scholarly journals Local Knowledge about Ecosystem Services Provided by Trees in Coffee Agroforestry Practices in Northwest Vietnam

Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 486
Author(s):  
Mai Phuong Nguyen ◽  
Philippe Vaast ◽  
Tim Pagella ◽  
Fergus Sinclair
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Market Access ◽  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Coffee Agroforestry ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Agroforestry Practices

In recent decades in northwest Vietnam, Arabica coffee has been grown on sloping land in intensive, full sun monocultures that are not sustainable in the long term and have negative environmental impacts. There is an urgent need to reverse this negative trend by promoting good agricultural practices, including agroforestry, to prevent further deforestation and soil erosion on slopes. A survey of 124 farmers from three indigenous groups was conducted in northwest Vietnam to document coffee agroforestry practices and the ecosystem services associated with different tree species used in them. Trees were ranked according to the main ecosystem services and disservices considered to be locally relevant by rural communities. Our results show that tree species richness in agroforestry plots was much higher for coffee compared to non-coffee plots, including those with annual crops and tree plantations. Most farmers were aware of the benefits of trees for soil improvement, shelter (from wind and frost), and the provision of shade and mulch. In contrast, farmers had limited knowledge of the impact of trees on coffee quality and other interactions amongst trees and coffee. Farmers ranked the leguminous tree species Leucaena leucocephala as the best for incorporating in coffee plots because of the services it provides to coffee. Nonetheless, the farmers’ selection of tree species to combine with coffee was highly influenced by economic benefits provided, especially by intercropped fruit trees, which was influenced by market access, determined by the proximity of farms to a main road. The findings from this research will help local extension institutions and farmers select appropriate tree species that suit the local context and that match household needs and constraints, thereby facilitating the transition to a more sustainable and climate-smart coffee production practice.

scholarly journals The Impact of Different Tree Planting Strategies in the Piazzas of a Northern Italian City

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Speak ◽  
Leonardo Montagnani ◽  
Hilary Solly ◽  
Camilla Wellstein ◽  
Stefan Zerbe
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Smartphone Application ◽  
Tree Planting ◽  
Species Selection ◽  
Green Spaces ◽  
Urban Green Spaces ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Italian City ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Achieving urban sustainability goals, and improving the quality of life in cities, are aided by the careful selection of tree species for public green spaces. Numerous trade-offs and synergies are necessary to consider when selecting tree species for successful public green spaces. In this transdisciplinary research we consider the impacts of nine different tree planting scenarios, as modelled with i-Trees, in three piazzas of Bolzano, North Italy. The scenarios consider the opinions of the general public gathered from focused workshops and data collected via a purposefully created smartphone application. Shade provision and aesthetics were the primary factors that influenced citizen tree preferences. Scenarios which included larger tree species generally performed the best due to the greater provision of ecosystem services that arises with larger tree dimensions. Ecosystem disservices also increase with larger trees but can be minimised by careful species selection. Public participation in the planning of urban green spaces can be a beneficial activity which ensures new planning outputs will be well-received whilst providing opportunities for education of citizens about the multiple ecosystem services and disservices in urban contexts.

scholarly journals The socio-economic impacts of bush encroachment in Manthestad, Taung, South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Tshegofatso K.J. Sebitloane ◽  
Hendri Coetzee ◽  
Klaus Kellner ◽  
Pieter Malan
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Bush Encroachment ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
North West ◽  
Raising Awareness ◽  
Cross Sectional Design ◽  
The Impact

AbstractBush encroachment involves a widespread increase in, and abundance of, woody vegetation in grassland and savanna biomes. This phenomenon has a direct impact on the socio-economic well-being of rural communities and affects livestock owners and those who utilise the land for various other purposes. This study set out to evaluate and gain an understanding of how livestock owners and land users in a typical rural village in South Africa’s North West Province perceive bush encroachment and the impact it has on the community’s ecosystem services. A quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional design was used to document the perceptions of the participants regarding bush encroachment and bush control in an attempt to describe characteristics and to find answers to questions related to how local communities are affected by bush encroachment and the control thereof. The results show that encroachment has a significant impact on the socio-economic status of participants. Furthermore, it was found that the vast untapped knowledge of local livestock owners is vital to control bush encroachment, preserve the land for various types of usage and to conserve natural resources. Evaluating participants’ responses and perceptions also contributed significantly to gaining an understanding of how bush encroachment and the control thereof impact rural communities socio-economically. This led the contributors to conclude that raising awareness, actively engaging with the community, imparting skills and offering educational opportunities, creating jobs, merging biophysical activities and promoting active participation are key to the success of programmes aimed at bush control and the resultant improvement of ecosystem services.

