Sustainability of Smallholder Livelihoods in the Ecuadorian Highlands : A Comparison of Agroforestry and Conventional Agriculture Systems in the Indigenous Territory of Kayambi People

Smallholder farming constitutes an important but marginalized sector, responsible for most of the world’s agricultural production. This has a significant influence in the land use/cover change process and agrobiodiversity conservation, especially in mountainous regions of the developing world. Thus, the maintenance of sustainable smallholder farming systems represents a key condition for sustainable land management and to safeguard the livelihoods of millions of rural households. This study uses a combination of biophysical and socioeconomic data based on household interviews to compare 30 highland agroforestry systems and 30 conventional agriculture systems, to determine which system provides better conditions to support sustainable livelihoods for smallholder farmers. The interview data is based mainly on the perceptions of Kayambi indigenous farmers who use these farming systems to support their livelihoods. Independent-Samples t Test and descriptive statistics were applied to analyse the data from 60 farms. The results indicate that agroforestry systems contain greater agrobiodiversity; more diversified livelihoods; better land tenure security and household income; more diversified irrigation sources and less dependency on rainfall than conventional systems. These findings highlight the role of agroforestry systems in supporting sustainable livelihoods of smallholder farmers in mountainous areas.Peer reviewe

Mountain Farming Systems’ Exposure and Sensitivity to Climate Change and Variability: Agroforestry and Conventional Agriculture Systems Compared in Ecuador’s Indigenous Territory of Kayambi People

Smallholder farming is considered one of the most vulnerable sectors to the impacts of climate change, variability, and extremes, especially in the developing world. This high vulnerability is due to the socioeconomic limitations and high environmental sensitivity which affect the biophysical and socioeconomic components of their farming systems. Therefore, systems’ functionality and farmers’ livelihoods will also be affected, with significant implications for global food security, land-use/land-cover change processes and agrobiodiversity conservation. Thus, less vulnerable and more resilient smallholder farming systems constitute an important requisite for sustainable land management and to safeguard the livelihoods of millions of rural and urban households. This study compares a comprehensive socioeconomic and environmental dataset collected in 2015–2016 based on household interviews of 30 farmers of highland agroforestry systems and 30 farmers of conventional agriculture systems, to determine which system provides better opportunities to reduce exposure and sensitivity. A modified Climate Change Questionnaire Version 2 of the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) was applied to collect the data. The interview data are based on the perceptions of Kayambi indigenous farmers about the levels of exposure and sensitivity of their farming systems during the last decade. Descriptive statistics were applied to analyze the data from the 60 farms. Results indicate that both agroforesters and conventional farmers clearly perceived increases in temperature and reductions in precipitation for the last decade, and expected this trend to continue in the next decade. Furthermore, conventional farmers perceived greater exposure to droughts (20%), solar radiation (43%), and pests, weeds and disease outbreaks (40%) than agroforesters. Additionally, results emphasize the better ability of agroforestry systems to reduce exposure and sensitivity to climate change and variability. These findings support the well-known assumptions about the key role played by agroforestry systems for climate change adaptation and mitigation, especially in developing countries

Making chocolate truly sustainable

When we eat a delicious piece of chocolate, do we have any idea of the journey it undertook to get to us, or the potential harm it has caused to people and the planet? This article discusses the potential and actual sustainability of cocoa and chocolate, from farmer to consumer. This round-the-world journey follows cocoa production from the tree all the way to supermarket shelves. This voyage of discovery shows that zero deforestation efforts are an excellent means of addressing the challenges in making cocoa production and trade sustainable. Many other issues need to be addressed before cocoa — or even better, chocolate — is truly sustainable. Efforts to make supply chains “green” must be embedded in a broader discussion about how to ensure sustainability, from commodity production to end products, from farmer to consumer, and not just at some of the points along the way.Peer reviewe

China’s Conversion of Cropland to Forest Program: A systematic review of the socioeconomic and environmental effects

