session 1.4 cultivating resilient landscapes
TRANSCRIPT
Cultivating resilient landscapes – opportunities for restoring degraded and vulnerable land
with agroforestry systems
Trees for Life – Accelerating the Impacts of Agroforestry
World Congress on Agroforestry, New Delhi 2014
Matilda Palm and Eskil MattssonChalmers University of Technology, Sweden
Global challenges…
BILDER
…with local implications
Vietnam• Land degradation
– Increasing forest cover– 41% of the land is degraded– Promotes tree-planting and
land restoration partly through land allocation
Sri Lanka• Land degradation
– Declining forest cover– Slowed down, but continues– 32% of the land is degraded– Promotes tree-planting and
intensification of homegardens
Photo Matilda Palm
Restoring degraded land – multipurpose option
• Global restoration potential - 2 billion Ha – 0.5 billion Ha for wide-scale restoration of
closed forest– 1.5 billion Ha for mosaic restoration
• Restoration covers a wide range of approaches – reforestation – agricultural interventions to reduce harmful
practices
“Land restoration is the process of cleaning up and rehabilitating a site that has sustained environmental degradation, such as those by natural cause and those caused by human activity”
Restoring degraded land with agroforestry
• Restoration through agroforestry– Potential for multifunctional land use
systems• Improved livelihoods – i.e. increasing
the potential of the land to sustain production
• Ecosystems services – i.e. decreased erosion, biodiversity conservation, watershed protection
• Mitigation – i.e. carbon capture in biomass and soils
• Adaptation – i.e. increase resilience of extreme weather events
• Combining production and protection– Sustain the overall productivity of marginal
land
Aim of the project
Investigating the utilization of homegardens as multipurpose agroforestry system and the opportunities and constraints of extending homegarden-
like systems to degraded lands.
• Comparative study from Sri Lanka and Vietnam• Based on empirical field data
– Biophysical parameters• Biomass/carbon• Soil characteristics• Biodiversity
– Socioeconomic parameters• Land use, income• Adaptation strategies
Photo Matilda Palm
Multi-strata homegarden, Ky Son Commune, Vietnam Photo: Matilda Palm
Acacia plantations on degraded forest Degraded forest, Ky Son Commune, Vietnam
Photo Matilda Palm
Forest garden, Ky Son Commune, Vietnam
Photo Matilda Palm
Forest garden, Ky Son Commune, Vietnam
Photo Matilda Palm
Mean (n=38) Home garden Forest garden
Man days 58.5 120
Area (ha) 0.18 2.23
Income (million VND) 5 27
Plant diversity (no of species) 37 5
Cash crops (no of species) 3.4 4.9
Way forward…
“the farmers in this region are dependent of their forest gardens, earlier years we collected timber, firewood and NTFPs from the natural forest. That was a hard life. Now we can invest in our forest and have the resources closer at hand”
Nguyễn Xuân Thụy age 29, Ky Son commune, Ha Tinh provice
Thank you for listening!
Contact details: [email protected]
Preliminary results
Mean (n=38) Home garden Forest garden
Man days 58.5 120
Income( MVND) 5 27
Area (ha) 0.18 2.23 h
Plant diversity (no of species) 37 5
Cash crops (no of species) 3.4 4.9