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.
Tag: biodiversity
Biodiversity offsets and payments for environmental services
Biodiversity Offsets (BO) and Payments for Environmental Services (PES) are sometimes used interchangeably to characterize innovative economic tools to conserve or restore biodiversity, ecosystems, or their services. We assume that a confusion between PES and BO can have negative implications for biodiversity conservation. In this paper, we argue that these two tools follow different targets and have different founding principles, and thus, their basic mode of functioning would only coincide under special circumstances and institutional contexts. Here, we propose a new definition of BO, delimiting them more clearly from PES, and use practical examples to underscore conceptual differences. Both tools require specific policy framework conditions, in terms of rights, responsibilities, and enforcement. If unmet, however, the implications for biodiversity conservation outcomes are stronger for BO than for PES since BO are explicitly linked to biodiversity losses, while PES typically are not. PES experiences can certainly inform BO implementation vis-à-vis contract design and enforcement, but these PES lessons need to be enacted vis-à-vis BO specific requirements, in order not to underestimate generic risks in their implementation: if a PES scheme fails, payments can be stopped; if a BO fails, biodiversity losses remain.
Forests and food security
Forests are the largest source of terrestrial biodiversity and contain over half of the world’s terrestrial plant and animal species. In addition to the multitude of species supported by forest systems, forests are also responsible for life-sustaining ecological processes such as nutrient cycling and water regulation. As a rich source of plants, animals, soil, and water, the connection between forests and food seems undeniable. However, until recently, this relationship has been poorly understood. In this review, we explore three main pathways in which forests contribute to food security and nutrition. These include: (1) a direct consumption pathway, (2) an income pathway and (3) an agroecological pathway. We find the following: (1) forests contribute directly to people’s diets through the harvest of bushmeat, wild fruits and other forest-sourced foods; (2) the sale of non-timber forest products contribute to people’s income, enabling the purchase of a diversity of food items from markets; and finally (3) forests and trees support diverse crop and livestock production through an array of ecosystem services such as pollination, soil fertility and water and climate regulation. Our findings shed light on the vital role that forests play in food security and we conclude that further research is needed to understand the interactions between the ecological, socioeconomic and cultural dimensions of forests and diets.
Foliar and Wood Traits Covary along a Vertical Gradient within the Crown of Long-Lived Light-Demanding Species of the Congo Basin Semi-Deciduous Forest
Plant functional traits have shown to be relevant predictors of forest functional responses to climate change. However, the trait-based approach to study plant performances and ecological strategies has mostly been focused on trait comparisons at the interspecific and intraspecific levels. In this study, we analyzed traits variation and association at the individual level. We measured wood and leaf traits at different height locations within the crown of five individuals of Pericopsis elata (Harms) Meeuwen (Fabaceae) from the northern tropical forest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. All traits varied between and within individuals. The between-individual variation was more important for leaf traits (23%-48%) than for wood traits (~10%) where the within-individual variation showed to be more important (33%-39%). The sample location height within the crown was found to be the driving factor of this within-individual variation. In a gradient from the base to the top of the crown, theoretical specific hydraulic conductivity and specific leaf area decreased while the stomatal density increased. We found significant relationships among traits and between wood and leaf traits. However, these relationships varied with the position within the crown. The relationship between vessel size and vessel density was negative at the bottom part of the crown but positive upward. Also, the negative relationship between stomatal density and stomatal size became stronger with increasing height within the crown. Finally, the positive relationship between specific leaf area and theoretical specific hydraulic conductivity became stronger in higher parts of the crown, suggesting that P. elata constantly adapts its water use with respect to its water supply, more strongly at the top of the crown where the environment is more extreme and less buffered against environmental fluctuations.
Agricultural lands key to mitigation and adaptation
From Tree Planting to Tree Growing: Rethinking Ecosystem Restoration Through Trees
Every year, millions of dollars are spent on tree-based landscape restoration activities. Over the last five decades, there are few success stories of such interventions and even those do not match the anticipated objectives for which the resources were spent. News articles that announce planting campaigns of millions of seedlings are common. Despite all this, in many countries, vegetation cover has not improved due to poor seedling survival rate. This makes the return on investment low. The objective of this paper is to highlight the main underlying challenges that need to be tackled to make restoration through tree-based interventions successful. Numerous challenges hamper the success of project-supported public tree growing schemes. 1) Often tree planting is stated as the ultimate objective of the intervention; when that objective should instead be tree growing. Performance indicators are often the number of trees planted or area planted, not the number of trees grown, or the area of land covered with grown trees. 2) Most projects operate on a short time frame (1-3 years) while many tree species (e.g. native trees in many African countries) need more time to sufficiently grow. 3) Emphasis on the right trees, for the right place and the right purposes, is very weak. 4) Even in projects of adequate duration emphasis on after-planting management is often limited. 5) There is lack of tree tenure to formally transfer the management of planted trees to local communities who reside in the landscapes over a long period of time. Tackling these challenges and changing mindsets is crucial if restoration through tree-based interventions is to yield the intended outcomes of reversing ecosystem degradation.
