Using Local Agroecological Knowledge in Climate Change Adaptation: A Study of Tree-Based Options in Northern Morocco

Communities in northern Morocco are vulnerable to increasing water scarcity and food insecurity. Context specific adaptation options thus need to be identified to sustain livelihoods and agroecosystems in this region, and increase the resilience of vulnerable smallholders, and their farming systems, to undesired effects of social-ecological change. This study took a knowledge-based systems approach to explore whether and how tree-based (i.e., agroforestry) options could contribute to meeting these adaptation needs. We analysed local agroecological knowledge of smallholders from the M\ue8 knes–Tafilalet region, to (i) characterise existing farming systems at local landscape scale; (ii) identify possible niches for farm-trees within these systems; and (iii) explore locally perceived barriers to tree-based diversification. An iterative cycle of qualitative interviews, with a purposefully selected sample of 32 farmers, revealed that socio-economic constraints and agroecological conditions in the area differed markedly along a relatively short altitudinal gradient. Agroforestry practices were already integral to all farming systems. Yet, many were at risk of degradation, as water scarcity, low profitability of production systems and uncontrolled grazing constituted critical barriers to the maintenance and diversification of farm-trees. We demonstrate the discriminatory power of local knowledge, to characterise farming conditions at the local landscape scale; and unveil adoption barriers and options for tree-based diversification in northern Morocco

Access mapping highlights risks from land reform in upland Myanmar

Secure land access is vital for Myanmar\u27s upland households, who rely on crops and forests to meet their subsistence needs. But recent land reforms threaten to undermine customary tenure and land-use practices in Myanmar. This paper combines income accounting methods with access theory to assess how new legislation may affect four Chin communities in the country\u27s north-west. Our assessment of 94 households\u27 land-access mechanisms and economic benefits from different types of land reveals existing land-access inequalities among Chin households and demonstrates communities\u27 continued dependence on environmental resources, especially those from swidden fields, home gardens and forests. A majority of households would lose all of their land-derived income, if they were denied access to communities\u27 customarily governed land, e.g., under the Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Land Management Law. Policy stakeholders should therefore intervene, to alleviate land-access inequalities among Chin households and to direct Myanmar\u27s land-system dynamics onto more just development trajectories

Cyclone Komen’s aftermath: Local knowledge shows how poverty and inequalities fuel climate risk in western Myanmar

Cyclones and other extreme events exert increasing pressure on South-East Asia’s societies and put smallholder farmers at risk. Here, we draw on participatory causal-diagramming workshops, interviews and survey data, to provide contextually grounded knowledge about rural communities’ exposure and vulnerability to climate-related hazards in western Myanmar. By tracing how the 2015 cyclone Komen led to a prolonged humanitarian disaster, we show that climate-related risks in this area arise from the complex interplay of households’ pre-existing vulnerabilities, persistent farming challenges, extensive disasters and cascading effects, which disparately affect lowland and upland communities. The different household strata’s dissimilar vulnerabilities vis-\ue0-vis Komen’s impacts were rooted in the distinct exposure of their production systems to landslides and floods. Pre-existing land-access barriers, land-degradation processes, climatic stressors, agricultural pests and diseases, and chronic lack of assets and food insecurity further mediated households’ vulnerability. Relief interventions did not stop the disaster’s escalation, although this could have been achieved with early technical and material assistance to address the cyclone’s impacts on farmers’ land. Targeted aid for households facing imminent food insecurity or debt crisis could have lessened engagement in precarious coping strategies and distress migration. A diversification of households’ livelihood and land-use practices and increased redundancies of critical assets and infrastructure could help to mitigate future cyclone-triggered disasters. By demonstrating the strengths of local knowledge approaches in untangling the complex interplay of extreme events with households’ everyday vulnerabilities and agricultural land-use practices, we make a case for more contextually grounded disaster risk and climate adaptation research

Universitasisasi STAIN Malang: Analisis Kebijakan Publik Perubahan Kelembagaan dalam Perspektif Filsafat Nilai

This paper examines to study institutional change of the State Islamic University (SIU), Malang. This study gets some summaries: First, that institutional change of SIU indicates that social sphere of higher education coloured with struggle for implementation of Islamic universality in education field. Struggle in social sphere of higher education cannot be discharged from spirit of Islam people to make a "more active" social sphere in Indonesia society. Spirit of universalization of Islamic values cannot be discharged from event pushing universitization of SIHE in the early 21 C. Second, successness of institutional change in SIU, Malang because: (a) its elite actors able to mobilize its modalities both economic, social, culture, symbolic, spiritual, political, and leadership capitals; (b) there is braveness from elit actors to put a window of opportunity as institutional actor for implementation of MoU between Minitry of Religious Affairs, Indonesia and Ministry of Education, Sudan by transform State of Islamic College of Malang (SICM) become Indonesia-Sudan Islamic University (ISIU). This Institutional change from SICM to ISIU, actually as an opportunity transformation from institutional problem toward international problem

