Land degradation, including the loss of tree, forest and vegetation cover, and its related loss of water availability are the main constraints affecting the rainfed agricultural systems in West African Sahel and dry savanna. Therefore, farmers are implementing various soil and water conservation techniques such as zaï pits, half-moons, contour stone and earth bunds to improve crop production through reduced erosion and enhanced water retention. This study explores the effect of woody and herbaceous vegetation established along earth contour bunds on soil infiltration capacity in southern Mali. The soil infiltration measurements were carried out from September to December 2019 using single ring infiltrometers up-slope and down-slope of the bunds built on contour lines in 2015 and 2016 with four types of vegetation: (1) natural annual herbaceous vegetation; (2) planted Andropogon gayanus (perennial grass); (3) planted Gliricidia sepium (woody species) and (4) planted Acacia colei (woody species). The field-saturated hydraulic conductivity (Kfs) was estimated from the infiltration data and subjected to statistical analysis to compare the effect of the four types of vegetation on soil infiltration capacity. The results revealed significant differences in infiltration rate and Kfs between the four vegetation types. The highest infiltration rate and Kfs were observed for earth contour bunds reinforced with woody species G. sepium (299.5 ± 0.6; 45.3 ± 1.4 mm h−1), followed by A. colei (232.2 ± 2; 38.2 ± 1.6 mm h−1). These were followed by the grass A. gayanus (189.4 ± 2.5; 33.0 ± 1.7 mm h−1) and natural annual herbaceous vegetation (132 ± 2.3; 20.7 ± 1.9 mm h−1). In addition, soil water-infiltration rate and Kfs were higher for down-slope compared to up-slope areas for the two woody species. In practice, it is appropriate for farmers to reinforce contour bunds with woody species and perennial herbs given the beneficial effect on soil water infiltration and retention capacity and the expected socio-economic benefit they can get from them.
Tag: conservation
All tidal wetlands are blue carbon ecosystems
Managing coastal wetlands is one of the most promising activities to reduce atmospheric greenhouse gases, and it also contributes to meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. One of the options is through blue carbon projects, in which mangroves, saltmarshes, and seagrass are managed to increase carbon sequestration and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, other tidal wetlands align with the characteristics of blue carbon. These wetlands are called tidal freshwater wetlands in the United States, supratidal wetlands in Australia, transitional forests in Southeast Asia, and estuarine forests in South Africa. They have similar or larger potential for atmospheric carbon sequestration and emission reductions than the currently considered blue carbon ecosystems and have been highly exploited. In the present article, we suggest that all wetlands directly or indirectly influenced by tides should be considered blue carbon. Their protection and restoration through carbon offsets could reduce emissions while providing multiple cobenefits, including biodiversity.
Criteria and indicators for assessing the sustainability of forest management
The need for new criteria and indicators for the assessment of biodiversity conservation as part of sustainable forest management of tropical forests has been identified as a priority by many international organisations. Those biodiversity criteria and indicators which formed part of a much broader initial assessment by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) (Prabhu et al. 1996) were found to be deficient. This Working Paper contains specific proposals for biodiversity criteria and indicators. These proposals originated from a workshop of experts, and are intended to be adapted and refined for use in specific situations. Criteria and indicators need to be applied at the forest management unit level and those for biodiversity are just one part of a package that includes socio-economic and other categories. Biodiversity is an extraordinarily broad concept and, given the huge diversity of life in tropical forests, it is impossible to make rapid direct assessments of biodiversity in forests in anything other than a superficial manner. It is likely that there will be limited skilled human resources and time for biodiversity assessment in any system of criteria and indicators, so it is important that we design tools that do not require expert application and interpretation. The usefulness of “indicator groups”, “keystone” species and other concepts is still argued among biologists and their utility is questionable. This paper suggests that, in contrast to more traditional approaches to assessing taxonomic diversity, it may be possible to assess the effects of management practices on biodiversity by examining the state of those processes that generate or maintain biodiversity. The indicators and verifiers that we have suggested examine the state of these processes. We recommend that for each indicator, quick and easy verifiers, which we designate “Primary” verifiers are used first, and more sophisticated (“Secondary”) verifiers are used only if clear results are not obtained from Primary verifiers. This paper is merely a first step in creating a suitable framework for applying a proposed a set of forest biodiversity indicators and verifiers. The framework and the indicators and verifiers require field testing, and we fully expect there to be changes resulting from the field trials, which will be reflected in major improvements in their effectiveness. For the sake of brevity we have not discussed the advantages and disadvantages of the verifiers in full. While changes are expected, the approach taken is powerful in that it recognises the relationship between interventions and consequences, and it demonstrates that some indicators are more widely valuable than others.
Exploring the relationship between plural values of nature, human well-being, and conservation and development intervention: Why it matters and how to do it?
Globally, land and seascapes across the bioculturally diverse tropics are in transition. Impacted by the demands of distant consumers, the processes of global environmental change and numerous interventions seeking climate, conservation and development goals, these transitions have the potential to impact the relationships and plurality of values held between people and place. This paper is a Synthesis of seven empirical studies within the Special Feature (SF): ‘What is lost in transition? Capturing the impacts of conservation and development interventions on relational values and human wellbeing in the tropics’. Through two Open Forum workshops, and critical review, contributing authors explored emergent properties across the papers of the SF. Six core themes were identified and are subsumed within broad categories of: (i) the problem of reconciling scale and complexity, (ii) key challenges to be overcome for more plural understanding of social dimensions of landscape change and (iii) ways forward: the potential of an environmental justice framework, and a practical overview of methods available to do so. The Synthesis interprets disparate fields and complex academic work on relational values, human well-being and de-colonial approaches in impact appraisal. It offers a practical and actionable catalogue of methods for plural valuation in the field, and reflects on their combinations, strengths and weaknesses. The research contribution is policy relevant because it builds the case for why a more plural approach in intervention design and evaluation is essential for achieving more just and sustainable futures, and highlights some of the key actions points deemed necessary to achieve such a transition to conventional practice.
