Assessing the Effects of Human Activity Related to Sustainability and Biodiversity Conservation on Tropical Forests and Primates

评估与可持续性和生物多样性保护有关的人类活动对热带森林和灵长类动物的影响michael D. Wasserman &; Peter A. Beck，环境科学与政策，圣爱德华大学生物多样性丧失、气候变化和污染是对生态系统功能和人类生活质量的主要威胁，特别是对直接依赖当地环境获取资源的社会。解决人与环境的相互作用对热带森林生态系统尤为重要。这些生态系统包含大约一半的生物物种，通过碳储存在减缓气候变化方面发挥重要作用，并过滤水和空气中的污染物。然而，在过去的几十年里，排除当地人口的传统保护战略往往是无效的，导致了大量的森林损失。NSF的研究项目将评估不同保护策略的有效性，以维持热带森林生态系统和灵长类动物种群，同时维持森林周围当地社区的生计。通过这个研究项目，环境科学领域的弱势学生将获得国际实地研究经验。研究人员将整合生态和社会研究方法，以解决对生态学、人类学和环境政策领域至关重要的问题，解决当前的环境问题，如栖息地破碎化和生物多样性丧失，并与热带研究组织合作，在哥斯达黎加的两个生物野外站（La Selva和Las Cruces）为代表性不足的学生提供STEM培训。学生将在研究期间与哥斯达黎加实地助理和当地社区密切合作，从而提供多种文化交流机会。感兴趣的哥斯达黎加大学生将被纳入这些项目，并鼓励他们申请圣爱德华大学环境管理和可持续发展硕士课程。在为期10周的项目结束时，学生们将在一个公共论坛上向当地社区和哥斯达黎加学者展示他们的初步成果，并鼓励他们通过同行评审的出版物和在专业会议上的演讲来交流他们的最终成果。与该计划相关并由IRES学生使用的另一个最终产品将是一个功能齐全的实验室，能够在实地进行免疫分析以定量灵长类激素水平，从而将科学知识和基础设施转移到发展中国家。该研究项目的结果将为制定维持生物多样性和人类生计的政策提供重要见解，特别是在热带森林地区。热带森林是世界上最重要的生态系统之一，包含至少一半的物种，调节气候，净化空气和水，并为当地社区提供资源。然而，在过去几十年里，广泛的森林砍伐大大减少了热带森林的面积，导致依赖热带森林的野生动物数量减少，原因是栖息地丧失和破碎化。灵长类动物种群受到的影响尤其严重，超过60%的物种被国际自然保护联盟认为是脆弱或濒危的。保护剩下的森林和依赖于它们的濒危物种的努力主要集中在建立保护区，比如国家公园。然而，发展中国家的公民往往严重依赖自然资源维持生计，环境法律经常被违反，从而削弱了保护区的有效性。因此，保护政策已经从排他性的保护区演变为通过提供经济和其他激励措施来关注当地社区的战略。尽管学者和实践者越来越多地推广以社区为基础的替代方案，但几乎没有证据表明它们在维持森林质量或维持灵长类动物种群方面比保护区更有效。因此，这项NSF IRES研究计划有两个主要目标：1。量化整合保护和发展目标的政策，如生态旅游、学术研究活动和多用途保护区，如何影响热带森林及其灵长类动物，以及这些环境政策在维持人类生计方面的有效性。2. 为环境科学领域的学生提供国际实地研究经验。为了实现这些目标，学生项目将研究在哥斯达黎加Las Cruces和La Selva生物站及其周围的许多森林中森林条件（例如，碎片大小，树冠覆盖率百分比，碳储量，多样性）和灵长类生物学（即生理学，行为，种群大小）的差异，这些森林受到各种目标（即生态旅游，研究，国家保护）的保护。学生还将研究这些策略对当地社区生计的影响，以及这如何影响当地对环境政策的看法。具体来说，15个为期10周的独立硕士研究生研究项目将在三年的时间内进行，调查灵长类动物种群，量化行为，用免疫测定法测量灵长类动物粪便激素水平（哥斯达黎加将建立一个环境内分泌实验室），对当地土地所有者、其他利益相关者和游客进行访谈和调查，并量化森林特征。通过独立但又相互关联的学生项目，研究人类、公园和灵长类动物之间的相互作用，我们将能够全面分析私人生态旅游、公共保护区和学术研究站在维持人类生计和促进生物多样性保护方面的有效性。该项目的结果将大大增加对经济、参与性和研究激励如何影响保护决策和结果的认识。由于自然生态系统或人类社会中的任何一方崩溃都会对另一方产生负面影响，因此有必要量化各种环境管理战略的有效性，以维持生物多样性和当地社区生计，以确保这些政策实际上促进了可持续性和保护。

Assessing the effects of human activity related to sustainability and biodiversity conservation on tropical forests and primatesMichael D. Wasserman & Peter A. Beck, Environmental Science & Policy, St. Edward's UniversityNon-technical Project DescriptionBiodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution are major threats to ecosystem functioning and quality of human life, especially for societies that directly depend upon the local environment for resources. Addressing human-environment interactions is particularly important for tropical forest ecosystems. These ecosystems contain approximately half of all living species, play an important role in climate change mitigation through carbon storage, and filter pollutants from water and air. However, traditional conservation strategies that exclude local populations have often been ineffective leading to significant forest loss over the past several decades. This NSF IRES research program will evaluate the effectiveness of alternative conservation strategies to maintain tropical forest ecosystems and primate populations, while also maintaining the livelihoods of local communities surrounding the forests. Through this research program, underrepresented students in the environmental sciences will gain international field research experience. The investigators will integrate ecological and social research methods to address questions critical to fields of ecology, anthropology, and environmental policy, address current environmental issues such as habitat fragmentation and biodiversity loss, and provide STEM training for underrepresented students at two biological field stations in Costa Rica (La Selva and Las Cruces) in collaboration with the Organization for Tropical Studies. Students will work closely with Costa Rican field assistants and local communities during their research, thus providing multiple opportunities for cultural exchange. Interested Costa Rican university students will be included in the projects and encouraged to apply for the master's program in environmental management and sustainability at St. Edward's University. At the end of the 10-week program, students will present their initial results to local communities and Costa Rican scholars at a public forum and will be encouraged to communicate their final results through