Increased international attention to rural poverty alleviation and sustainable development underscores the need for better tools for analyzing the factors and conditions that shape livelihoods and for assessing the livelihood impacts of project- and policy-interventions. The first aspect encompasses important spatial dynamics, while the second addresses both temporal and spatial dynamics. To be effective, such approaches must accommodate the complex and multidimensional nature of livelihood systems by: i) using appropriate indicators of livelihoods outcomes and embracing multiple components of a livelihood system; ii) analyzing the influence of multiple and complex factors, including development interventions; iii) addressing differential impacts by taking appropriate aggregation at the village level. Powerful new geomatics technologies offer new ways to deal with spatial variability, and can be combined with innovative social-science approaches for more efficient socio-economic data collection and analysis. This paper discusses key principles for designing appropriate methods and reports lessons learned from our own experience in Jharkhand state, India and Kutai Barat district in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. In these two study areas, with relatively low levels of development and high forest cover, we assessed livelihood systems by: i) using available, broad range data of assets and socio-economic data in indices of development from secondary source; ii) using geomatics tools for sampling and analyses that encompass a range of theoretically important variables (e.g. road access; market access; proximity to large projects; tribal affiliation; topography; land suitability); iii) identifying key factors that characterize within-village stratification and designing household sampling accordingly; iv) aggregating unit of analysis to address differential impacts and relationships among livelihood components. Multilevel regression analysis is used to address hierarchical or differential structure in the data. The paper provides guidance for improved landscape-scale livelihoods analysis and targeting and identifies a way forward for further method improvement.
Tag: living standards
Balancing rainforest conservation and poverty reduction
The Alternatives to Slash-and-Burn (ASB) Pro-gramme is a global alliance of more than 80 local, national, and international partners dedicated to action-oriented integrated natural resources management (INRM) research in the tropical forest margins. ASB research in Cameroon and Indonesia has revealed the feasibility of a middle path of development involving smallholder agroforests and community forest management for timber and other products. The Brazilian Amazon, in contrast, presents much starker trade-offs between global environmental benefits and the returns to smallholders’ labor. Here, the most commonly practiced pasture-livestock system, which occupies the vast majority of converted forestland, is profitable for smallholders (at least in the short term) but entails huge carbon emissions and biodi- versity loss. The land-use alternatives that are attractive pri- vately are at odds with global environmental interests. Results from ASB research at all the benchmark sites show that attempting to conserve forests in developing countries is futile without addressing the needs of poor local people. The issues are well illustrated by a study of options facing settlers in Brazil’s Acre state. Using a specially developed bioeconomic model, ASB researchers showed that only in the unlikely event that prices quadrupled over their current level might the rate of deforestation slow. Even in that case, the braking effect is slight, and the modest sav- ing in forestland would probably be short-lived
Biodiversity conservation and sustainable livelihoods in tropical forest landscapes
In developing countries, much remains to be done to truly integrate the livelihoods of rural people and biodiversity conservation into land use decision-making and management processes. Yet, research institutions can support informed landscape management decisions by communities, conservation agencies and policy-makers. This can be accomplished by developing methods and instruments that facilitate coherent linkages between stakeholders across various spatial and decisional scales. Researchers need to facilitate equitable participation in the planning processes and provide information on the options that best integrate biodiversity conservation and livelihoods. This chapter aims to analyse how research has contributed to this objective and how it could be designed for future integrative activities at the landscape level. It identifies lessons from case studies that combine biodiversity conservation and livelihood aims in tropical regions and reviews methodological issues relevant to transdisciplinary research. In addition to the critical elements emerging from case studies, the article highlights the crucial role of institutions in helping to bridge the gaps between science, planning, decision-making and effective management. Finally, it describes an approach that two international research organizations are developing to promote the sustainable use of forests and trees and biodiversity conservation in fragmented tropical forest landscapes.
