Journal Article

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Agri-Silviculture in Tropical America
(1979) Weaver, Peter
"Agri-silviculture is a production scheme that supplies wood, foodstuffs and/or animal products from a single management unit where good agricultural practices are complemented by the judicious use of trees. Such a unit could be a farm, a small community or a portion of a watershed. Despite its numerous benefits, agri-silviculture should not be seen as a substitute for intensive agriculture or forestry on any given terrain. Trees compete for light and water, and unless properly managed, can reduce marketable produce. Agri-silviculture is best viewed as one means to keep certain slopes in permanent production or to rehabilitate lands degraded by poor agriculture practices."
Agri-Silviculture in Uganda: A Case for Kachung Forest
(1980) Chaudhry, Mohammed Azfal; Silim, Salim
"Agri-silviculture is a production technique which combines the growing of agricultural crops with simultaneously raised and protected forest crops. This practice, called agri-forestry, has been in existence in various primitive forms since man learned to clear forests and cultivate land, and has different names in different parts of the world. In western and central Africa, the age-old habit of swidden agriculture, or 'shifting cultivation,' involving continued destruction of forest areas by cutting and burning and then raising the agricultural crops on the ashes of the destroyed forest, seems to be the beginning, however crude, of this practice."
Agroforestry Pathways: Land Tenure, Shifting Cultivation and Sustainable Agriculture
(1986) Raintree, John B.
"Agroforestry is a collective name for land-use systems and technologies in which woody perennials (trees, shrubs, palms, bamboos, etc.) are deliberately combined on the same management unit with herbaceous crops and/or animals, either in some form of spatial arrangement or temporal sequence. In agroforestry systems there are both ecological and economic interactions among the different components."
Agroforestry Systems: A Primer
(1985) Vergara, Napolean T.
"Classical forestry's failure to win the support of rural communities poses a serious economic and environmental threat. Napoleon T. Vergara proposes a classification of the various subsystems of agroforestry as a step toward a new kind of community forestry."
Are Local People Conservationists? Analysis of Transition Dynamics from Agroforests to Monoculture Plantations in Indonesia
(2010) Feintrenie, Laurène; Schwarze, Stefan; Levang, Patrice
"Cash crops are developing in the once forested areas of Indonesia in parallel with market and economic improvements. Perennial crops such as coffee, cocoa, and rubber were first planted in estates by private or public companies. Local people then integrated these crops into their farming systems, often through the planting of agroforests, that is, intercropping the new cash crop with upland rice and food crops. The crop was generally mixed with fruit trees, timber, and other useful plants. A geographic specialization occurred, driven by biophysical constraints and market opportunities, with expansion of cocoa in Sulawesi, coffee in Lampung, and natural rubber in eastern Sumatra. However, during the past three decades, these agroforests have increasingly been converted into more productive monoculture plantations. A common trajectory can be observed in agricultural landscapes dominated by a perennial cash crop: from ladang to agroforests, and then to monoculture plantations. This process combines agricultural expansion at the expense of natural forests and specialization of the land cover at the expense of biodiversity and wildlife habitats. We determined the main drivers of agricultural expansion and intensification in three regions of Indonesia based on perception surveys and land use profitability analysis. When the national and international contexts clearly influence farmers’ decisions, local people appear very responsive to economic opportunities. They do not hesitate to change their livelihood system if it can increase their income. Their cultural or sentimental attachment to the forest is not sufficient to prevent forest conversion."
Diversity, Distribution and Vegetation Assessment in the Jahlmanal Watershed in Cold Desert of the Lahaul Valley, North-Western Himalaya, India
(2010) Rawat, Y.S.; Vishvakarma, S.C.R.; Oinam, S.S.; Kuniyal, J.C.
