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Theses and Dissertations

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Browsing Theses and Dissertations by Subject "agronomy"

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    An integrated landscape conservation approach for the agrolandscapes of southern Brazil: the case of Campos Gerais, Paraná
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2009) Rocha, Carlos Hugo, author; Wallace, George, advisor
    This study utilizes mixed methods to develop a strategy for conserving a network of natural and restored parcels of varying sizes in an intensively managed yet biologically diverse agricultural region of Southern Brazil. As these lands are essentially privately owned, a dialogic-dialectical conservation approach based on understanding landowner perspectives, assigned meanings, and collectively constructed knowledge, was used along with spatial information to develop a landscape-based conservation praxis. Spatial information was used to develop a broad understanding of the Campos Gerais ecoregion, the biophysical and human context on which conservation planning and management should be developed, and to select and prioritize remnant habitat patches and connecting lands. Brazil's legal framework was then analyzed in order to identify current and potential incentives for private land conservation. A purposive sample of farms and ranches were selected and using farm-level spatial information, these landowners were interviewed in depth, using a mutual learning approach in order to establish their predisposition to conserve and which conservation incentives are seen by them as most appropriate. Using this information it was possible to predict the "conservation likelihood", preferred conservation techniques and whether the techniques could be agreed upon or would have to be negotiated for different types of landowners. Conservation likelihood can then be expressed spatially allowing us to model or anticipate the effects of conservation-or the changes that might otherwise occur. These models can in turn, be used dialectically with landowners to implement a landscape level conservation strategy.