PARAMO - Provisioning of ecosystem services And cultuRAl values in the MOntane tropics

热带地区的物种比地球上任何其他地方都多。这种生物多样性支持着一系列生态系统服务-人类从自然环境中获得的惠益，包括水、营养丰富的土壤以及捕食性鸟类和昆虫的虫害控制-这些对人类福祉至关重要，而且也是人们对自然的许多文化依恋的基础。然而，对自然栖息地的破坏以及将其转换为其他用途，如农业，正在推动全球灭绝危机。该项目采用创新方法，以哥伦比亚安第斯山脉为案例研究，了解生物多样性和生态系统服务与文化提供之间的联系。哥伦比亚的安第斯山脉是地球上生物多样性最丰富的地方之一，其土壤含有富含碳的泥炭，生态系统服务为哥伦比亚的大多数人口提供，这些在个人和社区层面上都具有丰富的文化价值。尽管拥有如此巨大的财富，但哥伦比亚的敌对行动长期以来阻碍了了解生态文化关系的研究。敌对行动的减少创造了一个政策窗口，以影响可持续生物经济的发展，即哥伦比亚高度生物多样性所支撑的生物资源的经济开发。利用生物多样性存在固有的环境和文化风险，这可能会对保护或社会产生负面影响。我们的多学科计划将回答如何最好地纳入和优化生物多样性，生态系统服务和自然资源管理中的文化价值观的组合的主要，未回答的问题。在这样做的过程中，我们将改变文化遗产和人类环境经验知识在保护方案设计中的作用。我们的研究将通过实现四个主要目标来回答这一关键的首要问题，这些目标将：（1）定义栖息地转换和干扰对生物多样性的影响;（2）解决生态系统服务供应和恢复力如何受到栖息地转换和干扰的影响，特别关注碳储存，养分循环，土壤养分和水分保持以及滑坡预防;（3）通过讲故事研讨会项目，了解当地社区如何看待生物多样性和生态系统服务，并赋予其文化价值;（4）将环境和文化价值纳入自然资源管理的共同设计，并将这些发现转化为核心利益相关者，从当地社区到非政府组织和相关政府部门。因此，这项研究将使我们的多学科专家小组能够支持哥伦比亚以继续保护生物多样性、生态系统服务以及文化价值观和信仰的方式发展经济。

The tropics harbour more species than anywhere else on Earth. This biodiversity supports a number of ecosystem services -- benefits that humankind derives from the natural environment, including water, nutrient-rich soils and pest-control by predatory birds and insects -- that are essential for human well-being, and it also underpins many cultural attachments that people have with nature. However, the disturbance of natural habitats and their conversion for other uses, such as farming, are driving a global extinction crisis. This project takes an innovative approach to understand the links between biodiversity and ecosystem services and cultural provision using the Colombian Andes as a case study. The Colombian Andes are one of the most biodiversity rich places on Earth, their soils contain carbon-rich peats, ecosystem services are derived for the majority of Colombia's human population, and these are rich in cultural values on both a personal and community level. In spite of this tremendous wealth, hostilities in Colombia have long hampered research to understand eco-cultural relationships. The reduction in hostilities creates a policy window to impact the development of a sustainable bioeconomy, i.e. the economic exploitation of its biological resources, underpinned by Colombia's high biodiversity. There are inherent environmental and cultural risks of capitalising upon biodiversity, which could drive negative outcomes for conservation or society. Our multidisciplinary programme will answer the major, unanswered question of how best to incorporate and optimise the combination of biodiversity, ecosystem service, and cultural values within natural resource management. In doing so, we will transform the role of cultural heritage and human-environmental experiential knowledge within the design of conservation programmes. Our study will answer this key overarching question by fulfilling four main Objectives that will: (1) define the impacts of habitat conversion and disturbance on biodiversity; (2) resolve how ecosystem service provisioning and resilience is affected by habitat conversion and disturbance, focusing specifically on carbon stocking, nutrient recycling, soil nutrient and water retention, and landslide prevention; (3) understand how local communities perceive and attach cultural value to biodiversity and ecosystem services, via a program of story-telling workshops; and (4) integrate environmental and cultural values to co-design natural resource management, and translate these findings to core stakeholders, from local communities, to NGOs and relevant government departments. This research will thus enable our multidisciplinary team of experts to support Colombia in developing its economy in a manner that continues to protect biodiversity, ecosystem services and cultural values and beliefs.