Kate Schreckenberg

Markets drive the specialization strategies of forest peoples

Engagement in the market changes the opportunities and strategies of forest-related peoples. Efforts to support rural development need to better understand the potential importance of markets and the way people respond to them. To this end, we compared 61 case studies of the commercial production and trade of nontimber forest products from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The results show that product use is shaped by local markets and institutions, resource abundance, and the relative level of development. Larger regional patterns are also important. High-value products tend to be managed intensively by specialized producers and yield substantially higher incomes than those generated by the less specialized producers of less managed, low-value products. We conclude that commercial trade drives a process of intensified production and household specialization among forest peoples.

Food security in a perfect storm: using the ecosystem services framework to increase understanding

Achieving food security in a ‘perfect storm’ scenario is a grand challenge for society. Climate change and an expanding global population act in concert to make global food security even more complex and demanding. As achieving food security and the millennium development goal (MDG) to eradicate hunger influences the attainment of other MDGs, it is imperative that we offer solutions which are complementary and do not oppose one another. Sustainable intensification of agriculture has been proposed as a way to address hunger while also minimizing further environmental impact. However, the desire to raise productivity and yields has historically led to a degraded environment, reduced biodiversity and a reduction in ecosystem services (ES), with the greatest impacts affecting the poor. This paper proposes that the ES framework coupled with a policy response framework, for example Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR), can allow food security to be delivered alongside healthy ecosystems, which provide many other valuable services to humankind. Too often, agro-ecosystems have been considered as separate from other natural ecosystems and insufficient attention has been paid to the way in which services can flow to and from the agro-ecosystem to surrounding ecosystems. Highlighting recent research in a large multi-disciplinary project (ASSETS), we illustrate the ES approach to food security using a case study from the Zomba district of Malawi.

Trees and farming in the dry zone of southern Honduras I: campesino tree husbandry practices

Forest cover in the dry zone of southern Honduras has suffered drastic reduction, largely as a result of the marginalisation of small farmers onto formerly wooded hillsides. In four case study communities, the relations between the areas human population and the remaining tree diversity were investigated through a combination of interviews, focus group meetings and inventories. Inventories on 10 farms in 2 communities found an average of 57.6 standing trees (above 2 m in height) and 9388.3 live stumps and seedlings of tree and shrub species (less than 2 m in height) per hectare in recently cropped fields. Tree management practices were found to include the selective promotion of naturally regenerated trees valued by farmers for their products, the elimination of unwanted trees due to competition with crops for light and space, and pruning to reduce competition. Farmers listed 41 species as being actively protected, although protection was largely concentrated on a subset of 5 (Cordia alliodora, Swietenia humilis, Lysiloma spp., Enterolobium cyclocarpum and Albizia saman, in that order); they also described broadening their species preferences in the face of scarcity of preferred species. The study questions the common perception of dry zone farmers as being responsible for continued elimination of tree diversity, and highlights the potential of the management of natural regeneration for meeting the livelihood needs of small farmers.

Challenges for tree officers to enhance the provision of regulating ecosystem services from urban forests

ABSTRACT Urbanisation and a changing climate are leading to more frequent and severe flood, heat and air pollution episodes in Britains cities. Interest in nature‐based solutions to these urban problems is growing, with urban forests potentially able to provide a range of regulating ecosystem services such as stormwater attenuation, heat amelioration and air purification. The extent to which these benefits are realized is largely dependent on urban forest management objectives, the availability of funding, and the understanding of ecosystem service concepts within local governments, the primary delivery agents of urban forests. This study aims to establish the extent to which British local authorities actively manage their urban forests for regulating ecosystem services, and identify which resources local authorities most need in order to enhance provision of ecosystem services by Britains urban forests. Interviews were carried out with staff responsible for tree management decisions in fifteen major local authorities from across Britain, selected on the basis of their urban nature and high population density. Local authorities have a reactive approach to urban forest management, driven by human health and safety concerns and complaints about tree disservices. There is relatively little focus on ensuring provision of regulating ecosystem services, despite awareness by tree officers of the key role that urban forests can play in alleviating chronic air pollution, flood risk and urban heat anomalies. However, this is expected to become a greater focus in future provided that existing constraints – lack of understanding of ecosystem services amongst key stakeholders, limited political support, funding constraints – can be overcome. Our findings suggest that the adoption of a proactive urban forest strategy, underpinned by quantified and valued urban forest‐based ecosystem services provision data, and innovative private sector funding mechanisms, can facilitate a change to a proactive, ecosystem services approach to urban forest management. HighlightsBritish urban forests are managed reactively, in response to risks and complaints.Tree officers are aware of urban forests’ delivery of regulating ecosystem services.Limited funding and lack of political support are obstacles to a proactive approach.Awareness raising via ecosystem service valuation and strategic planning is needed.Research into a public‐private urban forest funding model would be beneficial.

