Browsing by Author "Becker, C. Dustin"

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IFRI: A Springboard to Tropical Forest Conservation and Co-Management in Western Ecuador
(2000) Becker, C. Dustin
"This paper contributes to the literature on common forest resources and their collective management. In 1995, an International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) study was completed in the Comuna of Loma Alta, a rural farming community in western Ecuador. Despite having property rights to a 6,842 hectare watershed, strong local institutions, and value for forest resources, the Comuna had not organized to conserve or protect highland forest, a key resource that provided water for agriculture. Results of the IFRI study provided a foundation for design and implementation of an integrated conservation and development project (ICDP) financed by People Allied for Nature (PAN) and the Earthwatch Institute, two non-profit organizations based in the USA. The IFRI study suggested that a greater understanding of ecosystem services provided by forests might encourage Comuneros to protect them. When informed that the forest trapped fog and thus provided water for the lowlands, the Comuna decided to establish a 1000 hectare ecological reserve. Through a co-management agreement, People Allied for Nature financed the demarcation and guarding of the reserve. To assess the impact of these ICDP activities on local knowledge and attitudes, two surveys were conducted. In one survey 41% of the respondents from the Comuna of Loma Alta listed water conservation as the most important role of highland forest, whereas only 5% of peers in an adjacent watershed with no conservation project ranked water conservation as most important. Conservation of water and biodiversity were ranked as more important than employment benefits by 28% of the respondents in Loma Alta. Community members that viewed the President of the Comuna as the rule- maker were less supportive of co-management than those who viewed themselves as rule-makers. According to the survey, participation in demarcation of the reserve was biased towards community members who did not approve of co-management. The IFRI method not only provides useful information for stakeholders in social forestry in Latin America, but can be useful as a springboard or foundation for conservation and development projects."
Indigenous Forest Management in the Bolivian Amazon: Lessons from the Yuracare People
(1998) Becker, C. Dustin; León, Rosario
"Societies have been making choices about their relationships with forests for many centuries. As reviewed by Perlin (1991), the dominant choice for the last 5,000 years across Asia and Europe, and more recently in the Americas, has been to cut down trees, use them for fuel and building materials, and replace them with crops or urban centers. In contrast, numerous neotropical cultures have evolved societies that sustain rather than destroy forest ecosystems (Chernela, 1989; Posey, 1992). Such ecologically oriented cultures are rapidly disappearing. Mutualistic relationships between forests and people in the tropics are changing as activities in the forest are modified by incentives structured by market forces, government forest policies, and by concomitant changes in the values of indigenous peoples. This study explores the changing relationship between the Yuracare people and the forest communities they sustain and use along the Rio Chapare in northern Bolivia. It finds that while certain external threats do affect the condition of the Yuracare's forests, a significant amount of local level management continues to exist."
The Lack of Institutional Supply: Why a Strong Local Community in Western Ecuador Fails to Protect its Forest
(Indiana University, International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) Research Program, Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change (CIPEC), Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, 1998) Becker, C. Dustin; Gibson, Clark C.
"Given the disappointing results of natural resource conservation policy in developing countries over the last three decades, scholars and practitioners have shifted their focus away from state-centered policies towards solutions at the local level. While these authors offer different lists of the conditions believed necessary for successful resource management by local people, most analyses include three fundamental requirements. First, individuals from local communities must highly value a natural resource to have the incentive to manage it sustainably. Second, property rights must be devolved to those individuals who use the resource to allow them to benefit from its management. Third, these individuals at the local level must also have the ability to create microinstitutions to regulate the use of the resource. Although various scholars and practitioners may add other conditions they see as important, most agree that some form of these three 'locals' valuation, ownership, and institutions are central to successful natural resource management."
Synergy Between Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Conservation Science Supports Forest Preservation in Ecuador
(2003) Becker, C. Dustin; Ghimire, Kabita
"Meeting the desires of individuals while sustaining ecological 'public goods' is a central challenge in natural resources conservation. Indigenous communities routinely make common property decisions balancing benefits to individuals with benefits to their communities. Such traditional knowledge offers insight for conservation. Using surveys and field observations, this case study examines aspects of indigenous institutions and ecological knowledge used by rural Ecuadorians to manage a forest commons before and after interacting with two U.S.-based conservation NGOs: Earthwatch Institute and People Allied for Nature. The rural farming community of Loma Alta has legal property rights to a 6842-ha watershed in western Ecuador. This self-governing community curtailed destruction of their moist forest commons, but not without the influence of modern scientific ecological knowledge. When Earthwatch Institute scientists provided evidence that forest clearing would reduce water supply to the community, villagers quickly modified land allocation patterns and set rules of use in the forest establishing the first community-owned forest reserve in western Ecuador. This case demonstrates that synergy between traditional knowledge and western knowledge can result in sustaining both ecosystem services and biodiversity in a forest commons."