. In doing so, it will attempt to fill theoretical and methodological gaps in agricultural anthropology, land-use and land-cover change research, and ethnoecology of mountain resources and environments.Broader Impacts: Mountain agriculture and environments have been critical for centuries to millions of rural inhabitants both in the uplands and downstream. This research will inform the existing and future community-based conservation and development programs on the historical, socio-cultural, economic, and ecological influences relevant to land-use and land-cover change in the mountain areas, where agriculture practices depend heavily on forests, other common pool resources, livestock, and cultural-ecological adaptation. In addition it furthers the education of a young social scientist.