Principal Investigators

Margot A. Wood , margotwood@tamu.edu, 201 Old State Chem 2258, Texas A&M University, College Station Texas 77843-2258

PI: Dr. Thomas E. Lacher Jr., tlacher@tamu.edu, 201 Old State Chem 2258, Texas A&M University, College Station Texas 77843-2258.
 
 Co-PI: Eugenio Gonzalez egonzalez.soltis.center@tamu.edu, The Soltis Center for Research and Education, Texas A&M University, P.O. Box 80-4417 La Fortuna, Costa Rica.

Abstract

Land conversion is closely linked with agriculture throughout much of the world. Costa Rica had its share of land conversion due to agriculture, reaching its peak in the 1970s. Costa Rica is known for its proactive environmental policies that have been focused on curbing the rate of deforestation. Current government payments for ecosystem service (PES) policies, in place since 1997, were established to aid in water management, biodiversity protection, scenic beauty and carbon sequestration. PES participants that live in the SINAC (Sistema Nacional de Areas de Conservacion) designated biological corridors are given funding priority because these corridors are essential for connecting segregated wildlife populations held in the National Parks and other protected areas. Biological corridors are defined as regions to best facilitate movement of the target species between two habitat zones. The goal of these biological corridors is to promote conservation of biodiversity and sustainable use of natural resources by providing connectivity via reforestation. Although the enhancement of forest cover has been described in these corridors, there have been few studies assessing effectiveness of the payments for ecosystem services policy on biodiversity, and specifically mammalian dispersal.

Funding Sources

EarthWatch, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Texas A&M University, NSF-IGERT Applied Biodiversity Science Program

Associated Activities

Three undergraduate students participate in this project. Two undergraduates from Texas A&M University and 1 undergraduate from the National University of Costa Rica. We also had 31 Earth Watch citizen scientists participate during the summer of 2014.

Publications

Wood, M.A. and  T. E. Lacher. 2014. Payment for Ecosystem Services: Landholder Perspectives and Decisions. Poster presentation: Student Research Week, March 2014, Texas A&M University.

Wood, M.A. and T. E. Lacher. 2014. Payment for Ecosystem Services: Landholder Perspectives and Decisions. Poster presentation: Ecological Integration Symposium, March 2014, Texas A&M University

Wood, M.A. and T. E. Lacher. 2014. Payment for Ecosystem Services and Mammals: Do Working Agricultural Landscapes Benefit Conservation?. Poster presentations: Organization of Tropical Studies Conference, June 2013, San Jose, Costa Rica.

Wood, M.A. 2013. Do Payments for Ecosystem Services in Working Landscapes Benefit Conservation? Oral presentation: Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Annual Symposium, February 2013, Texas A&M University.