Background Farming on sloping lands has historically led to forest loss and degradation in China which, coupled with timber extraction activities, was deemed responsible for catastrophic flooding events in the late 1990s. These events led to the introduction of forest policies targeting ecological conservation and rural development in China, a process epitomized by the launch of the Conversion of Cropland to Forest Program (CCFP) in 1999. Methods/design This systematic review responds to the question: What environmental and socioeconomic effects has the Conversion of Cropland to Forest Program had on land resources and human populations during its first 15 years? Following the published protocol, we searched for English language studies published between 1999 and 2014, and screened them for relevance and eligibility in two stages (titles and abstracts followed by full texts), after which they were further assessed for potential sources of bias (study quality assessment) before data extraction and analyses. Forty three studies were identified as meeting our inclusion and quality criteria following screening of 879 search results, indicating an overall lack of high quality studies with primary data on the impacts of CCFP. Eighty per cent of county-level case studies were conducted in only four provinces, and 13 of the 25 provinces where the CCFP is implemented are not represented by these county-level cases in the review. The review also includes, however, four national level studies covering 20 provinces and seven regional level studies, each covering several provinces. The majority of studies were published after 2009 and evaluated impacts within the first five years of CCFP implementation, such that the long term impacts of the program remain open for further investigation. Results The skewed temporal and geographic distribution of studies limits the generalizability of the results, though the evidence base confirms a substantial increase in forest cover and associated carbon stocks linked to reallocation of sloping agricultural land to forest. To some degree, soil erosion has been controlled and flood risk reduced at local scales. Meanwhile household incomes have increased and rural employment has readjusted towards off-farm sectors. However, studies also indicate instances of diminished food security and increasing social inequality. Finally, several studies indicate suboptimal regional or localized tradeoffs among specific ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration vs. water discharge rates, flood control vs. riparian soil replacement, and forest productivity vs. biodiversity. Conclusions Additional research on long-term environmental impacts and program effects in under-studied regions, particularly southern and western provinces, is necessary. In terms of recommendations for future research on the CCFP, there is a significant need to examine confounding factors, ideally through the selection of matching control groups to CCFP participants, and to ensure sampling methodologies are more representative of selected study sites and the overall targeted area. There remain many opportunities to assess specific socioecological effects, upon which to base future policy decisions and more broadly inform ecological restoration and eco-compensation in both theory and practice.Peer reviewe

A systematic review of the socio-economic impacts of large-scale tree plantations, worldwide

Corrigendum: The author regrets to inform readers about an error in the legend of Fig. 8. Currently the legend reads "Fig. 8. Associations between cate-gories." However, the correct version is "Fig. 8. Associations betweencategories. Yellow lines refer to both mutually-reinforcing and negatingassociations. Linewidth reflects the relative abundance of such asso-ciations in the evidence base."The author apologizes for this error and any consequent incon-venience to readers. (Global Environmental Change Volume 57, July 2019, 101931)Since their widespread introduction in the 1980s, large-scale tree plantations have seen contestations over their socio-economic impacts. With the establishment of new plantations on the rise, a review of the literature examining their impacts on local communities is needed to inform policies and practices. In this systematic review, we followed an a priori protocol to reduce the selection biases inherent to conventional literature reviews, and considered both grey and peer-reviewed literature. Of the 20,450 studies identified in our literature search, only 92 studies met our predefined inclusion criteria. However, only 22 studies presented a clear comparator and considered confounding factors in their analysis. Of the 251 impacts identified in this sample, most impacts across the nine categories were characterised as predominantly negative impacts attributed to large-scale tree plantations. Impacts on employment (22% of reported impacts/of which 41% predominantly negative), land (21%/81%), livelihoods (12%/48%) and the often intertwined social impacts (20%/69%) were the most commonly considered categories, within which a majority of studies agreed on the impact dynamics when in similar contexts, resembling the dynamics observed in other large-scale land-based investments. Most impacts were reported from Southeast Asia (34% of reported impacts), South America (29%), Africa (23%) and Australasia (12%). We corroborate that costs of large-scale tree plantations for residents tend to be front-loaded, especially when plantations have displaced customary land uses, and possible benefits to accrue over time, moderated by the emergence of local processing and complementary livelihood activities. However, given the methodological inconsistencies in our sample and the under-representation of areas known to have undergone plantation development, strong global evidence on the long-term socio-economic impacts of large-scale tree plantations remains limited.Peer reviewe

Green economic development in Lao PDR : a Sustainability Window analysis of Green Growth Productivity and the Efficiency Gap

A novel 'Sustainability Window' (SuWi) approach is applied for simultaneous analysis of the pillars of sustainable development; social, environmental and economic, of Lao PDR. This new method employs a variety of indicators for a comprehensive and holistic analysis of sustainable development and green inclusive economy. The analysis is grounded in the assumption that economic development is required for social development, but that simultaneously development needs to be guarded or limited to protect the environment that underpins it. As all three dimensions of sustainable development are interlinked, a comprehensive analysis requires an analytical approach that is simultaneous. The analyses provide information on minimum levels of economic development that are needed to fulfil social sustainability criteria, in tandem with the maximum economic development that avoids breaching environmental sustainability criteria. If actual economic growth lies between these minima and maxima, we can interpret that development is more sustainable with respect to the relationships embodied by the selected social and environmental indicators. The main source of data is the database of the Sustainable Society Index (SSI) developed by the Sustainable Society Foundation (SSF). The indicators used by SSI have been chosen for the Sustainability Window analysis as they can be used to assess both 'weak' and 'strong' interpretations of sustainability. Weak sustainability is defined operationally as no increase in the environmental or carbon emissions intensity of the economy, while strong sustainability is defined as no increase in absolute emissions. Further, a novel Environmental Efficiency Gap analysis has been included in the Sustainability Window. This provides information about the necessary improvement in GDP production efficiency with respect to environmental emissions. Sustainability Window combined with Environmental Efficiency Gap analysis, provides critical knowledge for planners and decision makers. It provides strategic indications of how to aim for social and environmental sustainability through economic investment and growth targets. These new methods can be used in transdisciplinary research of sustainable development and can also assist in national and regional comparisons. In the case of Lao PDR, the analysis needs to be broadened for more fundamental understanding of the gaps and weaknesses. SuWi can be used to assess the sustainable development needed to address the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. The SuWi does not provide direct policy recommendations as such, but helps to inform decision makers about the direction of development pathways towards these key goals. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.Peer reviewe

