Development with Identity : Community, Culture and Sustainability in the Andes

The book discusses how local people and the environment have engaged each other over time to create contemporary Andean landscapes. It also explores human-environment interaction in relation to biodiversity, soils and water, and equitable development.

Throughout Latin America, indigenous peoples are demanding that development must address local priorities, including ethnic identity. Simultaneously, sustainability scientists need to conduct place-based research on the interaction between environment and society that will have global relevance. This book reports on a 6 year interdisciplinary research project on natural resource management in Cotacachi, Ecuador, where scientists and indigenous groups learnt to seek common ground. The book discusses how local people and the environment have engaged each other over time to create contemporary Andean landscapes. It also explores human-environment interaction in relation to biodiversity, soils and water, and equitable development. This book will be of significant interest to sociologists, anthropologists, economists and sustainability scientists researching environment and agriculture in rural communities.