peer-reviewed publication and presentations at professional conferences. An additional end product associated with this program and utilized by the IRES students will be a fully functioning laboratory capable of running immunoassays for quantifying primate hormone levels in the field, thus transferring scientific knowledge and infrastructure to a developing country. Results from this research program will provide important insight useful to the design of policies for sustaining both biodiversity and human livelihoods, particularly in tropical forest regions. Technical Project DescriptionTropical forests are one of the world's most important ecosystems, containing at least half of all species, regulating climate, purifying air and water, and providing resources for local communities. Nonetheless, over the past few decades widespread deforestation has significantly reduced the extent of tropical forests, leading to declines in wildlife populations that depend on them through habitat loss and fragmentation. Primate populations have been especially affected with more than 60% of all species considered vulnerable or endangered by the IUCN. Efforts to preserve the remaining forests and threatened species dependent on them have largely focused on creating protected areas, such as national parks. However, citizens often rely heavily on natural resources for subsistence and environmental laws are regularly breached in developing countries, thus weakening the effectiveness of protected areas. As a result, conservation policies have evolved from exclusionary protected areas to strategies that focus on local communities by providing economic and other incentives. Despite the increasing promotion of community-based alternatives by both scholars and practitioners, little evidence exists that they are any more effective than protected areas at maintaining forest quality or sustaining primate populations. Therefore, this NSF IRES research program has two main objectives: 1. To quantify how policies integrating conservation and development objectives, such as ecotourism, academic research activities, and multiple-use protected areas, influence tropical forests and their primates, as well as how effective these environmental policies are at maintaining human livelihoods. 2. To provide international field research experience to underrepresented students in the environmental sciences. To meet these objectives, student projects will examine differences in forest condition (e.g., fragment size, % canopy cover, carbon storage, diversity) and primate biology (i.e., physiology, behavior, population size) across a number of forests at and surrounding Las Cruces and La Selva Biological Stations in Costa Rica that are protected for various objectives (i.e., ecotourism, research, national conservation). Students will also examine the effects of these strategies on local community livelihoods and how this influences local perception of environmental policy. Specifically, 15 ten-week independent master's student research projects will occur across a three-year period to survey primate populations, quantify behavior, measure primate fecal hormone levels with immunoassays in country (an environmental endocrinology laboratory will be established in Costa Rica), conduct interviews and surveys of local landowners, other stakeholders, and tourists, and quantify forest characteristics. By examining interactions between people, parks, and primates through independent, yet interrelated, student projects, we will be able to provide a thorough analysis of the effectiveness of private ecotourism, public protected areas, and academic research stations to maintain livelihoods for human populations and promote conservation of biodiversity. Results from this project will add significantly to the knowledge of how economic, participatory, and research incentives can affect conservation decisions and outcomes. As a breakdown in either natural ecosystems or human society will negatively affect the other, quantifying the effectiveness of various environmental management strategies to maintain both biodiversity and local community livelihoods is necessary to ensure that these policies are actually promoting sustainability and conservation.