Environmental Stress and Sustainable Development in the Tropical Andes

Stadel, Christoph

doi:10.2307/3673615

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…This is an area with a long tradition of sustainable agriculture but also a history of land degradation, resource exploitation and poverty. Stadel (1991) suggests that the promotion of sustainable land use depends on identifying environmental stress and taking action to counter its effects. Technological innovation in erosion control, such as terracing can be shown to provide long-term benefits but involve the burden of increased labour, irrigation and take up scarce land.…”

Section: Soil Protection and Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil erosion and soil problems

Higgitt

1992

Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment

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Soil erosion is increasingly a multidisciplinary affair. Understanding the processes of erosion and assessing the status of land degradation remain priority areas for physical geographers, but national and global attention towards the broader issues of resource conservation and sustainability has widened the perspective of research on soil erosion and soil problems and the range of disciplines interested in these problems. The integrity of soil resources for future production can only be assured by sustainable land use, an intuitively simple concept but elusive to define and deliver. Enquiry concerned with the nature of erosion processes, strategies for soil protection and the prevention or rehabilitation of soil pollution are important components in the quest for sustainability. Research on erosion process investigation, experimentation and modelling has continued apace (e.g., Bryan, 1990) but this review concentrates on the ethos of sustainability and progress towards protecting soils from degradation and pollution.

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Section: Soil Protection and Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil erosion and soil problems

Higgitt

1992

Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment

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“…To achieve this, farmers should be offered the possibilities to maintain economically and socially sustainable livelihoods that allow for food production that does not deplete the soil resources and does not call for the further expansion into marginal lands. This can only be accomplished through complex sets of institutional, socio-economic and technological incentives (Forster, 1992;de Janvry and Helfand, 1990;Whitaker, 1990;Stadel, 1991;Bebbington, 1993). Interaction between stakeholders at different levels could stimulate local, regional and national initiatives aiming at ecologically and socio-economically sustainable food production, taking into account multi-scale developments in land use.…”

Section: Land-use Change Dynamics In Ecuadormentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring changes in Ecuadorian land use for food production and their effects on natural resources

Koning

Veldkamp

Fresco

1999

Journal of Environmental Management

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“…Legislative measures that check deforestation are required in the catchment basins of montane forests as well as mandatory exclusion of riparian corridors down-stream and selected whole watersheds away from 'development'. Cooperative, ecological planning by developers should stimulate international financial cooperation in order to both strengthen capabilities for sustainability and ameliorate environmental stresses (sensu Stadel 1991) in cultural landscapes at the village level.…”

Section: Caveatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arrested succession in pastures hinders regeneration of Tropandean forests and shreds mountain landscapes

Sarmiento

1997

Envir. Conserv.

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Arrested succession is conspicuous in the abandoned pastures of the Andean piedmont that have encroached upon the tropical montane forests toward higher limits and steeper slopes. Habitat 'shredding' is analysed to depict the current spatial configuration of tropical Andean landscapes, based on fragmentation patterns prompted by seed dispersal ecology and pasture encroachment.Seed dispersal was studied to address the hypo-thesis that seed input constrains the recruitment of montane forest seedlings, thus impeding pasture conversion to forest. It turns out that a better competitor, the tussock grass Setaria sphacelata, is limiting dispersal success due to its bioarchitecture and planting patterns. Because of the variegation of fragments, the area is in danger of landscape homogeneity within a matrix of degraded pasture. Currently, protection of fragmented remnants and restoration of original landscape structure and function are urgent needs for land-use planning toward sustainable development in the region.Restoration ecology is plausible as a means of conservation for degraded Tropandean forests, since human impacts have shredded landscapes entirely. Dispersal ecology may be used to facilitate pasture conversion to forest in equatorial landscapes, but the proactive approach of pasture removal or planting strategy should differ from that for lowland Amazonia, where abandoned pastures are different from those of montane environs. However, the region may be proactively managed only if political decisions include conservation as a goal of development.

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Environmental Stress and Sustainable Development in the Tropical Andes

Cited by 8 publications

References 2 publications

Soil erosion and soil problems

Soil erosion and soil problems

Exploring changes in Ecuadorian land use for food production and their effects on natural resources

Arrested succession in pastures hinders regeneration of Tropandean forests and shreds mountain landscapes

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