11 resultados para Conservation evaluation
em BORIS: Bern Open Repository and Information System - Berna - Suiça
Resumo:
Soil conservation technologies that fit well to local scale and are acceptable to land users are increasingly needed. To achieve this at small-holder farm level, there is a need for an understanding of specific erosion processes and indicators, the land users’ knowledge and their willingness, ability and possibilities to respond to the respective problems to decide on control options. This study was carried out to assess local erosion and performance of earlier introduced conservation terraces from both technological and land users’ points of view. The study was conducted during July to August 2008 at Angereb watershed on 58 farm plots from three selected case-study catchments. Participatory erosion assessment and evaluation were implemented along with direct field measurement procedures. Our focus was to involve the land users in the action research to explore with them the effectiveness of existing conservation measures against the erosion hazard. Terrace characteristics measured and evaluated against the terrace implementation guideline of Hurni (1986). The long-term consequences of seasonal erosion indicators had often not been known and noticed by farmers. The cause and effect relationships of the erosion indicators and conservation measures have shown the limitations and gaps to be addressed towards sustainable erosion control strategies. Less effective erosion control has been observed and participants have believed the gaps are to be the result of lack of landusers’ genuine participation. The results of both local erosion observation and assessment of conservation efficacy using different aspects show the need to promote approaches for erosion evaluation and planning of interventions by the farmers themselves. This paper describes the importance of human factor involving in the empirical erosion assessment methods towards sustainable soil conservation.
Resumo:
Most desertification research focuses on degradation assessments without putting sufficient emphasis on prevention and mitigation strategies, although the concept of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) is increasingly being acknowledged. A variety of already applied conservation measures exist at the local level, but they are not adequately recognised, evaluated and shared, either by land users, technicians, researchers, or policy makers. Likewise, collaboration between research and implementation is often insufficient. The aim of this paper is to present a new methodology for a participatory process of appraising and selecting desertification mitigation strategies, and to present first experiences from its application in the EU-funded DESIRE project. The methodology combines a collective learning and decision approach with the use of evaluated global best practices. In three parts, it moves through a concise process, starting with identifying land degradation and locally applied solutions in a stakeholder workshop, leading to assessing local solutions with a standardised evaluation tool, and ending with jointly selecting promising strategies for implementation with the help of a decision support tool. The methodology is currently being applied in 16 study sites. Preliminary analysis from the application of the first part of the methodology shows that the initial stakeholder workshop results in a good basis for stakeholder cooperation, and in promising land conservation practices for further assessment. Study site research teams appreciated the valuable results, as burning issues and promising options emerged from joint reflection. The methodology is suitable to initiate mutual learning among different stakeholder groups and to integrate local and scientific knowledge.
Resumo:
There is constant pressure to improve evaluation of animal genetic resources in order to prevent their erosion. Maintaining the integrity of livestock species as well as their genetic diversity is of paramount interest for long-term agricultural policies. One major use of DNA techniques in conservation is to reveal genetic diversity within and between populations. Forty-one microsatellites were analysed to assess genetic diversity in nine Swiss sheep breeds and to measure the loss of the overall diversity when one breed would become extinct. The expected heterozygosities varied from 0.65 to 0.74 and 10.8% of the total genetic diversity can be explained by the variation among breeds. Based on the proportion of shared alleles, each of the nine breeds were clearly defined in their own cluster in the neighbour-joining tree describing the relationships among the breeds. Bayesian clustering methods assign individuals to groups based on their genetic similarity and infer the number of populations. In STRUCTURE, this approach pooled the Valais Blacknose and the Valais Red. With BAPS method the two Valais sheep breeds could be separated. Caballero & Toro approach (2002) was used to calculate the loss or gain of genetic diversity when each of the breeds would be removed from the set. The changes in diversity based on between-breed variation ranged from -12.2% (Valais Blacknose) to 0% (Swiss Black Brown Mountain and Mirror Sheep); based on within-breed diversity the removal of a breed could also produce an increase in diversity (-0.6% to + 0.6%). Allelic richness ranged from 4.9 (Valais Red) to 6.7 (Brown Headed Meat sheep and Red Engadine Sheep). Breed conservation decisions cannot be limited to genetic diversity alone. In Switzerland, conservation goals are embedded in the desire to carry the cultural legacy over to future generations.