Integrating food security and Agri-environmental quality Southern Africa: implications for policy
In many sub-Saharan African countries that experience seasonal food deficits, one of the greatest challenges is how best to integrate environmental quality into food security initiatives. However, a number of agricultural production technologies exist that offer opportunities for achieving the two seemingly divergent goals because they simultaneously contribute to food production and generate environmental services. The field level uptake of such technologies is generally low due to policy and institutional constraints, among other reasons. This chapter draws upon natural resource economics and externality theories to conceptualize an environmental economic logic for enhancing the adoption of multi-output technologies through conditional incentive systems that reward farmers for the environmental services generated by their investments in such technologies. Using agroforestry-based soil fertility technology (“improved tree fallows”) as a case study of multi-output technologies, this chapter synthesizes studies that were carried out in southern Africa for over a decade. It then discusses how the potential impacts of technological advances attained in multi-output technologies are affected by policy and institutional constraints. The chapter concludes by identifying different options to address these constraints and facilitate uptake by farmers with a view to unlock their potential in order to satisfy both food production and global environmental services. These policy options at both national and regional levels are required to align smallholder farmers’ incentives with those of the society and encourage them to pay cognizance to environmental quality when making agricultural production decisions.
Lishe Bora: KBC TV and Citizen TV fodder shrub documentaries
Beyond Tsunami wave: West Aceh Forest and Livelihoods
he coastal area of West Aceh was struck badly by the Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004. In this area, flat coastal zones are mostly allocated for non-forest uses and further along to the hinterland, as topography becomes rougher, land use allocation becomes stricter. These areas are at present still largely covered by forest. However, as tsunami incident induces le ss gradual changes, the government needs to anticipate some potential directions of change in or der to develop effective and efficient policies in maintaining environm ental services while improving people’s livelihoods. ICRAF try to help key decision makers by providing analysis on the following areas: •long and short term patterns of land use/cover changes pre and post tsunami •the relationships between poverty and land use/cover, health and education facilities with regards to road after tsunami
Agroforestry innovations and livelihood enhancement: kecamatan Nanggung, West Java (Halimun Project) (English ver.2)
Local farmers on or below the poverty line with access to less than 1 hectares of land. Farmers havepoor access to extension services and market opportunities. Government agencies fear communities willconvert surrounding forest area (TNGH) which has high biodiversity and is the major watershed for Jakarta
Can Secure Tenure Help Reduce Deforestation?
While land is a crucial asset for most people in rural, hilly area of Sumberjaya, Lampung province, securing land tenure has been a long battle. Long after their establishment in the early 1970s, Forestry Department announced that 30% of the watershed area classified as protected area in 1990 (Verbist and Pasya, 2004). Farmers were demanded to stay away from their managed gardens. Both the process of policy making and the implications of the policy ignited conflict between the farmers and the government, which culminated by the government’s action of farmer eviction from their land in 1991, 1995, and 1996 (Kusworo, 2000). Negotiation support system which is based on social forestry concept was later introduced in the area in 1998, following the starting point of devolution process; a period many called as ‘reformation’ in Indonesia. The system offers more tenure security in the form of rights to manage land inside protected area by the means of preserving remaining forest (stop further deforestation) and planting new tree (‘reforestation’). This concept, generally known as HKm, was instantly accepted by farmers and implemented in 1998. Four years after the HKm enactment, 3 farmer groups, consist of total 292 households, obtained their 5 years HKm permit. Later on in 2006, 16 farmers groups also obtained their permit. Now, 8 years after the enactment of HKm, it is timely to ask whether securer tenure provided by social forestry concept really meets its conservation objectives: to reduce deforestation and to increase tree cover in Sumberjaya watershed.
Plant fodder shrubs, earn more money – saving time and energy
Planting Fodder Shrubs Nurseries should be established 2-3 months before the long rains (December & January) and the short rains (August & September). Make a nursery of 1m (3 ft) wide by any appropriate length for calliandra, trichandra and, tree lucerne. Ensure the nursery bed is free of weeds and use well- decomposed manure. Add some fresh ash to keep off the pests. Water your seedlings every day in the late evening. Keep livestock away from the nursery to avoid destruction of the seedlings.