The Landscape Approach: Designing New Reserves for Protection of Biological and Cultural Diversity in Latin America

One of the greatest challenges for Latin America and the Caribbean, the most biologically and culturally diverse region in the world, is to halt the loss of species caused by habitat destruction and land degradation. Up to now, setting aside protected natural areas is considered the most effective a...

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Główni autorzy: Sergio Antonio Guevara Sada, Javier Laborde
Format: info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Wydane: Environmental Ethics 2008
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Dostęp online:http://inecol.repositorioinstitucional.mx/jspui/handle/1005/154
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author Sergio Antonio Guevara Sada
Javier Laborde
author_facet Sergio Antonio Guevara Sada
Javier Laborde
author_sort Sergio Antonio Guevara Sada
collection REPO
description One of the greatest challenges for Latin America and the Caribbean, the most biologically and culturally diverse region in the world, is to halt the loss of species caused by habitat destruction and land degradation. Up to now, setting aside protected natural areas is considered the most effective alternative to conserve biodiversity. Protected areas, however, are under increasing assault by agricultural, silvicultural, and industrial development that surround and isolate them, reducing their habitat quality at the landscape scale. Among the different types of protected areas that have been proposed, biosphere reserves stand out for their attempt to compatibilize social development and conservation. Their management is the most amenable to integration of natural and human disturbance, inclusion of traditional management techniques, and participation by social and economic sectors in the administration. Biosphere reserves have proliferated all over the world, and today there are 531 of them located in 105 countries, where they protect vast ecological and cultural diversity. Even though the design of biosphere reserves is based on the landscape concept, it has yet to take into account ecosystem scales, possible long-term effects of disturbances, and better integrate and give higher consideration to the knowledge and experience of numerous ethnic groups that live within them. However, doing so requires a transformation of the function of the core, buffer, and transition areas. The current design of biosphere reserves is centripetal because the main function of the buffer zone is to protect biodiversity in the core. We pro- pose a centrifugal model, where biodiversity of the core spreads freely toward the area of greater human influence with the buffer zone functioning as a connector. This connectivity can promote land-use practices that are in alignment with both ecosystems functioning and biodiversity conservation in natural, semi-natural, urban and industrial landscapes.
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spelling repo-1005-1542017-12-04T23:58:16Z The Landscape Approach: Designing New Reserves for Protection of Biological and Cultural Diversity in Latin America Sergio Antonio Guevara Sada Javier Laborde Environmental Ethics 2008 info:eu-repo/semantics/article One of the greatest challenges for Latin America and the Caribbean, the most biologically and culturally diverse region in the world, is to halt the loss of species caused by habitat destruction and land degradation. Up to now, setting aside protected natural areas is considered the most effective alternative to conserve biodiversity. Protected areas, however, are under increasing assault by agricultural, silvicultural, and industrial development that surround and isolate them, reducing their habitat quality at the landscape scale. Among the different types of protected areas that have been proposed, biosphere reserves stand out for their attempt to compatibilize social development and conservation. Their management is the most amenable to integration of natural and human disturbance, inclusion of traditional management techniques, and participation by social and economic sectors in the administration. Biosphere reserves have proliferated all over the world, and today there are 531 of them located in 105 countries, where they protect vast ecological and cultural diversity. Even though the design of biosphere reserves is based on the landscape concept, it has yet to take into account ecosystem scales, possible long-term effects of disturbances, and better integrate and give higher consideration to the knowledge and experience of numerous ethnic groups that live within them. However, doing so requires a transformation of the function of the core, buffer, and transition areas. The current design of biosphere reserves is centripetal because the main function of the buffer zone is to protect biodiversity in the core. We pro- pose a centrifugal model, where biodiversity of the core spreads freely toward the area of greater human influence with the buffer zone functioning as a connector. This connectivity can promote land-use practices that are in alignment with both ecosystems functioning and biodiversity conservation in natural, semi-natural, urban and industrial landscapes. info:eu-repo/classification/cti/2 info:eu-repo/classification/cti/2 http://inecol.repositorioinstitucional.mx/jspui/handle/1005/154 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess citation:Guevara S., Laborde Dovali J. 2008. The Landscape Approach: Designing New Reserves for Protection of Biological and Cultural Diversity in Latin America . Environmental Ethics. 30: 251-262 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 application/pdf
spellingShingle info:eu-repo/classification/cti/2
info:eu-repo/classification/cti/2
Sergio Antonio Guevara Sada
Javier Laborde
The Landscape Approach: Designing New Reserves for Protection of Biological and Cultural Diversity in Latin America
title The Landscape Approach: Designing New Reserves for Protection of Biological and Cultural Diversity in Latin America
title_full The Landscape Approach: Designing New Reserves for Protection of Biological and Cultural Diversity in Latin America
title_fullStr The Landscape Approach: Designing New Reserves for Protection of Biological and Cultural Diversity in Latin America
title_full_unstemmed The Landscape Approach: Designing New Reserves for Protection of Biological and Cultural Diversity in Latin America
title_short The Landscape Approach: Designing New Reserves for Protection of Biological and Cultural Diversity in Latin America
title_sort landscape approach designing new reserves for protection of biological and cultural diversity in latin america
topic info:eu-repo/classification/cti/2
info:eu-repo/classification/cti/2
url http://inecol.repositorioinstitucional.mx/jspui/handle/1005/154
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