Proposal of a principle cum scale analytical framework for analyzing agroecological development projects

Because agroecology has different meanings, it may be used in an arbitrary and potentially abusive way when deployed by development cooperation actors conceiving “agroecology-based” development projects. To make the appropriation of agroecology more transparent, we first review the recent attempts in academia to clarify the concept and identify two main trends: a principle-based agroecology and a series of different agroecologies. Based on a critical assessment of these attempts, we then propose a new framework to program, implement and analyze agroecological development projects: it distinguishes different agroecologies with their corresponding categories of principles and their scales of intervention. Further, we argue in favor of a specific category of methodological principles.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Community owned solutions for fire management in tropical ecosystems:case studies from Indigenous communities of South America

Fire plays an increasingly significant role in tropical forest and savanna ecosystems, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and impacting on biodiversity. Emerging research shows the potential role of Indigenous land use practices for controlling deforestation and reducing CO2 emissions. Analysis of satellite imagery suggests that Indigenous lands have the lowest incidence of wildfires, significantly contributing to maintaining carbon stocks and enhancing biodiversity. Yet, acknowledgement of Indigenous peoples’ role in fire management and control is limited, and in many cases dismissed, especially in policy-making circles. In this paper, we review existing data on Indigenous fire management and impact, focusing on examples from tropical forest and savanna ecosystems in Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana. We highlight how the complexities of community owned solutions for fire management are being lost as well as undermined by continued efforts on fire suppression and firefighting, and emerging approaches to incorporate Indigenous fire management into market, incentive-based for climate change mitigation. Our aim is to build a case for supporting Indigenous fire practices within all scales of decision-making by strengthening Indigenous knowledge systems to ensure more effective and sustainable fire management

Risikoorientierte Bewilligung von Erdwärmesonden

Die Zahl an Erdwärmesonden nimmt in ganz Europa stetig zu. Wie mit anderen Technologien der Energiegewinnung sind auch mit Erdwärmesonden Risiken verbunden. Deshalb bedarf es Leitlinien als Grundlage für die Bewilligungsverfahren, die den Bau und Betrieb einer solchen Anlage regeln. Um dabei den zu erwartenden Nutzen gegen mögliche Risiken abwägen zu können, sind Kenntnisse über die hydrogeologischen Verhältnisse am Standort und die dort stattfindenden Prozesse erforderlich. Am Beispiel des Erdwärmenutzungskonzepts des Kantons Basel-Landschaft wird gezeigt, wie die Bewilligung von Erdwärmesonden differenziert geregelt werden kann, und wie die geologischen Merkmale einer Region in ein Erdwärmenutzungskonzept integriert werden können. Dabei werden insbesondere Karstgebiete, Gebiete mit der Gefahr des Gebirgsquellens und der Subrosion, Gewässerschutzbereiche, und Gebiete mit Grundwasserstockwerkbau oder gespannten Grundwasserverhältnissen berücksichtigt. Der Artikel will damit einen Beitrag zur derzeit stattfindenden gesellschaftlichen Diskussion über den Nutzen und die Risiken der untiefen Geothermie leisten, indem er Risiken durch den Bau und Betrieb von Erdwärmesonden beschreibt, und Möglichkeiten aufzeigt, diese Risiken in der Bewilligungspraxis zu berücksichtigen. The number of borehole heat exchangers (BHEs) is continuously rising in Europe. Just like other energy producing technologies, there are risks associated with BHE systems. Therefore, guidelines are necessary for regulating the construction and operation of such installations. In order to be able to trade-off the expected benefits against possible risks, knowledge about the local hydrogeological conditions, and the processes taking place, is required. Using the geothermal energy use concept developed for Canton Basel-Landschaft as an example, it is shown how the approval of BHE systems can be regulated in a differentiated way, and how the geological characteristics of a region can be integrated into a geothermal energy use concept. In particular, karst areas, areas with the risk of ground swelling and subrosion, water protection areas, and areas with multiple or confined aquifers are considered. The article aims at making a contribution to the present societal discussion about the benefits and risks of shallow geothermal energy systems by describing the risks associated with BHEs, and by presenting options to account for these risks in approval practice. Geothermie in der Nordwestschwei

Revising the concept of crop health from an agroecological perspective

The concept of health has been widely used to refer to soils, crops or agroecosystems. It resembles the idea of wholeness or general well-being, which is interesting to integrate different disciplines. There have been valuable contributions in the area of agroecological management of diseases, pests and weeds with the aim of promoting crop health. Nevertheless, they remain relatively disconnected and lack of a comprehensive conceptual framework that helps to define crop health and how to promote it. The aim of this article is to re-conceptualize the notion of crop health from a transdisciplinary and holistic perspective. The system of reference is redefined by including the relationships between the populations of domesticated plants and the farmers. This implies a multidimensional approach and assumes that crop health is related to farmers’ objectives, knowledge, point of views and values. Based on the review of studies in the field of agroecology, four components are proposed to evaluate crop health status: usefulness, adversities, safety and autonomy. Three components of health promotion were adapted from the salutogenic model proposed for human health: meaningfulness, comprehensiveness and manageability. This article intends to make a contribution on theoretical and conceptual aspects of a key concept for agroecology.Fil: Vega, Damián. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Departamento de Producción Vegetal; ArgentinaFil: Gazzano Santos, María Inés. Universidad de la República; UruguayFil: Salas Zapata, Walter. Universidad de Antioquia; ColombiaFil: Poggio, Santiago Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura; Argentin

Limitation of using heat as a groundwater tracer to define aquifer properties: experiment in a large tank model

A large tank (4 × 8 × 1.4 m) filled with loamy sediments and equipped with 26 standard piezometers and 20 multilevel temperature μloggers is used to carry out a thermal monitoring test and investigate the limits of heat as tracer to define aquifer parameters. A constant temperature test was conducted by originating a heat plume using a groundwater heat exchanger and a constant head was used to create a steady state flux. Temperature was monitored continuously during 40 days by data μloggers. To estimate aquifer parameters, a heat transport model was constructed using MT3DMS. Although the boundary conditions are well known, there is still a bias between computed and measured temperatures. Results show that in fine-grained sediments, which are thermal diffusion dominated, it is difficult to precisely distinguish and quantify diffusivity and dispersivity components without also considering solute tracer tests. In this type of alluvial sediments, using heat as groundwater tracer to define aquifer properties can be problematic, since heat transport is relatively insensitive to the longitudinal dispersivity, a relevant parameter for solute transport modeling