Resumo:
Detecting and quantifying threats and researching and implementing management actions are key to improving the conservation status of endangered species. Bibliometric analysis can constitute a useful tool for the evaluation of such questions from a long-term perspective. Taking as a case study the Cinereous Vulture Aegypius monachus in Spain, we tested relationships between population dynamics, research efforts, existing threats and conservation milestones. The population growth of the species (from 206 pairs in 1976 to 2,068 in 2011) was parallelled by the increase in the total number of publications, the number of articles in SCI journals and the number of published works dealing with aspects of conservation, threats and management. These results are discussed in terms of cause-effect relationships taking into account that the influence of other non-mutually exclusive factors could also probably explain such associations. Similarly, we analysed the trend of the Cinereous Vulture breeding population with respect to different threats and indices of food availability, obtaining a positive correlation with the increase in big-game hunting bags in Spain. With respect to conservation milestones, we concluded that the current situation is positive in terms of the protection of the species and its habitat, with the situation in relation to food availability being unclear. Finally, we reviewed the main conservation actions that have been taken for the species in Spain and how these have been progressively modified based on new scientific and technical evidence, as an example of adaptive management applied to conservation.
Resumo:
Soil degradation is widespread in the Ethiopian Highlands. Its negative impacts on soil productivity contribute to the extreme poverty of the rural population. Soil conservation is propagated as a means of reducing soil erosion, however, it is a costly investment for small-scale farming households. The present study is an attempt to show whether or not selected mechanical Soil and Water Conservation (SWC) technologies are profitable from a farmer’s point of view. A financial Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) is carried out to assess whether or not the considered SWC technologies are profitable from a farmer’s point of view. The CBA is supplemented by an evaluation of aspects from the economic and institutional environment. Whether or not soil conservation is profitable from a farmer’s point of view depends on a broad range of factors from the ecological, economic, political, institutional and socio-cultural sphere and also depends on the technology and the prevailing farming system. Because these factors are closely interlinked, it is often not sufficient to change or influence one to make SWC profitable. Several recommendations are formulated with regard to improving the profitability of SWC investments from a farmer’s point of view. Because the reasons for unsustainable resource use are manifold and highly interlinked, only a multi-stakeholder, multi-level and multi-objective approach is likely to offer solutions that address the underlying problems adequately.
Resumo:
Soil salinity management can be complex, expensive, and time demanding, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. Besides taking no action, possible management strategies include amelioration and adaptation measures. Here we apply the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) framework for the systematic analysis and evaluation and selection of soil salinisation amelioration technologies in close collaboration with stakeholders. The participatory approach is applied in the RECARE (Preventing and Remediating degradation of soils in Europe through Land Care) project case study of Timpaki, a semiarid region in south-central Crete (Greece) where the main land use is horticulture in greenhouses irrigated by groundwater. Excessive groundwater abstractions have resulted in a drop of the groundwater level in the coastal part of the aquifer, thus leading to seawater intrusion and in turn to soil salinisation. The documented technologies are evaluated for their impacts on ecosystem services, cost, and input requirements using a participatory approach and field evaluations. Results show that technologies which promote maintaining existing crop types while enhancing productivity and decreasing soil salinity are preferred by the stakeholders. The evaluation concludes that rainwater harvesting is the optimal solution for direct soil salinity mitigation, as it addresses a wider range of ecosystem and human well-being benefits. Nevertheless, this merit is offset by poor financial motivation making agronomic measures more attractive to users.
Resumo:
The World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) is a program of the World Association of Soil and Water Conservation (WASWC), organized as a consortium of several international institutions. The overall goal of WOCAT is to contribute to sustainable utilization of soil and water. WOCAT collects and analyzes information on soil and water conservation (SWC) technologies and approaches world-wide, and presents the collected information in computer databases and decision support systems, and in the form of handbooks, reports and maps readily accessible to SWC specialists and policy-makers world-wide. WOCAT has prepared a framework for the evaluation of soil and water conservation and has started data collection. The paper presents preliminary results with promising SWC technologies and approaches used in Eastern and Southern Africa. The first finding is that hardly any promising SWC activities could be found on common grazing lands. Analysis of the cropland shows some of the bio-physical and socioeconomic conditions under which certain SWC technologies and approaches are used, including land use types, climatic zones and land tenure, and looks at issues such as participation and costs. Furthermore, classification criteria for SWC technologies and approaches are discussed.