A framework for complex climate change risk assessment

The approach encourages divergent thinking, which traverses sectoral and regional boundaries and recognizes links between physical and socio-economic drivers of risk. In this paper recent work describing complex climate change risk is synthesized. It includes concepts of compound, connected, and cascading interactions. It reflects on the consequences of risk assessment and response. It then establishes a framework for risk assessment that encompasses increasing levels of complexity. The framework is demonstrated through diverse case studies to illustrate how risk assessments can better consider and categorize complexity. For convenience and tractability, analysts tend to break risk assessments into silos, often taking a component-oriented view.UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Offic

What is a Green Economy? Review of National-Level Green Economy Policies in Cambodia and Lao PDR

A green economy that simultaneously promotes environmental sustainability, social inclusiveness, and economic growth is expected to benefit the heavily resource-dependent least developed countries. Yet, internationally, there is very little empirically based research on how the “green development” agenda translates into natural resource management policies in the least developed countries. This paper examines the implementation of green economy policies at the national level in the energy and forestry sectors in the Lao PDR and Cambodia. Both countries have adopted green growth targets; however, in terms of natural resources management, two contradictory processes have taken place during the past decade. While there have been some initiatives to decentralize natural resource management by enhancing the role of local communities role, such as community-based forest or fishery management, the far greater trend has been the opening up of the economies of the Lao PDR and Cambodia to large-scale investments by multinational enterprises. Large-scale hydropower projects and increasing deforestation pose challenges to more sustainable natural resource management efforts. This article is based on an analysis of the national green economy strategies and expert interviews with the government, academia, private sector and international and national development organizations. Focusing on the energy and forestry sectors, but also analysing the national green economy strategies as a whole, our analysis sheds light on the choices made in the national development versus green economy strategies. While green economy thinking rests on strong state regulation, the policies are often formulated within a complex dynamic of donor and investor interests. The achievement of a green economy depends on the state; thus, it should steer investments to ecologically less harmful industries and ensure social inclusiveness in land-use decisions. Our results show, however, that implementing a green economy is far more complex. Despite the quest for synergies, at the sectoral level there are still many unaddressed trade-offs between, for example, energy sources and forms of land use

What is a Green Economy? Review of National-Level Green Economy Policies in Cambodia and Lao PDR

A green economy that simultaneously promotes environmental sustainability, social inclusiveness, and economic growth is expected to benefit the heavily resource-dependent least developed countries. Yet, internationally, there is very little empirically based research on how the “green development” agenda translates into natural resource management policies in the least developed countries. This paper examines the implementation of green economy policies at the national level in the energy and forestry sectors in the Lao PDR and Cambodia. Both countries have adopted green growth targets; however, in terms of natural resources management, two contradictory processes have taken place during the past decade. While there have been some initiatives to decentralize natural resource management by enhancing the role of local communities role, such as community-based forest or fishery management, the far greater trend has been the opening up of the economies of the Lao PDR and Cambodia to large-scale investments by multinational enterprises. Large-scale hydropower projects and increasing deforestation pose challenges to more sustainable natural resource management efforts. This article is based on an analysis of the national green economy strategies and expert interviews with the government, academia, private sector and international and national development organizations. Focusing on the energy and forestry sectors, but also analysing the national green economy strategies as a whole, our analysis sheds light on the choices made in the national development versus green economy strategies. While green economy thinking rests on strong state regulation, the policies are often formulated within a complex dynamic of donor and investor interests. The achievement of a green economy depends on the state; thus, it should steer investments to ecologically less harmful industries and ensure social inclusiveness in land-use decisions. Our results show, however, that implementing a green economy is far more complex. Despite the quest for synergies, at the sectoral level there are still many unaddressed trade-offs between, for example, energy sources and forms of land use