CHIURI (Nepali butter tree)
The chiuri (Diploknema butyracea Roxb; syn. Bassia butyracea; syn. Madhuca butyracea; syn. Aesandra butyracea) — English common name: ‘Nepali butter tree’ — is one of the most important species of Nepal, providing a range of ecosystem goods and services: erosion control, medicinal ingredients, pollinators’ habitat, honey, fodder, butter for cooking and other uses (candles, soap), and pulp and timber for furniture.
Exploring local perceptions and drivers of engagement in biodiversity monitoring among participants in payments for ecosystem services schemes in southeastern Mexico
Payments for ecosystem services (PES) are widely applied incentive-based instruments with diverse objectives that increasingly include biodiversity conservation. Yet, there is a gap in understanding of how to best assess and monitor programs’ biodiversity outcomes. We examined perceptions and drivers of engagement related to biodiversity monitoring through surveys among current PES participants in 7 communities in Mexico’s Selva Lacandona. We conducted workshops among survey participants that included training and field deployment of tools used to monitor biodiversity and land cover, including visual transects, camera traps, acoustic recorders, and forest cover satellite images. We conducted pre- and postworkshop surveys in each community to evaluate changes in respondents’ perceptions following exposure to biodiversity monitoring training and related field activities. We also reviewed existing research on participatory environmental management and monitoring approaches. One quarter of current PES participants in the study area participated in our surveys and workshops. The majority stated interest in engaging in diverse activities related to the procedural aspects of biodiversity monitoring (e.g., planning, field data collection, results dissemination) and acknowledged multiple benefits of introducing biodiversity monitoring into PES (e.g., knowledge and capacity building, improved natural resource management, and greater support for conservation). Household economic reliance on PES was positively associated with willingness to engage in monitoring. Technical expertise, time, and monetary constraints were deterrents. Respondents were most interested in monitoring mammals, birds, and plants and using visual transects, camera traps, and forest cover satellite images. Exposure to monitoring enhanced subsequent interest in monitoring by providing respondents with new insights from their communities related to deforestation and species’ abundance and diversity. Respondents identified key strengths and weaknesses of applying different monitoring tools, which suggests that deploying multiple tools simultaneously can increase local engagement and produce complementary findings and data. Overall, our findings support the relevance and usefulness of incorporating participatory biodiversity monitoring into PES.
Farmer’s socio-economic characteristics and financial feasibility analysis of three pepper (Piper nigrum L.) farming patterns in Southeast Sulawesi
This study aims to examine farmer’s socio-economic characteristics and pepper farming analysis on several pepper management patterns. This study was conducted in Lawonua Village, South Konawe District, and Simbune Village, East Kolaka District, Southeast Sulawesi Province, in June 2014 and November 2015. Data were collected through a survey method using open-ended and semi-structured questionnaire interviews, in-depth interviews, and Focus Group Discussion (FGD). Data were analyzed using qualitative descriptive and financial analysis, such as NPV, BCR, and IRR. The results showed that most income of the community in Simbune and Lawonua Village is from pepper farming activity. The respondents were dominated by men, where most of them are Tolaki Tribe, with average age ranges from 30-50 years old. Education level was dominated by junior and senior high school, and most of the respondents have more than ten years of pepper farming experience. The analysis showed that all pepper pattern management was feasible. The results indicated that the first pattern of monoculture pepper farming provided the highest NPV IDR 379,175,999 (IDR/rotation), and the second-highest was pepper farming with cocoa, which provided the highest BCR values (2.75). While the third was agroforestry pepper patterns with pepper, cocoa, durian, and langsat that had the highest IRR value of 33%. The pepper with the cocoa farming pattern was generally carried out by farmers who have enough capital. While pepper farming in the agroforestry pattern was mostly chosen due to its consideration to provide more security for family income. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.
From earthquakes to island area: multi-scale effects upon local diversity
Tropical forests occupy small coral atolls to the vast Amazon basin. They occur across bioregions with different geological and climatic history. Differences in area and bioregional history shape species immigration, extinction and diversification. How this effects local diversity is unclear. The Indonesian archipelago hosts thousands of tree species whose coexistence should depend upon these factors. Using a novel dataset of 215 Indonesian forest plots, across fifteen islands ranging in area from 120 to 785 000 km2, we apply Gaussian mixed effects models to examine the simultaneous effects of environment, earthquake proximity, island area and bioregion upon tree diversity for trees ≥ 10 cm diameter at breast height. We find that tree diversity declines with precipitation seasonality and increases with island area. Accounting for the effects of environment and island area we show that the westernmost bioregion Sunda has greater local diversity than Wallacea, which in turn has greater local diversity than easternmost Sahul. However, when the model includes geological activity (here proximity to major earthquakes), bioregion differences are reduced. Overall, results indicate that multi-scale, current and historic effects dictate tree diversity. These multi-scale drivers should not be ignored when studying biodiversity gradients and their impacts upon ecosystem function.