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(NAS Colloquium) Plants and Population Is There Time? (1999) / Chapter Skim
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From pre-Hispanic to future conservation alternatives: Lessons from Mexico
Pages 5982-5986

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 5982...
... It provokes righteous resentment among local inhabitants and escalates boundary disputes at the edges of protected areas, an inherently unsustainable approach to biodiversity protection. The environmental dilemma has become increasingly complex with each successive wave of human expansion, technological advance, and consequent environmental changes.
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From page 5983...
... Ecological and anthropological evidence indicates that many other indigenous groups in different geographic regions had their own approaches to natural resource management that resulted in deliberate or de facto conservation strategies (8, 25, 26~. Each group in each geographical site was able to manage its resources with the knowledge accumulated over millennia and under different population pressures; however, we do not want to suggest that aboriginal populations have not also overexploited particular resources or degraded their environments.
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From page 5984...
... All the terracing, green mulching, selective harvesting, field rotation, crop diversity, and reforesting in the world cannot help if the external consumption of natural resources continues to outpace local sustainable practices and to offer economic incentives that out-compete long-term conservation benefits. Is such a scenario for effective conservation research utopian?
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From page 5985...
... The most intriguing support for this resilience hypothesis is our inability to find examples of major mass plant extinctions in the tropics. Rare or endangered species in highly disturbed regions, such as Veracruz and Yucatan, have been found in isolated forest patches in rural areas and in traditional agroforestry systems or other humanimpacted systems, such as along roads, in secondary vegetation, or in the few protected areas (40~.
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From page 5986...
... (1999) in The Power of Nature: Negotiating Decentralization Processes for Biodiversity Conservation (Biodiversity Support Program/World Wildl.
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Key Terms

  • oxford univ
  • mexico city
  • biodiversity conservation
  • local communities
  • reserve concept

  • conservation research
  • conservation programs
  • environmental degradation
  • conservation policies
  • cultural diversity

  • low population
  • ancient maya
  • ineffective conservation
  • conservation actions
  • biodiversity support

  • densely populated
  • population densities
  • human population
  • basic building
  • rural communities

  • poverty level
  • conservation practices
  • biological components
  • future conservation
  • biosphere reserves

  • maya agriculture
  • local practices
  • future generations
  • national parks
  • agriculture merges


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