Ecosystem service trade-offs and stakeholder claims - a meso-scale study from a Madagascar biodiversity hotspot

The north-eastern escarpment of Madagascar has been labelled a global biodiversity hotspot due to its extremely high rates of endemic species which are heavily threatened by accelerated deforestation rates and landscape change. The traditional practice of shifting cultivation or "tavy" used by the majority of land users in this area to produce subsistence rice is commonly blamed for these threats. A wide range of stakeholders ranging from conservation to development agencies, and from the private to the public sector has therefore been involved in trying to find solutions to protect the remaining forest fragments and to increase agricultural production. Consequently, provisioning, regulating and socio-cultural services of this forest-mosaic landscape are fundamentally altered leading to trade-offs between them and consequently new winners and losers amongst the stakeholders at different scales. However, despite a growing amount of evidence from case studies analysing local changes, the regional dynamics of the landscape and their contribution to such trade-offs remain poorely understood. This study therefore aims at using generalised landscape units as a base for the assessment of multi-level stakeholder claims on ecosystem services to inform negotiation, planning and decision making at a meso-scale. The presented study applies a mixed-method approach combining remote sensing, GIS and socio-economic methods to reveal current landscape dynamics, their change over time and the corresponding ecosystem service trade-offs induced by diverse stakeholder claims on the regional level. In a first step a new regional land cover classification for three points in time (1995, 2005 and 2011) was conducted including agricultural classes characteristic for shifting cultivation systems. Secondly, a novel GIS approach, termed “landscape mosaics approach” originally developed to assess dynamics of shifting cultivation landscapes in Laos was applied. Through this approach generalised landscape mosaics were generated allowing for a better understanding of changes in land use intensities instead of land cover. As a next step we will try to use these landscape units as proxies to map provisioning and regulating ecosystem services throughout the region. Through the overlay with other regional background data such as accessibility and population density and information from a region-wide stakeholder analysis, multiscale trade-offs between different services will be highlighted. The trade-offs observed on the regional scale will then be validated through a socio-economic ground-truthing within selected sites at the local scale. We propose that such meso-scale knowledge is required by all stakeholders involved in decision making towards sustainable development of north-eastern Madagascar.

Revealing regional deforestation dynamics in north-eastern Madagascar - Insights from multi-temporal land cover change analysis

The north-eastern escarpment of Madagascar harbours the island’s last remaining large-scale humid forest massifs surrounded by a small-scale agricultural mosaic. There is high deforestation, commonly thought to be caused by shifting cultivation practiced by local land users to produce upland rice. However, little is known about the dynamics between forest and shifting cultivation systems at a regional level. Our study presents a first attempt to quantify changes in the extent of forest and different agricultural land cover classes, and to identify the main dynamics of land cover change for two intervals, 1995–2005 and 2005–2011. Over the 16-year study period, the speed of forest loss increased, the total area of upland rice production remained almost stable, and the area of irrigated rice fields slightly increased. While our findings seem to confirm a general trend of land use intensification, deforestation through shifting cultivation is still on the rise. Deforestation mostly affects the small forest fragments interspersed in the agricultural mosaic and is slowly leading to a homogenization of the landscape. These findings have important implications for future interventions to slow forest loss in the region, as the processes of agricultural expansion through shifting cultivation versus intensified land use cannot per se be considered mutually exclusive.

Linking livelihood strategies with a regional level landscape mosaic to explore trade-offs between forest conservation and human wellbeing in a Madagascar biodiversity hotspot

The north-eastern escarpment of Madagascar contains the island’s last remaining large-scale humid forest massifs surrounded by diverse small-scale agricultural mosaics. There is high deforestation mainly caused by shifting cultivation practiced by local land users to produce upland rice for subsistence. Today, large protected areas restrict land users’ access to forests to collect wood and other forest products. Moreover, they are no more able to expand their cultivated land, which leads to shorter shifting cultivation cycles and decreasing plot sizes for irrigated rice and cash crop cultivation. Cash crop production of clove and vanilla is exposed to risks such as extreme inter-annual price fluctuations, pests and cyclones. In the absence of work opportunities, agricultural extension services and micro-finance schemes people are stuck in a poverty trap. New development strategies are needed to mitigate the trade-offs between forest conservation and human well-being. As landscape composition and livelihood strategies vary across the region, these strategies need to be spatially differentiated to avoid implementing generic solutions, which do not fit the local context. However, up to date, little is known about the spatial patterns of shifting cultivation and other land use systems at the regional level. This is mainly due to the high spatial and temporal dynamics inherent to shifting cultivation, which makes it difficult to monitor the dynamics of this land use system with remote sensing methods. Furthermore, knowledge about land users’ livelihood strategies and the risks and opportunities they face stems from very few local case studies. To overcome this challenge, firstly, we used remote sensing data and a landscape mosaic approach to delineate the main landscape types at the regional level. Secondly, we developed a land user typology based on socio-ecological data from household surveys in 45 villages spread throughout the region. Combining the land user typology with the landscape mosaic map allowed us to reveal spatial patterns of the interaction between landscapes and people and to better understand the trade-offs between forest conservation and local wellbeing. While shifting cultivation systems are being transformed into more intensive permanent agricultural systems in many countries around the globe, Madagascar seems to be an exception to this trend. Linking land cover information to human-environmental interactions over large areas is crucial to designing policies and to inform decision making for a more sustainable development of this resource-rich but poverty-prone context.

