Political Ecology, Ecological Economics, Landscape Change and Management of Cerro El Roble Nature Sanctuary in Central Chile
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Political Ecology, Ecological Economics, Landscape Change and Management of Cerro El Roble Nature Sanctuary in Central Chile by Nancy Andrea Sanhueza Diaz A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Major Subject: Multidisciplinary Sciences Approved by the Examining Committee: ______________________________________ Bradford Lister Ph.D., Thesis Advisor ______________________________________ Miriam Katz Ph.D., Chair Committee ______________________________________ Abby Kinchy Ph.D., Co-Advisor ______________________________________ Bruce Piper Ph.D., Member ______________________________________ James Kilduff Ph.D., Member Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, New York November, 2012 (For Graduation December, 2012) © Copyright 2012 by Nancy Andrea Sanhueza Diaz All Rights Reserved ii CONTENTS CONTENTS ...................................................................................................................... iii LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... vii LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... ix ACKNOWLEDGMENT ................................................................................................. xiii ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................... xiv 1. INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................1 1.1. Background....................................................................................................1 1.1.1. Socio-Environmental Conflict....................................................................1 1.1.2. Ecosystem Services .................................................................................2 1.1.3. Caleu and Hill El Roble.............................................................................3 1.2. Statement of Purpose ....................................................................................4 1.3. Importance and Broader Impact .....................................................................5 1.4. Organization of the Study...............................................................................6 2. THE STUDY AREA: CALEU AND HILL EL ROBLE .............................................8 2.1. Introduction ....................................................................................................8 2.2. Bioclimatic Geography of Chile ......................................................................8 2.3. Overview of the Mediterranean Biome ...........................................................9 2.4. Mediterranean Biome in Central Chile..........................................................13 2.4.1. Climate and Topography ........................................................................14 2.4.2. History of the Mediterranean Area in Chile .............................................15 2.4.3. Mediterranean Vegetation Types............................................................15 2.4.4. Relict Vegetation ....................................................................................16 2.4.5. Anthropogenic Perturbation of Mediterranean Biome .............................17 2.4.6. Conservation and Restoration of the Mediterranean Biome....................18 2.5. Caleu ...........................................................................................................19 2.6. Hill El Roble .................................................................................................22 2.7. Diagnostic of the Status of the Santiago’s White Oak Forest in El Roble......25 2.8. Potential Ecosystem Services ......................................................................26 2.9. References...................................................................................................27 3. CERRO EL ROBLE NATURE SANCTUARY: A POLITICAL ECOLOGY PERSPECTIVE ..........................................................................................................30 iii 3.1. Introduction ..................................................................................................30 3.2. Political Ecology of Nature Conservation......................................................31 3.3. Methodology ................................................................................................35 3.3.1. Gathering Data.......................................................................................35 3.3.2. Analyzing Data .......................................................................................38 3.3.3. Conceptualizing The Data ......................................................................38 3.4. Early History of Caleu...................................................................................39 3.5. Common Land in Caleu................................................................................43 3.6. Newcomers to Caleu....................................................................................45 3.7. Creation of the Nature Sanctuary .................................................................48 3.8. Discussion: Political Ecology of Caleu..........................................................59 3.9. Conclusions .................................................................................................66 3.10. References...................................................................................................67 4. CHANGES IN THE USE OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN THE HILL EL ROBLE IN CALEU, CHILE ................................................................................69 4.1. Introduction ..................................................................................................69 4.2. Ecosystems and Ecosystem Services ..........................................................70 4.3. Why are Ecosystems Important?..................................................................73 4.4. Ecosystem Services are Under Critical Threat .............................................74 4.5. Ecosystem Services are Undervalued by Markets........................................75 4.6. Ecological Economics: The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment ..................77 4.7. Ecological Economic: Ecosystem Services and Public Policy.......................81 4.8. Methodology ................................................................................................84 4.8.1. The Interviews........................................................................................84 4.8.2. The Focus Group ...................................................................................84 4.8.3. The Main Survey and the Complementary Survey..................................85 4.9. Results.........................................................................................................85 4.9.1. The Ecosystem Services ........................................................................85 4.9.2. The Analysis...........................................................................................90 4.10. Discussion....................................................................................................95 4.11. Conclusions .................................................................................................97 4.12. References...................................................................................................98 5. LANDSCAPE CHANGE AND THE STATE OF HILL EL ROBLE ...................100 5.1. Introduction ................................................................................................100 iv 5.2. Degradation of the Earth’s Ecosystems and the Loss of Biodiversity..........100 5.3. Protected Areas in Chile and the Cerro El Roble Nature Sanctuary ...........104 5.4. Remote Sensing Analysis of the Hill El Roble Oak Forest .........................110 5.5. Methods .....................................................................................................111 5.6. Results.......................................................................................................112 5.7. Discussion of Results and the Status of the El Roble Ecosystem...............116 5.8. Conclusions ...............................................................................................124 5.9. References.................................................................................................125 6. STRATEGIES FOR MANAGEMENT AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CERRO EL ROBLE NATURE SANCTUARY ...........................................131 6.1. Introduction ................................................................................................131 6.2. Science-based Management for Protected Areas ......................................133 6.2.1. Definition of Ecosystem Management ..................................................133 6.2.2. Elements of Ecosystem Management ..................................................133 6.2.3. Ecology-based Ecosystem Management..............................................134 6.2.4. Scientific Models for Ecosystem Management .....................................136 6.2.5. Implementing Ecosystem Management................................................138 6.3. Community-based Resource Management for Protected Areas .................140 6.3.1.