Doctoral Dissertation Research: Wildlife Conservation and the Role of Inter-Household Exchange in Social-Ecological Resilience

尽管公园和保护区原本是生物多样性的避难所，但它们对景观造成了干扰，并在非洲大部分地区引发了重大的社会、经济和环境变化。绝大多数社会科学家一直对公园和保护区持批评态度，指出公园驱逐当地居民、加剧农村贫困、重新配置生计、改变权力动态、颠覆性别关系、刺激误导性发展项目的许多案例。然而，公园影响社会和生态系统之间的联系以及相应的环境健康和社会福祉的过程仍然不清楚，对家庭之间的相互作用作为社会和生态过程之间的潜在联系的关注相对较少。这项博士论文研究项目将考察坦桑尼亚北部的塔兰盖尔国家公园对公园附近村庄的家庭间商品和劳动力交换的影响。这种交流传统上是许多非洲社会的一个突出特点，对研究地区马赛牧民的坚持不懈和福祉至关重要。这位博士生将寻求以下问题的答案：(1)塔兰盖尔国家公园如何影响当地家庭面临的经济机会和限制？(2)家庭对这些不断变化的限制和机会的反应如何影响家庭间的商品和劳动力交换？(3)家庭间动态的变化如何影响社区层面的人口模式和收入不平等？对家庭和半结构化小组和利益攸关方进行的定量调查将提供有关当地村民经济环境结构变化和家庭间关系模式变化的数据。这些发现将澄清家庭如何适应公园和保护政策，并探索这些适应对更大的社会生态系统的影响。可能的反应和后果包括家庭从以社区为导向的经济活动转向更个人主义的做法；该地区收入不平等的加剧；以及与偏远地区群体的社会和经济互动增加。过去30年，全世界指定用于自然保护的土地增加了五倍。这个项目将探索全球保护进程如何影响一群农村社区。它将研究社会变化的性质、变化的范围、变化对社区的影响，以及对野生动物和保护的潜在后果。该项目将评估保护政策对相互关联的社会生态系统的影响，以及与保护相关的倡议的影响，如吸引到公园的非政府组织和其他组织。通过关注家庭之间的关系，这项研究将调查家庭对保护的反应如何塑造社区的土地利用模式、人口统计学和文化特征的持久性。这项研究对保护规划和生物多样性、土地利用和土地覆盖变化、发展项目、计划生育和家庭人口学以及劳动力市场等农村政策具有潜在的影响。它还将有助于理解社会生态系统的弹性和保护的社会后果，这些都是当前地理学、人类学、经济学和生态学关注的主题。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。该奖项由NSF地理与空间科学项目和NSF国际科学与工程办公室共同支持。

Despite their intended roles as sanctuaries of biodiversity, parks and protected areas represent perturbations in landscapes and have stimulated significant social, economic, and environmental change in much of Africa. Overwhelmingly, social scientists have been critical of parks and protected areas, pointing out many cases in which parks have evicted local residents, catalyzed rural poverty, reconfigured livelihoods, shifted power dynamics, upended gendered relationships, and stimulated misguided development projects. The processes through which parks influence the links between social and ecological systems and correspondingly environmental health and social well-being remain unclear, however, with relatively little attention given to interactions among households as potential links between social and ecological processes. This doctoral dissertation research project will examine the effect of Tarangire National Park in northern Tanzania on inter-household exchanges of goods and labor in villages close to the park. Such exchanges are traditionally a salient feature of many African societies and have been crucial to the persistence and well-being of Maasai herders in the study area. The doctoral student will seek answers to the following questions: (1) How has Tarangire National Park influenced the economic opportunities and constraints that local households face? (2) How have household responses to these evolving constraints and opportunities affected inter-household exchanges of goods and labor? (3) How have shifting inter-household dynamics influenced demographic patterns and income inequality at the community level? A quantitative survey of households and semi-structured group and stakeholder interviews will provide data on the shifting structure of the economic environment for local villagers and the changing patterns of inter-household relationships. The findings will clarify how households have adapted to the park and conservation policy, and explore the implications of these adaptations for the larger social-ecological system. Likely responses and consequences include households shifting from community-oriented economic activities towards more individualistic practices; increasing income inequality in the region; and increasing social and economic interactions with groups in distant regions.The last three decades have seen a five-fold increase worldwide in lands designated for nature conservation. This project will explore how the global process of conservation affects a group of rural communities. It will examine the nature of social change, the scope of change, the implications of change for communities, and potential consequences for wildlife and conservation. The project will assess the effect of conservation policy on linked social-ecological systems as well as the effects of conservation-related initiatives like NGOs and other organizations drawn to parks. By focusing on the relationships among households, this research will investigate how household responses to conservation shape community patterns of land use, demography, and the persistence of cultural traits. This research has potential implications for rural policies regarding conservation planning and biodiversity, land-use and land-cover change, development projects, family planning, and household demography, and labor markets. It also will contribute to understanding the resilience of social-ecological systems and the social consequences of conservation, topics of current concern in geography, anthropology, economics, and ecology. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career. This award is jointly supported by the NSF Geography and Spatial Sciences Program and the NSF Office of International Science and Engineering.