Abstract
This project focuses on the relation between wildlife abundance in tropical forests and spatial heterogeneity in terms of natural environmental variability as well as in terms of spatial gradients in hunting intensity, and applies this to the study of “no-take areas” for tropical forest wildlife. The effects of natural environmental variability will be assessed by comparing data on game harvest, and catch per unit of effort, previously collected in a 1000 km2 tropical forest area surrounding an indigenous community in the Amazon, with a vegetation classification that will be made based on field inventory of ferns as indicator species of soil characteristics, in combination with remote sensing. The interactions between hunters and game species will be theoretically explored using dynamic mathematical models that approach bioeconomic equilibrium. These models will be tested against previously collected empirical data, and by means of economic field experiments. Finally, the findings will be applied to the study of no-take areas as a means for wildlife management in tropical forests. The effects of two no-take areas set aside in the study are in 2003 and 2005, respectively, will also be empirically assessed by collecting data on game harvest and hunting effort in the study area again, permitting a comparison between before and after the no-take areas were set aside.
Sweden