Multistakeholder platforms (MSPs) enhance collaborative decision making in environmental and landscape governance. However, the dynamics of integrating local knowledge systems and empowering local knowledge holders remain under-researched. Using data from semi-structured interviews with participants and non-participants in two MSPs in Zambia, this study examines how various forms of power impact what kind of knowledge is exchanged, who engages in knowledge exchange, and whether that leads to context- and culture-specific, sustained, committed, and empowering knowledge co-production. Findings reveal that knowledge exchange and co-production are poorly developed or absent and subject to various power dynamics. The private sector often disengages from MSP processes and uses hidden power to prioritize its agenda. Government actors exercise visible power based on their rule-making and operational power. Local knowledge holders are the most marginalized and underrepresented actors, constrained by invisible power stemming from a complex interplay of structural, discursive, and framing power. This marginalization leads to miscommunication, misrepresentation, and limited influence on decision making, along with unclarified rights. NGOs partly counteract these imbalances by leveraging countervailing power to challenge internalized invisible power that hinders marginalized groups from expressing their views. Despite narratives advocating for local knowledge inclusion and more equitable collaborative processes, both MSPs show limited progress in fostering meaningful knowledge interaction and influence for local knowledge holders. Addressing these issues requires fundamental changes in knowledge governance, including fostering the inclusion of marginalized knowledge holders, adopting pluralistic approaches, committing to knowledge co-production, and tackling power imbalances. This implies a critical role for civil society organizations in amplifying the voices of marginalized groups and advocating for the inclusion of local knowledge into MSPs and decision making. Further research needs to explore the politics of knowledge governance with particular attention to how discursive and framing power influences the empowerment or suppression of marginalized knowledge systems and their holders.
Tag: Decision-making
The critical role of forests and trees in regulating the water cycle
Forests and trees – on or near agricultural land but also hundreds of kilometres away – can provide a range of water-related ecosystem services critical for agriculture, including freshwater supply, regulation of water flows, local climates and temperatures, as well as water damage mitigation, and water purification.
The water-related ecosystem services from trees and forests to agriculture are insufficiently monitored and valued, which means that they are under recognized in the agricultural sector and agriculture-related policies, resulting in economic losses for farmers and countries.
An integrated approach to landscape and natural resource management – forests and water – at various scales is essential for ensuring that the benefits of forests and trees for agriculture are optimized. Decision-support systems that consider trade-offs and synergies among the forest ecosystem services provided are emerging as key tools to facilitate this.
Local Indicator Selection Process (LISP): For designing context-specific agroecological performance assessments
How can agroecological performance be assessed in ways that are both locally meaningful and globally credible? The Local Indicator Selection Process (LISP) offers a practical, participatory answer. Developed and tested across diverse contexts, this guide supports teams in co-designing indicators that reflect local priorities while remaining aligned with broader agroecological assessment frameworks.
Grounded in the Holistic Localized Performance Assessment (HOLPA) Framework, LISP provides step-by-step guidance for facilitators and project managers to convene stakeholders, articulate shared visions, and translate them into robust, measurable indicators across agricultural, environmental, social, and economic dimensions. The process balances scientific rigor with inclusivity, ensuring indicators are meaningful, feasible, and responsive to real-world change.
Designed for use within Agroecology Living Landscapes (ALLs) but adaptable far beyond them, this publication is a hands-on resource for anyone seeking to generate credible evidence of agroecological transitions, whether for community monitoring, project evaluation, or investment decision-making. LISP puts local knowledge at the center of performance assessment, where it belongs.
Understanding adoption risks of peat-adapted agroforestry options in South Sumatra through decision analysis
Peatlands in South Sumatra, Indonesia, covering 24% of the region, are vital for local livelihoods and ecosystem services. Unsustainable cultivation practices threaten their sustainability through irreversible drying of the peat, increased greenhouse gas emissions and fire risks. Agroforestry practices, when adapted to peatlands, may offer multiple socio-economic and environmental benefits. This study evaluated the economic viability of two rice-based and three rubber-based agroforestry systems, designed by World Agroforestry for cultivated peatlands in South Sumatra, comparing them to monoculture baselines. Using decision analysis and probabilistic modelling, including Monte Carlo simulations, we conducted probabilistic cost-benefits analyses, accounting for risks and uncertainties and incorporating expert knowledge. Our model simulated decision outcomes under two scenarios—with and without considering family labour in the costs—to assess the impact of family labour on the outcomes. We identified key uncertainties affecting model outcomes through sensitivity analysis and value of information calculations. Our results showed that rice-based agroforestry systems require substantial establishment costs, mainly for constructing dikes to enable dryland crop cultivation. Despite these upfront costs, the two designed rice-based agroforestry systems offer the potential for higher net returns compared to rice monoculture, especially when family labour costs are excluded from the calculation. All rubber-based agroforestry systems demonstrate higher net returns in the long term compared to rubber monoculture in both family labour scenarios. Narrowing knowledge gaps related to key variables, such as the discount rate, crop yields, crop prices, risk event probabilities and rice yield losses, is important for supporting the decision-making process for rice-based agroforestry systems.
