Doctoral Dissertation Research: Changing Labor and Land-Use Regimes in Market-Based Ecosystem Services Projects

这一博士论文研究项目考察了基于城市的生态系统服务支付(PES)项目如何改变农村土地使用做法。PES是一种以市场为基础的养护机制，补偿目标生态系统内或周围的当地社区和家庭改变其土地使用做法，以保护目标自然资源。除了支付自然资源的费用外，PES计划还要求居住在目标资源及其周围的个人、家庭和社区用自己的劳动生产和维护生态服务。这个项目通过检查劳动力过程，从而促进基于市场的保护计划的研究，从而为其中的生产创造价值。具体而言，该项目将关注(1)PES计划如何制定干预措施；(2)PES计划如何招募社区，从而招收工人；(3)参与PES干预的家庭的特征；以及(4)PES计划的劳动力需求如何影响个人和社区的土地使用。这位博士生将使用多种方法研究安第斯高地完善的PES水项目，包括参与者观察、关键线人采访、文件收集、家庭调查以及劳动和土地利用地图徒步旅行。数据分析将集中在社区和家庭内部的劳动力调动和劳动力重组的过程。这个项目审查了一个PES项目，作为整个美洲其他分水岭项目的典范。因此，这项研究将使更广泛的社会受益，为关于PES保护计划的合理政策决策提供信息。这项研究将与当地一个非政府组织合作进行，该组织计划用英文和西班牙文进行教育和传播活动。研究结果和数据将被纳入美国人文和区域地理本科课程的教与学模块。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。

This doctoral dissertation research project examines how urban-based Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) programs change rural land-use practices. PES, a market-based mechanism for conservation, compensates local communities and households in or around targeted ecosystems to change their land-use practices for the conservation of targeted natural resources. In addition to paying for the natural resource, PES schemes require individuals, households, and communities living in and around targeted resources to produce and maintain the ecological service with their own labor. This project advances research on market-based conservation programs by examining labor processes, and thus value production within them. Specifically the project will focus on (1) how PES schemes develop interventions; (2) how PES schemes enroll communities, and thus, workers; (3) the characteristics of households engaging with PES interventions; and (4) and how labor requirements for PES schemes influence individual and community land-uses. The doctoral student will examine a well-established PES water program in the Andean highlands using multiple methods, including participant observation, key informant interviews, document collection, household surveys, and labor and land-use mapping walking tours. Data analysis will focus on the processes of labor mobilization and the reorganization of labor within communities and households.This project examines a PES program that serve as models for other watershed projects throughout the Americas. As such, this research will benefit broader society by informing sound policy decisions on PES conservation programs. The research will be conducted in collaboration with a local non-governmental organization (NGO) with which educational and dissemination activities are planned in both English and Spanish. Research results and data will be incorporated into teaching and learning modules for undergraduate courses in human and regional geography in the US. 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.