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Alternatives to development represent fairer forms of social, economic, and political organization, including environmental sustainability criteria as well. Many new outcomes are created during the design and everyday construction of alternatives to development (e.g., knowledge, practices, social relations, institutions). We may think, therefore, that innovation plays a key role in how such alternatives are imagined and materialized. However, the literature on alternatives to development does not appear to have focused much on innovation. In addition, there is academic literature on innovation that has coined and developed the concept of “grassroots innovation” to refer to innovation realized by grassroots groups. Yet, this literature does not seem to have focused on alternatives to development as innovation-rich spaces. Based on these observations, our objective in this paper is to analyze the potential role of grassroots innovation in alternatives to development, especially in contexts of the global South. To this end, we conducted a literature review along three axes: (1) grassroots innovation; (2) post-development and alternatives to development; and (3) Zapatism, an alternative to development in Mexico (in the last two axes we looked for direct or indirect references to grassroots innovation). Our results confirmed the previous observations. Nevertheless, we identified multiple and diverse innovative outcomes in the literature on post-development, alternatives to development and Zapatism, and altogether our findings suggest a very important role for grassroots innovation in these alternatives. Based on our review, we have provided a preliminary characterization of how grassroots innovations may look like and occur in alternatives to development (particularly in contexts of the global South). We emphasize the need to develop a theoretical-conceptual framework on grassroots innovation from the global South to improve its explanatory power given the diversity of existing alternatives to development. In addition, we call for more empirical studies that focus on identifying grassroots innovations and assessing their relevance to the design and everyday construction of alternatives to development.

This publication belongs to Volume 6, No 2, of the WATERLAT-GOBACIT Network Working Papers Series (http://waterlat.org/publications/working-papers-series/) It presents an Introduction to the articles that compose the issue.

