Chapter: Landcare on the Poverty-Protection Interface in an Asian Watershed

Serious methodological and policy hurdles constrain effective natural resource management that alleviates poverty while protecting environmental services in tropical watersheds. We review the development of an approach to integrate biodiversity conservation and agroforestry development through the active involvement of communities and their local governments near the Kitanglad Range Natural Park in the Manupali watershed, central Mindanao, the Philippines. Agroforestry innovations were developed to suit the biophysical and socioeconomic conditions of the buffer zone. These included practices for tree farming, and conservation farming for annual cropping on slopes. Institutional innovations improved resource management, resulting in an effective social contract to protect the natural biodiversity o f the park. Fruit and timber tree production dramatically increased, re-establishing tree cover in the buffer zone. Natural vegetative contour strips were installed on several hundred sloping farms. Soil erosion and runoff declined, while the buffer strips increased maize yields by an average of 0.5 t/ha on hill-slope farms. The scientific knowledge base guided the development and implementation of a natural resource management plan for the municipality of Lantapan. A dynamic grassroots movement o f farmer-led Landcare groups evolved in the villages near the park boundary, which had significant impact on conservation in both the natural and managed ecosystems. Encroachment in the natural park was reduced 95% in three years. The local Landcare groups also restored stream corridor vegetation. This integrated approach has been recognized as a national model for local natural resource and watershed management in the Philippines. Currently, the collaborating institutions are evolving a negotiation support system to resolve the interactions between the three management domains: the park, the ancestral domain claim, and the municipalities. This integrated systems approach operated effectively with highly constrained funding, suggesting that commitment and impact may best be stimulated by a “drip-feed” approach rather than by large, externally funded efforts

Cyclin A2 promotes DNA repair in the brain during both development and aging

Various stem cell niches of the brain have differential requirements for Cyclin A2. Cyclin A2 loss results in marked cerebellar dysmorphia, whereas forebrain growth is retarded during early embryonic development yet achieves normal size at birth. To understand the differential requirements of distinct brain regions for Cyclin A2, we utilized neuroanatomical, transgenic mouse, and mathematical modeling techniques to generate testable hypotheses that provide insight into how Cyclin A2 loss results in compensatory forebrain growth during late embryonic development. Using unbiased measurements of the forebrain stem cell niche, we parameterized a mathematical model whereby logistic growth instructs progenitor cells as to the cell-types of their progeny. Our data was consistent with prior findings that progenitors proliferate along an auto-inhibitory growth curve. The growth retardation in CCNA2-null brains corresponded to cell cycle lengthening, imposing a developmental delay. We hypothesized that Cyclin A2 regulates DNA repair and that CCNA2-null progenitors thus experienced lengthened cell cycle. We demonstrate that CCNA2-null progenitors suffer abnormal DNA repair, and implicate Cyclin A2 in double-strand break repair. Cyclin A2's DNA repair functions are conserved among cell lines, neural progenitors, and hippocampal neurons. We further demonstrate that neuronal CCNA2 ablation results in learning and memory deficits in aged mice

Agroforestry Options for Degraded Landscapes in Southeast Asia

In Southeast Asia, 8.5% of the global human population lives on 3.0% of the land area. With 7.9% of the global agricultural land base, the region has 14.7% and 28.9% of such land with at least 10% and 30% tree cover, respectively, and is the worlds’ primary home of ‘agroforests’. Landscapes in the region include the full range of ‘forest transition stages’, as identified in global analysis. A long tradition of top-down national reforestation and tree planting programs has not had success proportional to the efforts and resources allocated. By contrast, farmers in the region have a long tradition of retaining (and managing natural regeneration of) useful trees among planted trees (e.g. tree crops or timber) and annual crops to prevent degradation and avoiding the labour costs of weed control. Meanwhile, state-controlled forests have lost a lot of their diverse tree cover, both legally and illegally. The restoration agenda includes four levels of intensity and stakeholder involvement: (RI) ecological intensification within a land use system; (RII) recovery/regeneration, within a local socioecological system; (RIII) reparation/recuperation, within rules and rewards set by the national policy context; and (RIV) remediation, requiring international support and investment. Major opportunities for restoring the multifunctionality of landscapes in the region are formed by resolution of existing conflicts over multiple claims to ‘forest’ land stewardship. The chapter summarizes lessons learnt in 26 landscapes, grouped in seven ‘degradation syndromes’: Degraded hillslopes, fire-climax grasslands, over-intensified monocropping, forest classification conflicts, drained peatlands, converted mangroves and disturbed soil profiles. It also addresses two overarching concerns: disturbed hydrology and supply sheds at risk. In each landscape, a driver-pressure-state-impact-response analysis of the socioecological system supported a diagnosis beyond the primary degradation symptoms. Appropriate actions reflect six requirements for effective restoration: (1) community involvement, aligned with values and concerns, (2) rights, (3) knowledge and knowhow of sustainable land use practices, (4) markets for inputs (incl. Soil amendments, tree germplasm, labour) and outputs (access, bargaining position), (5) local environmental impacts (often primarily through the water cycle and agrobiodiversity) and (6) global connectivity, including interactions with climate and global biodiversity agendas. All six can be a ‘starting point’ for restoration interventions, but progress is typically limited by several (or all) of the others. In our analysis, all 17 Sustainable Development Goals can contribute to and benefit from a coherent rights-based approach to restoration through agroforestry with specific technologies and choice of species dependent on local context and market access