Indigenous fruit trees (IFTs) contribute to the livelihoods of rural households as sources of food, income and medicine. Conservation and domestication of IFTs involve germplasm selection, collection, multiplication and evaluation. In addition, biodiversity and genetic improvements have been realized through propagation. However, there are numerous challenges when propagating indigenous trees and the choice of appropriate propagation techniques determines the success of domestication programme. In this paper we synthesize different propagation methods used for indigenous fruit trees, and propose a decision support tool based on desirable attributes of individual IFT, technical requirements, expertise of the propagators and relative cost of implementing the technology in addition to field performance and tree management. Depending on circumstances, this decision support tool can be used to quickly choose a propagation method for a given fruit tree so as to maximize on germplasm collection, multiplication and evaluation without compromising field performance and management of the fruit trees.
Tag: biodiversity
Coverage provided by the global protected-area system: is it enough?
Protected-area targets of 10% of a biome, of a country, or of the planet have often been used in conservation planning. The new World Database on Protected Areas shows that terrestrial protected-area coverage now approaches 12% worldwide. Does this mean that the establishment of new protected areas can cease This was the core question of the “Building Comprehensive Protected Area Systems” stream of the Fifth World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa, in 2003. To answer it requires global gap analysis, the subject of the special section of BioScience for which this article serves as an introduction. We also provide an overview of the extraordinary data sets now available to allow global gap analysis and, based on these, an assessment of the degree to which existing protected-area systems represent biodiversity. Coverage varies geographically, but is less than 2% for some bioregions, and more than 12% of 11,633 bird, mammal, amphibian, and turtle species are wholly unrepresented. The global protected-area systems are far from complete.
Global GAP analysis: priority regions for expanding the global protected-area network
Protected areas are the single most important conservation tool. The global protected-area network has grown substantially in recent decades, now occupying 11.5% of Earth’s land surface, but such growth has not been strategically aimed at maximizing the coverage of global biodiversity. In a previous study, we demonstrated that the global network is far from complete, even for the representation of terrestrial vertebrate species. Here we present a first attempt to provide a global framework for the next step of strategically expanding the network to cover mammals, amphibians, freshwater turtles and tortoises, and globally threatened birds. We identify unprotected areas of the world that have remarkably high conservation value (irreplaceability) and are under serious threat. These areas concentrate overwhelmingly in tropical and subtropical moist forests, particularly on tropical mountains and islands. The expansion of the global protected-area network in these regions is urgently needed to prevent the loss of unique biodiversity.
Global conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services
Habitat destruction has driven much of the current biodiversity extinction crisis, and it compromises the essential benefits, or ecosystem services, that humans derive from functioning ecosystems. Securing both species and ecosystem services might be accomplished with common solutions. Yet it is unknown whether these two major conservation objectives coincide broadly enough worldwide to enable global strategies for both goals to gain synergy. In this article, we assess the concordance between these two objectives, explore how the concordance varies across different regions, and examine the global potential for safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystem services simultaneously. We find that published global priority maps for biodiversity conservation harbor a disproportionate share of estimated terrestrial ecosystem service value (ESV). Overlap of biodiversity priorities and ESV varies among regions, and in areas that have high biodiversity priority but low ESV, specialized conservation approaches are necessary. Overall, however, our findings suggest opportunities for safeguarding both biodiversity and ecosystem services. Sensitivity analyses indicate that results are robust to known limitations of available ESV data. Capitalizing on these opportunities will require the identification of synergies at fine scales, and the development of economic and policy tools to exploit them.
Hope for Threatened Tropical Biodiversity: Lessons from the Philippines
The Philippines is a megabiodiversity country, but it is also often seen as a country of ecological ruin whose biodiversity is on the verge of collapse. Decades of environmental neglect have pushed ecosystems to their limit, often with deadly repercussions for the human population. Is conservation in the Philippines a lost cause We review current conservation efforts in the Philippines, considering the actions of academics, field researchers, local communities, nongovernmental organizations, the government, and other sectors of society. Remarkably, however precarious the present situation may seem, there have been some recent positive gains and signs of hope. Although there is no room for complacency, we conclude that the diversity of available indicators suggests that conservation in the Philippines, against many odds, shows signs of success, and thus deserves greater attention and increased investment.
