Avaliação da Resiliência como ferramenta para entender a fronteira amazônica como um sistema socioecológico

This article introduces resilience thinking and a methodology for Resilience Assessment that consists of defining the system (key issue and system boundaries in time and space); looking at history (timeline and cross-scale drivers and interactions); specifying resilience of what to what (defining attributes and variables); scenarios (likely future drivers and possible desirable and undesirable future regimes); and developing management considerations to promote desirable scenarios. Resilience assessment for three major social groups of Cotriguaçu municipality in Mato Grosso, Brazil -- medium to large landholders, the Rikbaktsa indigenous people, and family farmers -- found that each social group has gone through multiple iterations of the growth-collapse-reorganization adaptive cycle and that the dynamics of this system are largely determined by economic and policy drivers that come from a larger scale. Contributions to the resilience assessment methodology are to base the analysis of the system on its historical trajectory, seek to explicitly incorporate the perspectives of local actors, and use scenario analysis to develop possible management interventions.Este artigo apresenta o pensamento de resiliência e uma metodologia para avaliação desta que consisteem definir o sistema (pergunta-chave e limites do sistema no tempo e no espaço); olhando paraa história (linha do tempo, fatores desencadeantes e interações entre escalas); especificando a resiliência“do que” e “contra que” (definição de atributos e variáveis); cenários (prováveis fatores desencadeantesfuturos e possíveis regimes futuros desejáveis e indesejáveis); e desenvolvimento deconsiderações de gestão para promover cenários desejáveis. A avaliação de resiliência de três grandesgrupos sociais do município de Cotriguaçu em Mato Grosso, Brasil ”“ proprietários de terras médias egrandes, os povos indígenas Rikbaktsa e agricultores familiares ”“ revelou que cada grupo social passoupor várias iterações do ciclo adaptativo (crescimento-colapso-reorganização), e que a dinâmica dessesistema é em grande parte determinada por fatores econômicos e políticos que vêm de uma escala maior. Contribuições para a metodologia de avaliação de resiliência incluem basear a análise do sistemaem sua trajetória histórica, procurar incorporar explicitamente as perspectivas dos atores locais, eusar a análise de cenários para desenvolver possíveis intervenções de gestão

Avaliação da resiliência socioecológica como ferramenta para a gestão da fronteira amazônica:: experiências e reflexões

A Amazônia brasileira compreende um conjunto único de paisagens e dinâmicas socioecológicas interdependentes, configuradas por uma diversidade de atores, ecossistemas, usos da terra e práticas de manejo de recursos naturais. No entanto, a sociedade brasileira e global vivencia um momento de alto risco em relação à sustentabilidade da mega biodiversidade das paisagens amazônicas. A transformação e degradação destes ambientes decorre do modelo de desenvolvimento adotado no país, em conjunto com o modelo político e fatores associados como mudanças climáticas, desmatamento, uso intensivo da terra para agropecuária, mineração, implementação de infraestrutura de forma inadequada, contaminação por agrotóxicos, entre outros. Estaremos à beira de um limiar (em inglês, “threshold”) de transformação dos sistemas socioecológicos amazônicos, para ambientes mais secos, menos diversos e mais vulneráveis ao fogo, inundações, insegurança alimentar etc.? Como estabelecer um processo de governança para a Amazônia, considerando e respeitando a sua socio-biodiversidade, neste cenário de transformação

Centro de pesquisa em agrofloresta: construção compartilhada de conhecimentos e práticas no Portal da Amazônia

