%0 Journal Article
%T Challenges and opportunities of human conflict and environmental transformation in Ecuadorian highlands
%A Pugh
%A J.
%J Pirineos : Revista de Ecolog赤a de Montaˋa
%D 2008
%I Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cient赤ficas
%X This article critically analyzes the relationships among resource scarcity, conflict, and the transformation of the environment, positing several conceptual tools that provide a nuanced explanation for environmental transformation through human conflict and which overcome some of the limitations of the existing literature of political conflict. After proposing the idea of nonlinear cycles of violent degradation and demonstrating empirically how this has transformed landscapes and societies in the Ecuadorian highlands, the article examines the sociopolitical processes that occur at each of the nodes of the cycle. Specifically, it argues that the political incentives for cooperative environmental management can build confidence and be instrumental in the de-escalation of violence related to natural resource conflicts. When cooperative environmental management and dispute resolution fails, it is frequently the result of a gap between the short-term political incentives for decision makers to intervene and craft institutional solutions and the long-term pay-offs of these institutional measures for their constituents. The article argues that the destructive cycle is not deterministic, and that at each of the nodes of the cycle, opportunities exist to reach a stage of constructive negotiation, either by building on technical cooperation, mobilizing external allies and pressure agents, or by equalizing the gap in political time windows through conflict escalation so that decision makers find it in their interest to engage and help manage the conflict and mitigate global change. Este art赤culo analiza cr赤ticamente las relaciones entre la escasez de recursos naturales, los conflictos, y la transformaci車n del medio ambiente. Propone varias herramientas conceptuales que ofrecen una explicaci車n detallada de la transformaci車n ambiental por medio de los conflictos humanos y que superan algunas limitaciones de la literatura sobre los conflictos pol赤ticos. Despu谷s de proponer la idea de ciclos no-lineales de degradaci車n violenta, y demostrar emp赤ricamente c車mo se han transformado los paisajes y sociedades de la Sierra ecuatoriana, el art赤culo examina los procesos sociopol赤ticos que ocurren en cada uno de los nodos del ciclo. Espec赤ficamente, sostiene que los incentivos pol赤ticos para el manejo cooperativo del medio ambiente pueden aumentar la confianza y pueden contribuir decisivamente a la disminuci車n de la violencia que est芍 relacionada a conflictos de recursos naturales. Cuando el manejo cooperativo del medio ambiente y la resoluci車n de disputas fracasan, frecuenteme
%K environmental conflict
%K violence de-escalation
%K political incentives
%K Ecuador
%K Andes Mountains
%K conflictos ambientales
%K disminuci車n de violencia
%K incentivos pol赤ticos
%K Ecuador
%K monta as Andinas
%U http://pirineos.revistas.csic.es/index.php/pirineos/article/view/22/22