Chapter 31 – Underutilised Species as the Backbone of Multifunctional Agriculture-The Next Wave of Crop Domestication
The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) defined multifunctional agriculture as the inescapable interconnectedness of agriculture-s different roles and functions: namely the production of food and nonfood commodities; delivery of environmental services; the improvement of rural livelihoods; and the upholding of traditional crops and local culture. Together these outputs should create greater environmental, social and economic sustainability. These goals mirror those of agroforestry, which has been described as a significant mechanism for the delivery of multifunctional agriculture. Agroforestry outputs are delivered in three steps: i) rehabilitation of degraded land; ii) the domestication of underutilized plant species, and iii) the commercialization of agroforestry tree products (AFTPs). Interestingly, past crop domestication has been credited with being a -perquisite for the development of settled, politically centralized, socially stratified, economically complex and technologically innovative societies.- While there is good evidence of this, the benefits of modern agriculture based on staple food crops have not been equitably distributed and developing country farmers have been marginalized. In the mid-1990s a new wave of participatory crop domestication was initiated. This second wave of domestication, led by the World Agroforestry Centre, has focused on underutilized tropical trees producing highly nutritious fruits and nuts which provide the everyday needs of smallholder farmers. Recent evidence from Cameroon indicates that the domestication of these new tree crops, within an integrated approach to rural development delivering multifunctional agriculture, can transform the lives of poor farmers. It also has positive impacts on the environment and creates new business and employment opportunities in rural communities. Thus it seems that, if widely implemented, this new propoor wave of domestication could have large impacts on global food production and the alleviation of malnutrition, hunger and poverty in developing countries.
Soil biodiversity in rapidly changing tropical landscapes: scaling down and scaling up
Soil has generally been regarded as something of a ‘black box’ by ecologists. The importance of soil is obvious: it provides physical support for plants, and both the living and non-living components contribute to a variety of important environmental functions. Soil is a species-rich habitat, but many questions about the ecological significance of the soil’s biological diversity, and in particular how it affects ecosystem function, have never been asked. The linkages between above-ground ecology, which is rich in ecological theory, and below-ground ecology, where investigation has been restricted by methodological difficulties, have not been made. Technical developments, including isotopic and molecular methods as well as experimental and modelling approaches, have led to a renaissance in soil biodiversity research. The key areas are reflected in this exciting volume which brings together many leading contributors to explore the role and importance of soil biota. A major synthesis focusing explicitly on soil biodiversity and ecosystem function Integrates a vast body of literature on recent theoretical and technological developments in soil ecology and plant-soil relations Provides a strong research basis for both policy development and practical management of soil biodiversity in a changing world
Shifting Cultivation in Vietnam: Impacts of various policy reforms
Based on literature reviews, recent surveys and interviews with local farmers and provincial officials in Vietnam’s northwest region between April and June 2012, this chapter provides an overview of shifting cultivation practices in Vietnam, the key policy interventions and their impacts on livelihoods, land use and the environment, as well as insights into how shifting cultivators could benefit from new incentives such as REDD+.
Future forests: fantasy or façade? A synthesis
Reversing global forest fragmentation requires substantial changes in the way as a society we value and use forest land. We summarize here the challenges to reversing forest fragmentation and provide a synthesis of the major topics covered in this book. We follow this with an optimistic view of the many approaches that can be used to ensure that forest fragmentation is reduced with examples ranging from small-scale community ecological restoration in Scotland to large-scale ecological restoration in Sumatra. These inspirational projects provide hope for the future of global forest landscapes, but we still require changes in perception at multiple levels from individuals living in rural and still largely forested areas to global companies that incentivize large-scale land conversion. We hope that the pages of this book will go some way to ensuring the long-term persistence of forest landscapes that sustain a rich and fruitful habitat for generations to come.
Learning pathway: Course flows & blueprint
This course is a pivotal contribution to FAO’s vision of fostering a Better Environment, particularly focusing on Biodiversity for food and agriculture. Aligned with FAO’s strategic initiatives, the course is fortified by the approval of the FAO Strategy on Mainstreaming Biodiversity Across Agricultural Sectors and the 2021-23 Action Plan, emphasizing the importance of targeted policies and practices for sustainable use, conservation, and restoration of ecosystems.