Beschreibung
As a matter of fact, land-use has significantly altered many environmental processes. But why have private conservation networks been created in some areas, while in other areas the land been degraded to the extent of dead soil? To explain such phenomena, we must explore the mechanism and dynamics of land-use change. For this reason, the objective of this research is not only to have a list of land-use change drivers (i.e. to provide a descriptive analysis) and reconstruction of historical land-use changes but also to find the mechanism by which these drivers have influenced historical land-use changes in the Mindo and western foothills of Pichincha volcano area to construct an emergent explanatory theory originating from the data. For this purpose, I employed grounded theory procedures and techniques to analyse narratives and life histories of the study participants. This area has been selected as a case study because of its large quantity of forested areas, conservation history, the emergence of interesting models for sustainable agriculture, and the creation of private conservation networks. Three specific properties of the system, namely coevolution, emergence, and reorganisation, help to explain land-use change. Individual decision-making also plays a role, as individual perception of reality informs life/land choices. This study points to the existence of a set of factors (i.e., structural conditions), which are drivers of change. They reflect ways of dealing with conflicts, cooperation, and responses to newly created and articulated needs.