Producing Feedstock for Biofuels: Land-Use and Local Environmental Impacts

This report covers Chalmers responsibilities for subtask 1.3 - land-use patterns as well as parts of subtask 3.4 – data for other environmental impacts, in the EU Biofuel Baseline projec

Upland Livelihoods between Local Land and Global Labour Market Dependencies: Evidence from Northern Chin State, Myanmar

Livelihoods and agrarian change processes across upland South-East Asia have beenexplored for decades. Yet, knowledge gaps remain about contemporary livelihood strategiesand land dependence in areas previously inaccessible to academic research, such as in uplandMyanmar. Moreover, new strands of inquiry arise with continued globalisation, e.g., into the effectsof remittances and labour migration on household incomes and livelihoods in distant upland areas.This study applied clustering techniques to income accounts of 94 households from northern ChinState, Myanmar to: (i) Identify households’ livelihood strategies; (ii) assess their dependence onaccess to land and natural resources; and (iii) compare absolute and relative incomes across strategies.We show that households engaged in six relatively distinct livelihood strategies: Relying primarilyon own farming activities; making a living off the land with mixed income from agriculture andforest resources; engaging in wage employment; living from remittances; practicing non-forest treehusbandry; or engaging in self-employed business activities. We found significant income inequalitiesacross clusters, with households engaging in remittance and wage-oriented livelihood strategiesrealizing higher incomes than those primarily involved in land-based activities. Our findings pointto differentiated vulnerabilities associated with the identified livelihood strategies—to climate risks,shifting land-governance regimes and labour market forces

Contributions of paraecologists and parataxonomists to research, conservation, and social development

Citizen science has been gaining momentum in the United States and Europe, where citizens are literate and often interested in science. However, in developing countries, which have a dire need for environmental data, such programs are slow to emerge, despite the large and untapped human resources in close proximity to areas of high biodiversity and poorly known floras and faunas. Thus, we propose that the parataxonomist and paraecologist approach, which originates from citizen-based science, is well suited to rural areas in developing countries. Being a paraecologist or a parataxonomist is a vocation and entails full-time employment underpinned by extensive training, whereas citizen science involves the temporary engagement of volunteers. Both approaches have their merits depending on the context and objectives of the research. We examined 4 ongoing paraecologist or parataxonomist programs in Costa Rica, India, Papua New Guinea, and southern Africa and compared their origins, long-term objectives, implementation strategies, activities, key challenges, achievements, and implications for resident communities. The programs supported ongoing research on biodiversity assessment, monitoring, and management, and participants engaged in non-academic capacity development in these fields. The programs in Southern Africa related to specific projects, whereas the programs in Costa Rica, India, and Papua New Guinea were designed for the long term, provided sufficient funding was available. The main focus of the paraecologists' and parataxonomists' activities ranged from collection and processing of specimens (Costa Rica and Papua New Guinea) or of socioeconomic and natural science data (India and Southern Africa) to communication between scientists and residents (India and Southern Africa). As members of both the local land user and research communities, paraecologists and parataxonomists can greatly improve the flow of biodiversity information to all users, from local stakeholders to international academia

The Effect of Heavy Squats on Countermovement Jump with Arm Swing : Cross- sectional study on active team sport players

Introduktion: Den vertikala hoppförmågan är viktigt för prestationen inom många idrotter. Att använda sig utav komplexträning som benböj och vertikala upphopp har i tidigare forskning visats ge signifikant förbättrad kraftutveckling. Post-Activation Potentiation (PAP) är ett fysiologiskt fenomen som ökar muskelspänningen och kraftutvecklingen i de arbetande musklerna, vilket kan implementeras under komplexträning. Syftet med studien var att undersöka om idrottare inom basket, fotboll, handboll och volleyboll får en gynnsam ökning på Countermovement jump with arm swing (CMJa) om de genomför benböj med en belastning på 50% och 80% av deras estimerade eller faktiskt uppmätta 1 repetition maximum (RM) innan test av CMJa. Metod: 9 män och 2 kvinnor, ålder 20.6±3.3, 181.4±7.4 cm, vikt, 76.9±12.6 kg, deltog där samtliga deltagare var aktiva inom någon av idrotterna basket, fotboll och handboll. Testdeltagarna utförde två set tunga benböj följt av fem set CMJa på en infraröd sensor. Resultat: Resultatet visade ingen signifikant förbättring över tid i hopphöjd hos aktiva bollidrottare (p=0.98). Slutsats: Resultatet tyder på att användandet av PAP med tunga benböj inte leda till förbättrad prestation på hopphöjden vid genomförande av CMJa hos bollidrottare. Resultatet i den här studien stödjer inte tidigare forskningsresultat om att det finns en positiv skillnad på hopphöjd efter tunga benböj över tid.Introduction: The vertical jump ability is essential for performance in many sports. The use of complex training has in previous research been shown to provide significantly improved power development. Post-Activation Potentiation (PAP) is a physical phenomenon that increases muscle tension and the force development of the working muscles which can be implemented in complex training. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether athletes in basketball, football, handball and volleyball will have a favorable increase in Countermovement jump with arm swing (CMJa) if they perform heavier squats with a load of 50% and 80% of their estimated or measured 1 repeat maximum (RM) before CMJa. Method: 9 men and 2 women, age 20.6±3.3 years, height 181.4±7.4 cm, 76.9±12.6 kg body mass participated in the study. All participants were active in one of the sports basket, football, handball or volleyball. The participants performed two set of squats followed by five set of two repetition CMJas with a five minutes rest in between. An infrared sensor MuscleLab was used to analyze the jump height. Results: The result showed no significant difference between heavy squats and jump height in CMJa over time (p=0.98). Conclusion: Squats with 50% and 80% of 1RM do not seem to improve jump height performance in CMJ on team sports players. The result in this study does not support the results in previous studies showing a positive effect of heavy squats on maximal jump height