Los bosques tropicales juegan un papel clave en la conservación de la biodiversidad, la regulación hidrológica, el clima regional y global, y son vitales para el sustento de sus habitantes. Sin embargo, la extensión actual y la intensidad de los cambios de usos del suelo y de cobertura en los bosques tropicales están propiciando su pérdida, fragmentación y degradación a un ritmo alarmante. Por lo tanto, comprender los factores subyacentes a la pérdida y al empobrecimiento de los bosques tropicales es un asunto de enorme importancia para que se puedan implementar políticas de conservación más eficaces. En esta tesis doctoral llevo a cabo un estudio de caso sobre las tierras ancestrales de indígenas Tsimane', una sociedad indígena de cazadores-recolectores y agricultores nativos de la Amazonía boliviana, con los objetivos principales de cartografiar, cuantificar y evaluar los efectos de diferentes factores sociales que subyacen a las tendencias recientes en el cambio de la cubierta forestal y los niveles de conservación biológica y cultural. En concreto, dedico el primer capítulo de investigación a elaborar un enfoque eficaz para mapear con precisión clases generales de usos del suelo/cobertura, que incluyen tanto los bosques en regeneración como los maduros, como base para la evaluación de las tendencias en el cambio de la cubierta forestal y del grado de conservación forestal. En el segundo capítulo de investigación evalúo el efecto de diferentes sistemas de tenencia de la tierra en el cambio de la cubierta forestal, mientras que en el tercero investigo el papel potencial del conocimiento ecológico tradicional indígena en la conservación de los bosques maduros, en un momento en que el conocimiento se está perdiendo debido a un proceso de aculturación rápida. Aunque la tenencia de la tierra y el cambio cultural pueden ser factores subyacentes a los cambios en la cobertura forestal, y por tanto determinantes de su grado de conservación, hasta la fecha sus efectos no han sido adecuadamente examinados, por lo que esta tesis doctoral tiene como objetivo contribuir a la escasa investigación existente sobre estos temas. Los Tsimane' constituyen un excelente caso de estudio para lograr los objetivos de esta tesis porque sus asentamientos están dispersos en diferentes sistemas de tenencia de la tierra, y porque muestran la mayor variación entre los nativos amazónicos bolivianos con respecto a la integración del mercado, lo que también se refleja en una gran variación en cuanto a conocimientos ecológicos tradicionales y aculturación. Además, debido a que han sido ampliamente estudiados en los últimos 15 años y a que hay estudios históricos acerca de ellos, puedo recurrir a los datos y resultados existentes para interpretar mejor mis resultados. Mis resultados contribuyen a mejorar los métodos existentes para mapear y cuantificar los cambios de usos del suelo y de cubiertas en paisajes tropicales heterogéneos, lo cual es difícil y sin embargo fundamental para mejorar las estimaciones de carbono en bosques, las evaluaciones sobre biodiversidad, la gestión de los recursos naturales, y la planificación territorial. Además, uso un enfoque novedoso para integrar y analizar los datos derivados de las imágenes de satélite con datos obtenidos encuestas sociales, lo cual continúa siendo una tarea complicada en la ciencia del cambio de usos del suelo y de cubiertas. A nivel teórico, mis resultados proporcionan nuevos conocimientos sobre los efectos de la tenencia de la tierra y el conocimiento indígena en la conservación de los bosques tropicales, que son factores todavía poco conocidos tanto en la cuenca del Amazonas como otros lugares. Mis resultados tienen implicaciones importantes para las políticas públicas para el desarrollo socioeconómico y la conservación del medio ambiente en la Amazonía y doy algunas recomendaciones en materia de políticas públicas, desde una perspectiva de conservación biocultural. Por ejemplo, mis resultados sobre los efectos de la tenencia de la tierra sobre los cambios en la cubierta forestal demuestran que los territorios indígenas puede ser tan eficaces como las áreas protegidas para la conservación forestal, lo que sugiere los beneficios de ampliar el número y/o tamaño de los territorios indígenas, y la necesidad de fortalecer la gobernanza indígena. Los resultados también muestran que las concesiones madereras pueden ser muy eficaces para prevenir los bosques de la deforestación, y que algún incentivo de conservación es necesario en terrenos privados para reducir sus altos niveles (y crecientes) de la deforestación y la degradación forestal. En cuanto al papel del conocimiento ecológico tradicional de los pueblos indígenas en la conservación forestal, mis resultados muestran que los niveles de ambos están significativamente asociados, y que existe entre ellos una superposición espacial muy importante, algo que no había sido evaluado con rigor a escala local, y que puede sugerir la existencia de un conexión funcional entre la diversidad cultural y biológica. Este hallazgo implica que las políticas de conservación forestal deben buscar también la protección del conocimiento indígena, lo cual tiene importantes implicaciones para los derechos indígenas sobre la tierra y los recursos naturales., Tropical forests play a key role in biodiversity conservation, hydrological regulation, regional and global climate, and are vital to support the livelihoods of their dwellers. Nevertheless, the current extent and intensity of land use/cover change in tropical forests is driving their loss, fragmentation, and degradation at alarming rates. Therefore, it is a matter of the utmost importance to understand the underlying driving forces of loss and impoverishment of tropical forests so that more effective conservation policies can be enacted. In this PhD thesis I carry out a case study on the ancestral lands of Tsimane' Amerindians, an indigenous society of hunter-gatherers and farmers native to the Bolivian Amazon, with the primary goals of mapping, quantifying and assessing the effects of different social factors underlying recent trends in forest cover change and levels of biological and cultural conservation. Specifically, I devote the first research chapter to devise an efficient remote sensing classification approach to accurately map broad land cover classes, including both early-growth and old-growth forests, as a basis for the assessments of trends in forest cover change and of forest conservation. In the second research chapter I assess the effects of different land tenure systems on forest cover change, while in the third one I evaluate the potential role of indigenous traditional ecological knowledge in old-growth forest conservation at a time such knowledge is being lost due to a rapid acculturation process. Although land tenure and cultural change may underlie tropical forest cover change and thus forest conservation, to date their effects have not been adequately examined, and this PhD thesis aims to contribute to previous research on such topics. The Tsimane' constitute an excellent case study to accomplish the goals of this thesis because their settlements are currently scattered across different land tenure systems, and because they display the largest variation amongst native Bolivian Amazonians regarding market integration, which also reflects on a great variation regarding traditional ecological knowledge and acculturation. Also, because they have been extensively studied in the last 15 years and there are historical studies about them, so I can draw on previous data and results to better interpret my findings. My results contribute to improving methods for mapping and quantifying land use/cover change in tropical heterogeneous landscapes, which is challenging and nevertheless critical to enhance carbon mapping, biodiversity assessments, natural resource management, and territorial planning. In addition, I use a novel approach to integrate and analyze data derived from remote sensing imagery with data obtained from social surveys, which remains a challenging task in land change science. At a theoretical level, my findings provide new insights into the effects of land tenure and indigenous knowledge on tropical forest conservation, which are factors still poorly understood in the Amazon basin and elsewhere. My results have significant implications for public policies aimed at socioeconomic development and environmental conservation in the Amazon and I give some policy recommendations drawn from a biocultural conservation perspective. For instance, my results on the effects of land tenure on forest cover change show that indigenous territories may be as effective as protected areas for forest conservation, which suggests the benefits of expanding the number and/or size of indigenous territories and the need of strengthening indigenous governance. Results also show that logging concessions may be very effective to prevent forest from clear-cutting, and that conservation incentives are needed in private lands to curtail their high and increasing levels of deforestation and forest degradation. As regards the role of indigenous traditional ecological knowledge in forest conservation, I find both their levels are significantly associated, and that there is a very significant spatial overlap, something that had not been assessed at the local scale, and that suggests the existence of a functional connection between both cultural and biological diversity. This finding implies that forest conservation policies should proceed hand in hand with the protection of indigenous knowledge, which has important implications for indigenous rights to land and natural resources management.

Land cover classification is a key research field in remote sensing and land change science as thematic maps derived from remotely sensed data have become the basis for analyzing many socio-ecological issues. However, land cover classification remains a difficult task and it is especially challenging in heterogeneous tropical landscapes where nonetheless such maps are of great importance. The present study aims to establish an efficient classification approach to accurately map all broad land cover classes in a large, heterogeneous tropical area of Bolivia, as a basis for further studies (e.g., land cover-land use change). Specifically, we compare the performance of parametric (maximum likelihood), non-parametric (k-nearest neighbour and four different support vector machines - SVM), and hybrid classifiers, using both hard and soft (fuzzy) accuracy assessments. In addition, we test whether the inclusion of a textural index (homogeneity) in the classifications improves their performance. We classified Landsat imagery for two dates corresponding to dry and wet seasons and found that non-parametric, and particularly SVM classifiers, outperformed both parametric and hybrid classifiers. We also found that the use of the homogeneity index along with reflectance bands significantly increased the overall accuracy of all the classifications, but particularly of SVM algorithms. We observed that improvements in producer’s and user’s accuracies through the inclusion of the homogeneity index were different depending on land cover classes. Earlygrowth/degraded forests, pastures, grasslands and savanna were the classes most improved, especially with the SVM radial basis function and SVM sigmoid classifiers, though with both classifiers all land cover classes were mapped with producer’s and user’s accuracies of around 90%. Our approach seems very well suited to accurately map land cover in tropical regions, thus having the potential to contribute to conservation initiatives, climate change mitigation schemes such as REDD+, and rural development policies.