Francisco Benitez-Capistros

Central University of Ecuador | UCE · Faculty of Agricultural Sciences

The viva examination or ‘defence’ is a pivotal moment in a student’s or researcher’s career. It marks the conclusion of one stage and the beginning of another, whether during the study period or when competing for research funding. Unlike many other formal assessments, the viva is an oral performance. Its form may strongly depend on the domain of s...

Key skills for future aquatic scientists in Latin America: academic capacity building through the CORRIENTE XXI project - Volume 54 Issue 3 - Diana Di Nitto, Nico Koedam, Jean Hugé, Francisco Benitez-Capistros, Lucy Baldeon Rojas, Xavier Bolivar Lastra Bravo, Dario Alexander Cepeda-Bastidas, Isabel Timpe-Vera, Gladys Rincon-Polo, Jonathan Cedeno, R...

Conservation conflicts in protected areas are varied and context-specific, but the resulting effects are often similar, leading to important losses for both humans and wildlife. Several methods and approaches have been used to mitigate conservation conflicts, with an increasing emphasis on understanding the human–human dimension of the conflict. In...

The conservation of biodiverse areas around the world has contributed to the protection and recovery of endangered species. This has been the case for 11 species of Galapagos giant tortoises (Chelonoidis spp.) that today are successfully maintained over six islands: Española, Santiago, Pinzon, Isabela, San Cristobal and Santa Cruz. A favourable sta...

Second phase: Socio-economic questionnaire. (PDF)

Second phase socio-economic. (XLSX)

First set of transects. (XLSX)

Demographic elements of the interviewees in the SSI and contacted means. (PDF)

First phase questionnaire. (PDF)

First phase questionnaire. (XLSX)

Second set of transects. (XLSX)

Documented damaged crops. a) Farmer 1 reporting possible entrance of giant tortoises to his farmland; b) giant tortoise in corn crop field; c) damaged corn at an intermediate stage; d) farmer 2 showing damages by giant tortoises to pineapple crops; e) mature pineapple crop eaten by giant tortoises. Photographs by F. Benitez-Capistros, November, 201...

First set of transects. Distance detection function truncated at 39 meter, fitted with the hazard-rate function with a cosine series extension adjustment (model chosen based on the comparison of the AIC values). (TIFF)

Second set of transects. Distance detection function truncated at 155 meter, fitted with the hazard-rate function coupled with the hermite polynomial adjustment (model chosen based on the comparison of the AIC values). (TIFF)

1. Interviews are a widely used methodology in conservation research. They are flexible, allowing in-depth analysis from a relatively small sample size and place the focus of research on the views of participants. While interviews are a popular method, several critiques have been raised in response to their use, including the lack of transparency i...

El cáncer de ovario es la neoplasia maligna ginecológica más letal debido a su asintomatología y etapa avanzada de diagnóstico. La tasa de incidencia a nivel mundial es de 6,3 por cada 100.000 mujeres, presentando las tasas más altas en zonas geográficas industrializadas como Europa (10,1), América del Norte (8,7) y Oceanía (7,6). Entre los factore...

Sustainability and biodiversity conservation are inherently related concepts but there are practical differences in their conceptualisation, interpretation and implementation. The premise of this doctoral thesis is based on the idea that to achieve sustainability, biodiversity conservation needs to be integrated with development considerations to e...

The sustainable management of natural resources requires the consideration of multiple stakeholders' perspectives and knowledge claims, in order to inform complex and possibly contentious decision-making dilemmas. Hence, a better understanding of why people in particular contexts do manage natural resources in a particular way is needed. Focusing o...

Human population growth and the consequent land use around protected areas set the scene for human-wildlife interactions. Outside protected boundaries wildlife is forced into human occupied areas (once wildlife habitat), using this space for both shelter and food. As a reaction, humans can take actions to protect their lives and livelihood against...

Conservation discourses change rapidly both at global and local scales. To be able to capture these shifts and the relationships between humans and nature, we focused on a local and iconic conservation case: the Galapagos giant tortoises (Chelonoidis spp.). We used the Q methodology to contextualize conservation for science and decision making and...

Recognizing the urgent need for sustainability, we argue that to move beyond the rhetoric and to actually realize sustainable development, it must be considered as a decision-making strategy. We demonstrate that sustainability assessment and sustainability indicators can be powerful decision-supporting tools that foster sustainable development by a...

El cáncer de ovario es la neoplasia maligna ginecológica más letal debido a su asintomatología y etapa avanzada de diagnóstico. La tasa de incidencia a nivel mundial es de 6,3 por cada 100.000 mujeres, presentando las tasas más altas en zonas geográficas industrializadas como Europa (10,1), América del Norte (8,7) y Oceanía (7,6). Entre los factore...

In the Galapagos Islands human activities such as fisheries and tourism, have boosted the islands’ economy at the cost of ecological losses and constant pressures to the fragile insular ecosystems. Hence the evaluation of environmental impacts is essential and requires multiple indicators, appropriate for measuring the state and the interactions of...

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have permeated the entire fabric of academic disciplines that greatly rely on control and decision-making processes such as medical health care, agriculture, ecology and industrial automation. In ecology , an infrastructure consisting of networks of interconnected sensors can provide in-situ high-precision monitoring...

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have permeated the entire fabric of academic disciplines that greatly rely on control and decision-making processes such as medical health care, agriculture, ecology and industrial automation. In ecology, an infrastructure consisting of networks of interconnected sensors can provide in-situ high-precision monitoring...

In 2008 a study in cattle farms in Ecuador was set up to determine whether dogs harboured strains of Brucella spp., endemic at the region. Serum samples from dogs (n=151) living on farms (n=34) in Mejía canton in Pichincha province, Ecuador, were tested for antibodies against smooth Brucella spp., by three immunodiagnostic assays. Highly positive d...