The paper reports the experience of “Agroforestry Research Center”, an initiative developed by technicians, family farmers and researchers to strengthen the agroecological and agroforestry movement in the northern region of Mato Grosso, Brazil. For that, from a systemic approach, it was built an action research program involving family farmers, technicians and researchers from 05 universities. The program is based on specific issues related to the main production systems to study elements related to family farmers’ resilience, articulating quantitative and qualitative research. After 4 years of work, the activities of the research center, including workshops and surveys for evaluation, allow identifying facilitating and limiting elements in the engagement of subjects, including different objectives and expectations from researchers, students and family farmers, and the difficulties associated with the articulation of research projects and their results. Finally, the experience reinforces the importance and potential of research as a tool to strengthen the process of empowerment of rural communities.O trabalho relata a experiência do Centro de Pesquisa em Agrofloresta, iniciativa desenvolvida por técnicos, agricultores e pesquisadores para fortalecer o movimento agroecológico e agroflorestal na região Norte de Mato Grosso, Brasil. A partir de uma abordagem sistêmica, buscou-se construir um programa de pesquisa ação envolvendo agricultores, técnicos e pesquisadores de 05 universidades. O programa parte de questões específicas relacionadas aos principais sistemas produtivos existentes para estudar elementos relacionados a resiliência da agricultura familiar, articulando pesquisas quantitativas e qualitativas. Após 04 anos de trabalho, as atividades do centro de pesquisa, incluindo a realização de reuniões e questionários de avaliação, permitem identificar elementos facilitadores e limitantes no engajamento de diferentes sujeitos, destacando-se os objetivos e expectativas de pesquisadores, estudantes e agricultores, e as dificuldades associadas a articulação dos projetos de pesquisa e seus resultados. Por fim, a experiência reforça a importância e o potencial que a pesquisa possui em funcionar como ferramenta para fortalecer o processo de empoderamento das comunidades rurais

Toward Engagement in Climate Training: Findings from Interviews with Agricultural Extension Professionals

With scientific consensus regarding the occurrence of climate variability and climate change it is clear that farmers can benefit from science-based adaptation strategies for managing climate-related risk. To this end, cooperative extension professionals must engage in climate training events that are carefully planned and tailored to their specific needs. This study consisted of 50 interviews with extension professionals from four states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina) and collected information about the perceptions of climate variability and change as well as the preferred approaches for climate-related training in extension. Results include the need for accessible, climate-related training that prepares extension professionals to: understand both management- and technology-related adaptation strategies, engage in productive conversations with all stakeholders, and participate in the coproduction of knowledge related to climate issues

Building Community for Participatory Modeling: Network Composition, Trust, and Adaptive Process Design

Complex environmental problems span multiple disciplines and scales of inquiry. Discovering solutions requires inclusive problem-solving spaces. Participatory modeling represents a collaborative research approach that engages stakeholders to co-produce knowledge and problem responses. Scholarship largely features the results of scientific modeling. Lacking are assessments of the nature of participant engagement and collaboration. Our paper offers insights on how to structure, support, and evaluate interactive spaces for participatory modeling, especially during the initial (community building) phase of projects when collaborative culture is established. The Floridan Aquifer Collaborative Engagement for Sustainability (FACETS) convenes stakeholders in the Southeast US from farming, forestry, government, conservation, and academia. We explore network assembly, trust diversity, and iterative process design in FACETS. Through longitudinal reflexive monitoring facilitators appreciate the range of participant needs, integrate feedback into agenda design, and catalyze group reflection.</p

Power and Conflict in Adaptive Management: Analyzing the Discourse of Riparian Management on Public Lands

Adaptive collaborative management emphasizes stakeholder engagement as a crucial component of resilient social-ecological systems. Collaboration among diverse stakeholders is expected to enhance learning, build social legitimacy for decision making, and establish relationships that support learning and adaptation in the long term. However, simply bringing together diverse stakeholders does not guarantee productive engagement. Using critical discourse analysis, we examined how diverse stakeholders negotiated knowledge and power in a workshop designed to inform adaptive management of riparian livestock grazing on a National Forest in the southwestern USA. Publicly recognized as a successful component of a larger collaborative effort, we found that the workshop effectively brought together diverse participants, yet still restricted dialogue in important ways. Notably, workshop facilitators took on the additional roles of riparian experts and instructors. As they guided workshop participants toward a consensus view of riparian conditions and management recommendations, they used their status as riparian experts to emphasize commonalities with stakeholders supportive of riparian grazing and accentuate differences with stakeholders skeptical of riparian grazing, including some Forest Service staff with power to influence management decisions. Ultimately, the management plan published one year later did not fully adopt the consensus view from the workshop, but rather included and acknowledged a broader diversity of stakeholder perspectives. Our findings suggest that leaders and facilitators of adaptive collaborative management can more effectively manage for productive stakeholder engagement and, thus, social-ecological resilience if they are more tentative in their convictions, more critical of the role of expert knowledge, and more attentive to the knowledge, interests, and power of diverse stakeholders

