Throughout Latin America, indigenous peoples are demanding that development must address local priorities, including ethnic identity. Simultaneously, sustainability scientists need to conduct place-based research on the interaction between environment and society that will have global relevance. This book reports on a 6 year interdisciplinary research project on natural resource management in Cotacachi, Ecuador, where scientists and indigenous groups learnt to seek common ground. The book discusses how local people and the environment have engaged each other over time to create contemporary Andean landscapes. It also explores human-environment interaction in relation to biodiversity, soils and water, and equitable development. This book will be of significant interest to sociologists, anthropologists, economists and sustainability scientists researching environment and agriculture in rural communities.

Table of Contents:
I: Foreword, A T Males, Municipio del Canton Cotacachi,Ecuador II: Acknowledgements PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1: Linking Sustainability Science, Community and Culture: AResearch Partnership in Cotacachi, Ecuador, R E Rhoades PART 2: TIME AND LANDSCAPE IN COTACACHI 2: Shaping an Andean Landscape: Processes AffectingTopography, Soils, and Hydrology in Cotacachi, F Zehetnerand W P Miller, University of Georgia, USA 3: Incursion, Fragmentation and Tradition: Historical Ecologyof Andean Cotacachi, A Shiloh Moates and B C Campbell,University of Georgia, USA 4: Four Decades of Land Use Change in the CotacachiAndes: 1963-2000, X Zapata Rios, SANREM-Andes Project,Ecuador, R E Rhoades, M C Segovia, SEK InternationalUniversity, Ecuador and F Zehetner 5: Climate Change in Cotacachi, R E Rhoades, X Zapata Riosand J Aragundy, SANREM-Andes Project, Ecuador 6: Traversing a Landscape of Memory, V D Nazarea,R Guitarra, UNORCAC, Cotacachi, Ecuador and R E Rhoades PART 3: BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION AND USE 7: Biological Diversity in Cotacachi's Andean Forests,M Peñafiel, Alianza Jatun Sacha/CDC-Ecuador, Ecuador,M Tipan, Direccion Nacional de Recursos Naturales,Ecuador, L Nolivos and K Vásquez, Universidad Central delEcuador, Ecuador 8: Trees and Trade-Offs: Perceptions of Eucalyptus andNative Trees in Ecuadorian Highland Communities,A D Carse, University of North Carolina, USA 9: Living, Dwindling, Losing, Finding: Status and Changes inAgrobiodiversity of Cotacachi, K Skarbø, Bygda, Stranda,Norway 10: Women and Homegardens of Cotacachi, M Piniero,CATIE/NORAD, Guatemala 11: Good to Eat, Good to Think: Food, Culture, andBiodiversity in Cotacachi, J Camacho, University of Georgia,USA PART 4: SOILS, WATER, AND SUSTAINABILITY 12: Toward Sustainable Crop Production in Cotacachi: AnAssessment of the Soils' Nutrient Status, F Zehetner andW P Miller 13: Plant-Water Relations in an Andean Landscape: Modellingthe Effect of Irrigation on Upland Crop Production,F Zehetner, W P Miller and X Zapata Ríos 14: Water Quality and Human Needs in Cotacachi: the PichaviWatershed, J Aragundy and X Zapata Ríos 15: Local Resolution of Watershed Management Trade-Offs:The Case of Cotacachi, F Rodríguez with D Southgate, TheOhio State University, USA 16: Community-Based Water Monitoring in Cotacachi,S S Ruiz-Cordóva, B L Duncan, W Deutsch and N Gómez,Auburn University, USA PART 5: NEGOTIATING "DEVELOPMENT WITHIDENTITY" 17: Why is the Earth Tired? A Comparative Analysis ofAgricultural Change and Intervention in NorthernEcuador,B C Campbell 18: Circular Migration and Community Identity: TheirRelationship to the Land, G Flora, American Friends ServiceCommittee, USA 19: Social Capital and Advocacy Coalitions: Examples of Environment Issues from Ecuador, JL Flora, CB Flora,Iowa State University, USA, F Campana, M García Bravo,Heifer Project-Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador and E Fernández-Baza, Peru and Iowa State University, USA 20: Future Visioning for the Andes: Scientific Models andLocal Perspectives on Landuse Change, R E Rhoades andX Zapata Ríos 21: Sustainability Science in Indigenous Communities:Reconciling and Global Agendas, R E Rhoades