Melvin Lippe

Soil Conservation on Sloping Land: Technical Options and Adoption Constraints

This chapter briefly summarizes the causes and consequences of soil erosion, before presenting examples of effective soil conservation technologies (SCT), such as contour-based cropping, cover crops, mulching and geo-textiles, and based on case studies from northern Thailand and northern Vietnam. Depending on site conditions, a soil erosion reduction of 30–60 % in the first year after establishment and up to 72–98 % by the third year was observed in these studies when compared to local farmers’ practices. In north-east Thailand, maize grain yields increased from 1.5 and 3.2 Mg ha−1, to 3.8 and 5.5 Mg ha−1 under minimum tillage und relay cropping. The study in north-western Vietnam revealed that although the majority of farmers were aware of soil erosion mitigation methods, adoption rates of the promoted soil conservation technologies remained low. These technologies compete for land and labor resources with the main cropping activities, in particular highly profitable commercial maize cultivation, incurring high opportunity costs. Based on these case studies, we conclude that innovative approaches to soil conservation require a change in land use systems, not just the adoption of conventional SCT in the existing systems. The integration of plant and animal production in the uplands should be promoted that allows farmers to benefit from urban-based economic growth on the one hand, such as through the exploitation of niche markets for high-value meat, while being environmentally sustainable on the other. The improved integration of animal husbandry with plant production systems could make feed producing soil conservation options more attractive to farmers, which could be further stimulated by introducing payment for environmental services (PES) schemes.

Integrated Modeling of Agricultural Systems in Mountainous Areas

People’s decisions with respect to agricultural land use and management practices have had a major impact on natural resource degradation in Vietnam and Thailand for centuries. In addition to an ever-increasing population density, economic transformation and market integration have exacerbated the pressure on natural resources in the rural areas of both countries, particularly during recent decades. From its beginning, the Uplands Program has sought to address research questions related to the impacts of land use management on natural resource degradation at the landscape level in Southeast Asian countries, as have researchers linked to the Program in the area. Integrated modeling of land cover and land use change, as a means to simulate effects which extend over various spatial and temporal scales or scientific domains, began to play a more prominent role within the Uplands Program after 2006. This chapter highlights modeling approaches and decision support tools used as part of the Uplands Program to investigate various research questions at the human–biophysical interface, and will compare modeling approaches, looking at the issues of land use and management impacts from different angles, whereby the different focuses used by each model have resulted in different levels of detail and precision in various respects.

Participatory Approaches to Research and Development in the Southeast Asian Uplands: Potential and Challenges

Participatory approaches have been discussed as alternatives to and complementary elements of more conventional research on sustainable land use and rural development in upland areas of Southeast Asia. Following a brief overview of the history of participatory approaches (Sect. 9.1), this chapter discusses the potential and limitations of applying Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools to field research practice in Vietnam (Sect. 9.2) and of involving stakeholders in priority setting, modeling and environmental valuation in the Southeast Asian uplands (Sect. 9.3). Section 9.4 scrutinizes the use of the Payments for Environmental Services (PES) tool, which aims to actively engage smallholder farmers in preserving fragile mountain ecosystems in Southeast Asia by rewarding them in cash or in kind. Section 9.5 provides an example of a successful multi-stakeholder knowledge and innovation partnership in northern Thailand – in the form of a litchi processing and marketing network formed among Hmong villagers, an approach which uses a promising action-research approach towards building sustainable rural livelihoods among ethnic minority groups.

Die Herkunft der Biomasse

Nachwachsende Biomasse ist die Basis der Biookonomie. Primar wird sie im Prozess der Photosynthese von Pflanzen, Algen und bestimmten Bakterien hergestellt, sekundar entsteht sie aus primarer Biomasse z.B. in der Tierproduktion oder kommt in organischen Reststromen vor. Vier Wirtschaftssektoren bilden deshalb das Fundament der Biookonomie: Die Agrar-, die Forst-, die Fischerei- und die Abfallwirtschaft. Dementsprechend charakterisiert dieses Kapitel landwirtschaftliche Produktionssysteme, analysiert deren Stoffstrome und Ertrage und untersucht Potenziale zur Erhohung der agrarischen Biomasseproduktion. Es beschreibt die Bedingungen der Holzproduktion im Standort Wald und stellt verschiedene Waldbausysteme sowie Strategien fur einen rationellen Umgang mit Holz vor. Es behandelt die Bedeutung aquatischer Organismen und schildert deren Gewinnung in Fischereiwirtschaft und Aquakulturen. Schlieslich widmet es sich den Grundlagen und biookonomischen Moglichkeiten der Abfallwirtschaft.