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

热带地区是地球上物种最多的地方。这种生物多样性支持许多生态系统服务——人类从自然环境中获得的利益，包括水、营养丰富的土壤和掠食性鸟类和昆虫的虫害防治——这对人类福祉至关重要，它也支撑着人们对自然的许多文化依恋。然而，对自然栖息地的干扰以及将其转化为农业等其他用途，正在引发全球物种灭绝危机。本项目以哥伦比亚安第斯山脉为例，采用创新的方法来理解生物多样性与生态系统服务和文化供应之间的联系。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，为哥伦比亚大多数人口提供生态系统服务，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，但长期以来，哥伦比亚的敌意一直阻碍着了解生态文化关系的研究。敌对行动的减少为影响可持续生物经济的发展创造了一个政策窗口，即以哥伦比亚高度生物多样性为基础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造成负面影响。我们的多学科课程将回答如何在自然资源管理中最好地整合和优化生物多样性，生态系统服务和文化价值的组合这一主要的，未解决的问题。这样，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以下四个主要目标来回答这个关键的总体问题：(1)定义栖息地转换和干扰对生物多样性的影响；(2)研究生态系统服务供给和恢复能力如何受到生境转换和干扰的影响，重点关注碳储存、养分循环、土壤养分和水分保持以及滑坡预防；(3)通过一个讲故事的工作坊项目，了解当地社区如何感知和重视生物多样性和生态系统服务的文化价值；(4)整合环境和文化价值，共同设计自然资源管理，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发展经济，同时继续保护生物多样性、生态系统服务以及文化价值和信仰。

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.