Improving smallholder farming systems in Imperata areas of Southeast Asia

Improving smallholder farming systems in Imperata areas of Southeast Asia: a bioeconomic modelling approach. The project was formally a collaborative effort between the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, the Australian National University (CRES, ANU), Canberra, the SEAMEO Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), Laguna Philippines, and the Centre for Agro-Socioeconomic Research (CASER), Bogor, Indonesia. However, many additional collaborations were undertaken, as evident from the list of contributors. The project received substantial funding assistance from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). The introduction to the report outlines the nature of the Imperata problem and the methodology used. Imperata is essentially restricted to upland areas, since it does not coexist with lowland rice farming. Section 1 contains a bioeconomic analysis of traditional smallholder ‘shifting cultivation’ farming systems where the fallow is Imperata. Section 2 contains a series of case study descriptions of successful tree growing by smallholders on Imperata grasslands. The core modelling work of the project is reported in Sections 3 and 4. Various tree-based interventions are modelled with and without an animal component. Some of these modelled farming systems are already in place in farmers’ fields. In these cases, possible management or policy interventions analysed with the models can point the way to productive and economic improvements. In other cases, the farming systems modelled are ‘experimental’ in nature. Imperata grows on uplands of various slopes, but some special attention is given to Imperata on PREFACEAustralian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR

Environmental and Sustainability Issues of Indonesia Agriculture

Agriculture in Indonesia intensifies from the swidden to very intensive systems and expands rapidly, including tosteep slopes and peatland areas. These have implications to the environment and the system’s sustainability.Cereal and pulses-based farming systems uses moderate amount of chemicals and thus poses little threats to waterquality. However, these systems encroach into steepland accelerating erosion and depleting soil fertility. Intensivevegetable farming applies around 50 Mg/ha of barnyard manure, 300 kg/ha of N, and high rates of pesticides,posing a threat to water quality in the downstream areas. Plantation develops very rapidly, including to forest andpeatland areas. Conversion, to plantation crops, of forest (with 132300 Mg C/ha) decreases, but of shrub (with1540 Mg C/ha) and Imperata grassland (with < 5 Mg C/ha) increases the carbon stock to 3050 Mg/ha. Thetraditional tree-crop-based agriculture, characterized by a mixture of several species, reduces erosion and maintainsrelatively high carbon stock and biodiversity. Lowland rice (paddy) system, currently covering around 7.9 millionha area, has been practiced sustainably for thousands of years. Despite providing food security and variousenvironmental services, this system is under tremendous pressures of conversion to industrial and settlement areas.Meanwhile, some 20 million ha peatland of Indonesia is being converted at a rate of 1.3% annually for agricultureand silviculture. The carbon-rich land rapidly emits carbon once it is cleared and drained. Indonesian agriculturaldevelopment is challenged by the demand to keep a high level of production with minimal negative impacts to theenvironment. This can be achieved by prioritization of low carbon stock land for agricultural expansion,rationalization of fertilizer application, minimization of intensive agricultural expansion to steepland, andsafeguarding paddy field from conversion

Land Use Change in Indonesia

With an estimated loss of up to 20 million ha of forest over the past decade, deforestation in Indonesia has come to the forefront of global environmental concerns. Indonesia is one of the most important areas of tropical forests worldwide. In addition to providing a multitude of benefits locally, including both products and services, these forests are also of global importance because of their biodiversity and the carbon they sequester. Despite the benefits they provide, Indonesia’s forests have been under considerable threat in past decades, and the extent of forest cover has declined considerably. This paper takes advantage of new data on the extent and distribution of forest cover change in Indonesia to examine its causes and effects. The paper begins by summarizing the long-term trends in land use change in Indonesia, and the new data on loss of forest cover during the period 1985-1997. It then discusses why this land use change is likely to be undesirable in many cases. Land use change can at times be beneficial, but there are good reasons to believe that current patterns of land use change in Indonesia are in fact socially sub-optimal. The paper then reviews the incentives faced by the major actors in land use change—loggers, estate crop producers, and smallholders—and the reasons their decisions concerning land use change, while privately optimal, are likely to be socially sub-optimal. It also briefly examines the effect that the East Asian financial crisis has had on these incentives. Particular attention is paid to mangrove forests, because of their important ecological role.Deforestation, Land Use, Biodiversity, Environmental Services, Indonesia

