非表示:
キーワード:
scientific cooperation; Pantanal; Mato Grosso; wetland; floodplain; sustainable management; conservation
要旨:
Since 1991, Brazilian and German researchers of the Pantanal Ecology
Project (PEP [a cooperative effort between the Federal University of Mato
Grosso, UFMT, and the Max-Planck-Institute of Limnology, MPIL]) have been
studying the structures and functions of the various ecosystem types of the
Pantanal. This work focused on delivering a solid scientific database for
proposing management concepts and conservation plans, including analysis of
environmental impacts and their socio-economic effects. The interdisciplinary
approach is based on the flood pulse concept (Junk et al. 1989), which uses the
annual hydrological changes as the driving force for patterns and processes in
floodplain ecosystems. Limnologists, plant ecologists, zoologists, and geographers cooperate in selected landscape units such as floodplain lakes, an
inundation gradient, a bird breeding site and the catchments of tributaries to the
Pantanal. In the past 10 years, PEP has contributed more than 100 scientific
publications on this issue (see homepage http://www.mpilploen.
mpg.de/mpilts2d.htm). Scientific education is one important pillar for the
sustainable transfer of acquired knowledge into society. In a training course at
the UFMT set up by PEP in 1994, 150 students performed studies in wetland
ecology to obtain their Ph.D., M.Sc., or B.Sc. degrees. During this time,
laboratories and field stations were established to enhance scientific
infrastructures. The Brazilian-German cooperation on the Pantanal has now
become the intellectual nucleus for the establishment of the United Nations
University – Pantanal Regional Environmental Program at the UFMT. Analyzing
the effects of changes in the flooding regime in the Pantanal will form the focus
of future cooperative research.