"Relict vegetation in the Jahlmanal watershed is sparsely and scantily distributed on forest land. Farmers maintain tree species (Salix spp., Populus spp., Hippophae rhamnoides) on the boundaries of terraced agriculture fields to meet the fodder and fuel wood requirements. Juniperus macropoda was found in relict forest patches in sparse and stunted conditions. The density of Salix fragilis was 3340 trees ha-1 under agroforestry and 5520 trees ha -1 under forestry. The density of J. macropoda was 4200 tree ha-1 in natural forest followed by 700 tree ha-1 in agroforestry and 160 tree ha -1 in managed forestry systems. The agroforesty system of the watershed consists of 30% trees, 35% small trees and 35% shrubs species. Shrubs contributed the highest density with 59.1% of the total, followed by density of trees (29.5%) and small trees (11.3%). Trees contributed highest basal area in all the three systems, i.e., agroforestry, forestry and forest. The relict forest patches are subjected to deforestation due to anthropogenic pressure, hence in-situ and ex-situ conservation are required. Efforts are needed for plantation of ecologically suitable multipurpose tree species with indigenous species in the watershed. Technological interventions are also required to improve the quality and resistance against drought and climate change."
Ecosystem Service Trade-Offs and Land Use Among Smallholder Farmers in Eastern Paraguay
(2015) Grossman, Jake K.
"The trade-off between economically critical provisioning services and environmentally sustaining supporting services often seems absolute. Yet, when land use is inefficient, managers may be able to increase provision of both economically and ecologically sustaining services. To explore such sustainable 'win-win' outcomes, I present a model of predicted trade-offs of provisioning and supporting services on smallholder farms in eastern Paraguay. The spatially implicit model simulates smallholder parcels as mosaics of subsistence agriculture, cattle pasture, eucalyptus plantations, and/or natural forest cover, and predicts provisioning and supporting service supply depending on the relative abundance of each land-use type per parcel. I represent provisioning services as the annual, per-ha proportion of a smallholder family's subsistence needs met by agriculture and forestry. I represent multidimensional supporting services as a composite index of forest bird biodiversity, soil organic carbon content, and aboveground annual net primary productivity (NPP) relative to what would be expected in a stand of high-quality Atlantic Forest. I use this model first to predict ecosystem-service supply for 38 actual smallholder parcels in rural eastern Paraguay, and then to generate an efficiency frontier that illustrates the optimal trade-offs between provisioning and supporting services that are biophysically possible for the system. Comparison of the empirical findings and the efficiency frontier indicates that current land use is inefficient relative to the biophysical optimum. All smallholder parcels included in the study but one lie far from the modeled efficiency frontier, indicating that for a given level of agricultural and forestry production, supporting services are not optimally conserved. If parcel owners were able to overcome constraints to sustainability by, for example, transitioning from cattle ranching to agroforestry production, they could protect high levels (often upward of 90%) of the supporting ecosystem services provided by natural forest without sacrificing economically valuable provisioning services. Pathways to such sustainable outcomes are discussed."
Farmer Participation in On-farm Agroforestry Research Prioritization
(1994) Raintree, John B.
"An evaluation of the potential of various approaches to interaction between researchers and farmers, based on agroforestry research efforts undertaken by the International Center for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF). This article examines the strengths and limitations of the three more participatory approaches, based on the experiences of the International Center for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) with on-farm agroforestry research."
Global Climate Change and Carbon Management in Multifunctional Forests
(Current Science Association/Indian Academy of Sciences, 2002) Pandey, Deep Narayan
"Fossil fuel burning and deforestation have emerged as principal anthropogenic source of rising atmospheric CO2 and the consequential global warming. Variability in temperature, precipitation, snow cover, sea-level and extreme weather events provide collateral evidence of global climate change. I review recent advances on causes and consequences of global climate change and its impact on nature and society. I also examine options for climate change mitigation. Impact of climate change on ecology, economy and society?the three pillars of sustainability?is increasing. Emission reduction, although most useful, is also politically sensitive for economic reasons. Proposals of the geoengineering for iron fertilization of oceans or manipulation of solar flux using stratospheric scatters are yet not feasible for scientific and environmental reasons. Forests as carbon sinks, therefore, are required to play multifunctional role that include, but are not limited to, biodiversity conservation and maintenance of ecosystem functions; yield of goods and services to the society; enhancing the carbon storage in trees, woody vegetation and soils; and providing social and economic well-being of people. This paper explores strategies in that direction and concludes that the management of multifunctional forests over landscape continuum, employing tools of conservation biology and restoration ecology, shall be the vital option for climate change mitigation in future."
