Highlands in Transition: Urbanization, Pastoralism, Mining, Tourism, and Wildlife in the Argentinian Puna
Land use change is a key component of regional environmental change. In mountain regions, where conditions for agriculture and human life are often difficult, land use trends are dominated by changes in the population's distribution across rural and urban areas and shifts in the main human acti...
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International Mountain Society
2018-11-01
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Series: | Mountain Research and Development |
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Online Access: | https://bioone.org/journals/Mountain-Research-and-Development/volume-38/issue-4/MRD-JOURNAL-D-17-00075.1/Highlands-in-Transition--Urbanization-Pastoralism-Mining-Tourism-and-Wildlife/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-17-00075.1.full |
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record_format |
Article |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Andrea E. Izquierdo H. R. Grau C. J. Navarro E. Casagranda M. C. Castilla A. Grau |
spellingShingle |
Andrea E. Izquierdo H. R. Grau C. J. Navarro E. Casagranda M. C. Castilla A. Grau Highlands in Transition: Urbanization, Pastoralism, Mining, Tourism, and Wildlife in the Argentinian Puna Mountain Research and Development land use transition urbanization grazing mining tourism herbivory transition puna |
author_facet |
Andrea E. Izquierdo H. R. Grau C. J. Navarro E. Casagranda M. C. Castilla A. Grau |
author_sort |
Andrea E. Izquierdo |
title |
Highlands in Transition: Urbanization, Pastoralism, Mining, Tourism, and Wildlife in the Argentinian Puna |
title_short |
Highlands in Transition: Urbanization, Pastoralism, Mining, Tourism, and Wildlife in the Argentinian Puna |
title_full |
Highlands in Transition: Urbanization, Pastoralism, Mining, Tourism, and Wildlife in the Argentinian Puna |
title_fullStr |
Highlands in Transition: Urbanization, Pastoralism, Mining, Tourism, and Wildlife in the Argentinian Puna |
title_full_unstemmed |
Highlands in Transition: Urbanization, Pastoralism, Mining, Tourism, and Wildlife in the Argentinian Puna |
title_sort |
highlands in transition: urbanization, pastoralism, mining, tourism, and wildlife in the argentinian puna |
publisher |
International Mountain Society |
series |
Mountain Research and Development |
issn |
0276-4741 1994-7151 |
publishDate |
2018-11-01 |
description |
Land use change is a key component of regional environmental change. In mountain regions, where conditions for agriculture and human life are often difficult, land use trends are dominated by changes in the population's distribution across rural and urban areas and shifts in the main human activities. In the Argentinian puna—a high-elevation subtropical plateau of about 95,000 km2 situated above 3200 masl—land is chiefly used for grazing, mining, and tourism. In this article, we analyze trends in these land uses over the last 57 years in the context of climatic changes toward drier and warmer conditions. Since 1960, the human population grew from 80,000 to 130,000; but this increase largely occurred in the scattered urban centers, while the rural population decreased. The main livestock— sheep—showed a net decrease of around 100,000 animals (–18.5%), with numbers increasing between 1960 and 1980 and then dropping markedly. The number of mining operations declined during the 1970s and 1980s and then rose sharply, reaching a 30% increase since the 1990s. Simultaneously, structural wild vicuña populations increased from a few thousand to around 130,000. These results show that environmental changes over the past half century involved a major wildlife recovery associated with a change from widespread extensive grazing to intensive but spatially limited impacts around mining operations and growing urban centers. Tourism emerged as a new activity over the last decades, but the environmental impacts have been poorly studied. To promote local development and regional conservation, research priorities should include (1) empirical assessments of the ecological consequences of land use changes, such as grazing regimes shifting from domestic to wild herbivores, as well as the impacts of mining, tourism, and urbanization on wetlands and hydrological regimes; (2) modeling of future scenarios of mining and tourism expansion and resulting conflicts with environmental conservation; and (3) coproduction of knowledge about interactions among land uses, climate change, and the different decision-making agents. |
topic |
land use transition urbanization grazing mining tourism herbivory transition puna |
url |
https://bioone.org/journals/Mountain-Research-and-Development/volume-38/issue-4/MRD-JOURNAL-D-17-00075.1/Highlands-in-Transition--Urbanization-Pastoralism-Mining-Tourism-and-Wildlife/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-17-00075.1.full |
