Analyzing socio-ecological interactions through qualitative modeling: Forest conservation and implications for sustainability in the peri‑urban bogota (Colombia)

Maykol Rodriguez, Antonio Bodini, Francisco J. Escobedo and Nicola Clerici

Ecological Modelling, 2021, vol. 439, issue C

Abstract: Framing environmental issues in a sustainability context requires that we highlight the interdependencies between ecological, social and economic factors. Accordingly, the socio-ecological system (SES), which emphasizes the interplay between environmental and social dynamics, seems to be the appropriate framework for analysis. We applied this view to explore issues concerning the conservation of the remnant forests of the peri‑urban area of Bogota (Colombia). Specifically, we characterized this territory as a SES through a parsimonious set of fundamental, across-domain variables. Using elicitation-based information we reconstructed interactions between these variables so that their interactive network could be visualized as alternative signed digraphs. We analyzed these models by Loop Analysis to show that exploiting the structure of the interactions may help disentangling causative mechanisms for the response of remnant forests and other components of this SES to natural events (loss of soil fertility), policies (subsidizing industrial production) and social events (internal migration, social activism) that we assumed as potential drivers of change.

Keywords: Forest conservation; Loop analysis; Socio-ecological systems; Sustainability; Trade-offs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:439:y:2021:i:c:s0304380020304117

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2020.109344

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