Honduras: Women Make a Start in Agroforestry
(1984) Wiff, Mercedes
"COHDEFOR is the Honduras Forestry Development Corporation, whose promoter had recently presented the farmers with a new system to be used in working the very eroded and, in some cases, bare highlands of the settlement. The help he had offered consisted mainly of cereals for food, and farm implements for the construction of terraces and the reforestation of some areas. The men of the settlement had not shown any interest, since they were busy working the valley lands and were distrustful of anything new. Despite this, they agreed to give a plot of land to each woman to try. María and nine of the other farm women knew that these very steep lands would be hard to till in the manner they were used to. They also knew that every day firewood was becoming scarcer and more expensive. But they decided to try, first on Doña María's land and later on that of the others. This, then, was the reason for her insisting on paying them herself if the technicians did not do so: she was perfectly aware of the greater possibilities of this new way of working. It was, besides, a challenge to show that women could accomplish something different from their household duties."
Improving the Lifestyles of People in Protected Areas of Viet Nam
(1994) Phuong, Nguyen; Dembner, Stephen
"An examination of protected area management through agroforestry development assistance to local, resource-poor communities. Although almost the whole country lies within the tropics, Viet Nam stretches over 1600 km from the north to the south. The climate and plants vary from tropical in the southern lowlands to temperate in the northern highlands. Thus, Viet Nam's forests have 12000 higher vascular plant species of which more than 7000 have been described. Of these, some 2300 species have been used by Vietnamese people for food, medicine, animal fodder, wood, oil and other purposes."
International Development Cooperation in Forestry
(1995) Muthoo, Maharaj K.
"This article focuses on international technical and financial assistance in support of national forestry efforts as a part of overall sustainable development. It traces the evolution of international cooperation in forestry, highlighting the FAO forestry field programme, and considers current trends and prospects in the context of challenges and opportunities arising from UNCED."
Jatropha-based Alley Cropping System’s Contribution to Carbon Sequestration
(2016) Marin, Rico A.
"The study was conducted to evaluate the total carbon stocks sequestered in a Jatropha – based alley cropping system treated with varying fertilizer applications. The study was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. The alley was planted with corn in two seasons Treatments include control (no fertilizer), organic fertilizer and inorganic fertilizer applied to the alley crops. Findings showed that the treatments with fertilizer applications had higher carbon stock in the jatropha hedges. The carbon content of the corn stover was also higher in organic and inorganic fertilizer-applied treatments. However, highest soil carbon content was shown in treatments applied with organic fertilizer (4.28 Ton ha-1). The inorganic fertilizer treatment had the lowest soil carbon content with a mean of 4.28 Ton ha-1. In terms of total carbon stock of the entire jatropha-based alley cropping system, there was a significant difference among treatments with organic fertilizer application having the highest mean of 7.79 Ton ha-1 while the inorganic treated plots had 6.53 Ton ha-1. The no fertilizer treatment had the least carbon stocks with 6.53 Ton ha-1. This recent study revealed that the jatropha-based alley cropping system is a potential land-use for carbon sequestration. This farming system needs to be promoted in upland areas to function not only as soil and water conservation measures but also as a possible remedy for global warming."
Landcare on the Poverty-Protection Interface in an Asian Watershed
(2002) Garrity, Dennis P.; Amoroso, Victor B.; Koffa, Samuel; Catacutan, Delia; Buenavista, Gladys; Fay, Paul; Dar, William
"Serious methodological and policy hurdles constrain effective natural resource management that alleviates poverty while protecting environmental services in tropical watersheds. We review the development of an approach that integrates biodiversity conservation with agroforestry development through the active involvement of communities and their local governments near the Kitanglad Range Natural Park in the Manupali watershed, central Mindanao, the Philippines. Agroforestry innovations were developed to suit the biophysical and socioeconomic conditions of the buffer zone. These included practices for tree farming and conservation farming for annual cropping on slopes. Institutional innovations improved resource management, resulting in an effective social contract to protect the natural biodiversity of the park. The production of fruit and timber trees dramatically increased, re-establishing tree cover in the buffer zone. Natural vegetative contour strips were installed on several hundred sloping farms. Soil erosion and runoff declined, and the buffer strips increased maize yields by an average of 0.5 t/ha on hill-slope farms. The scientific knowledge base guided the development and implementation of a natural resource management plan for the municipality of Lantapan. A dynamic grass-roots movement of farmer-led Landcare groups evolved in the villages near the park boundary, which had a significant impact on conservation in both the natural and managed ecosystems. Encroachment in the natural park was reduced by 95% in 3 yr. The local Landcare groups also restored stream-corridor vegetation. This integrated approach has been recognized as a national model for the local management of natural resources and watersheds in the Philippines. Currently, the collaborating institutions are evolving a negotiation support system to resolve the interactions between the three management domains: the park, the ancestral domain claim, and the municipalities. This integrated systems approach operated effectively with highly constrained funding, suggesting that commitment and impact may best be stimulated by a 'drip-feed' approach rather than by large, externally funded efforts."