Beyond deforestation monitoring in conservation hotspots: Analysing landscape mosaic dynamics in north-eastern Madagascar

Due to its extraordinary biodiversity and rapid deforestation, north-eastern Madagascar is a conservation hotspot of global importance. Reducing shifting cultivation is a high priority for policy-makers and conservationists; however, spatially explicit evidence of shifting cultivation is lacking due to the difficulty of mapping it with common remote sensing methods. To overcome this challenge, we adopted a landscape mosaic approach to assess the changes between natural forests, shifting cultivation and permanent cultivation systems at the regional level from 1995 to 2011. Our study confirmed that shifting cultivation is still being used to produce subsistence rice throughout the region, but there is a trend of intensification away from shifting cultivation towards permanent rice production, especially near protected areas. While large continuous forest exists today only in the core zones of protected areas, the agricultural matrix is still dominated by a dense cover of tree crops and smaller forest fragments. We believe that this evidence makes a crucial contribution to the development of interventions to prevent further conversion of forest to agricultural land while improving local land users' well-being.

Analysing trade-offs between food production and ecosystem services in tropical forests of lowland Bolivia

The expansion of agricultural land is responsible for most tropical deforestation. Historically, smallholder farming and shifting cultivation has been reported as the main agent of deforestation. However, the increasing global demand for food in recent years has greatly boosted the development of medium and large-scale commercial agriculture which is nowadays causing the majority of tropical forest cover loss, particularly in Latin America.

Farmers' strategies for managing acid upland soils in Southeast Asia: an evolutionary perspective

The acid soils of the uplands of Southeast Asia have resisted intensive agricultural use for centuries. In recent decades, however, due to rapid population growth, escalating market demand for agricultural produce, and govemment policies for land development and settlement, the acid uplands have become the focus of more intensive land-use systems, placing greater demands on farmers and requiring the development and dissemination of improved practices for soil management. In order to develop appropriate soil management technologies and plan effective interventions to facilitate their adoption, it is important to understand the goals and circumstances of farmers in the acid uplands, the range of farming systems they have developed, and the variety of socio-economic factors and trends influencing the evolution of these farming systems. Building on Boserup's model of agrarian change, an evolutionary framework is developed and applied to five case studies: a long-fallow (shifting) cultivation system in Sarawak, Malaysia; a short-fallow system in South Kalimantan, Indonesia; a continuous cropping system in Bukidnon, Philippines; a tree crop (with intercropping) system in Southern Thailand; a livestock grazing system in Daclac, Vietnam. The framework provides a useful tool to interpret and categorise farmers' evolving soil management strategies and to plan more effective soil management research and interventions. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Development of a sediment yield model for South East Ghana in the regions around Lake Volta

Soil erosion is one of the most pressing issues facing developing countries. The need for soil erosion assessment is paramount as a successful and productive agricultural base is necessary for economic growth and stability. In Ghana, a country with an expanding population and high potential for economic growth, agriculture is an important resource; however, most of the crop production is restricted to low technology shifting cultivation agriculture. The high intensity seasonal rainfall coincides with the early growing period of many of the crops meaning that plots are very susceptible to erosion, especially on steep sided valleys in the region south of Lake Volta. This research investigated the processes of soil erosion by rainfall with the aim of producing a sediment yield model for a small semi-agricultural catchment in rural Ghana. Various types of modelling techniques were considered to discover those most applicable to the sub-tropical environment of Southern Ghana. Once an appropriate model had been developed and calibrated, the aim was to look at how to enable the scaling up of the model using sub-catchments to calculate sedimentation rates of Lake Volta. An experimental catchment was located in Ghana, south west of Lake Volta, where data on rainstorms and the associated streamflow, sediment loads and soil data (moisture content, classification and particle size distribution) was collected to calibrate the model. Additional data was obtained from the Soil Research Institute in Ghana to explore calibration of the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE, Wischmeier and Smith, 1978) for Ghanaian soils and environment. It was shown that the USLE could be successfully converted to provide meaningful soil loss estimates in the Ghanaian environment. However, due to experimental difficulties, the proposed theory and methodology of the sediment yield model could only be tested in principle. Future work may include validation of the model and subsequent scaling up to estimate sedimentation rates in Lake Volta.

