This study contributes to the ongoing discussion on how to attribute and evaluate the contribution of transdisciplinary research to sustainable development. As co-created knowledge is a key product of transdisciplinary research, we tested the hypothesis that the extent to which this knowledge is utilized beyond the project consortia, in different areas – from scientific methods and insights to policy decisions – and across a continuum of geographical scales can be used to identify potential impact pathways. For this purpose, we developed an analytical framework that links the transdisciplinary process to six possible utilization stages, which we used as indicators of the usability of co-created knowledge. We gathered data from 22 research projects active in 36 countries using a survey and semi-structured interviews. Our results show that even during implementation of the projects, co-created knowledge is utilized by multiple actors at different stages, in all areas and at all scales simultaneously, suggesting multiple impact pathways. Project knowledge is predominantly utilized for national-level policymaking, and research partners named co-creation of knowledge with key stakeholders as the most frequently used mechanism for promoting knowledge utilization. Closer analysis revealed different understandings of and approaches to knowledge co-creation. These can be linked to weaker or stronger definitions of transdisciplinarity. The analysis shows that researchers using strong transdisciplinarity approaches typically face challenges in encompassing multiple epistemologies and facilitating dialogue. Some results suggest that inclusion and collaboration in co-creating knowledge can empower actors otherwise excluded. Our research shows that although transdisciplinary projects have nonlinear impact pathways, these can be partially assessed using the proposed analytical framework. Further, our results indicate a link between usability, inclusion, and collaboration in transdisciplinary research. We conclude with the observation that transdisciplinarity and its requirements still need to be better understood by actors within and beyond the research community.
Tag: pests
Ecosystem concepts and current trends in forest management: time for reappraisal
Large areas of natural forest ecosystems are being converted into industrial plantations in tropical, subtropical and temperate regions. In the short term, this seems to maximize returns from investment and to homogenize the raw material base for forest industries. It is argued here that society will continue to use more wood and foresters must produce it; in doing so, however, it is imperative that the immense importance of biotic diversity in containing pests and pathogens, in maintaining current levels of production in perpetuity, and in moderating the global climate should be addressed. Current criteria for economic evaluation do not adequately address these and other important considerations accruing from the management of whole forest ecosystems.
On-farm evaluation of the establishment of clonal rubber in multistrata agroforests in Jambi, Indonesia
Perennial tree crops are often grown in complex multistrata systems that incorporate natural vegetation. These systems contribute simultaneously to sustaining rural livelihoods and to the conservation of biodiversity, but their productivity is usually low. Introduction of high yielding germplasm, usually selected in monocultural plantations, is a potential way to increase productivity, but a critical requirement is that such plants can be established in a competitive multispecies environment. The establishment of clonal planting stock in the jungle rubber agroforests of Indonesia was explored through participatory on-farm research. The trial involved four farmers who grew clonal rubber trees in a total of 20 plots, constituting five replicate experimental blocks spread across four farms. Unexpectedly, vertebrate pest damage by monkeys (Presbytis melalophos nobilis) and wild pigs (Sus scrofa) was the most important influence on establishment, explaining almost 70% of the variation in rubber tree growth. The amount of labour invested in weeding was also positively correlated with rubber tree growth. Farmers generally decided to completely cut back vegetation between rows of rubber trees, including potentially valuable trees, rather than weeding within the rows and selectively pruning trees in the inter-row. Farmers thought that the inter-row vegetation would harbour vertebrate pests and compete with the clonal rubber, and they had access to fruits, firewood and other non-timber forest products from other land. Thus, contrary to expectations, when offered clonal germplasm, farmers opted to use plantation monoculture methods to protect what they considered a valuable asset, rather than maintain the traditional multispecies strategy they use with local germplasm.
Bush mango – family Irvingiaceae: Ando’o, Oba, Meba
Botanical describtion irvingia gobonensis grows to a height of 15-40m, with boles slightly buttressed.Leaves range from elliptic to slightly abovate. Flowers can be yellowish to greenish-white, with slender individual flower stalks.Fruits are yellowish when ripe,broadly ellipsoid and variable in size,with a yellow,fibrous pulp sarrounding alarge seed.
Buffering soil water supply to crops by hydraulic equilibration in conservation agriculture with deep-rooted trees: application of a process-based tree-soil-crop simulation model to parkland agroforestry Systems in Burkina Faso
Farmers deal with risks such as weather, pests, diseases, costs of inputs, market prices of products, (family) labour availability, policies regulating land use and, in some contexts, open interpersonal conflict. Perennial components of agricultural systems, especially trees, provide buffer and filter functions that modify, and generally reduce, the farmers’ sensitivity to such external variables. Maintaining a diversity of activities is a time-tested approach to reducing risks (van Noordwijk et al. 1994). The inclusion of trees that provide annual harvests of fruits or longterm high-value timber can reduce risk, even if the trade-off in resource capture is essentially neutral (Santos-Martin and van Noordwijk 2011). Trees shelter farmers from climate variability and assist in adaptation to longer-term trends (van Noordwijk et al. 2011a).
Tritrophic defenses as a central pivot of low-emission, pest-suppressive farming systems
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has spotlighted the intricate connections between human and planetary health. Given that pesticide-centered crop protection degrades ecological resilience and (in-)directly harms human health, the adoption of ecologically sound, biodiversity-driven alternatives is imperative. In this Synthesis paper, we illuminate how ecological forces can be manipulated to bolster ‘tritrophic defenses’ against crop pests, pathogens, and weeds. Three distinct, yet mutually compatible approaches (habitat-mediated, breeding-dependent, and epigenetic tactics) can be deployed at different organizational levels, that is, from an individual seed to entire farming landscapes. Biodiversity can be harnessed for crop protection through ecological infrastructures, diversification tactics, and reconstituted soil health. Crop diversification is ideally guided by interorganismal interplay and plant–soil feedbacks, entailing resistant cultivars, rotation schemes, or multicrop arrangements. Rewarding opportunities also exist to prime plants for enhanced immunity or indirect defenses. As tritrophic defenses spawn multiple societal cobenefits, they could become core features of healthy, climate-resilient, and low-carbon food systems.