Estrategia para la sustentabilidad de los servicios ecosistémicos del Distrito de Manejo Integrado de la Cuchilla de Peñas Blancas y del Subia a partir de las percepciones sociales construidas desde 1990 al 2020

Abstract

Integrated management Districts (IMD) have been declared as protected areas aimed to a sustainable management of ecosystemic services to guarantee the cultural, social, and economic wealth of the communities. In this study, practices carried out are identified and evaluated by populations in the management and use of ecosystemic services that are given by IMD Cuchilla from Peñas Blancas and Subia, out of the perceptions of local inhabitants in relation to a strategy of analysis set by the following categories: equity in the intergenerational distribution, equity in intragenerational distribution, equity in interspecies distribution, fair procedures, acknowledgment and participation, sufficiency, efficiency and persistence. That way, the water supply, the conservation of flora and fauna, and the agricultural production of food were the ecosystemic services chosen because of its importance for the social wealth. Among the factors detected as limitations in the use of these and other benefits generated by the natural system, the risk by building reservoirs is recognized as well as landslides, the poor state of roads and the restrictions in the use and management of natural resources. Moreover, in the last three decades users perceived that fundamental ecosystemic services in this protected area are in decline due to productive processes and environmental, economic, and social changes. According to predominant agricultural practices and the socioenvironmental dynamics of the local communities, sustainable mechanisms to take advantage of the biodiversity and the acknowledgement of local skills for promoting self-sufficient and economic and environmentally less vulnerable initiatives have yet not been met.