EL CAMBIO SOCIOECONÓMICO Y LA SOSTENIBILIDAD DE LA AGRICULTURA ITINERANTE EN LA RESERVA DEL HOMBRE Y LA BIOSFERA RÍO PLÁTANO, HONDURAS

Este artículo examina el proceso en que la agricultura itinerante está siendo marginada en la biosfera Río Plátano de la Mosquitia hondureña. Mientras la región se vincula cada vez más con la sociedad nacional de Honduras, varios procesos socioeconómicos están transformando las comunidadesde la reserva. Esta investigación se enfoca en tres comunidades ubicadas a lo largo del límite oriental de la biosfera. Pocas casas todavía están orientadas totalmente en la subsistencia. La mayoría combina la subsistencia con varias otras actividades que rinden el dinero. Este estudio demuestra que la sostenibilidad de la agricultura itinerante no es una cuestión solamente de sus límites ambientales, sino su valor en comparación a otras actividades económicas que existen ahora en la Mosquitia hondureña, así como en otras regiones fronteras de la América Central.Palabras claves: Mosquitia hondureña, río Plátano, sostenibilidad, agricultura itinerante, cambio socioeconómico.AbstractThis article examines the process in which shifting cultivation is becoming marginalized in the Río Plátano Biosphere of the Honduran Mosquitia. As the region becomes increasingly tied to the national society of Honduras, various socioeconomic processes are transforming communities in the reserve.This investigation focuses on three communities located along the eastern boundary of the biosphere.Few houses are still oriented solely on subsistence. The majority combine subsistence with various other money-making activities. This research demonstrates that the sustainability of shifting cultivation is not solely a question of its environmental limits, but also its value in comparison to other economic activities that are now present in the Honduran Mosquitia, as well as in other frontier regions of Central America.Keywords: Honduran Mosquitia, Río Plátano, sustainability, shifting cultivation, socioeconomic change

Shifting rice farming to fish culture in some selected areas of Mymensingh, Bangladesh: the process, conflicts and impacts

The evolutionary process of converting low-lying paddy fields into fish farms and its impact on agrarian communities in some selected areas of Mymensingh district were studied. This study was conducted through participatory rural appraisal (PRA) covering 12 villages from each of selected upazillas viz. Fulpur and Haluaghat of Mymensing [sic] district. A total of 12 PRA sessions were conducted where 90 farmers participated during 29 July to 26 August 2004. It is seen that the use of low-lying paddy fields was mostly confined to Broadcast Aman (B. Aman) rice production until 1960s. With the introduction of modern rice farming technology, the farmers started to produce Boro rice in Rabi season and B. Aman rice in Kharif season. With the passage of time, aquaculture technologies have been evolved and the farmers realized that fish farming is more profitable than rice cultivation, and then they started to utilize their paddy fields for alternate rice-fish farming and rice-cum-fish farming. Now a days, aquaculture based crop production system is in practice in more than 25% of the low-lying paddy fields. Conversion of rice fields in to fish ponds has brought up a change in the livelihood patterns of the rural farmers. The areas where the farmers involved themselves in the new production systems were fingerling collection, transportation and marketing of fry and fingerlings. During 1960s to 1970s, a few people used to culture fish in the permanent ponds for their own consumption, the species produced were rohu, catla, mrigal, ghainna, long whiskered catfish, freshwater shark (boal), snake head (shol) etc. Small fishes like climbing perch, stinging catfish, walking catfish, barb, minnows etc. were available in the rice fields during monsoon season. In 1980s to mid 1990s, some rice fields were converted into fish ponds and the people started to produce fish for commercial purposes. When rice-fish farming became profitable, a large number of people started converting their rice fields in to rice-fish culture ponds. Culture of some exotic fishes like silver carp, tilapia, grass carp, silver barb etc. also started in the paddy fields. Higher income from fish farming contributed positively in improving the housing, sanitation and education system in the study areas. It is seen that the medium and medium high lands were only used for alternate rice fish farming. The net income was high in any fish based cropping system that motivated the farmers to introduce fish based cropping system in the low-lying inland areas. As a result, the regional as well as communal income disparities occurred. However, the extraction of ground water became common during the dry period as the water was used for both rice and fish farming. Mass conversion of paddy fields into rice-fish culture ponds caused water logging in the study areas. In most cases, the participated farmers mentioned that they could be easily benefited by producing fish with T. Aman or only fish during the monsoon season. They agreed that this was an impressive technology to them and they could generate employment opportunities throughout the year. Finally, the social, economic and technical problems which are acting as constraints to rapid expansion of fish production system were reported from the interviewee.

