Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2009. Graduate Programme in Higher Education. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 367-411). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:NR51672

No description available.

The gap observed between the rhetoric and reality of biodiversity conservation draws critical attention to the discourse of conservation and to claims that local and global interests can be balanced. In this work, I suggest that the spatial framing of organized biodiversity conservation inhibits attempts to produce such 'balance'. I examine the processes by which biodiversity conservation projects are brought into being through the discursive production of scale within the institutional framework of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Using five case studies of projects proposed under the GEF’s operational program for agrobiodiversity, I analyze how the GEF brings actors and sites into relation and engages them in the reproduction of articulations of scale through the GEF project cycle. In so doing, I reveal how the mechanisms that structure conservation projects around global goals systematically undermine the claims of situated resource users and prevent questions of justice from being raised.

The gap observed between the rhetoric and reality of biodiversity conservation draws critical attention to the discourse of conservation and to claims that local and global interests can be balanced. In this work, I suggest that the spatial framing of organized biodiversity conservation inhibits attempts to produce such 'balance'. I examine the processes by which biodiversity conservation projects are brought into being through the discursive production of scale within the institutional framework of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Using five case studies of projects proposed under the GEF’s operational program for agrobiodiversity, I analyze how the GEF brings actors and sites into relation and engages them in the reproduction of articulations of scale through the GEF project cycle. In so doing, I reveal how the mechanisms that structure conservation projects around global goals systematically undermine the claims of situated resource users and prevent questions of justice from being raised.

Agrobiodiversity constitutes an essential resource for traditional rural populations. Home gardens are "hotspots" of agrobiodiversity and important loci of in situ conservation efforts. This study seeks to understand the factors affecting gardeners' choices and to assess the accessibility of planting material in rural communities of the Peruvian Amazon. Household surveys and garden inventories conducted in 15 villages of the Corrientes river (n = 300), and case studies in three of these villages (n = 89), allowed to describe the local and regional patterns of garden agrobiodiversity and the structure of planting material exchange networks. Analyses reveal a strong link between species diversity and both household cultural and socioeconomic characteristics, and village ethnicity and size. Planting material flows primarily through matrilineal bonds, from advice-givers to advice-seekers, from old to young and from rich to poor. Farmers with exceptional species diversity, propensity to give and/or expertise are identified and their role in the conservation of cultivated plants is assessed. Expertise is not found to be as closely related to high species diversity as expected, but knowledge and planting stock dissemination go hand-in-hand.

No description available.