Migrant Farmers as Information Brokers: Agroecosystem Management in the Transition Zone of Ghana
(2014) Isaac, Marney E.; Anglaaere, Luke C. N.; Akoto, Daniel S.; Dawoe, Evans
"Environmentally induced farmer migration is an important livelihood strategy, yet little is known of the effects on the destination region agroecosystem information networks and management practices. In the forest-savanna transition zone (Brong Ahafo Region) of Ghana, where migration from northern regions (migrant) and from neighboring regions (settler) is active, we chart the role of migrant famers and the type of agroecosystem management practices embedded in information networks using a social networks approach. Based on empirical network data from 44 respondents across three communities, we illustrate a diffuse information network, with variable tie frequency between settlement categories (local, settler, or migrant) of farmers. The cohesion of this network is dependent on a few strategic bridging ties initiated by migrant farmers, who are thus centrally positioned to exchange agroecosystem management practices between geographically and socially distant groups. At the individual level, migrant and settler farmers are more likely: (1) to have larger networks with more ties between members of their networks, (2) to be brokers positioned between non-migrant farmers, and (3) to tend (although not statistically significantly) to use pro-environmental management regimes, including agroforestry practices, new planting methods, and plot-scale weeding. We conceptualize this phenomenon as extended social and environmental experience and the deployment of social-ecological memory, with migrant farmers as potential agents of innovation and adaptive management."
Multistoried Agroforestry Garden System in West Sumatra, Indonesia
(1986) Michon, Genevieve; Mary, F.; Bompard, J.
"The agroforestry garden system in Maninjau in West Sumatra is characterized by an intensive integration of forest species and commercial crops, forming a forest-like system. The intimate association of different species provides both subsistence and commercial products which supplement rice production. This complex agroforest is managed by the combination between cultural practices and respect of natural processes of vegetation production and reproduction. It represents a profitable production system and constitutes an efficient buffer between villages and protected forest. It is a good model of association between integration of forest resources and cultivation of cash crops in the form of a sustainable and flexible system."
Negotiation Support Models for Integrated Natural Resource Management in Tropical Forest Margins
(2002) van Noordwijk, Meine; Tomich, Thomas V.; Verbist, Bruno
"Natural resource management research has to evolve from a focus on plans, maps, and regulations to an acknowledgment of the complex, sometimes chaotic, reality in the field, with a large number of actors making their own decisions. As outside actors, we can only try to facilitate and support a process of negotiation among the stakeholders. Such negotiation involves understanding the perspectives of all stakeholders, analyzing complementarities in views, identifying where differences may be settled by 'science,' where science and social action can bring innovative alternatives for reconciliation, and where compromises will be necessary to move ahead. We distinguish between natural resource management problems at village level, within country, or transboundary, and those that relate local stakeholder decisions to global issues such as biodiversity conservation. Tree-based systems at plot or landscape level can minimize conflicts between private and public interests in local environmental services, but spatial segregation of functions is an imperative for the core of global biodiversity values. The complex agroforests developed by farmers as alternatives to food-crop-based agriculture integrate local and global environmental functions, but intensification and specialization may diminish these non-local values. For local biodiversity functions, a medium-intensity 'integrate' option such as agroforests may be superior in terms of resilience and risk management. Major options exist for increasing carbon stocks by expanding tree-based production systems on grasslands and in degraded watersheds through a coherent approach to the market, policy, and institutional bottlenecks to application of existing rehabilitation technologies. Agroforestry mosaics may be an acceptable replacement of forests in upper watersheds, provided they evolve into multistrata systems with a protective litter layer. Challenges to INRM research remain: how should the opportunities for adaptive response among diverse interest groups, at a number of hierarchical levels, be included in the assessment of impacts on the livelihoods of rural people?"
