Laboratory for
Climatology and Remote Sensing

Abstract:

The montane and premontane rainforests of southern Ecuador constitute a hotspot of biodiversity (cf. Brehm et al. 2008; Barthlott et al. 2007, Neill 2007). The use of plant resources from these forest areas is a fundamental part of the portfolio of livelihood activities of the local population. Increasing human activity however results in biodiversity loss. The extension of pastures and fields, logging, mining and the construction of roads represent the main threats to biodiversity in southern Ecuador. In order to develop conservation strategies it is of utmost importance to understand the plant and forest-use patterns of the inhabitants of this region. In this way, it will be possible to develop alternatives that consider local claims while conserving biodiversity (cf. Pohle et al. 2010). In this study ethnoecological and agrogeographical research methods have been used to make a qualitative analysis of the ethnospecific plant knowledge and plant use of the three main ethnic groups of southern Ecuador, namely the Shuar, the Saraguros and the Mestizos. This is followed by a discussion of the feasibility in the study sites of four so-called instruments for biodiversity conservation: agroforestry, ecotourism, payments for environmental services, and bioprospecting.

Abstract:

Land-use and land-cover changes (LULCC) affect local climate. Human-induced deforestation is a common phenomenon of LULCC. This also holds true for the biodiversity hotspot in the Andes of Ecuador. This study assesses the possibility to project LULCC to future time steps with a focus on deforestation in the San Francisco valley in South Ecuador. A business-as-usual scenario based on two Landsat scenes from 1987 and 2001 was created to project LULCC until 2006. The uncertainty assessment indicated the difficulty of projecting human impact on the ecosystem since circumstances of LULCC in the study area cannot be assumed to stay invariant. The projection performs better than a naive model relying on slope as its suitability factor.