COLLECTIVE ACTION-PERFORMANCE PROJECT

Author:                      Jorge Restrepo       

Title:                           Carrying capacity

Date:                          10 November 2009

Participants:             CPA students – 4th year, class 2009, Zamorano

Photography:           Jorge Antonio Espinosa   

Curator:                     Allan Núñez

Place:                        Milking shed, Zamorano University, San Antonio de Oriente, FM, Honduras.    

Genre:                       Collective Action-Performance

Materials:                  Photographic camera

Objectives:

·         Represent the relationship between the human population and the intensity and extension of agricultural and livestock production

·         Point toward the pressure of the agricultural and livestock systems on the natural environment

·         Demonstrate one of the principal aspects that affects the stability of the planet: Human and animal carrying capacity

·         Motivate the future agronomists of Zamorano to think about their responsibility in relationship to the environment and, in this particular case, with the carrying capacity of the systems that they will administer and/or that their professional lives will impact upon

Background:

Carrying capacity has been widely studied in the world.  This concept is employed in different fields that range from the micro to macro; that is, the capacity that the planet Earth has to sustain the growing human population.

A cattle rancher speaks of the carrying capacity of a field when he refers to the number of cattle that a pasture can sustain without eroding the land and most importantly, while maintaining optimal animal production (breeding, beef or milk production).  That is why they speak of animal carrying capacity (ACC). The lands with a greater ACC have a greater commercial value.  There are production systems such as agrosilvopastoril that increase the ACC while protecting the environment.

The concept of “environmental sustainability” is directly related to the carrying capacity.  In the natural reserves. It is calculated on the basis of the CC of visitors, based on two aspects: maximum quantity of visitors that can be in the place at a time and the maximum quantity in a given period of time so that the impact that these visitors generate is neutralized thanks to the system’s recovery capacity.

In the natural environment there is a population dynamics reflected in the CC, which is regulated by birth rate/mortality in function of feed availability, predators and diseases.  Unlike human activity, where the CC can be exceeded at the cost of the system and/or individuals and populations in the system?at least thus far?in nature there is an ecological equilibrium that regulates all the native species in their original niche.  The dynamics of animal populations has been studied by biologists such as David Klein, who analyzed a community of reindeer on St. Matthew’s Island.

Central America responds to the great challenges of conservation, production and climatic change with its Regional Strategy of Agrobiodiversity and Health (ERAS).  It is expected that this strategy will at least generate communication links among the environmental, agricultural and livestock production, and health sectors. 

On the other hand, the Regional Strategic Program of Monitoring Central American Biodiversity (PROMEBIO) is based on two fundamental pillars: The study of ecological indicators and the Mean Abundance of Species (AME) in function of the pressures on biodiversity: Highways, climatic change, use of the soil and nitrogen deposits.  In November 2009 the first delivery of AME maps will be made to the Central American governments.

Description:

This project generated three actions with 99 agronomists soon to be graduated:

Action I - The agronomists walk along a road of the University’s farm, where the cows are taken to the milking shed. 

Action II - The agronomists then enter a corral for feeding the cows. 

Action III - The agronomists are distributed in a pasture.  

Results

The three actions were documented with photographs.

The following competencies were strengthened in the students: Commitment to the environment, management of people and esthetics. A contribution was also made to the formation of complex thinking in the participants.

Translated by Gertrude Brekelbaum, PhD

Main page of the project


  

Photos Action I

Photos Action II

Photos Action III

                

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