title: Community-based participatory research helps farmers and scientists to manage invasive pests in the Ecuadorian Andes.
abstract: Participatory research has not been a conspicuous methodology in developing nations for studying invasive pests, an increasing threat to the sustainable development in the tropics. Our study presents a community-based monitoring system that focuses on three invasive potato tuber moth species (PTM). The monitoring was developed and implemented by young farmers in a remote mountainous area of Ecuador. Local participants collected data from the PTM invasion front, which revealed clear connection between the abundance of one of the species (Tecia solanivora) and the remoteness to the main market place. This suggests that mechanisms structuring invasive populations at the invasion front are different from those occurring in areas invaded for longer period. Participatory monitoring with local people may serve as a cost-effective early warning system to detect and control incipient invasive pest species in countries where the daily management of biological resources is largely in the hands of poor rural people.
authors.affiliation: French Institute for Research & Development, IRD, unit DEEIT. dangles@legs.cnrs-gif.fr
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Dangles
authors.forename: F C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Carpio
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Villares
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yumisaca
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liger
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rebaudo
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Silvain
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000383:Agriculture; D000818:Animals; D003256:Community Participation; D004484:Ecuador; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007300:Insect Control; D008297:Male; D009036:Moths; D012107:Research Design; D012424:Rural Population; D011198:Solanum tuberosum / Q000469:parasitology*; D055815:Young Adult
references.citation: Ecol Appl. 2008 Oct;18(7):1795-809
references.pmid: 18839773
references.citation: J Econ Entomol. 2005 Feb;98(1):222-8
references.pmid: 15765687
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Dec 19;103(51):19460-5
references.pmid: 17158216
references.citation: Ambio. 2008 Jun;37(4):312-20
references.pmid: 18686512
references.citation: Bull Math Biol. 2004 Nov;66(6):1821-50
references.pmid: 15522356