Environmental and Sustainability Issues of Indonesia Agriculture

Agriculture in Indonesia intensifies from the swidden to very intensive systems and expands rapidly, including tosteep slopes and peatland areas. These have implications to the environment and the system's sustainability.Cereal and pulses-based farming systems uses moderate amount of chemicals and thus poses little threats to waterquality. However, these systems encroach into steepland accelerating erosion and depleting soil fertility. Intensivevegetable farming applies around 50 Mg/ha of barnyard manure, 300 kg/ha of N, and high rates of pesticides,posing a threat to water quality in the downstream areas. Plantation develops very rapidly, including to forest andpeatland areas. Conversion, to plantation crops, of forest (with 132300 Mg C/ha) decreases, but of shrub (with1540 Mg C/ha) and Imperata grassland (with < 5 Mg C/ha) increases the carbon stock to 3050 Mg/ha. Thetraditional tree-crop-based agriculture, characterized by a mixture of several species, reduces erosion and maintainsrelatively high carbon stock and biodiversity. Lowland rice (paddy) system, currently covering around 7.9 millionha area, has been practiced sustainably for thousands of years. Despite providing food security and variousenvironmental services, this system is under tremendous pressures of conversion to industrial and settlement areas.Meanwhile, some 20 million ha peatland of Indonesia is being converted at a rate of 1.3% annually for agricultureand silviculture. The carbon-rich land rapidly emits carbon once it is cleared and drained. Indonesian agriculturaldevelopment is challenged by the demand to keep a high level of production with minimal negative impacts to theenvironment. This can be achieved by prioritization of low carbon stock land for agricultural expansion,rationalization of fertilizer application, minimization of intensive agricultural expansion to steepland, andsafeguarding paddy field from conversion

Global sulfur emissions in the 1990s

This paper provides global and country by country estimates of sulfur emissions for the early and mid-1990s. Raw estimates are obtained in two ways. For countries with published data we compile that data from the available sources. For the remaining countries, we use either the decomposition model estimated by Stern (1999), the first differences environmental Kuznets curve model estimated by Stern and Common (2001), or simple extrapolation depending on the availability of data on the explanatory variables. We then examine the compatibility of these estimates with the ASL estimates for 1990. Based on these and other comparisons we construct a preferred database for 1850-1999 and discuss the main movements in the 1990s. The data is available from the datasite.

Environment, Development and Change in Rural Asia-Pacific

This volume examines the economic, political, social and environmental challenges facing rural communities in the Asia-Pacific region, as global issues intersect with local contexts. Such challenges, from climatic change and volcanic eruption to population growth and violent civil unrest, have stimulated local resilience amongst communities and led to evolving regional institutions and environment management practices, changing social relationships and producing new forms of stratification. Bringing together case studies from across mainland Southeast Asia and the Island Pacific, an expert team of international contributors reveal how communities at the periphery take charge of their lives, champion the virtues of their own local systems of production and consumption, and engage in the complexities of new structures of development that demand a response to the vacillations of global politics, economy and society. Inherent in this is the recognition that 'development' as we have come to know it is far from over. Each chapter emphasizes the growing recognition that ecological and environmental issues are key to any understanding and analysis of structures of sustainable development. Providing diverse multidisciplinary theoretical and empirical perspectives, Environment, Development and Change in Rural Asia-Pacific makes an important contribution to the revitalization of development studies and as such will be essential reading for scholars in the field, as well as those with an interest in Asia-Pacific studies, economic geography and political economy

FARM: A Global Framework for Integrated Land Use/Cover Modeling

The Future Agricultural Resources Model (FARM) was developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service (ERS) to evaluate effects of global changes on agricultural systems. The model uses a geographic information system that links climatically defined land and water resources with production possibilities in 12 regions, and an economic model that simulates how changes in one region can affect land and water resources as well as production and consumption of 13 aggregate commodities in eight regions. Analyses carried out with FARM show that: 1) global climate change and population growth are likely to place additional stress on current agricultural and environmental systems during the 21st century; 2) the net economic effects of global climate change may be positive but realization of these benefits may increase environmental stresses; 3) deregulation of trade in agricultural commodities may help to alleviate some of the economic pressure generated by population growth and global climate change and 4) setting land aside from economic production to protect natural ecosystems may have relatively low opportunity costs, but global climate change will make it more difficult to implement such programs