Breaking Ground: Conducting Community Dialogues on Gender Equity and Social Inclusion for Land restoration. A Facilitator’s Manual [Version 2 – Updated 2025]
This manual is designed for project implementers, field staff, and community facilitators involved in land restoration initiatives. It can be used when working with community forest groups, farmer cooperatives, or other local organizations engaged in managing natural resources. You might use it as part of a restoration project to support communities in reflecting on gender roles, decision-making, and access to resources, or to promote more inclusive participation in restoration planning and implementation. The manual is most useful during the early stages of community engagement, but its tools and activities can also support ongoing reflection and learning throughout the project cycle.
Environmental factors are an important part of farmers’ assessments of the value of agroecology
The need for transformation of food and agriculture systems to be aligned with sustainable development goals is widely acknowledged. Evidence from many parts of the world shows that agroecology, which considers the social and environmental performance of agricultural systems along with economic aspects, is helping farmers transition to sustainable agricultural systems. However, there are demands from national, regional and international food and agriculture planners and funders for evidence that agroecology can work at scale. Providing that evidence requires understanding how farmers use environmental factors when selecting agricultural practices, which is poorly documented. This study contributes to filling this gap by reporting how environmental factors are important in farmers’ decisions related to adopting agroecological practices. Qualitative and quantitative data from 239 key informants, a survey of 5025 farms, 85 focus group discussions with farmers and five participatory cross-benefit analyses in eleven case studies across eight African countries were used. We show that farmers use information on and perceptions of a wide range of environmental variables and processes when assessing the usefulness of agroecological practices. In most cases, farmers cited environmental factors more frequently than economic reasons for choosing to use agroecological practices. Most of the environmental factors articulated by farmers were components of the local or farm environment that were connected to their livelihood, including aspects of soils, water, microclimate, pests and diseases, other animals, and vegetation. Intrinsic and relational environmental values such as conservation of biodiversity, long-term maintenance of land quality and aesthetics were also important. These findings show first that providing data on environmental roles of agroecology will always be challenging because of the breadth of factors that are important. Secondly, viability or usefulness of an agroecological practice is not a characteristic of the practice alone, but also of the context in which it is used. Third, impact analyses of agroecological interventions cannot be confined to consideration of a few globally comparative indicators but need to include the context specific environmental factors that farmers care about.
Catalyzing sustainable and just change through funding: Overview and key recommendations from Climate Justice and Women’s Rights: A Guide to Supporting Grassroots Women’s Action
By responding to the climate solutions proposed by local women around the world, funders can catalyze long-term change that benefits the environment and entire communities.
Full-merged PDF also available in Gender and Climate Change : evidence and experience
Markets and incentives strongly drive agroforestry adoption: insights from ethnic minority smallholders in Son La, Vietnam
Agroforestry has been promoted in northwestern Vietnam as a sustainable land management practice that offers multiple benefits, including livelihood enhancement, income diversification, adaptation to climate variability and reduced soil erosion on steep slopes. However, research on the multi-stage adoption process of agroforestry and the complex web of factors influencing farmers’ decisions remains scarce. Our study addresses this gap by investigating the adoption process of fruit tree-based agroforestry practices in the upland farming systems of Son La, a northwestern province of Vietnam. Using a Bayesian Network model, we analyzed the combined effects of socio-economic, household and practice-specific factors that shape farmers’ attitudes and intentions throughout the adoption process, from initial decision-making to sustained use. The Bayesian Network was developed using both qualitative and quantitative inputs from 124 farmer interviews and workshops involving domain experts and farmers. Additionally, through an adoption pathway analysis of 124 interviewed farmers, we explored the diverse trajectories farmers follow to integrate agroforestry into their systems, highlighting the adaptive and non-linear nature of the adoption process. Our findings suggest that effective agroforestry promotion requires coordinated, holistic strategies and sustained support rather than single-point interventions or binary adoption models. This study contributes to the understanding of agroforestry adoption as a dynamic, context-sensitive process and provides insights for designing support mechanisms that align with farmers’ evolving needs and decision-making pathways.
Restoration Monitoring Guide: A field technicians’ manual for monitoring restoration across watersheds
Despite its importance, many national restoration monitoring frameworks still lack robust systems for tracking management practices at finer scales. Most reporting focuses on broad targets such as tree cover increase or total hectares restored—yet these figures alone don’t tell us whether restoration efforts are truly improving ecosystem function. Without clear data on soil health, vegetation recovery, erosion reduction, or water availability, restoration risks being implemented without understanding its actual effectiveness on the ground.
This Restoration Monitoring Guide addresses that gap. It provides a hands-on, field-ready approach for monitoring restoration outcomes at both plot and watershed levels. Developed for district-level field agents, extension staff, and natural resource management officers, the guide supports locally grounded, scientifically robust monitoring that enhances decision-making, accountability, and adaptive management.
Stakeholder Engagement with Evidence in Regreening Africa: Shifting Decision Culture
This brief highlights initial results from a broader research study asking the question: How can engagement processes enhance access to, and learning from, science and stakeholder experience to improve decision-making processes and quality at multiple scales within complex settings?