Diversity

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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Alfredo Ortega-Rubio

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Guest Editor

CIBNOR-CONACYT, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste, Planeación Ambiental y Conservación, Avenida Instituto Politécnico Nacional 195, Playa Palo Sta. Rita, La Paz 23090, Baja California Sur, Mexico
Interests: conservation ecology; natural protected areas; ecological restoration
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is the second edition of "Socioecology and Biodiversity Conservation"; https://www.mdpi.com/journal/diversity/special_issues/socio_ecology.

Due to worldwide co-evolutive reasons, hot spots of biodiversity coincide with hot spots of cultural, and even linguistic, diversity. Therefore, to preserve global biodiversity, socio-ecological studies on local communities must be conducted. These studies must take into account the social, economic and cultural needs and aspirations of the local communities in relation to biodiversity conservation policies. This Special Issue focuses on describing the interactions between the local inhabitants and environmental systems all around the world. It aims to help understand how social groups contextualize ecological knowledge, anthropic activities contribute to modifying the environment, cultural and economic aspects influence the use, management and conservation of their ecological environment, and to understand social phenomena in light of ecological knowledge.

Theoretical, methodological and case studies can be submitted to this Special Issue. Theoretical contributions must discuss the epistemological and historical foundations of the conception of the socio-ecological relationship and describe the evolution of human–nature systems. Methodological contributions must analyze the tools required for the integration of "human" and "natural" dimensions in the management of the environment; the approach of ecosystem services, long-term socio-ecological research and the local governance of common goods must be described. Case Studies in this Special Issue must report on valuable experiences on the retro-interactions of local inhabitants with their environment matrix, incorporating, in relation to biodiversity conservation, the social and economic aspects of local inhabitants with the environmental management and sustainability. This Special Issue will provide a theoretical basis, methodological tools and key case studies, which will contribute to the advancement of the socio-ecological perspectives for biodiversity conservation. I hope this Special Issue will have a dramatic impact on the next generations of researchers and professionals contributing to biodiversity conservation all over the world.

Prof. Dr. Alfredo Ortega-Rubio
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diversity is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (1 paper)

Review

21 pages, 941 KiB

Open AccessReview

Human Communities in Protected Natural Areas and Biodiversity Conservation

by Elizabeth Olmos-Martínez, Heidi Leticia Romero-Schmidt, María del Carmen Blázquez, Camilo Arias-González and Alfredo Ortega-Rubio

Diversity 2022, 14(6), 441; https://doi.org/10.3390/d14060441 - 31 May 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3832

Abstract

Using socioecological concepts and within a historical biodiversity conservation context, this research study reviews the main interactions between human communities and protected natural areas (PNAs) to describe their different stages over time and assess the implications arising from climate change. The review suggests that both society and governments have raised awareness and interest regarding the importance of biodiversity conservation. The interactions of human communities in these areas have had different effects on biodiversity use, management, and conservation. Local communities have historically developed traditional uses of natural resources that allow them to remain over time and conserve them. Thus, the interest in PNAs as a conservation instrument has increased worldwide. Regarding climate change, this study found evidence indicating that PNAs may act as buffer barriers to prevent biodiversity loss and mitigate the impacts of extreme events; nevertheless, a great variation can be expected. The magnitude of the impacts on human communities, levels of vulnerability, and resilience capacity of PNAs facing climate change (CC) rely on many factors, such as location, extent, composition, management, and ecology of a given protected area. Therefore, the new scenarios that CC may bring are challenging current systematic conservation planning and traditional management methods of the natural resources that are vital for people. Finally, the authors suggest that society is increasingly aware of PNAs as one of the best tools humans have to prevent biodiversity loss, and potentially buffer the effects of CC. These increases in social awareness of biodiversity conservation importance and PNAs are gratifying and spread optimism about the future that next generations may face. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Socioecology and Biodiversity Conservation—2nd Edition)

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