Collaborative Research: Producing Wildlife: Biodiversity Conservation in Dynamic Commodity Landscapes

该项目考虑了生物多样性保护和以农业为基础的生计如何以一种对双方都有利的方式共存。人们越来越清楚地认识到，封闭的公园（或“堡垒”）保护方法本身可能不足以解决当前的全球生物多样性危机，而且这种方法有时被证明对当地的生计和人民具有破坏性。通过确定哪些地方的农业和经济活动也有利于生物多样性，该研究寻求找到保护野生动物和维持生计的双赢方法。因此，本研究旨在确定：1)印度中部种植园景观（如咖啡、茶、橡胶）促进本地生物多样性的程度；2)生产者的哪些做法和决定支持这种多样性；3)什么社会经济条件鼓励或阻碍生物多样性友好型生产。研究人员假设，特定的条件，如种植面积的范围、投入物的使用和生产强度，鼓励了适合野生动物的栖息地。这将通过包括密集生态观察和测量在内的多种方法进行检验。这项工作还强调了当地农业选择对保护鸟类和哺乳动物种群的影响。因此，这项工作涉及对当地农业生产者的采访，以确定他们采用的土地管理策略（例如，肥料选择），什么条件有利于或不鼓励这种做法（例如，属于生产合作社），以及野生动物对生产的阻碍程度（例如，通过作物掠夺）。这项研究进一步涉及对导致今天存在的作物和生产选择的历史条件的重建，包括对不断变化的商品价格和土地覆盖的调查。结果可能会揭示有利于特定野生动物物种的农业配置和决策。这项研究还将评估这些系统对大宗商品价格变化和地方制度变化的敏感程度。这些发现可以帮助确定哪些野生动物物种在远离受控保护地点的地区得到了保护。研究结果可以为未来的政策提供信息，鼓励和奖励当地人民维护对生物多样性有价值的特定作物和种植方法。这项研究还将开启关于当地人在更广泛的保护中所扮演角色的未来对话，摆脱与社区野生动物互动更典型的对抗局面。最后，该研究强调了将保护注意力和资源方向扩大到世界上高度人性化的地方，这是一个紧迫的问题，鉴于人类正在对地球表面进行全球改造。该项目将在两所美国机构培训许多研究生，并在印度的研究区域志愿参与公民科学。由此产生的生态和经济数据、地图和调查结果将被上载到公开的网站上，调查结果将在学术和其他渠道上发表。

This project considers the ways in which biodiversity conservation and agriculturally-based livelihoods can exist together in a way that is beneficial to both. It is increasingly well understood that closed park (or 'fortress') approaches to conservation may be insufficient to address the current global biodiversity crisis on its own and that such approaches have sometimes proven destructive to local livelihoods and people. By determining where local agricultural and economic activities also benefit biodiversity, the research seeks to find win-win approaches to preserving wildlife and maintaining livelihoods. This research therefore seeks to determine: 1) the degree to which plantation landscapes (e.g. coffee, tea, rubber) in central India foster native biodiversity; 2) what producer practices and decisions support such diversity; and 3) what socio-economic conditions encourage or discourage biodiversity-friendly production. The investigators hypothesize that specific conditions such as range of plantation area, use of inputs, and the intensity of production encourage habitat appropriate for wildlife. This will be tested using a combination of methods including intensive ecological observation and measurement. The work also stresses how local agricultural choices bear on preserving or thwarting bird and mammal populations of conservation interest. As such, the work involves interviews with local agrarian producers to determine what land management strategies they employ (e.g. fertilizer choice), what conditions favor or discourage such practices (e.g. belonging to a producer cooperative), and the degree to which wildlife is a hindrance to production (e.g. through crop raiding). The research further involves the reconstruction of historical conditions that have led to crop and production choices that exist today, including a survey of changing commodity prices and land cover. The results will likely reveal agricultural configurations and decisions that favor specific wildlife species. The research will also assess the degree to which such systems are sensitive to the vagaries of commodity price shifts as well as local institutional change. These findings can help determine which wildlife species are being maintained in areas distant from sites of controlled conservation effort. Results can inform future policies which encourage and reward local people for maintaining specific crops and cropping approaches of value to biodiversity. The research also stands to open future dialogues on the role of local people in conservation more generally, moving away from confrontational situations more typically associated with community-wildlife interactions. Finally, the study stresses the broadening of conservation attention and direction of resources to heavily humanized places in the world, an urgent question in light of the ongoing global transformation of the earth's surface by people. The project will train numerous graduate students at two United States institutions, as well volunteer citizen science participants in the study region in India. Resulting ecological and economic data, maps, and survey findings will be loaded into publically available websites and findings will be published in academic as well as other outlets.