Publications

@article{Reyes-Garcia2013,

title = {Coupling technology with traditional knowledge and local institutions to deal with change in rural households: A focus on the semi-arid tropics},

author = {Victoria Reyes-Garc\'{i}a and Matthieu Salpeteur and Laura Calvet-Mir and Tarik Serrano-Tovar and Erik G\'{o}mez-Baggethun},

url = {http://www.john-libbey-eurotext.fr/medline.md?doi=10.1684/sec.2013.0404},

doi = {10.1684/sec.2013.0404},

issn = {1147-7806},

year  = {2013},

date = {2013-10-01},

journal = {S\'{e}cheresse},

volume = {24},

number = {4},

pages = {340--349},

abstract = {Contemporary industrial societies typically rely on engineering and technological means to control variability threatening food production or other aspects of survival. But before the advent of industrial mechanization and fuel-driven agriculture, societies had other types of adaptation strategies often oriented to spread risk across space (mobility), time (storage), asset classes (diversification), and households or communities (sharing and pooling). The storyline of this paper is that, for long stretches of history, and in many places still today, the effectiveness of the above-mentioned risk-spreading strategies (and derived technologies) relied on coupling them with a) a deep knowledge of the local environment (traditional ecological knowledge); and b) a set of shared rules, norms and conventions on how to apply society's technology and knowledge (locally evolved institutions). Drawing in our own research among different contemporary small-scale societies, we present one example of each of those strategies highlighting the role of traditional ecological knowledge and local institutions in the application of risk-spreading strategies and related technologies. In the last section, we discuss the role of traditional ecological knowledge and local institutions in dealing with change in the semi-arid tropics. We propose that attempts to increase the adaptive capacity of such social-ecological systems to deal with disturbances should make an effort to couple technological innovations with local knowledge of the environment and locally evolved institutions.},

keywords = {adaptive capacity, local institutions, pastoralism, resilience, seed exchange networks, traditional ecological knowledge, water tanks},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Reyes-Garcia2011,

title = {Local Perception of the Multifunctionality of Water Tanks in Two Villages of Tamil Nadu, South India},

author = {Victoria Reyes-Garc\'{i}a and Olivia Aubriot and Pere Ariza-Montobbio and Elena Gal\'{a}n-Del-Castillo and Tarik Serrano-Tovar and Joan Martinez-Alier},

url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08941920802506240},

doi = {10.1080/08941920802506240},

issn = {0894-1920},

year  = {2011},

date = {2011-03-01},

journal = {Society & Natural Resources},

volume = {24},

number = {5},

pages = {485--499},

abstract = {Using data from free listings and a survey in two villages of Tamil Nadu, India, we discuss local perceptions and uses of water tanks, a traditional irrigation infrastructure. We hypothesize that both farmers and nonfarmers perceive and use water tanks for purposes other than irrigation. We found that informants recognized the importance of water tanks for irrigation, but also acknowledged other socioeconomic uses and ecological functions. Marginal sectors (i.e., Scheduled Castes) use tank resources in more diverse ways than other sectors of the population. Findings are relevant for development. International organizations working on the revival of water tanks aim to transfer water management to farmers for the purpose of irrigation. By recognizing that tanks benefit people other than farmers and in ways other than providing irrigation water, organizations working on tank rejuvenation could achieve a more equitable management of tank resources.},

keywords = {irrigation, local perception, multifunctionality, Tamil Nadu, water tanks},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}