Social-ecological resilience in organic and non-organic cocoa farming systems in the Yungas of Bolivia

Cocoa based small scale agriculture is the basic livelihood of most farming families in the region of Alto Beni in the Bolivian Andes. Cocoa cultivation is affected by climate change impacts, soil degradation, pests and plant diseases, and insecure cocoa prices. From a sustainable development point of view, cocoa farms need thus to become more resilient. Resilience refers to the ability within a farming system to reduce the sensitivity to stress factors while maintaining productivity, the capacity for self-organisation, to learn, and to adapt to change. Resilience can be subdivided in the three features buffer capacity, self-organisation, and adaptive capacity. This study addresses differences in resilience of organic and non-organic cocoa farms, and the most important features that influence social-ecological resilience in cocoa farming systems. Indicators for resilience were defined in a transdisciplinary process with local experts and cocoa farmers in a workshop and focus groups. Indicators for buffer capacity were tree diversity, crop diversity, and the diversity of income sources of the farming family. Indicators for self-organisation were the interaction with farmers’ organisations, their subsistence level, cocoa yields, and the annual family income. Adaptive capacity was assessed by inquiring the number of courses on cocoa cultivation family members had participated in, and the number of information sources they had. We interviewed 52 certified and non-certified households and conducted an in-depth participant observation with 15 households from the sample. It resulted that organic farms in the research area were more diversified (tree species in cocoa plots: 4.4 vs. 1.9, crop diversity: 8.4 vs. 6.7 crop varieties on cocoa farms), and had higher cocoa yields (506 kg ha−1 yr−1 vs. 335.8 kg ha−1 yr−1, both without external inputs). Annual family income was significantly higher on organic farms with 7530.2 vs. 6044.4 USD. Organic farmers had participated in more courses on cocoa cultivation which may be the main reason for the better performance of their farms. We conclude that resilience building was enhanced by local organisations that organise organic certification and go further than basic organic certification principles by providing extension services, tree seedlings, capacity building, and certain social insurances

La emancipación como posibilidad para transitar hacia una gobernanza sustentable del agua

En un contexto donde el Estado ha fallado en las políticas de protección social respecto al agua, los intereses privados de comodificación ejercen cada vez más control en el acceso y la gestión del agua. A raíz de esta imposición de políticas y proyectos hidráulicos –como la presa El Zapotillo en el occidente de México– surge una resistencia social que también motiva el debate y la búsqueda de alternativas más sustentables. Los resultados obtenidos en este trabajo indican que el reclamo de justicia, el acceso al agua y las estrategias seguidas por diferentes actores, adquieren un interesante significado a la luz de un triple movimiento que revela interacciones entre el mercado, el Estado y la sociedad. Más allá de la fallida protección del Estado y de la resistencia social contra la comodificación del agua, se descubre un movimiento social hacia la emancipación que permite reconocer avances y desafíos pendientes en dirección hacia una gobernanza sustentable del agua.ITESO, A.C.Waterlat-Gobacit Research NetworkUniversidad de Bern

Water Justice and Integrated Water Resources Management: Constitutionality Processes Favoring Sustainable Water Governance in Mexico

This research analyzes four ongoing water conflicts in Jalisco state, Mexico, through the lens of constitutionality. Constitutionality refers to a bottom-up institution building process based on the activation of emic perceptions of people who are often marginalized in policymaking, as well as on alliances with external actors, with the aim of achieving recognition by the state of self-created institutions. Results show that the constitutionality concept helps to link analysis of local people’s resistance movements against top-down water policies with an emerging process of institutional innovation that aims for more sustainable water governance. Local institutional innovations embody the principles of water justice; these are recognized by the state as being part of its own Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) policy, and thus find their way into state policy arenas. This analysis provided the basis for the formulation of a conceptual framework that integrates water conflicts, water justice, and IWRM into the concept of constitutionality.ITESOConsejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologí

Koproduktion von Wissen in der Entwicklung des Biolandbaus - Einflüsse von Marginalisierung, Anerkennung und Markt

