Papers by Walter Cano Cardona
Tropentag conference poster
Human Ecology, 2014
The debt-peonage system is an agreement between patrons and laborers in different economic activi... more The debt-peonage system is an agreement between patrons and laborers in different economic activities worldwide. A common feature is social exploitation of laborers that generate profits to the patrons. In recent literature it has been argued that debt-peonage can be an economically sound arrangement that secures the needs of actors. The paper evaluates to what extent traditionally strong debt-peonage in forest-dwelling communities in the Bolivian Amazon, has developed in a way that better secures the needs and economic interest of multiple actors. Case studies in sixteen communities yielded qualitative information on debt relations between peasants, traders and former patrons. Debt-peonage changed from a mechanism to provide and keep workforce indebted to new social relationships, equitable commercial links, opportunity to access work capital and production chain diversification. This rapid shift was caused by important changes in land and forest regulations.
Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 2022
Biological diversity has been recognized as a global asset that is key to the well-being and surv... more Biological diversity has been recognized as a global asset that is key to the well-being and survival of present and future generations. In response to massive destruction of the world’s ecosystems, the international community has agreed on several initiatives, most importantly, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992, which is the basis of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020, and the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets. A central instrument of these initiative are protected areas. The nine Amazonian countries alone, have designated 390 million hectares of protected forest areas, some of which are under very heavy pressure. As explicitly stated in Aichi Targets 11, 17, and 18, the effective governance and management of these protected areas requires the active participation of indigenous and other local resource user groups and respect for their traditional knowledge and customary practices. This manuscript analyzes to what extent and in which way these targets have...
Since the time when forests were recognised not only as a source of wood and fibre but as a comple... more Since the time when forests were recognised not only as a source of wood and fibre but as a complex system closely linked to human society and other biological systems, a number of efforts and initiatives have been developed to integrate forestry within other sectors of the economy and with livelihoods, and to improve the governance of forest resources. This case study looks at the outcomes and con-sequences of making forest regulations related to the use of timber resources and forest management among rural communities more flexible in the northern part of Bolivia. If forest regulations are made more flexible when the rights are granted , the informal mechanisms that have been developed to access timber and benefit from its sale become eventually legitimised, and the distinction between what is prohibited by law and what is sanctioned by tradition will be lost. Thus, communities can operate either as efficient promoters of sustainable forest use or as forest predators, innovating differ...
Forest Policy and Economics, 2014
ABSTRACT We analyze legality in the forest sector in Bolivia, focusing particularly on the domest... more ABSTRACT We analyze legality in the forest sector in Bolivia, focusing particularly on the domestic timber value chain in the northern Bolivian Amazon. Bolivia adopted wide-reaching forest, land and democratic regulatory changes since the mid-1990s that were partly intended to reduce illegal logging and related practices. The new forest regulations, in turn, led to new illegal practices because implementation and sanctioning were poor, but also because new forest and land regulations were inadequate and often contradictory. In response, the government and various forest agencies adopted new measures to address the new illegal practices. These forest regulatory and forest policy renovations and modifications of the last two decades are, for instance, reflected in the domestic timber market of the northern Bolivian Amazon, a region that relies heavily on the forest sector. The paper analyzes Bolivia’s regulatory changes that were relevant for legality in the forest sector and the multiple modifications that were made to address shortcomings of these reforms. It also analyses legality in the domestic timber value chain in northern Bolivia. The new actors involved in especially the domestic timber value chain have moved away from formal and legal mechanisms to benefit from timber that grows on their land and forests to practices that were not considered or actually shunned in the law and that appear difficult to regulate. Unless these new practices are recognized adequately in a new forestry law, some of the production and trade of the timber value chain will likely continue to operate at the margin of legality.
Ambio
Exploitation of natural forests forms expanding frontiers. Simultaneously, protected area frontie... more Exploitation of natural forests forms expanding frontiers. Simultaneously, protected area frontiers aim at maintaining functional habitat networks. To assess net effects of these frontiers, we examined 16 case study areas on five continents. We (1) mapped protected area instruments, (2) assessed their effectiveness, (3) mapped policy implementation tools, and (4) effects on protected areas originating from their surroundings. Results are given as follows: (1) conservation instruments covered 3–77%, (2) effectiveness of habitat networks depended on representativeness, habitat quality, functional connectivity, resource extraction in protected areas, time for landscape restoration, “paper parks”, “fortress conservation”, and data access, (3) regulatory policy instruments dominated over economic and informational, (4) negative matrix effects dominated over positive ones (protective forests, buffer zones, inaccessibility), which were restricted to former USSR and Costa Rica. Despite evid...