Poverty and Environmental Services: Case Study in Way Besai Watershed, Lampung Province, Indonesia
(2007) Suyanto, S.; Khususiyah, Noviana; Leimona, Beria
"Local communities in developing countries are often forbidden to earn their livelihood from state-owned forests, but nonetheless local people commonly manage these lands and depend on them to survive. In these places, community participation is the key to successful conservation programs intended to rehabilitate environmental functions and produce environmental services for beneficiaries outside the area. This paper reviews the relationship between poverty and environmental services and briefly discusses the main ways in which approaches that rely on payment for environmental services are thought likely to alleviate poverty. It also discusses the poverty profile and inequality of upland dwellers in the Sumberjaya watershed in Indonesias Lampung Province, using income, education, and land-holding indicators. Data related to these three indicators were collected from intensive household surveys and interviews and used via Gini decomposition to measure inequality. In addition, analysis of data on stem at breast height and horizontal root diameter of coffee and other noncoffee trees planted on coffee farms showed that index of root shallowness could be used as an estimator of environmental services. This study revealed that state forest land in Lampung Province, Indonesia, not only provides important income for poor farmers but also leads to a more equitable distribution of income and land holdings. These farmers have also successfully rehabilitated degraded land by establishing coffee-based agroforestry. As found in other recent studies, these findings show that coffee-based agroforestry can perform watershed service functions similar to those of natural, undisturbed forests. This supports the argument that poor farmers who provide environmental services through their activities in state-owned forests should be rewarded with land rights as a policy to alleviate poverty."
Rebuilding Resilience in the Sahel: Regreening in the Maradi and Zinder Regions of Niger
(2011) Sendzimir, Jan; Reij, Chris P.; Magnuszewski, Piotr
"The societies and ecosystems of the Nigerien Sahel appeared increasingly vulnerable to climatic and economic uncertainty in the late twentieth century. Severe episodes of drought and famine drove massive livestock losses and human migration and mortality. Soil erosion and tree loss reduced a woodland to a scrub steppe and fed a myth of the Sahara desert relentlessly advancing southward. Over the past two decades this myth has been shattered by the dramatic reforestation of more than 5 million hectares in the Maradi and Zinder Regions of Niger. No single actor, policy, or practice appears behind this successful regreening of the Sahel. Multiple actors, institutions and processes operated at different levels, times, and scales to initiate and sustain this reforestation trend. We used systems analysis to examine the patterns of interaction as biophysical, livelihood, and governance indicators changed relative to one another during forest decline and rebound. It appears that forest decline was reversed when critical interventions helped to shift the direction of reinforcing feedbacks, e.g., vicious cycles changed to virtuous ones. Reversals toward de-forestation or reforestation were preceded by institutional changes in governance, then livelihoods and eventually in the biophysical environment. Biophysical change sustained change in the other two domains until interventions introduced new ideas and institutions that slowed and then reversed the pattern of feedbacks. However, while society seems better at coping with economic or climatic shock or stress, the resilience of society and nature in the Maradi/Zinder region to global sources of uncertainty remains a pressing question in a society with one of the highest population growth rates on Earth."
Running Cattle Under Trees: An Experiment in Agroforestry
(1984) Pottier, Dirk
"Under the right conditions, beef and timber can be raised simultaneously on the same parcel of land. A two-year agroforestry experiment conducted in Western Samoa showed promising results but also pointed to some problems that need to be addressed in the future."
Smallholder Tree Farming in the Philippines
(1983) Hyman, Eric L.