The empirical analysis of the historical development of transdisciplinary co-production of knowledge (CPK) in organic agriculture (OA) in Switzerland has revealed three distinct phases. The initial phase shows various characteristics of transdisciplinary CPK and a high importance of experiential knowledge. The 2nd and 3rd phases involve an in-creasing segregation of farmers’, extension agents’, and scientists’ knowledge, caused by internal and external impacts, i.e. foundation of independent research institutions, changes in agriculture policy, and new market strategies. These developments strikingly represent an ambiguous trend: the growing societal and political recognition of OA and the increasing market, which are positive achievements, are associated by a gradual loss of very precious forms of CPK. A successful re-establishment of CPK processes and re-integration of experiential knowledge would help to resolve this dilemma and thus improve future research in OA and sustainability research in general

Einflussfaktoren auf Soziale und Gesellschaftliche Lernprozesse im Wissenssystem Biolandbau

Improved organic farming methods that enable more sustainable use of natural resources are numerous and are applied in almost every region of this planet. However, when it comes to spreading and adapting these methods to specific ecological and socio-economic contexts, we know only little about what factors influence the learning processes involved. This study aims at a thorough assessment of factors that are enabling or hindering knowledge co-production in organic farming in general and of sustainable rice farming in particular. Following a qualitative multilevel analysis, special emphasis is placed on understanding how the socio-economic, cultural and ecological context is constituted (macro-level), how key stakeholder groups collaborate and enhance societal and social learning processes (meso-level), and to what degree these processes lead to enhancement and integration of organic rice farming methods in the farmers’ livelihood systems (micro-level). Case studies in South Korea and Cambodia show that capacity building and institutionalization of key actors such as farmer promoters and farmer researchers, as well as farmer group maintenance with diverse incentives for sustained participation are vital enabling factors

Applying the Theory of Access to Food Security among Smallholder Family Farmers around North-West Mount Kenya

Access to productive resources such as land and water is fundamental for households that rely on crop and livestock production for their livelihoods. Research often assumes that agricultural production—and thus, food security—are favoured by tenure security of resources (as represented by a “bundle of property rights”). However, research has not yet elucidated how food security is influenced by additional factors, represented within a “bundle of powers”. Guided by the Theory of Access developed by Ribot and Peluso, we explore the main factors in the respective bundles of rights and powers that influence household food security around north-west Mount Kenya. We interviewed 76 households—38 food secure and 38 food insecure—who were subsampled from a previous foodsecurity survey of 380 households. Results show that household food insecurity was not exclusively the result of a lack of private property rights as many farmers had retained their property rights. Instead, a major factor preventing access to productive resources was the difficulty faced by food insecure households in accessing farm technology (i.e. hand tools and implements). Access to authority and via social relations were significantly correlated with access to technology, so improving the latter must take into account the former

"It was Hard to Come to Mutual Understanding ...”—The Multidimensionality of Social Learning Processes Concerned with Sustainable Natural Resource Use in India, Africa and Latin America

Sustainable natural resource use requires that multiple actors reassess their situation in a systemic perspective. This can be conceptualised as a social learning process between actors from rural communities and the experts from outside organisations. A specifically designed workshop oriented towards a systemic view of natural resource use and the enhancement of mutual learning between local and external actors, provided the background for evaluating the potentials and constraints of intensified social learning processes. Case studies in rural communities in India, Bolivia, Peru and Mali showed that changes in the narratives of the participants of the workshop followed a similar temporal sequence relatively independently from their specific contexts. Social learning processes were found to be more likely to be successful if they 1) opened new space for communicative action, allowing for an intersubjective re-definition of the present situation, 2) contributed to rebalance the relationships between social capital and social, emotional and cognitive competencies within and between local and external actor

Social Learning Processes in Swiss Soil Protection—The ‘From Farmer - To Farmer' Project

Social learning approaches have become a prominent focus in studies related to sustainable agriculture. In order to better understand the potential of social learning for more sustainable development, the present study assessed the processes, effects and facilitating elements of interaction related to social learning in the context of Swiss soil protection and the innovative ‘From Farmer - To Farmer' project. The study reveals that social learning contributes to fundamental transformations of patterns of interactions. However, the study also demonstrates that a learning-oriented understanding of sustainable development implies including analysis of the institutional environments in which the organizations of the individual representatives of face-to-face-based social learning processes are operating. This has shown to be a decisive element when face-to-face-based learning processes of the organisations' representatives are translated into organisational learning. Moreover, the study revealed that this was achieved not directly through formalisation of new lines of institutionalised cooperation but by establishing links in a ‘boundary space' trying out new forms of collaboration, aiming at social learning and co-production of knowledge. It is argued that further research on social learning processes should give greater emphasis to this intermediary level of ‘boundary spaces