The Effect of Heavy Squats on Countermovement Jump with Arm Swing : Cross- sectional study on active team sport players

Introduktion: Den vertikala hoppförmågan är viktigt för prestationen inom många idrotter. Att använda sig utav komplexträning som benböj och vertikala upphopp har i tidigare forskning visats ge signifikant förbättrad kraftutveckling. Post-Activation Potentiation (PAP) är ett fysiologiskt fenomen som ökar muskelspänningen och kraftutvecklingen i de arbetande musklerna, vilket kan implementeras under komplexträning. Syftet med studien var att undersöka om idrottare inom basket, fotboll, handboll och volleyboll får en gynnsam ökning på Countermovement jump with arm swing (CMJa) om de genomför benböj med en belastning på 50% och 80% av deras estimerade eller faktiskt uppmätta 1 repetition maximum (RM) innan test av CMJa. Metod: 9 män och 2 kvinnor, ålder 20.6±3.3, 181.4±7.4 cm, vikt, 76.9±12.6 kg, deltog där samtliga deltagare var aktiva inom någon av idrotterna basket, fotboll och handboll. Testdeltagarna utförde två set tunga benböj följt av fem set CMJa på en infraröd sensor. Resultat: Resultatet visade ingen signifikant förbättring över tid i hopphöjd hos aktiva bollidrottare (p=0.98). Slutsats: Resultatet tyder på att användandet av PAP med tunga benböj inte leda till förbättrad prestation på hopphöjden vid genomförande av CMJa hos bollidrottare. Resultatet i den här studien stödjer inte tidigare forskningsresultat om att det finns en positiv skillnad på hopphöjd efter tunga benböj över tid.Introduction: The vertical jump ability is essential for performance in many sports. The use of complex training has in previous research been shown to provide significantly improved power development. Post-Activation Potentiation (PAP) is a physical phenomenon that increases muscle tension and the force development of the working muscles which can be implemented in complex training. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether athletes in basketball, football, handball and volleyball will have a favorable increase in Countermovement jump with arm swing (CMJa) if they perform heavier squats with a load of 50% and 80% of their estimated or measured 1 repeat maximum (RM) before CMJa. Method: 9 men and 2 women, age 20.6±3.3 years, height 181.4±7.4 cm, 76.9±12.6 kg body mass participated in the study. All participants were active in one of the sports basket, football, handball or volleyball. The participants performed two set of squats followed by five set of two repetition CMJas with a five minutes rest in between. An infrared sensor MuscleLab was used to analyze the jump height. Results: The result showed no significant difference between heavy squats and jump height in CMJa over time (p=0.98). Conclusion: Squats with 50% and 80% of 1RM do not seem to improve jump height performance in CMJ on team sports players. The result in this study does not support the results in previous studies showing a positive effect of heavy squats on maximal jump height

Cultivating resilient landscapes - opportunities for restoring degraded and vulnerable lands with agroforestry systems

Shifts in global land use have led to loss of biodiversity, land degradation and declines in ecosystem services. In many geographical areas the deterioration is currently at a near catastrophic scale and the impact is huge, both in terms of food production and deforestation. If managed correctly ecological restoration can offer a chance to reverse environmental degradation as well as help mitigating climate change. This study identifies such opportunities by analysing how an expansion of agroforestry management onto degraded land may restore productivity and ecosystem services. Using reforestation as a restoration alternative has been widely recognized, however, the provision of ecosystem services may be limited. In contrast, agroforestry offers the possibility to generate a wide variety of both environmental and socioeconomic benefits, and through that also a higher potential of success. With a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches the project captures a broad spectrum of drivers of degradation as well as possibilities to overcome obstacles that hinders restoration. The study includes a comprehensive assessment of opportunities and risks associated with ecological restoration of degraded land. More specifically, the aim of the study is to propose practical solutions for restoration of degraded land with a focus on multiple ecosystem services. The results and recommendations will be based on comparative field research from Sri Lanka and Vietnam. The presentation will be well in line with the conference theme of land transformation on a local level with potential impact on a larger scale. The session will benefit from this multidisciplinary field based case studies with examples of how degraded land can be rehabilitated aiming for climate change adaptation and mitigation