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

本博士论文研究项目探讨了基于城市的生态系统服务付费（PES）计划如何改变农村土地利用方式。生态系统服务付费是一种以市场为基础的养护机制，它向目标生态系统内或周围的当地社区和家庭提供补偿，以改变其土地使用做法，从而养护目标自然资源。 除了支付自然资源的费用外，生态系统服务付费计划还要求生活在目标资源内和周围的个人、家庭和社区用自己的劳动生产和维持生态服务。 该项目通过研究劳动过程，从而在其中的价值生产，以市场为基础的保护计划的研究。 具体而言，该项目将侧重于（1）生态系统服务补偿计划如何制定干预措施;（2）生态系统服务补偿计划如何招募社区，从而招募工人;（3）参与生态系统服务补偿干预措施的家庭的特点;以及（4）生态系统服务补偿计划的劳动力要求如何影响个人和社区的土地使用。 博士生将使用多种方法研究安第斯高地完善的生态系统服务补偿水计划，包括参与者观察，关键信息提供者访谈，文件收集，家庭调查，以及劳动力和土地使用测绘步行图尔斯之旅。 数据分析将集中在劳动力动员和社区和家庭内部劳动力重组的过程中。本项目将审查一个生态系统服务补偿方案，该方案可作为整个美洲其他流域项目的模式。 因此，这项研究将有利于更广泛的社会，为合理的政策决定PES保护计划。 这项研究将与当地的一个非政府组织合作进行，计划与该组织一起以英文和西班牙文开展教育和宣传活动。 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的研究生涯。

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.