Agroforestry brings not only direct benefits for livelihoods and the environment in mountains but also indirectly to lowlands. It improves adaptive capacity through diversification and spread of production risks and also mitigates climate change. Lack of recognition of the benefits of agroforestry and a shortage of government support miss opportunities for sustainable development. Nevertheless, regional policies and coordination exist and will be important instrument for agroforestry development in mountainous areas of ASEAN countries.
Tag: policy
Integrated Systems Research for sustainable Intensification of Smallholder Agriculture
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030, endorsed by the Heads of States in the United Nations (UN) 2015, and the national discussions and implementation plans that followed, have put light on how intertwined and interdependent the various aspects of sustainability and sustainable development are (UN, 2015; van Noordwijk et al., 2015). This book on sustainable intensification of smallholder agriculture is relevant for many of the SDGs and in particular for achieving the following goals: reducing poverty (#1), achieving food security, improved nutrition and sustainable agriculture (#2), gender equity and empowering women (#5), conserving and sustainably using aquatic resources (#6, #14), and promoting sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems and reversing land degradation (#15). There are trade-offs and synergies between the SDGs and there is a need to balance the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. The scale at which the SDGs are implemented also matters for agricultural development: global (e.g. climate agreement), regional (e.g. trade pacts), national (e.g. policies and incentives) or local level (e.g. innovation platforms and networks).
Assessing The Gap Of Indonesia Green Agriculture Aspirations And Application : A Q-Methodology Study
As a sphere of policy and operational practice we see of Indonesia a yawning gap between aspirations and application to reduce environmental footprint from agriculture activities. In relation to aspirations we are seeing the emergence of national ‘green growth’ and ‘green agriculture’ strategies.This study tried to understand the factors that may contribute to the gap between green agriculture aspiration and its progress on the ground in Indonesia by conducting Q-methodology analysis. This method is complemented by the appliance of capacity assessment survey to get some insights of people perception on some primary capacities of the stakeholders to formulate agro-environmental policy, implement the policy, and perform compliance assurance function, which are entailed for an effective implementation of various mechanisms, instruments, and policies for ‘green agriculture’.
Shifting Cultivation in Vietnam: Impacts of various policy reforms
Based on literature reviews, recent surveys and interviews with local farmers and provincial officials in Vietnam’s northwest region between April and June 2012, this chapter provides an overview of shifting cultivation practices in Vietnam, the key policy interventions and their impacts on livelihoods, land use and the environment, as well as insights into how shifting cultivators could benefit from new incentives such as REDD+.
Forest (landscape) restoration governance: Institutions, interests, ideas, and their interlinked logics
Taking a critical social-constructivist perspective and highlighting the power of ideas in forest landscape restoration (FLR) governance, this historically informed contribution seeks to unpack the different rationales at play in global FLR governance. Drawing on three interlinked analytical dimensions—institutions, interests, and ideas (3Is)—the chapter elaborates on three (de)legitimizing narratives of FLR (win-win, implementation, critique) and on the underlying institutions and interests in which their discursive power rests. Based on the 3Is, we identify and critically discuss three key distinct logics that drive FLR policy and practice: (i) the global sustainability logic, (ii) the community logic, and (iii) the production logic. We conclude that if the inherent historical power structures in FLR design and implementation are not recognized and addressed, then the currently dominant FLR logics are likely to produce many “win-lose” or “lose-lose” projects.
Characterising policy responses to complex socio-ecological problems: 60 fire management interventions in Indonesian peatlands
Governance of complex socio-ecological problems such as climate change, deforestation, and chronic wildfires is becoming “messier”. Theory and case study evidence suggest that “messy” institutional characteristics like non- government involvement and multi-level decision-making can improve social and environmental outcomes. However, these characteristics still lack systematic documentation, and there have been few efforts to systematically characterize and compare the interventions associated with them. We examined 60 fire management interventions (FMI) undertaken between 1999 and 2016 in response to Indonesia’s disastrous peatland fires. We documented their institutional characteristics (i.e., lead sector, multi-level character) and compared their design across institutional types, focusing on design attributes associated with performance such as targeting to high-risk soil types, landholders, and time periods, and the use and design of incentives. We found gaps between scientific recommendations and practice when it came to intervention targeting. However, industry FMI were more likely to employ nuanced targeting among landholders. Government, industry, and civil society adopted differing intervention strategies, including notable differences in the design of incentives. These findings provide the groundwork for research comparing intervention outcomes between institutional types. They also highlight the need for further stock-taking to inform research in these areas.