A Multivariate Cointegration Analysis of the Role of Energy in the U.S. Macroeconomy

This paper extends my previous analysis of the causal relationship of GDP and energy use in the USA in the post-war period to a cointegration analysis of that relationship. It is found that the majority of the relevant variables are integrated justifying a cointegration analysis. The results show that cointegration does occur and that energy input cannot be excluded from the cointegration space. The results are plausible in terms of macroeconomic dynamics. The results are similar to my previous Granger Causality results and contradict claims in the literature (based on bivariate models) that there is no cointegration between energy and output

Proceedings International Symposium "The stability of tropical rainforest margins - linking ecological, economic and social constraints of land use and conservation"

This proceeding volume results from the submitted abstracts of the international symposium “The Stability of Rainforest Margins: Linking Ecological, Economic and Social Constraints” held on September 19 – 23, 2005 in Göttingen, Germany. Tropical rainforests disappear at an alarming rate causing unprecedented losses in biodiversity and ecosystem services. Rainforests are hot spots of biodiversity as well as important carbon sinks. Despite an increased recognition of the value of these and other valuable public goods provided by tropical rainforests at national and international levels, the rainforests of Asia, Africa, Australia and Latin America continue to be seriously threatened by various forms of human encroachment. The analysis of policies and socio-economic and ecological determinants that either stabilize or threaten tropical forest margins requires a holistic interdisciplinary scientific approach. Such an approach has been adopted by a large scale research program titled “Stability of Rainforest Margins in Indonesia” (www.storma.de). This research program started in 2000 and is jointly conducted by the two German Universities, the Georg-August-University of Göttingen (GAUG) and the University of Kassel (UNIK), and by two Indonesian Universities, the Agricultural University of Bogor (Institut Pertanian Bogor, IPB) and the Tadulako University (UNTAD) in Palu. Referring to the main research foci of STORMA, the symposium features three interconnected thematic foci of interdisciplinary research. They refer to changes in the extent and intensity of agricultural and forest land use in tropical forest margins and their implications for rural development and for conservation of natural resources such as biodiversity, soils and water. The first focus “Integrated spatial modeling of land use in tropical forest margins” concerns rain forest margins around the world which comprise a variety of landuse systems, with forest gardens, annual crops in slash-and-burn and agroforestry systems, as well as intensive cultivation, mostly in the valleys. An understanding of the dynamics of land-use change and related resource degradation under various policies scenarios is required, and strategies to reduce and potentially reverse degradation processes are to be developed. The second focus “Sustainable management of agroforestry systems” concerns lowintensity agroforestry which may support high biodiversity stabilizing ecosystem functioning, in particular when shaded by natural trees and neighboured by natural forest. In contrast, high-intensity agroforestry with planted shade trees and in an agricultural landscape context may be characterized by less environmental benefits and high agrochemical inputs. In this focus, the ecological and socio-economic benefits of different management practices will be compared and related to patterns and processes in natural forests. The third focus “Ecological and socio-economic impacts of different forest-use intensities” analyzes ecological and socio-economic benefits and costs across different types of forest use. The consequences of low- and medium-intensity forest-use practices, such as selective timber and rattan extraction, for biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are assessed. We are grateful to our sponsors, namely the German Research Council (DFG), the Georg-August-University Göttingen and the University of Kassel. Our special Thanks goes to the Universities Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB) and Tadulako University (UNTAD) in Palu for their cooperation in the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB 552) “Stability of Rainforest Margins in Indonesia” (STORMA).conferenc

Is There an Environmental Kuznets Curve for Sulfur?

The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis proposes that there is an inverted U-shape relation between environmental degradation and income per capita. Various explanations for this phenomenon have been put forward and some authors argue that important explanatory variables are omitted from conventional EKC estimates. Inclusion of these omitted variables is argued to increase the estimated "turning point" - the level of GDP per capita above which environmental degradation is declining. In this paper we use a new cross-section/time-series data base of sulfur emissions for a wide range of developed and developing countries. The methodology involves estimating EKCs for subsets of this database as well as for the sample as a whole. The results show that estimating an EKC using data for only the OECD countries, as has often been the case, leads to estimates where the turning point is at a much lower level than when the EKC is estimated using data for the World as a whole. The paper explores possible explanations of these results using Monte Carlo analysis, and other statistical tests.We conclude that the simple EKC model is fundamentally misspecified and that there are omitted variables which are correlated with GDP