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Optimal foraging, institutions and forest change: a case from Nepal
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2000 |
| Authors | Schweik, C, M. |
| Journal Title | Environmental Monitoring and Assessment |
| Volume | 62 |
| Pagination | 231-260 |
| ISBN Number | 0167-6369 |
| Key Words | foraging; forests; institutions; analysis; composition; global; positioning systems; human activity; disturbed land; land use; change; environmental impact; indicators; models; non-wood forest; products; collection; patterns; spatial variation; Shorea; Sh |
| Abstract | Forest composition is a product of temporal anthropogenic and non- anthropogenic disturbances. Scholars from geography, anthropology, and other disciplines have long been aware of the informing nature of spatial relationships: human actions in a previous time often leave imprints in today's landscape. Traditional empirical studies of forest condition typically ignore this type of information and rely on aggregated forest- level indicators developed from aspatial plot-level analyses. This paper conducts a spatial analysis of one important forest product species, Shorea robusta , in a foraging setting in southern Nepal. Forest plot locations were located using Differential Global Positioning Systems (DGPS) and were processed using a Geographic Information System. Three rival hypotheses of the geographic distribution of Shorea robusta are presented: (1) a pattern of no human disturbance, (2) a pattern of open access and optimal foraging, and (3) a pattern of optimal foraging alteredby the geographic configuration of enforced institutions. Multivariate regression models are estimated and optimal foraging patterns are identified. Statistical tests lend support to the third hypothesis. Methods such as the ones presented here are important if we are to better understand the geographic implications of institutional design on human behaviour and the environmental outcomes that result. |
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