Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Institutions, Forests and Hunger in Eastern Guatemala

在我们所知的土地利用和土地覆盖变化的动态方面，一个重要的学术突破是，人类机构和财产权在森林等资源的命运中发挥着重要作用。关注热带雨林及其使用者(通常是欠发达国家脆弱的农村居民)命运的学者和政策制定者都致力于寻找可以改善这些依赖资源的群体生计的机制，同时防止更多破坏宝贵的自然资源。面对越来越多的环境对干旱或飓风等事件的脆弱性，试图澄清地方机构和财产权与土地利用/土地覆盖变化动态之间的联系的实证努力不仅可以为学术界做出重大贡献，也可以对政策做出重大贡献。这篇论文提案将着眼于机构、财产权和非木材森林产品(NTFP)的收获如何使危地马拉东部的Chorti能够应对干旱、创纪录的低咖啡价格和饥饿。这项研究将探讨国家森林政策机构、机构和保有权保障在塑造森林使用者的激励结构方面所起的作用。研究人员的目标是测试拥有强大地方机构的社区是否能够更好地保护和利用森林资源。这项研究还试图了解缺乏对资源的保有权保障如何影响森林使用者的决策过程，并旨在确定强大的机构是否弥补了森林养护方面的产权薄弱。将研究森林居民从国家森林方案可能产生的收入以及如何缓解不稳定的饥饿状况，以澄清其对这一脆弱土著群体关于其森林资源的决策过程的影响。为实现这一努力，将使用机构分析、案例研究、家庭调查、森林测定和卫星图像分析的方法。这项工作将着眼于危地马拉奇基穆拉的四个Chorti社区，它们是从NTFP收获社区中挑选出来的，以展示保有权保障和机构实力的差异。这一努力的结果将有助于与砍伐森林、环境脆弱性和减贫有关的学术和政策制定领域。

An important academic breakthrough in what we know on the dynamics of land-use and land-cover change is that human institutions and property rights play important roles in the fate of resources like forests. Both scholars and policymakers concerned with the fate of tropical forests and their users (usually the vulnerable rural dwellers of less developed countries) devote their work to finding the mechanisms that may improve the livelihoods of these resource-dependent groups, while preventing more destruction of valuable natural resources. In the face of increasing environmental vulnerability to events like drought or hurricanes, empirical efforts attempting to clarify the linkages between local institutions and property rights with land-use/land-cover change dynamics can make significant contributions not only to the academic community but also to policy.This dissertation proposal will look at how institutions, property rights, and harvesting of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) have enabled the Chorti of Eastern Guatemala to cope with a drought, record-low coffee prices, and hunger. The study will address the roles that NTFPs, institutions, and tenure security have in shaping the incentive structure of forest users. The researchers aim to test whether communities with strong local institutions are better able to protect and use a forest resource. The study also seeks tounderstand how lack of tenure security over the resource affects the decision-making process of forest users and aims to determine whether strong institutions compensate for weak property rights regarding forest conservation. The income forest dwellers may generate from NTFPs and how it alleviates the precarious conditions of hunger will be studied to clarify its influence on the decision-making process of this vulnerableindigenous group regarding their forest resources.To carry out the effort, the methods of institutional analysis, case studies, household surveys, forest mensuration, and satellite imagery analysis will be used. The effort will look at four Chorti communities in Chiquimula, Guatemala, selected among NTFP-harvesting communities to show variation in tenure security and institutional strength.The results of this effort will contribute to the academic and policymaking arenas concerned with deforestation, environmental vulnerability, and poverty alleviation.