"The increasing awareness of the importance of forestry to the economic, social and environmental well-being of developing countries has prompted international aid agencies and governments to look for new ways to encourage tree farming. One way to do this is to remove the financial constraints caused by lack of credit that make it difficult for small, private landowners to establish tree farms even if the potential profits are large. In conjunction with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), the World Bank selected this market-oriented approach for two tree-farming projects. This analysis is based on a survey of participants and interviews with officials."
Social Role-Play Games Vs Individual Perceptions of Conservation and PES Agreements for Maintaining Rubber Agroforests in Jambi (Sumatra), Indonesia
(2011) Villamor, Grace B.; van Noordwijk, Meine
"Financial incentives can both support and undermine social norms compatible with environmental service enhancement. External co-investmente.g., through incentives from programs to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) and eco-certificationneeds to synergize with local efforts by understanding local dynamics and conditions for free and prior informed consent. We assessed the perceptions and behavior of rubber agroforest farmers under existing conservation agreements as a step toward institutionalized reward schemes for agro-biodiversity using questionnaires and roleplaying games (RPG). To our knowledge, this is the first attempt to apply such a combination of methods to explore the perceptions of payments for environmental services (PES). Results revealed a strong conservation belief system and social norms in the research site, with indications that individual interest in converting old rubber agroforest to oil palm, with consequent private gain and loss of local social agrobiodiversity benefits, is suppressed in the social context of a role-playing game. In the game, all financial bids by external agents to secure an oil palm foothold in the village, were rejected despite indications of declining income in the village. Agents promoting an eco-certification scheme in the RPG had success and the responses obtained in the game can assist in the actual rollout of such a scheme without creating unrealistic expectations of its financial benefits. Co-investment schemes that require higher levels of trust and clarity of performance measures will have to address the potential discrepancy between individual preferences and community-level planning and decisions, while recognizing that social norms color the responses of individuals when presented with alternatives."
Sociological Problems and Asian Forestry
(1969) Nowak, K.; Polycarpou, Andreas
"A seminar on social relations in the forestry sector for participants from Asian countries, sponsored by the Swedish International Development Authority, FAO and the Government of Cyprus was arranged in September-October 1969. A preparatory, fact-finding mission to selected countries in the region was undertaken early in 1969."
Transfer of Knowledge on Agroforestry Management Practices: the Structure of Farmer Advice Networks
(2007) Isaac, Marney E.; Erickson, Bonnie H.; Quashie-Sam, S. James; Timmer, Vic R.
"Access to knowledge on farm management practices is essential for the maintenance of productive agroforestry systems. Farmers who lack the means to acquire farming knowledge from formal sources often rely on information within their informal social networks. However, little research has explored the explicit structure of farmer communication patterns. We examined advice network structures by using farmer attributes, i.e., kin relationships, community involvement, and imitation, to characterize structural positions and investigated the consequences of such structure on farming practices in cocoa agroforestry systems in Ghana, West Africa. Furthermore, we used a multicommunity approach; we constructed networks for four communities to increase replication and enhance the generality of our conclusions. A high density of advice ties occurred among a small group of farmers, indicating a core-periphery structure. Settler farmers composed 73% of core position members, suggesting that social proximity did not control the formation of informal advice structures. Because core farmers were highly participative in community activities, the promotion of community involvement may facilitate the movement of knowledge and social exchange to strengthen informal networks. Farmers in both core and peripheral structural positions indicated that they observed fellow farmers and subsequently adopted their practices. Of highly sought farmers, 84% used external information, predominately from government institutions, thus functioning as bridging links between formal and informal networks. Both external and farmer-derived sources of knowledge of agroforestry practices were transferred through informal advice networks, providing available information throughout the farming community, as well as a foundation for community-based adaptive management."
Why Agroforestry Needs Women: Four Myths and a Case Study
(1984) Fortmann, Louise; Rocheleau, Dianne
"In agroforestry projects, the involvement of women is essential in project definition, design and implementation. Yet women still, for the most part, are being excluded from involvement. Authors Fortmann and Rocheleau, after looking at four myths that are responsible for the exclusion of women from project participation, describe the purposes and results of the Plan Sierra Development Project in the Dominican Republic. This project, among its other accomplishments, clearly demonstrated possibilities for the employment and training of women in agroforestry."

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