scholarly journals Popular and Solidarity Economy: Policies and Realities in the Local Context—The Case of the Agricultural Productive Associations of El Valle, Ecuador

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 13469
Author(s):  
Gliceria Gómez-Ceballos ◽  
Juan Pablo Vázquez-Loaiza ◽  
Dora Priscilla Herrera-Torres ◽  
Ana Julia Vega-Luna
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Solidarity Economy ◽  
Ancestral Knowledge ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Effectiveness And Efficiency ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Associative Potential

The popular and solidarity economy (EPS) emerges as an alternative approach to poverty aligned with the principles of sustainable development; in this sense, some countries in the region have adopted policies for its growth and development, among them Ecuador. The experience of a rural community was shown; the objective of the study was to identify the factors that hinder the achievement of better efficiency indexes, regarding the implementation of policies at the local level, with respect to rural productive associations. The case of the agricultural productive associations located in the parish of El Valle, Cuenca, Ecuador, was studied. The type of research was mixed: quantitative to support the information extracted from the instruments applied and derive the pertinent analysis and qualitative to collect primary information from the actors involved in the study. We used the action research model through the use of surveys, interviews and focus groups. The key contribution of this work was to making visible and understanding the needs of the rural communities of the sector from their development perspectives, respecting their ancestral knowledge and articulating from the academy the private–public action for the generation of policies for governance, effective application of democracy and promotion of the technical and associative potential of the agroecological productive units. The results show regularities in terms of their socioeconomic situation, their mode of action and the impact caused on their productive dynamics by the atomized decisions of local actors in the exercise of governance. These fail to articulate the implementation of policies at the territorial level to the detriment of their effectiveness and efficiency and, therefore, do not bring about substantial changes in their levels of dependence and dynamics of productive activity—diagnostic components that will be used for the formulation of joint multilevel policies.

scholarly journals Documenting the Welfare and Role of Working Equids in Rural Communities of Portugal and Spain

Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 790 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Haddy ◽  
Joao B. Rodrigues ◽  
Zoe Raw ◽  
Faith Burden ◽  
Leanne Proops
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Traditional Use ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Transfer Of Information ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Working Equids

Recently, the need for a more holistic approach to welfare assessment has been highlighted. This is particularly pertinent in the case of working equids who provide vital support for human livelihoods, often in low- to middle-income countries, yet suffer from globally low standards of welfare. This study aimed to provide insight into the welfare status and traditional use of working equids in rural Western European communities using the new EARS welfare tool, designed to provide a broad view of the welfare of working equids and the context in which they are found. Other questions on the topics of equid management practices, social transmission of expertise, environmental stressors, and traditions, alongside physical and behavioural welfare assessments were also included to explore the impact of these wide-ranging factors on an understudied population of working equids. The protocol was trialled on 60 working equid owners from communities in Portugal and Spain where, despite the decline in traditional agricultural practices and livestock keeping, donkeys and mules remain working animals. Many owners stated that the help donkeys provided was invaluable, and donkeys were considered to be important for both farming and daily life. However, participants also recognised that the traditional agricultural way of life was dying out, providing insights into the traditional practices, community structure, and beliefs of equid owners. Questions investigating the social networks and social transfer of information within the villages were effective in finding local sources of equid knowledge. Overall, welfare was deemed fair, and the protocol enabled the identification of the most prevalent welfare problems within the communities studied, in this case obesity and the use of harmful practices. The findings suggest that the new protocol was feasible and detail how contextual factors may influence equid welfare. Increasing understanding of the cultural context, social structure, and attitudes within a community, alongside more traditional investigations of working practices and animal management, may, in the future, help to make equid welfare initiatives more effective.