Cultivation of the brown alga Hizikia fusiformis (Harvey) Okamura: enhanced seedling production in tumbled culture

The reuse of holdfasts for regeneration of young seedlings or using wild juvenile plants as the seedling source has played the major role in commercial cultivation of the brown alga Hizikia fusiformis in East Asia over the past 20 years. The possibility of employing zygote-derived germlings for producing seedlings has been discussed in the literature, but has not yet become a reality. Three main obstacles have limited the use of zygotes as a main source of seedlings, (1) the dioecious nature of the algal life cycle which may lead to asynchronous male and female receptacle development and thus different timing of egg and spermatozoa expulsion, (2) the low attachment rate when using zygote-derived germlings with developed rhizoids from wild parental plants for seeding production, and (3) the problem of culturing young germlings in regions where water temperature is high in summer. In this investigation, shifting the timing of receptacle formation earlier than in nature was performed by tumbling the algae in a long-day tank (16-h light per day). Synchronization of egg and spermatozoa expulsion and thereafter fertilization were conducted in indoor tanks. Receptacle formation in constant long days could be shifted by 20 days earlier than in plants cultured on long lines in the open sea, or I month earlier than in plants growing on intertidal rocks. Synchronized expulsion of eggs and spermatozoon led to a high rate of fertilization. This was achieved by tumbling the male and female receptacle-bearing branchlets in the same tank at low density in high irradiance. In two independent trials, a total of 1,400,000 zygote-derived germlings were obtained from 620 g (fresh weight) female sporophytes. The germlings shed from the receptacles were at an identical developmental stage indicating high synchronization of expulsion of eggs and spermatozoon followed by fertilization. Approximately 63% ( +/-9.6%) of the germlings were shed from the receptacle between 16 and 24 It after fertilization and 20% ( +/-11.9%) remained on the receptacle for 3 days after fertilization. Germlings were seeded on string collectors before rhizoids started to elongate and the attachment efficiency was enhanced. Young seedlings reached 800 ( +/-50) mum in length in 25 days at 25 degreesC before they were transferred to open sea cultivation. These results provide the basis of a practical way of seedling production by use of zygote-derived germlings in the commercial cultivation of Hizikia fusiformis. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.

Forests as landscapes of social inequality: tropical forest cover and land distribution among shifting cultivators

Can social inequality be seen imprinted in a forest landscape? We studied the relationship between land holding, land use, and inequality in a peasant community in the Peruvian Amazon where farmers practice swidden-fallow cultivation. Longitudinal data on land holding, land use, and land cover were gathered through field-level surveys (n = 316) and household interviews (n = 51) in 1994/1995 and 2007. Forest cover change between 1965 and 2007 was documented through interpretation of air photos and satellite imagery. We introduce the concept of “land use inequality” to capture differences across households in the distribution of forest fallowing and orchard raising as key land uses that affect household welfare and the sustainability of swidden-fallow agriculture. We find that land holding, land use, and forest cover distribution are correlated and that the forest today reflects social inequality a decade prior. Although initially land-poor households may catch up in terms of land holdings, their use and land cover remain impoverished. Differential land use investment through time links social inequality and forest cover. Implications are discussed for the study of forests as landscapes of inequality, the relationship between social inequality and forest composition, and the forest-poverty nexus.

“I woke up and realised the ground had shifted”: the shifting terrain of English curriculum

The theme of this conference comes from the epitaph on the Lewis Carroll’s gravesite. “Is All our Life then But A Dream?” This seems fitting for a time when so much change in the terrain of English makes us feel as if we are somnambulating through a surrealist landscape. Like Lewis Carroll’s Alice, (Carroll, 2003) we might find ourselves at strange tea parties with bureaucratic mad hatters, and just when we think we have a grasp of applying new theory in our teaching, we fall down another rabbit hole, to swim in confusion as some queen calls out, ‘off with their heads!’. The shifting ground in English inevitably moves in response to waves of theory influencing classroom practice. Each new paradigm has claimed to liberate language learners from the flaws of the previous model. Each linguist or literary theorist who shaped the new paradigm no doubt dreamt of a new population emerging from school as more powerfully literate citizens than the previous generation.