Repository logo

Spring 2012

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/10217/195454

Browse

Browsing Spring 2012 by Subject "collaboration"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • No Thumbnail Available
    ItemOpen Access
    Environmental governance in multicultural areas: lessons learned from two Colombian communities
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012-05-01) Velasco, Marcela, speaker
    Most Latin American countries have recognized the right to local political autonomy of ethnic communities as well as their potential to conserve important natural resources. Unfortunately, national and sub-national authorities and institutions have more often than not failed to live by these reforms as a result of conflict, lack of political will, or disinclination to collaborate with local authorities. The study looks at Colombia, where Black and Indian communities have legal rights to over 25 million hectares of tropical forestland, making them authorities of 38% of the country's forest reserves which constitute about 2% of the world's tropical rainforests. However, as of 2007 only 18% of the country's indigenous territories were benefiting from the legal framework that enabled them as local authorities, while the land rights of Afro-Colombians have been limited by violence and historical discrimination. This constitutes a problem for the welfare of Indian and Black communities in general and for conservation in particular. Local autonomy was promoted by Indian and Black social movements as a strategy to protect their cultures, environments and economies, and some of the more successful local organizations are now sharing knowledge and experience on local governance to support their peers from regions facing ethnic governance problems. In my work as a CCC fellow, I supported a field exchange where an indigenous community recovering 1,300 hectares of deforested land in Cristianía (Antioquia) shared its governance experience with leaders from an Afro-Colombian community addressing the environmental effects of a hydroelectric company in the Anchicayá River(Valle). The experience reveals firsthand information about leadership and local governance in multicultural regions and intra-institutional relations in general, and about the challenges facing black communities living in remote areas as their lands are forcefully included in badly devised economic agendas that fail to consider the community's voice.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    ItemOpen Access
    Volunteer tourism and sustainable livelihoods: the case of CSU alternative breaks in Achiote, Panama
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012-04-17) Eddins, Emily Anne, speaker
    Volunteer tourism has become a multi-faceted and useful development tool connecting diverse socio‐ecological systems from global to local scales. However, collaborative processes among primary stakeholders in volunteer tourism are not well understood, but better understanding these processes is vital to successful, sustainable outcomes of volunteer tourism projects. For this study, I investigate the impacts of volunteer tourism in a rural Panamanian community with experience hosting volunteers. By looking at a current, long‐standing collaboration between CSU's Alternative Break Program, a Panamanian-based NGO, and a locally-based ecotourism group, I explore the interrelationship between volunteer tourism and sustainable livelihoods, with a particular focus on host community perspectives. By giving voices to each member of the partnership, this study aims to provide multi-scale perspectives of collaboration in volunteer tourism and create a dialogue among stakeholders to better identify, implement, and manage projects that maximize benefits of volunteer projects in host communities.