Guide to sourcing quality seed in the right quantities in Ethiopia
Ethiopia has made commitments to plant huge numbers of tree seedlings in the pledge to restore 15 million hectares of land by 2030 under the Bonn challenge. Ethiopia is also a party to the New York Declaration on Forests, the Pan-African Great Green Wall for the Sahel and Sahara Initiative (GGWSSI), and the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100). The REDD+ investment program (RIP) is restoring degraded lands through plantation development. The National Forest Sector Development Program (NFSDP) stipulates to serve as the general framework for the enhancement of sustainable forest management in the country over ten years, from 2016 to 2025. Most of the seedlings are planted under the banner of Forest Landscape Restoration – both inside and outside of forest areas.
Payment for environmental services to reduce deforestation: Do the positive effects last?
Are the forest conservation practices sustained after Payment for Environmental Services (PES) programmes end? Using a sample of 268 (former) PES recipients and non-recipients from the Budongo-Bugoma PES programme in Western Uganda, we employ the before-after-control–intervention (difference-in-difference) approach to estimate the PES programme outcome on their privately owned forests. PES is associated with less deforestation during the operational period, but the link has vanished four years after programme termination. We label this weak permanence, i.e., PES recipients abandon the induced practices soon after the programme ended, but the gains (relatively higher forest cover) during the operational period are maintained. We also find that household and contextual variables are important in explaining PES permanence: low levels of agricultural land and remoteness from agricultural markets weaken PES permanence. Therefore monetary payments alone may be insufficient for lasting forest conservation. Integrating PES with other approaches, such as climate-smart agriculture may result in more permanent reductions in deforestation.
The mixed impacts of peer punishments on common-pool resources: Multi-country experimental evidence
The conservation of common-pool resources (CPRs), such as tropical forests, is a key challenge of development and environmental policies. Peer sanctioning of excessive resource use increases the cost of free riding and may be an effective way to ensure sustainable management of CPRs, but it entails individual costs to punishers. This paper examines peer punishment patterns and impacts in a cross-country framed field experiment (FFE) with homogeneous and heterogenous agents. The FFE is conducted with 720 forest users in Brazil, Indonesia, and Peru. We first examine the relationship between the appropriation of the common-pool resource (first order cooperation) and peer punishment choices (second order cooperation), distinguishing between prosocial and antisocial punishment. A small share (18.2%) of the participants behaves as self-interested payoff maximisers (homo economicus), while the largest group (26.1%) cooperates in both the appropriation and punishment decisions (homo reciprocans). Across countries, receiving prosocial punishment, defined as punishment of free riders, increases cooperation, while receiving antisocial punishment reduces cooperation. There are, however, important inter-country variations. In Indonesia, the marginal costs of non-cooperation are higher than in the Brazilian and Peruvian sites, and agent heterogeneity significantly increases peer punishment frequency. We conjecture that the higher punishment frequency in Indonesia is linked to stronger equality norms and a willingness to enforce them. Although peer punishment boosts cooperation across all our study sites, the research highlights how peer punishment patterns and impacts are linked to the institutional and cultural contexts.
Making conservation incentives work for Indigenous People and local communities: Insights and recommendations from Peru
Key messages
- Achieving global climate goals requires mutually beneficial partnerships between states, Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IP&LCs).
- Conservation incentives present implementation challenges and can result in potential conflicts, injustices, gender inequality, and loss of cultural values for IP&LCs.
- Peru’s Conditional Direct Transfers illustrate the risks and benefits that come with incentive programmes for IP&LCs, with some best practice lessons for those implementing similar programmes.
- Participatory decision making, supporting community administrative capacity, data sharing, and inclusion strategies will facilitate transparent, mutually beneficial partnerships with IP&LCs.
- An effective integrated approach requires collaboration between different institutions, government offices, and local, regional, and national experts.
Can REDD+ achieve its goal? An examination of the effect of various combinations of interventions
Key messages
- Many subnational REDD+ initiatives are continuations of, and elaborations upon, pre-existing Integrated Conservation and Development projects (ICDPs), which combine negative incentives (e.g. prohibition against forest conversion) and positive incentives (e.g. alternative livelihoods).
- While in ICDPs livelihood benefits were not conditional, the key intended innovation in REDD+ was a conditional positive incentive (i.e., direct livelihood benefit) to participating households.
- To date little is known about (a) the frequency and distributions of diverse kinds of interventions in subnational REDD+ initiatives (whether positive, negative or enabling), or about (b) whether these combinations of interventions have served the REDD+ climate change mitigation goal of reduced forest carbon emissions.
- Field research conducted through 2,118 household interviews in 67 villages at 17 REDD+ sites during 2013–2014 helps fill these knowledge gaps.
- The research method involved asking respondents about the effects of specific interventions on household land and forest management practices.
- Among the findings are that fewer than a third of households had been offered conditional benefits, and that households were more likely to report land-use changes that result in reduced forest carbon emissions when they were exposed to both more interventions and at least one negative intervention.
Science on ecosystems and people to support the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework
In December 2022, members of the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted the new Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) (https://www.cbd.int/gbf/targets/) to guide international biodiversity conservation efforts until 2030 in order to be able to live ‘in harmony with nature’ by 2050. This framework addresses the implementation gap left after the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, which were the previous global instrument for mainstreaming biodiversity conservation between 2010 and 2020.