Doctoral Dissertation Research: Conservation, Conflict, and Control in Tropical Protected Areas

这个博士论文研究项目将研究冲突、成本和保护优先级如何影响哥伦比亚四个国家公园的空间执法决策。像国家公园这样的保护区是生物多样性保护的基石，但在这些地方，官员们往往无法执行现有的法规，以应对与人类有关的压力。最近的研究表明，预算限制本身并不能充分解释保护区在保护影响方面的差异。本博士论文研究项目旨在评估冲突和进入的成本可能阻碍公园管理者以优化保护结果的方式分配执法资源的命题。为了验证这一命题，博士生将使用卫星图像和计量经济学估计技术评估哥伦比亚公园的保护成功。他将研究估计的成功是如何随冲突程度、可达性和公园预算而变化的。该学生将在四个国家公园进行实地研究，以检查保护区管理者的执法分配决策如何受到预期冲突、可达性和保护优先级的空间差异的影响。通过实证研究冲突和成本在空间执法分配中的作用，本研究将为保护区保护成功的潜在关键决定因素提供新的见解。很少有实证研究考察保护区法规在实践中的执行情况，更不用说执法分配如何随着冲突、可达性和保护优先级等关键决策变量而在空间上发生变化。加深对这些变量对执法分配的相对影响的了解，可以提高当前和未来旨在加强热带保护区网络的政策和投资的效率。项目结果还将为热带保护区执法动态建模和优化研究计划奠定基础。收集的数据将用作评估未来执法投资对保育成果的影响的基线。作为博士论文研究进步奖，该项目将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个独立的研究生涯。

This doctoral dissertation research project will examine how conflict, costs, and conservation priorities shape spatial enforcement decisions in four national parks of Colombia. Protected areas like national parks are a cornerstone of biodiversity conservation, but they are sites where officials often fail to enforce existing regulations against human-related pressures. Recent studies show that budgetary constraints alone do not provide sufficient explanation for differences in the conservation impact of protected areas. This doctoral dissertation research project seeks to assess the proposition that the costs of conflict and access can prevent park managers from allocating enforcement resources in ways that optimize conservation outcomes. To test this proposition, the doctoral student will assess the conservation success of Colombian parks using satellite imagery and econometric estimation techniques. He will examine how estimated success varies with levels of conflict, accessibility, and park budget. The student will conduct field research in four national parks to examine how enforcement allocation decisions of protected area managers are shaped by spatial differences in expected conflict, accessibility, and conservation priorities.By empirically examining the role of conflict and cost in spatial enforcement allocation, this research will provide new insights regarding potentially crucial determinants of conservation success in protected areas. Few studies have empirically examined how protected area regulations are enforced in practice, let alone how enforcement allocation varies spatially as a function of key decision variables such as conflict, accessibility, and conservation priorities. Enhanced understanding of the relative influence of these variables on enforcement allocation can improve the efficiency of current and future policies and investments that seek to strengthen tropical protected area networks. Project findings also will lay the groundwork of a research program on modeling and optimizing enforcement dynamics in tropical protected areas. Collected data will be used as the baseline for an assessment of the impact of future enforcement investments on conservation outcomes. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this project will provide support to enable a promising student to establish an independent research career.