Doctoral Dissertation Research: Global Localism at Manaslu Conservation Area in the Eastern Himalayas, Nepal: Integrating Knowledges about Community Forests

大多数保护方法都是从当地以外衍生出来的，但它们会影响当地的生计，并依赖当地的行动来取得有效的结果。全球地方主义被提出作为一种研究方法，它证实了在提出和实施全球保护议程之前，首先需要了解当地情况，并验证当地人对其生计资源的看法。这项研究调查了关于景观、森林群落类型和重要植物种群的科学-生态学和当地民族植物学知识，作为尼泊尔马纳斯卢保护区(MCA)适应性协作管理的重要贡献。提出了三个问题：(1)当地参与性的景观资源“民族生态”制图如何有助于土地覆盖类型分布中异质性的“景观生态”制图；(2)群落森林斑块的组成和结构(生态多样性)如何与当地公认的植物资源(民族植物多样性)进行比较和联系；(3)研究区域内高价值植物物种(文化核心物种)的种群结构和生态状况如何？将从MCA内不同海拔的六个古龙族村庄收集遥感图像、半结构化访谈、参与性地图和生态样本。当地的景观知识被认为有助于联合绘制多样性格局图，从而更好地定义具有象征价值和物质价值的资源区。丰富度和相对重要性的生态和民族植物学测量将记录森林群落类型之间的木本植物多样性格局，并预测资源利用模式和人与资源的关系。研究的重点是森林资源及其在当地人民生活中的作用，并根据当地社区对资源价值和资源可获得性的评估，更好地预测当地社区可持续地恢复和/或提取植物资源的潜力。这些数据对于当地人民和保护机构来说，对于进一步保护和管理剩余的林区具有直接的意义，他们热衷于在特定的地理位置实施国家或全球衍生的保护议程。这项研究采用混合方法(遥感、参与性地图、生态样本、民族植物学调查和利用价值计算)来了解多样性的生态和文化生物地理格局，重点是东喜马拉雅低山坡上山地“群落”森林的组成和结构。重点是共同学习，在参与者中达成共识，并测试多样性的生态和民族植物学模式之间的关系。这项研究将验证传统知识并将其应用于对多样性模式的生态分析，这将促进互动的自然资源管理议程，通过利益攸关方的参与以及根据新的学习和管理结果不断整合和调整反馈，对人类生计和生物多样性保护都很敏感。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。该项目由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。

Most conservation approaches are extra-locally derived yet they influence local livelihoods and rely on local actions for effective outcomes. Global localism is proposed as a research approach that substantiates the crucial need to first learn about local places and validate local people's perspectives on their livelihood resources before proposing and implementing global conservation agendas. This study investigates scientific-ecological and local ethnobotanical knowledge about landscapes, forest community types, and important plant species populations as an important contribution toward adaptive collaborative management at the Manaslu Conservation Area (MCA) of Nepal. Three questions are proposed: (1) how does the local participatory "ethnoecological" mapping of landscape resources contribute to "landscape ecological" mapping of heterogeneity in the distribution of land cover types; (2) how do the composition and structure of community forest patches (ecological diversity) compare and relate to locally recognized plant resources (ethnobotanical diversity); and (3) what is the population structure and ecological status of highly valued plant species (cultural keystone species) in the study region? Remote sensing images, semi-structured interviews, participatory maps, and ecological samples will be compiled from six Gurung ethnic villages within MCA at different elevations. Locally derived landscape knowledge is hypothesized to contribute toward a joint mapping of diversity patterns that better defines resource areas of symbolic and material value. Ecological and ethnobotanical measures of richness and relative importances will document woody plant diversity patterns among forest community types and predict resource use patterns and human-resource relations. The research focuses on forest resources and their role in local peoples' lives and better predicts the potential for local communities to restore and/or extract plant resources sustainably based on their assessment of resource values and resource accessibility. These data are of immediate relevance for further conservation and management of the remaining forested areas to both the local people and the conservation institutes who are keen on either implementing nationally or globally derived conservation agendas in specific geographic locations. The study employs mixed methodologies (remote sensing, participatory maps, ecological samples, ethnobotanical survey, and calculation of use values) toward understanding ecological and cultural biogeographic patterns of diversity, with a focus on the composition and structure of montane "community" forests on the lower slopes of the Eastern Himalayas. The emphasis is on joint learning, gaining consensus among participants, and a test of relationships between ecological and ethnobotanical patterns of diversity. The study will validate and apply traditional knowledge toward an ecological analysis of diversity patterns that should promote an interactive natural resource management agenda which is sensitive to both human livelihoods and biodiversity conservation via participation among stakeholders and continuous integration and adaption of feedback in response to new learning and management outcomes. 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 project is jointly supported by the NSF Geography and Spatial Sciences Program and the NSF Office of International Science and Engineering.