Concluding Remarks

Abstract

Around the world, hot spots of biodiversity are often coincident with hot spots of cultural and even linguistic diversity. Many of those hot spots have become Natural Protected Areas. Therefore, Natural Protected Areas are the ideal starting point to address socio-ecological studies. The aim of this book is to explore the current trend of economic and sociological studies in the Natural Protected Areas of Mexico and other countries. In the first section of the book, authors review the foundations of the socio-ecological relationship, i.e., the evolution of the human-natural systems. This first section is dedicated to theoretical aspects linking Community Development and Conservation where a new paradigm emerges, one that takes account of socio-ecological and cultural diversity as well as environmental ethics. Politics of protection without the human component are no longer viable for Natural Protected Areas. In the second section, the authors describe methodologies and explain that an inter-disciplinary approach is necessary to incorporate the social, the economic and the ecological aspects in a socio-ecological matrix. Some chapters analyze tools for the integration of “human” and “natural” dimensions in the management of the environmental matrix. Other chapters describe research into the benefits of ecosystem services, long-term socio-ecological research, and the local governance of common resources. In the third section of the book, there are some study cases explaining the interactions among the local inhabitants and the environmental systems in the Protected Natural Areas. The book aims to help understand how social groups contextualize ecological knowledge, how anthropic activities contribute to modify the environmental matrix, how cultural and economic aspects influence the use, management and conservation of their ecological environment, and how to understand social phenomena in the light of ecological knowledge.