Afforestation projects in Qinghai Province: what are the benefits of ecosystem services?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanzhen Hou ◽  
Wenwu Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Ecological Engineering ◽  
Qinghai Province ◽  
Regulating Services ◽  
Direct Benefits ◽  
Sloping Land ◽  
Recreation Services ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact

<p>Qinghai is a pivotal area for protection and ecological restoration, which is a unique plateau ecosystem composed of tundra, grasslands, Gobi, and the source of rivers. In response to afforestation projects, the government has successfully implemented the Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP), Natural Forest Conservation Program (NFCP), and Three-North Shelter Forest Program (TNSFP), etc. However, the ecological benefits after the implementation of the restoration project lack quantitative evaluation. In this study, we extracted farmland (slope> 25°) and wasteland as appropriate afforestation areas based on the ecological niche of tree species simulated by MaxEnt. Then, ecosystem services are selected as indicators to measure the benefits of restoration, with supply services and recreation services as direct benefits, and regulating services and supporting services as indirect benefits. We compared the impact of afforestation on ecosystem services, highlighting the benefits of ecological engineering. Under the assumption that all afforestation tree species survive, the appropriate afforestation areas are 549.25hm<sup>2</sup>, mainly distributed in the northeast of Qinghai. Regulating services, supporting services and the attractiveness of recreation services have improved, while crop supply and the accessibility of recreation services have decreased. Our findings can enrich theoretical and empirical research on ecosystem services and have implications for afforestation management in similar areas.</p>

scholarly journals LOCAL KNOWLEDGE OF TREE ATTRIBUTES UNDERPINS SPECIES SELECTION ON COFFEE FARMS

2016 ◽  
Vol 55 (S1) ◽  
pp. 35-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
GENEVIEVE LAMOND ◽  
LINDSEY SANDBROOK ◽  
ANJA GASSNER ◽  
FERGUS L. SINCLAIR
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Local Knowledge ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Agroforestry Systems ◽  
Species Selection ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Coffee Agroforestry ◽  
Crown Density

SUMMARYThe extent to which coffee agroforestry systems provide ecosystem services depends on local context and management practices. There is a paucity of information about how and why farmers manage their coffee farms in the way that they do and the local knowledge that underpins this. The present research documents local agro-ecological knowledge from a coffee growing region within the vicinity of the Aberdare Forest Reserve in Central Kenya. Knowledge was acquired from over 60 coffee farmers in a purposive sample, using a knowledge-based systems approach, and tested with a stratified random sample of 125 farmers using an attribute ranking survey. Farmers had varying degrees of explanatory knowledge about how trees affected provisioning and regulating ecosystem services. Trees were described as suitable or unsuitable for growing with coffee according to tree attributes such as crown density and spread, root depth and spread, growth rate and their economic benefit. Farmers were concerned that too high a level of shade and competition for water and nutrients would decrease coffee yields, but they were also interested in diversifying production from their coffee farms to include fruits, timber, firewood and other tree products as a response to fluctuating coffee prices. A range of trees were maintained in coffee plots and along their boundaries but most were at very low abundances. Promoting tree diversity rather than focussing on one or two high value exotic species represents a change of approach for extension systems, the coffee industry and farmers alike, but is important if the coffee dominated landscapes of the region are to retain their tree species richness and the resilience this confers.

scholarly journals Using Satellite Image Fusion to Evaluate the Impact of Land Use Changes on Ecosystem Services and Their Economic Values

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 851
Author(s):  
Wang Shuangao ◽  
Rajchandar Padmanaban ◽  
Aires A. Mbanze ◽  
João M. N. Silva ◽  
Mohamed Shamsudeen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Landscape Patterns ◽  
Landscape Diversity ◽  
Shaanxi Province ◽  
Landsat 8 ◽  
Economic Values ◽  
Lulc Changes ◽  
The Impact

