Social Network Analysis - A Textbook

Abstract

In the 1980's, sustainable agriculture gained popularity among international conservation organizations as a tool for project managers to combat deforestation and thus reach conservation goals. The link that sustainable agriculture serves between conservation and development seems simple enough: increase subsistence agricultural production per unit of land around areas of high biodiversity and rural poor farmers will not need to deforest more land for agriculture to meet household demands. Recently, conservation project managers have wanted to know under what conditions sustainable agriculture projects work to help reach conservation goals? To what extent does sustainable agriculture decrease rates of deforestation? To what extent do sustainable agriculture projects serve as a mechanism for conservation organizations to win the trust of community members so that they will be more open to conservation messages? Our research found that sustainable agriculture decreases deforestation only under certain conditions but that it serves as an important mechanism to decrease other threats to biodiversity such as fire.