Human Ecology; DOI 10.1007/s10745-014-9666-4
The debt-peonage system is an agreement between patrons and laborers in different economic activi... more The debt-peonage system is an agreement between patrons and laborers in different economic activities worldwide. A common feature is social exploitation of laborers that generate profits to the patrons. In recent literature it has been argued that debt-peonage can be an economically sound arrangement that secures the needs of actors. The paper evaluates to what extent raditionally strong debt-peonage in forest-dwelling communities in the Bolivian Amazon, has developed in a way that better secures the needs and economic interest of multiple actors. Case studies in sixteen communities yielded qualitative information on debt relations between peasants, traders and former patrons. Debt-peonage changed from a mechanism to provide and keep workforce indebted to new social relationships, equitable commercial links, opportunity to access work capital and production chain diversification. This rapid shift was caused by important changes in land and forest regulations
Archivos Espanoles De Urologia, Apr 1, 2004
This is a descriptive prospective study of semen analysis in 113 men who were candidates for vase... more This is a descriptive prospective study of semen analysis in 113 men who were candidates for vasectomy as an option for fertility control after a recent event of fertility. Each subject provided a semen sample for the analysis of volume, pH, spermatozoid concentration, mobility, and morphology. The results were compared with the reference values established by WHO. Different from what was expected, a great proportion of these fertile subjects, 54.9%, showed at least one altered parameter in comparison to minimal values established by WHO. Generally, median values for the whole group were normal: volume 2.4 ml, spermatozoid concentration measured in Makler and Neubauer chambers 89 and 91 millions/ml, respectively; sperm mobility (A + B) 56%; vitality 78%; and normal morphology 79%. In this group of fertile subjects we found a high probability to have altered semen parameters, which argues questions the real value and significance of sperm analysis in the diagnosis of a subfertile patient.
Land Use Policy, 2014
Over the last decade, important land and forest governance reforms have taken place in many tropi... more Over the last decade, important land and forest governance reforms have taken place in many tropical countries, including the devolution of ownership rights over land and forests, decentralization that created mechanisms for forest dwellers to participate in decision making in lowest tiers of governments. These reforms have resulted in an intensive academic debate on governance and management of forests and how actors should be involved. An important but understudied element in this debate is the ways in which communities cope with new legislation and responsibilities. Property rights bestowed by the government leave many aspects undecided and require that local forest users devise principles of access and allocation and establish authority to control those processes. We studied 16 communities in the northern Bolivian Amazon to evaluate how forest communities develop and control local rules for resource access and use. We found that the first requirement to community rule design, enforcement, and effective forest management is the opportunity to, and equity of, access to forest resources among members. Under the newly imposed forestry regulations, communities took matters in their own hands and designed more specific rules, rights and obligations of how community members could and should use economically important resources. The cases suggest that communities hold and maintain capacity to prepare their own ownership arrangements and related rules, even if they are strongly conditioned by the regulatory reforms. Very specific local histories, that may differ from community to community, influence strongly how specific ideas are being shaped, which in northern Bolivia resulted in notable local differences. The results suggest that new regulatory regimes should create appropriate conditions for communities to define adequate or at least convenient forestry institutions that assure an acceptable level of collective coexistence according to each particular communal history.
Land Use Policy, 10.1016/j.landusepol.2014.02.013
Over the last decade, important land and forest governance reforms have taken place in many tropi... more Over the last decade, important land and forest governance reforms have taken place in many tropical countries, including the devolution of ownership rights over land and forests, decentralization that created mechanisms for forest dwellers to participate in decision making in lowest tiers of governments. These reforms have resulted in an intensive academic debate on governance and management of forests and how actors should be involved. An important but understudied element in this debate is the ways in which communities cope with new legislation and responsibilities. Property rights bestowed by the government leave many aspects undecided and require that local forest users devise principles of access and allocation and establish authority to control those processes. We studied 16 communities in the northern Bolivian Amazon to evaluate how forest communities develop and control local rules for resource access and use. We found that the first requirement to community rule design, enforcement, and effective forest management is the opportunity to, and equity of, access to forest resources among members. Under the newly imposed forestry regulations, communities took matters in their own hands and designed more specific rules, rights and obligations of how community members could and should use economically important resources. The cases suggest that communities hold and maintain capacity to prepare their own ownership arrangements and related rules, even if they are strongly conditioned by the regulatory reforms. Very specific local histories, that may differ from community to community, influence strongly how specific ideas are being shaped, which in northern Bolivia resulted in notable local differences. The results suggest that new regulatory regimes should create appropriate conditions for communities to define adequate or at least convenient forestry institutions that assure an acceptable level of collective coexistence according to each particular communal history.
Books by Walter Cano Cardona
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Papers by Walter Cano Cardona
Books by Walter Cano Cardona