Exploring changes in rainfall intensity and seasonal variability in the Southeastern U.S.: Stakeholder engagement, observations, and adaptation

The distribution of rainfall has major impacts in agriculture, affecting the soil, hydrology, and plant health in agricultural systems. The goal of this study was to test for recent changes in rainfall intensity and seasonal rainfall variability in the Southeastern U.S. by exploring the data collaboratively with agricultural stakeholders. Daily rainfall records from the Global Historical Climatology Network were used to analyze changes in rain intensity and seasonal rainfall variability. During the last 30 years (1985–2014), there has been a significant change (53% increase) in the number of extreme rainfall days (>152.4 mm/day) and there have been significant decreases in the number of moderate intensity (12.7–25.4 mm/day) and heavy (25.4–76.2 mm/day) rainfall days in the Southeastern U.S., when compared to the previous 30-year period (1955–1984). There have also been significant decreases in the return period of months in which greater than half of the monthly total rain occurred in a single day; this is an original, stakeholder-developed rainfall intensity metric. The variability in spring and summer rainfall increased during the last 30 years, but winter and fall showed less variability in seasonal totals in the last 30 years. In agricultural systems, rainfall is one of the leading factors affecting yield variability; so it can be expected that more variable rainfall and more intense rain events could bring new challenges to agricultural production. However, these changes can also present opportunities for producers who are taking measures to adjust management strategies to make their systems more resilient to increased rain intensity and variability

Agroforestry Research Center: sharing knowledge and practices in Amazon Portal

O trabalho relata a experiência do Centro de Pesquisa em Agrofloresta, iniciativa desenvolvida por técnicos, agricultores e pesquisadores para fortalecer o movimento agroecológico e agroflo-restal na região Norte de Mato Grosso, Brasil. A partir de uma abordagem sistêmica, buscou-se construir um programa de pesquisa ação envolvendo agricultores, técnicos e pesquisadores de 05 universidades. O programa parte de questões específicas relacionadas aos principais sistemas produtivos existentes para estudar elementos relacionados a resiliência da agricultura familiar, articulando pesquisas quantitativas e qualitativas. Após 04 anos de trabalho, as atividades do centro de pesquisa, incluindo a realização de reuniões e questionários de avaliação, permitem identificar elementos facilitadores e limitantes no engajamento de diferentes sujeitos, destacan-do-se os objetivos e expectativas de pesquisadores, estudantes e agricultores, e as dificuldades associadas a articulação dos projetos de pesquisa e seus resultados. Por fim, a experiência reforça a importância e o potencial que a pesquisa possui em funcionar como ferramenta para fortalecer o processo de empoderamento das comunidades rurais.Summary:The paper reports the experience of “Agroforestry Research Center”, an initiative developed by technicians, family farmers and researchers to strengthen the agroecological and agroforestry movement in the northern region of Mato Grosso, Brazil. For that, from a systemic approach, it was built an action research program involving family farmers, technicians and researchers from 05 universities. The program is based on specific issues related to the main production systems to study elements related to family farmers’ resilience, articulating quantitative and qualitative research. After 4 years of work, the activities of the research center, including workshops and surveys for evaluation, allow identifying facilitating and limiting elements in the engagement of subjects, including different objectives and expectations from researchers, students and family farmers, and the difficulties associated with the articulation of research projects and their results. Finally, the experience reinforces the importance and potential of research as a tool to strengthen the process of empowerment of rural communities