Accelerated land use change is a current challenge for environmental management worldwide. Given the urgent need to incorporate economic and ecological goals in landscape planning, cost-effective conservation strategies are required. In this study, we validated the benefit of fusing imagery from multiple sensors to assess the impact of landscape changes on ecosystem services (ES) and their economic values in the Long County, Shaanxi Province, China. We applied several landscape metrics to assess the local spatial configuration over 15 years (2004–2019) from fused imageries. Using Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Indian Remote Sensing Satellite System Linear Imaging Self Scanning Sensor 3 (IRS LISS 3) imageries fused for 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019, we reclassified land use/land cover (LULC) changes, through the rotation forest (RF) machine-learning algorithm. We proposed an equivalent monetary metric for estimating the ES values, which also could be used in the whole China. Results showed that agriculture farmland and unused land decreased their spatial distribution over time, with an observed increase on woodland, grassland, water bodies and built-up area. Our findings suggested that the patterns of landscape uniformity and connectivity improved, while the distribution of landscape types stabilized, while the landscape diversity had a slight improvement. The overall ES values increased (4.34%) under a benefit transfer approach, mainly concerning woodland and grassland. A sensitivity analysis showed the selected economic value (EV) was relevant and suitable for the study area associated with our ES for LULC changes. We suggested that changes in landscape patterns affected the ESV trends, while the increases on some LULC classes slightly improved the landscape diversity. Using an interdisciplinary approach, we recommend that local authorities and environmental practitioners should balance the economic benefits and ecological gains in different landscapes to achieve a sustainable development from local to regional scales.

scholarly journals PENDAMPINGAN DAN PEMBERDAYAAN PENGELOLAAN KEUANGAN PADA LPD DESA ADAT CEPAKA

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-30
Author(s):  
I Ketut Yudana Adi ◽  
Kukuh Rian Setiawan ◽  
Ida Ketut Kusumawijaya
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Financial Behavior ◽  
Traditional Markets ◽  
Village Community ◽  
Cost Strategy ◽  
Huge Impact ◽  
Low Cost Strategy ◽  
The Impact

Covid 19 pandemic has a huge impact on the Cepaka Village Community, starting from the closure of the tourism sector for foreign tourists, SMEs with low orders, culinary selling products with a low cost strategy, jogging tracks and bicycle tracking which are crowded with domestic tourists, cannot provide economic benefits, so does not give value to farmers who own rice fields that are traversed by cycling tourists or tourists who jog and take selfies as well as the financial behavior of rural communities that tends to be consumptive, causing the Cepaka Village community to not be economically prosperous. The focus of this activity is carried out based on this grouping, namely Creating, packaging / packaging tourism villages by involving all existing potentials, and involving the village community. Management / governance of UKM and services that will be the core products of tourism villages and the impact of tourism villages, and Carry out assistance activities for community financial institutions in cooperatives, LPDs, traditional markets, waste banks and BUMDES of Cepaka Village.

scholarly journals Ecosystem Services and Importance of Common Tree Species in Coffee-Agroforestry Systems: Local Knowledge of Small-Scale Farmers at Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 963 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sigrun Wagner ◽  
Clement Rigal ◽  
Theresa Liebig ◽  
Rudolf Mremi ◽  
Andreas Hemp ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Agroforestry Systems ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Group Affiliation ◽  
Smallholder Farming ◽  
Coffee Agroforestry ◽  
Shade Tree ◽  
Coffee Yield ◽  
Coffee Farmers

Research Highlights: Global coffee production, especially in smallholder farming systems, is vulnerable and must adapt in the face of climate change. To this end, shaded agroforestry systems are a promising strategy. Background and Objectives: Understanding local contexts is a prerequisite for designing locally tailored systems; this can be achieved by utilizing farmers’ knowledge. Our objective is to explore ecosystem services (ESs) provided by different shade tree species as perceived by farmers and possible factors (elevation, gender, and membership in local farmers groups) influencing these perceptions. We related these factors, as well as farmers’ ESs preferences, to planting densities of tree species. Materials and Methods: During interviews with 263 small-scale coffee farmers on the southern slope of Mt. Kilimanjaro, they ranked the most common shade tree species according to perceived provision of the locally most important ESs for coffee farmers. We asked them to estimate the population of each tree species on their coffee fields and to identify the three ESs most important for their household. Results: Food, fodder, and fuelwood emerged as the most important ESs, with 37.8% of the respondents mentioning all three as priorities. Density of tree species perceived to provide these three ESs were significantly higher for farmers prioritizing these services compared to farmers that did not consider all three ESs in their top three. Albizia schimperiana scored the highest for all rankings of regulatory ESs such as coffee yield improvement, quality shade provision, and soil fertility improvement. Influence of elevation, gender, and farmer group affiliation was negligible for all rankings. Conclusions: This study shows the need to understand factors underlying farmers’ management decisions before recommending shade tree species. Our results led to the upgrade of the online tool (shadetreeadvice.org) which generates lists of potential common shade tree species tailored to local ecological context considering individual farmers’ needs.

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