Abstract ID: 725

Ecosystem Sustainability and Poverty Alleviation in the Amazonia/Andes Region: A Preliminary Scientific Framework for Catalyzing System Changes

We propose to develop an interdisciplinary and international Situation Analysis for the Amazonia/Andes Region (AMAR), whose purpose will be to inform the design and facilitate the implementation of subsequent policies for research and political action that effectively and simultaneously address the interrelated, yet distinct challenges to maintain ecosystem services and improve human well-being regionally and globally. We will focus on the core of the conflict between development and conservation, by proposing a research agenda to address the fundamental overarching question ‘How to make people part of the solution, rather than part of the problem?’ The proposed work will help to identify and focus the scientific needs of governments, NGOs, private sector and organized society to respond to increasing pressures on natural resources and to the challenge of climate change, in such a manner that socio-eco-economical interests of AMAR’s countries are genuinely represented. The proposed situation analysis are aimed at studying: (i) Climate change impacts on Andean glaciers, paramos, punas, and cloud forests and their impact on the hydrologic cycle and water supply; (ii) Risk, Vulnerability, Environmental Degradation and Poverty in and caused by Andean cities; (iii) Water, energy and carbon budgets along the AMAR, their feedbacks at a wide range of space-time scales and the effects of climate variability and change; (iv) Socio-environmental vulnerability of the Andes/Amazon region and the impacts of climate change and land use-land cover change; (v) Mechanisms to prevent further deforestation and environmental degradation of AMAR through sustainable and rational exploitation of natural resources including water, biodiversity, forests, fisheries, and agriculture to improve the livelihoods of the region’s inhabitants. In addition, the proposed research is linked with the mission and objectives of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, and the Andean Community of Nations (CAN). Also, the proposed agenda will further the scientific development in South America through: (i) fostering regional cooperation among researchers and research programmes, (ii) establishing a focused research agenda on fundamental issues of the AMAR main interests, (iii) creating the scientific framework to help decision making processes for the sustainable development of a highly environmentally and biogeophysically threatened region, (iv) connecting the AMAR region with global and regional initiatives such as IGBP (Phase II) through its Regional Office, in the context of regional initiatives such as the Inter American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI), and to develop the necessary linkages with the LBA research program and the Global Canopy Program.

Session:  Public Policies and Sustainable Development - Pan Amazonian research perspectives linking Andean and whole Basin natural and social systems.

Presentation Type:  Oral