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AT andreaeizquierdo highlandsintransitionurbanizationpastoralismminingtourismandwildlifeintheargentinianpuna AT hrgrau highlandsintransitionurbanizationpastoralismminingtourismandwildlifeintheargentinianpuna AT cjnavarro highlandsintransitionurbanizationpastoralismminingtourismandwildlifeintheargentinianpuna AT ecasagranda highlandsintransitionurbanizationpastoralismminingtourismandwildlifeintheargentinianpuna AT mccastilla highlandsintransitionurbanizationpastoralismminingtourismandwildlifeintheargentinianpuna AT agrau highlandsintransitionurbanizationpastoralismminingtourismandwildlifeintheargentinianpuna |
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spelling |
doaj-cce485e49c9f444fb5836cfdb604949f2020-11-25T01:18:00ZengInternational Mountain SocietyMountain Research and Development0276-47411994-71512018-11-0138439040010.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-17-00075.1Highlands in Transition: Urbanization, Pastoralism, Mining, Tourism, and Wildlife in the Argentinian PunaAndrea E. Izquierdo0H. R. Grau1C. J. Navarro2E. Casagranda3M. C. Castilla4A. Grau5Instituto de Ecología Regional; CC34 CP4107 Yerba Buena, Tucumán; Universidad Nacional de Tucumán-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas (CONICET), CC34 CP4107 Yerba Buena, Tucumán, Argentina; Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e Instituto Miguel Lillo, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Miguel Lillo 205 CP4000 San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán, Argentina; aeizquierdo@gmail.comInstituto de Ecología Regional; CC34 CP4107 Yerba Buena, Tucumán; Universidad Nacional de Tucumán-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas (CONICET), CC34 CP4107 Yerba Buena, Tucumán, Argentina; Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e Instituto Miguel Lillo, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Miguel Lillo 205 CP4000 San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán, ArgentinaInstituto de Ecología Regional; CC34 CP4107 Yerba Buena, Tucumán; Universidad Nacional de Tucumán-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas (CONICET), CC34 CP4107 Yerba Buena, Tucumán, ArgentinaInstituto de Ecología Regional; CC34 CP4107 Yerba Buena, Tucumán; Universidad Nacional de Tucumán-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas (CONICET), CC34 CP4107 Yerba Buena, Tucumán, ArgentinaCentro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Catamarca, Universidad Nacional de Catamarca-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas (CONICET), Prado 366 CP 4700 San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca, Catamarca, ArgentinaInstituto de Ecología Regional; CC34 CP4107 Yerba Buena, Tucumán; Universidad Nacional de Tucumán-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas (CONICET), CC34 CP4107 Yerba Buena, Tucumán, Argentina; Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e Instituto Miguel Lillo, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Miguel Lillo 205 CP4000 San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán, ArgentinaLand use change is a key component of regional environmental change. In mountain regions, where conditions for agriculture and human life are often difficult, land use trends are dominated by changes in the population's distribution across rural and urban areas and shifts in the main human activities. In the Argentinian puna—a high-elevation subtropical plateau of about 95,000 km2 situated above 3200 masl—land is chiefly used for grazing, mining, and tourism. In this article, we analyze trends in these land uses over the last 57 years in the context of climatic changes toward drier and warmer conditions. Since 1960, the human population grew from 80,000 to 130,000; but this increase largely occurred in the scattered urban centers, while the rural population decreased. The main livestock— sheep—showed a net decrease of around 100,000 animals (–18.5%), with numbers increasing between 1960 and 1980 and then dropping markedly. The number of mining operations declined during the 1970s and 1980s and then rose sharply, reaching a 30% increase since the 1990s. Simultaneously, structural wild vicuña populations increased from a few thousand to around 130,000. These results show that environmental changes over the past half century involved a major wildlife recovery associated with a change from widespread extensive grazing to intensive but spatially limited impacts around mining operations and growing urban centers. Tourism emerged as a new activity over the last decades, but the environmental impacts have been poorly studied. To promote local development and regional conservation, research priorities should include (1) empirical assessments of the ecological consequences of land use changes, such as grazing regimes shifting from domestic to wild herbivores, as well as the impacts of mining, tourism, and urbanization on wetlands and hydrological regimes; (2) modeling of future scenarios of mining and tourism expansion and resulting conflicts with environmental conservation; and (3) coproduction of knowledge about interactions among land uses, climate change, and the different decision-making agents.https://bioone.org/journals/Mountain-Research-and-Development/volume-38/issue-4/MRD-JOURNAL-D-17-00075.1/Highlands-in-Transition--Urbanization-Pastoralism-Mining-Tourism-and-Wildlife/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-17-00075.1.fullland use transitionurbanizationgrazingminingtourismherbivory transitionpuna |