Policy learning in REDD+ Donor Countries: Norway, Germany and the UK
Almost 15 years have passed since the idea of REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries) was adopted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and local, regional, national, bilateral, transnational and international policies, programmes and projects emerged under the banner of REDD+ (Corbera and Schroeder, 2011, Agrawal et al., 2011, Lederer, 2012). In recognition of the role forests play in climate change, major donor countries around the world, in particular the top five of Norway, Germany, the US, Japan and the UK, have increased their spending and institutionalization efforts on REDD+ (Dooley and Parker 2015). In 2015, the Paris Agreement sent a strong signal in favor of REDD+ in dedicating one whole article (Article 5) to the role of forests in addressing climate change (Korhonen-Kurki et al. 2019).
Putumayo, Colombia: Low-emission rural development (LED-R) at a glance
- ~19% of the department is within the National System of Protected Areas
- Located in Andes-Amazon region, with wide ecological & cultural diversity
- Trinational region borders both Ecuador & Peru, complicating governance of environmental issues in shared Putumayo River basin
- Highest number of green business initiatives of any jurisdiction within the Corporation for Sustainable Development in the Southern Amazon (Corpoamazonia, environmental authority of the region) such as ecotourism & the use of non-timber forest products (NTFPs, e.g., açai) for export to the USA & Europe
- Expansion of the mining industry at the national level discourages rural business development & threatens indigenous territories, & lack of subnational conservation policies exacerbates vulnerability to impacts of extractivism
- 14% indigenous population; 55 indigenous territories cover ~8% of the department
West Papua, Indonesia: Low-emission rural development (LED-R) at a glance
- Forests cover 90% of West Papua (WP) with lowest historical deforestation rates in Indonesia; WP commits to maintain at least 70% as protected areas through Manokwari Declaration (MD) & Special Regulation on Sustainable Development
- Special Autonomy (SA) status allows provincial government regulation-making abilities, more decision-making authority considering local context & access to funding from central government through 2021
- ~13% provincial GDP growth from 2003-2012, due in part to growth in natural gas industry [BP Indonesia Tangguh liquid natural gas (LNG) project] & related sectors, & government spending following creation of province
- WP rural poverty rate (35%; 2017) is more than 2x the national average & wealth is concentrated in urban areas; infrastructure development aims to promote equitable wealth distribution
- In 2015-2016, degraded peatlands accounted for 50-55% more emissions than forest clearing
Ecology and management of tropical secondary forest: science, people and policy: proceedings of a conference held at CATIE, Costa Rica, November 10-12, 1997
The disturbance and destruction of the old-growth forests of the tropics continue to monopolize attention in international fora and the popular media, but a steadily growing land area is covered by secondary forest developing on sites which have been deforested and then abandoned by their owners. The natural process of secondary forest succession offers hope that the unique combination of goods and services provided by the original old-growth forests may be at least partially recovered. An enormous number of questions concerning secondary tropical forests and their potential role in sustainable land management and biodiversity conservation remain to be answered, however. Many of these questions are biological and ecological: What are the factors that bring about successional change in vegetation? How does biodiversity change during succession, does its similarity to the biodiversity of old-growth forests increase over time and why, or why not? How might secondary forests be manipulated to optimize their value for a given set of management objectives? Many more questions nevertheless concern people and their actions: what factors bring about land abandonment? How are secondary forests perceived and utilized by rural people? What market or policy changes may contribute to a more profitable and sustainable use of secondary forests? This volume contains 16 papers presented at a conference which brought together researchers concerned with biological, ecological, social/organizational, financial/economic and political aspects of secondary forests and their management with a strictly neo tropical focus. Although the biophysical side of secondary forest research dominated this conference, it is becoming clear that sound management of this resource will depend on interdisciplinary approaches.