Integrating ecological and cultural histories to inform sustainable and equitable futures for the Colombian páramos

我们的跨学科项目解决了哥伦比亚生物资源呼吁的第一个挑战，通过检查：(1)boyacac<e:1>和Cundinamarca的páramo栖息地的社会生态系统；(2)该系统中生物多样性对当地社区和更广泛社会的价值；(3) páramo生态系统对环境变化和包括社会和政治变化在内的人为压力的响应。通过对páramos提供的生物多样性和生态系统服务的当前和潜在价值进行货币和非货币方面的调查，该项目将促进páramos在博亚ac<e:1>省和昆迪纳马卡省的经济发展，从而为哥伦比亚的经济发展和社会福利作出贡献。我们将整合基于生态系统的人和自然相互作用的历史概念，揭示社会经济、政治和文化变化如何与环境压力相互作用，随着时间的推移塑造páramo生态系统，并利用这一新的理解为未来可持续和公平的治理选择提供信息。通过这种方式，我们将把自然科学和人文科学的研究人员聚集在一起，解决该项目“社会经济系统的功能和复原力”的挑战。高海拔páramo栖息地的历史是理解这个生态系统现在面临的压力的基础。对于穆斯卡人和今天的许多páramo居民来说，páramos是神圣的地方，神从那里来，控制水和生命的起源和维持。对于欧洲殖民者来说，páramos被认为是基于黄金国传说的丰富矿产资源的来源。最近，páramos在为哥伦比亚不断增长的城市人口提供淡水和支持独特的生物多样性方面的关键重要性，以及认识到该系统面临着气候变化和土地利用压力的重大挑战，都得到了重视。这些相互竞争的压力对系统提出了越来越多样化的要求，而且，尽管在国内和国际上都有许多倡议，但是系统的管理和治理方面的紧张局势仍然存在。因此，páramo社会生态系统是解决哥伦比亚生物资源方案挑战的理想选择。我们的项目将展示对páramo生态系统模式、过程和压力的综合环境历史理解如何为新的治理解决方案提供见解。我们将以500年的历史视角来分析páramos社会生态系统随时间的变化，重点关注人与自然相互作用的核心作用，以及这些系统如何在不同的社会、政治和文化背景下发生变化。我们将量化páramo栖息地的变化，从几十年到几个世纪。我们将考虑这些变化如何影响生态系统动力学，并预测在气候和其他变化驱动因素的影响下，未来可能发生哪些进一步的变化。我们将探索páramo景观中人类与自然的关系是如何变化的，并将当地社区与其他私人和国家行为体的观点进行比较。我们将确定páramo社区从páramos及其提供的生态系统服务中获得货币价值的潜力，并研究不同生态系统服务之间的协同效应和权衡。我们的研究将为未来治理方案的发展提供一个独特的历史背景，包括以更大的社会和文化理解为基础的不同利益相关者之间的新伙伴关系。在冲突后流离失所、非法采矿、气候变化和城市化带来的用水需求增加等重大政治和社会挑战的背景下，该项目将为促进páramo景观更可持续、更公平的未来的机制提供建议。

Our inter-disciplinary project addresses the first challenge of the Colombian Bio Resources call by examining: (1) the socio-ecological system of páramo habitat in Boyacá and Cundinamarca; (2) the value of biodiversity in this system to local communities and wider society; and (3) the response of páramo ecosystems to environmental change and anthropogenic pressures including social and political change. Through investigating the current and potential value of biodiversity and ecosystem services provided by páramos, both in monetary and non-monetary terms, the project will promote the economy of páramos in the Departments of Boyacá and Cundinamarca, thereby contributing to economic development and social welfare in Colombia. We will integrate ecosystem-based and historical conceptions of human-nature interactions to reveal how socio-economic, political and cultural changes have interacted with environmental pressures in shaping páramo ecosystems over time, and use this new understanding to inform future sustainable and equitable governance options. In this way we will address the programme's challenge of "functioning and resilience of socio-economic systems" by bringing together researchers from natural sciences and humanities.The history of high-elevation páramo habitat is fundamental in understanding the pressures this ecosystem now faces. For the Muisca people and for many páramo inhabitants today, páramos are sacred places from where the gods came that controlled water and the origin and maintenance of life. To European colonists, páramos were seen as the source of abundant mineral riches based around the legend of El Dorado. More recently, the critical importance of páramos in providing fresh water to the growing urban populations of Colombia and supporting unique biodiversity have come to the fore, along with the recognition that the system faces significant challenges from climate change and land-use pressures. These competing pressures are placing increasingly diverse demands on the system, and, despite a number of initiatives both nationally and internationally, tensions over the management and governance of the system persist. The páramo socio-ecological system is therefore ideal for addressing the challenges of the Colombia Bio Resources programme. Our project will show how an integrated environmental-historical understanding of páramo ecosystem patterns, processes and pressures can provide insights to new governance solutions. We will take a 500-year historical perspective to analyse changes in the socio-ecological system of páramos over time, focusing on the central role of human-nature interactions and how these have changed in response to differing social, political and cultural contexts. We will quantify how páramo habitat has changed, from decades to centuries. We will consider how these changes have impacted on ecosystem dynamics, and predict what further changes are likely to occur in the future under climate and other drivers of change. We will explore how human-nature relationships in páramo landscapes have changed and compare the perspectives of local communities with other private and state actors. We will identify the potential for páramo communities to obtain monetary values from páramos and the ecosystem services they provide, examining the synergies and trade-offs between different ecosystem services. Our research will provide a unique historical context for the development of future governance options, including new partnerships between different stakeholders underpinned by greater social and cultural understanding. The project will deliver recommendations for mechanisms to promote more sustainable and equitable futures for páramo landscapes, in the context of key political and social challenges such as post-conflict displacement, illegal mining, changing climate and increasing water demand from urbanization.