Pre-Columbian landscape impact and agriculture in the Monumental Mound region of the Llanos de Moxos, lowland Bolivia

We present a multiproxy study of land use by a pre-Columbian earth mounds culture in the Bolivian Amazon. The Monumental Mounds Region (MMR) is an archaeological sub-region characterized by hundreds of pre-Columbian habitation mounds associated with a complex network of canals and causeways, and situated in the forest–savanna mosaic of the Llanos de Moxos. Pollen, phytolith, and charcoal analyses were performed on a sediment core from a large lake (14 km2), Laguna San José (14°56.97′S, 64°29.70′W).We found evidence of high levels of anthropogenic burning from AD 400 to AD 1280, corroborating dated occupation layers in two nearby excavated habitation mounds. The charcoal decline pre-dates the arrival of Europeans by at least 100 yr, and challenges the notion that the mounds culture declined because of European colonization. We show that the surrounding savanna soils were sufficiently fertile to support crops, and the presence of maize throughout the record shows that the area was continuously cultivated despite land-use change at the end of the earthmounds culture. We suggest that burning was largely confined to the savannas, rather than forests, and that pre-Columbian deforestation was localized to the vicinity of individual habitation mounds, whereas the inter-mound areas remained largely forested.

Sustainable urban metabolism as a link between bio-physical sciences and urban planning: the BRIDGE project

Urban metabolism considers a city as a system with flows of energy and material between it and the environment. Recent advances in bio-physical sciences provide methods and models to estimate local scale energy, water, carbon and pollutant fluxes. However, good communication is required to provide this new knowledge and its implications to endusers (such as urban planners, architects and engineers). The FP7 project BRIDGE (sustainaBle uRban plannIng Decision support accountinG for urban mEtabolism) aimed to address this gap by illustrating the advantages of considering these issues in urban planning. The BRIDGE Decision Support System (DSS) aids the evaluation of the sustainability of urban planning interventions. The Multi Criteria Analysis approach adopted provides a method to cope with the complexity of urban metabolism. In consultation with targeted end-users, objectives were defined in relation to the interactions between the environmental elements (fluxes of energy, water, carbon and pollutants) and socioeconomic components (investment costs, housing, employment, etc.) of urban sustainability. The tool was tested in five case study cities: Helsinki, Athens, London, Florence and Gliwice; and sub-models were evaluated using flux data selected. This overview of the BRIDGE project covers the methods and tools used to measure and model the physical flows, the selected set of sustainability indicators, the methodological framework for evaluating urban planning alternatives and the resulting DSS prototype.

Implementação das recomendações e decisões do Sistema Interamericano de Direitos Humanos no Brasil: institucionalização e política

O Sistema Interamericano de Direitos Humanos, estabelecido originalmente no contexto da Organização dos Estados Americanos e depois expandido pela adoção da Convenção Americana de Direitos Humanos de 1966, tem cumprido, não sem ambiguidades, um papel relevante na ampliação da proteção dos direitos humanos no continente. Durante a vaga autoritária dos anos 1970, a Comissão Interamericana realizou, com grande coragem, visitas e produziu relatórios constrangedores para as ditaduras argentina e chilena. Com a redemocratização do continente, o papel do Sistema passou por uma transformação. A adesão paulatina dos países à Convenção de San José e a seus protocolos começou a gerar uma relação promissora entre os sistemas constitucionais e o sistema regional de proteção aos direitos humanos. A fragilidade institucional da Comissão e da Corte, somada à ambiguidade política de muitos dos Estados membros em relação aos direitos humanos, vem, nos últimos anos, colocando em risco a integridade e a relevância do Sistema Interamericano na proteção e na promoção de direitos no continente. Neste sentido, uma pesquisa que busca analisar o enraizamento do sistema regional de direitos humanos é mais do que oportuna. Este trabalho é fruto de uma pesquisa de dois anos, desenvolvida a partir de um projeto internacional e colaborativo, voltado ao mapeamento da implementação das medidas e decisões do Sistema Interamericano de Direitos Humanos na América do Sul. O estudo brasileiro foi realizado pela equipe da DIREITO GV.

El desarrollo social en los años noventa: principales opciones

Incluye Bibliografía