Criminals by necessity: the risky life of charcoal transporters in Malawi

The charcoal industry in sub-Saharan Africa plays a substantial role providing growing urban populations with domestic energy. However, concerns about its environmental impacts have led to punitive policies, resulting in the criminalisation of charcoal-based livelihoods. One factor constraining the development of more effective policy approaches is limited data on the impacts of regulations on the socio-economic outcomes of different value chain actors. We focus on one group of actors: charcoal transporters, who supply charcoal to Zomba, a medium-sized city in Southern Malawi. Drawing on a survey of 201 transporters, we find that they are attracted by fast cash-in-hand, low capital requirements and the lack of alternative local employment opportunities. Both men and women participate, yet transport methods are gendered. Men, who typically transport charcoal on a bicycle, earn three times as much per week as those who carry charcoal on their heads, the main method used by women. However, bicycle users incur higher financial risk due to costs associated with confiscations and damage to bicycles. Unlike in larger cities, an urban elite does not dominate the supply chain in Zomba. We argue that punitive targeting of small-scale charcoal transporters serves only to push them deeper into poverty and does nothing to contribute to sustainable resource management.

Agent-Based Modelling to assess community food security and sustainable livelihoods

We present a methodological approach for constructing an agent-based model (ABM) to assess community food security and variation among livelihood trajectories, using rural Malawi as a case study. The approach integrates both quantitative and qualitative data to explore how interactions between households and the environment lead to the emergence of community food availability, access, utilisation and stability over time. Results suggest that livelihoods based upon either non-agricultural work or farming are most stable over time, but agricultural labourers, dependent upon the availability of casual work, demonstrate limited capacity to ‘step-up’ livelihood activities. The scenario results suggest that population growth and increased rainfall variability are linked to significant declines in food utilisation and stability by 2050. Taking a systems approach may help to enhance the sustainability of livelihoods, target efforts and promote community food security. We discuss transferability of the methodological approach to other case studies and scenarios.

Modelling tree growth to determine the sustainability of current off-take from Miombo Woodland: a case study from rural villages in Malawi.

Miombo woodlands supply ecosystem services to support livelihoods in southern Africa, however, rapid deforestation has necessitated greater knowledge of tree growth and off-take rates to understand the sustainability of miombo exploitation. We established 48 tree inventory plots within four villages in southern Malawi, interviewed representatives in these same villages about tree management practices and investigated the impact of climate on vegetation dynamics in the region using the ecosystem modelling framework LPJ-GUESS. Combining our data with the forest yield model MYRLIN revealed considerable variation in growth rates across different land uses; forested lands showed the highest growth rates (1639 [95% confidence interval 1594–1684] kg ha–1 year–1), followed by settlement areas (1453 [95% confidence interval 1376–1530] kg ha–1 year–1). Based on the modelled MYRLIN results, we found that 50% of the villages had insufficient growth rates to meet estimated off-take. Furthermore, the results from LPJ-GUESS indicated that sustainable off-take approaches zero in drought years. Local people have recognized the unsustainable use of natural resources and have begun planting activities in order to ensure that ecosystem services derived from miombo woodlands are available for future generations. Future models should incorporate the impacts of human disturbance and climatic variation on vegetation dynamics; such models should be used to support the development and implementation of sustainable forest management.