Institute for Environmental Justice and Community-Based Conservation

Mission
To carry out scientific research and public service activities that promote environmental justice and community-based conservation in the Mississippi Delta and Latin America

Program Description

There are three components of the program: 

  • ‘Biodiversity, Endemism, and Community-based Conservation in the Honduran Highlands’
  • ‘Human Uses of Cycads’
  • ‘Vulnerability and Marginalization in the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta’
    • Environmental hazards education
    • Environment and human health
    • Community-based conservation and environmental education

The common focus is to carry out and publish collaborative research that benefits communities, and to engage in popular outreach activities. Both outreach and scholarly research and publication are intended to empower communities and contribute to their development by promoting their intellectual and common-property ownership of the natural resources that surround them, and by helping them improve the environmental quality of their surroundings.

Biodiversity, Endemism, and Community-based Conservation
Dr. Mark Bonta and Institute partners are currently engaged in a multi-year initiative to document endemic species of plants and animals in Honduran cloud forests in collaboration with local communities that depend on water from these same forests for their survival. By possessing knowledge of the unique species that only occur in certain localities, communities will have a powerful means to protect their natural resources from over-exploitation by unsustainable practices. The research is being carried out by an international multidisciplinary team comprised of biologists, anthropologists, geographers, and conservationists working together with local extensionists and ‘parataxonomists’ (locally-trained biological specimen collectors). Team members hail from the University of Florida, Bayer, Zamorano University, and elsewhere, and specimens collected will be stored in Honduran institutions as well as the Smithsonian Institution.

Human Uses of Cycads
Due to global warming and human destruction, cycads are the most endangered group of species on the planet. Nevertheless, these highly toxic plants are processed and consumed by people in Mexico, Honduras, and elsewhere, forming an important part of the diet for highly impoverished communities. The intent of this research and outreach, ongoing since 2003, is to document the archaeological, historical, and contemporary scope of human uses and promote sustainable conservation of globally endangered species wherever they occur. Community-based conservation and research in this field has already resulted in the national ‘Cycad Fair’ (Feria del Teocinte) planned and implemented every April by the small community of Río Grande, Honduras. The Fair promotes sustainable harvest and protection of the species Dioon mejiae, while generating income for local families. The international group of collaborators includes Honduran, Mexican , and US scientists and conservationists from The Cycad Society, Florida State University, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo (Mexico), and elsewhere.Dr. Mark Bonta is a member of the Cycad Species Survival Commission for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Vulnerability and Marginalization in the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta

A guidebook to the natural areas of the Delta, with photos by Larry Pace, is under construction. It will be published by the University Press of Mississippi and should be out in 2013. This will be the first exhaustive guide to the publicly-accessible parks, rivers, and lakes that are a valuable common-property resource for Deltans, and represents five years of original research in the field. Another activity that the Institute supports is the annual Dahomey-Great River Road Christmas Bird Count, now in its seventh year. The ‘Delta Environmental Sustainable Network’ is the mechanism whereby the Institute communicates and collaborates with groups and individuals interested in local environmental issues.

Contact Information

Dr. Mark Bonta
mbonta@deltastate.edu

Partners & Funders

National Geographic Society
Honduran Biodiversity Research Coalition
Instituto de Conservación y Desarrollo Forestal (Honduras)
Friends of the Environment, Alligator
Delta Environmental Sustainability Network

Media
Books Articles

Bonta, M. 2003. Seven Names for the Bellbird: Conservation Geography in Honduras. Texas A&M Press, College Station.

Bonta, M. and J. Protevi. 2004. Deleuze and Geophilosophy: A Guide and Glossary. Edinburgh University Press & Columbia University Press, 2004.

Bonta, M. and D. L. Anderson. 2004. Birding Honduras: A Checklist and Guide. EcoArte S. de R.L. Tegucigalpa & the ministries of Tourism and Natural Resources/Environment of Honduras.

Graham, D. & M. Bonta. 2011. Cycad conservation, peasant subsistence, and the military coup in Honduras. Society and Natural Resources 24(2): 193-200.

Bonta, M. 2010. Ethno-ornithology and conservation. Chapter 2 in S. Tidemann & A. Gosler, eds. Ethno-ornithology: Birds and indigenous people, culture and society. London, UK: Earthscan Publications.

Bonta, M. 2008. Valorizing the relationships between people and birds: Experiences and lessons from Honduras. Ornitologia Neotropical 19(Suppl.), 595-604, The Neotropical Ornithological Society

Bonta, M. 2007. Ethnobotany of Honduran cycads. In A.P. Vovides, D.W. Stevenson & R. Osborne (eds), Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Cycad Biology (Xalapa, Mexico, 2005). Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden 97: 120–142

Bonta, M., O. Flores Pinot, D. Graham, J. Haynes, & G. Sandoval. 2006. Ethnobotany and conservation of Tiusinte (Dioon mejiae Standl. & L. O. Williams, Zamiaceae) in Northeastern Honduras. Journal of Ethnobiology 26(2): Fall/Winter.

Bonta, M. 2005. Becoming-forest, becoming-local: Transformations of a protected area in Honduras. Geoforum 36(1):95-112. In special themed issue, ‘Critical Geographies of the Caribbean and Latin America’ (Eds. P. Kingsbury & B. Sletto). 23 Google Scholar citations as of Jan. 2012

Bonta, M. 2004. Death toll one: An ethnography of hydropower and human rights violations in Honduras. GeoJournal 60(1):19-30. In special themed issue, ‘Interrogating the Globalization Project’ (Ed. R. Honey)

Bonta, M. 2002. Jealous conservationists: Terratenientes and wildlife protection in Olancho, Honduras. In ‘Cultural and Physical Expositions: Geographic Studies in the Southern United States and Latin America’ (Eds. M. Steinberg & P. Hudson), Geoscience and Man 36:87-95. LSU: Geoscience and Man Publications

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