Dissertation Improvement Grant: Watershed Management in the Wake of Emigration:Transnational Flows of Remittances and Capital in Rural Households and Communities

南佛罗里达大学的博士生卡里兰娜·泰勒·巴哈蒙德斯，由丽贝卡·K博士指导。他将调查跨国移民工人寄回国内的汇款如何影响母国的自然资源。以社区为基础的自然资源管理项目，如管理国家公园的项目，往往将社区视为自然流域内空间上有界限的地方。相比之下，Bahamondes将探讨跨国移民延伸社区和公园边界的可能性，并改变影响当地流域内外自然资源的行为。研究人员将在洪都拉斯的阿苏尔梅安巴尔国家公园和美国的洪都拉斯移民中进行为期一年的实地研究。研究人员将解决以下问题：1）移民寄往原籍家庭的资金（经济汇款）和想法，观念和价值观（社会汇款）如何影响家庭，村庄社区和影响流域的做法？ 2)汇款驱动的社会和经济资本的变化如何影响家庭之间的权力分配，从而影响社区和公园资源管理的决策？在先前研究的基础上，这项研究首先进行了全村范围的调查，以记录移民、汇款收支、做法以及经济和社会资本。三个案例研究家庭将保留汇款预算日记，所有家庭成员，包括移民到哥伦比亚城市和美国的家庭成员，将接受采访，以重建资金和想法的流动并将其置于背景之中。 她将使用家庭，村庄和公园活动的参与者观察在洪都拉斯和深入访谈的个案研究家庭移民到美国，记录他们的经验和话语汇款和流域影响活动。这项研究很重要，因为它汇集了对跨国主义和政治生态学的研究，以了解跨国运动如何切实影响家庭环境。研究结果将与公园社区和管理人员分享，以便他们在未来规划中考虑移民和汇款，以改善保护和发展实践。本研究也有助于研究生的培养。

Carylanna Taylor Bahamondes, doctoral student at the University of South Florida, supervised by Dr. Rebecca K. Zarger, will investigate how remittances sent home by transnational immigrant workers affect natural resources in the home country. Community-based natural resource management projects, such as those governing national parks, tend to treat communities as spatially bounded localities contained within physical watersheds. In contrast, Bahamondes will explore the possibility that transnational immigration stretches community and park boundaries and changes behaviors that impact natural resources within and beyond local watersheds.The researcher will carry out a year of field research in Azul Meámbar National Park in Honduras, and among Honduran immigrants in the United States. The researcher will address the following questions: 1) How do the funds (economic remittances) and ideas, perceptions, and values (social remittances) that emigrants send to their households of origin affect household, village-community, and watershed-impacting practices? 2) How do remittance-driven changes in social and economic capital affect the distribution of power among households to impact decisions about community and park resource management? Building on prior research, the study begins with a village-wide survey to document immigration, remittance-receipt and expenditure, practices, and economic and social capital. Three case-study families will keep remittance budget diaries and all family members, including those who immigrated to Honduran cities and the United States, will be interviewed to reconstruct and contextualize the flow of funds and ideas. She will use participant observation of family, village, and park activities in Honduras and in-depth interviews with case-study family immigrants to the United States to document their experiences with and discourse about remittances and watershed impacting activities. The research is important because it brings together research on transnationalism and on political ecology to understand how transnational movement tangibly affects home environments. The research findings will be shared with park communities and managers so that they may consider immigration and remittances in future planning to improve conservation and development practice. The research also contributes to the education of a graduate student.