Suan Pheng Kam

Using Multi-Agent Systems in a Companion Modelling Approach for Agroecosystem Management in South-East Asia

This paper describes research using multi-agent systems as a companion modelling tool to address key issues related to agroecosystem management in northern Thailand and northern Vietnam. The authors illustrate an approach for the use of complex models for the accompaniment of adaptive management experiences. First, some considerations on the shifts of paradigm that underlie the research are discussed. Then two case studies are presented. The first one illustrates the iterative process of problem solving with local stakeholders, while the second emphasizes the emergence of local institutions in the context of land reforms. In both cases, the research started with an analysis of the agrarian system, which integrated multiscale biophysical and socioeconomic knowledge by means of a model. The research process then evolved towards the use of such models in participatory approaches for community-based natural resource management. Regular interactions between researchers and local stakeholders mediated by the companion modelling tools were helpful in progressing local development.

Tropical deltas and coastal zones: food production, communities and environment at the land-water interface

The dynamics of aquatic resources in the canals of Bac Lieu Province, in southern Vietnam, are detailed and synthesized in this study. Nekton and eight environmental parameters were monitored in this province between 2004 and 2006, at 14 sites sampled three times a year. The study area, located along the coastal zone, is characterized by a variable environment subject to saline, freshwater and acidic pulses. The spatiotemporal dynamics of aquatic resources and their relationships with environmental parameters are detailed. The dominance of either freshwater or estuarine fauna, the dynamics of assemblages and the catches of fishers appear to be largely influenced by the management of sluice gates built along the coastal zone.

Systems diagnoses at field, farm and watershed levels in diversifying upland agroecosystems: towards comprehensive solutions to farmers’ problems

In mainland Southeast Asia, the increasing population pressure on montane agroecosystems, their growing integration into the market economies and the impact of national environmental protection policies are provoking rapid transformations in highland farmers’ strategies and practices evolving from slash and burn to more intensive, diverse production systems. In such a context, most of the attempts at transferring standard recommended technologies are facing very low rates of adoption. These variable and heterogeneous environments provide opportunities for using holistic systems approaches to address the whole complexity of agricultural development issues. To boost the prospects of significant impact, however, the farmer must be put at the centre of a development-oriented research process. Diagnostic tools at field, farm and watershed levels are used to understand the rapidly increasing diversity of farmers’ circumstances, the rationale of farmers’ practices and strategies, and key dynamics at work. Such information must be integrated in the research agenda to design improved production systems preserving the resource base while increasing land and labour productivity. At farmers’ field level, we use the on-farm agronomic experiment-survey procedure to inventory farmers’ techniques, explain their practices and assess their impact on crop function and its environment. In actual farmers’ conditions, limiting factors of yields are ranked, yield modelling is carried out, and hypotheses for new cropping systems are derived. At the farming system level, the diversity of farmers’ objectives and strategies is analysed and their functioning summarized diagrammatically. Similar fanning systems are grouped into a typology and trajectories of evolution displaying the process of accumulation/elimination on the farms along various pathways. Based on results obtained at the two previous scales, the analysis of land-use dynamics at the watershed level spatially distributes the diversity of situations and the extent of dominating trends, and points to the conflict areas. Risky practices regarding land degradation are mapped and the potential impact of improved cropping systems can also be generated at this scale. Illustrations from a case study of diversifying upland rice-based fanning systems in montane upper northern Thailand are provided to demonstrate how these on-farm research tools can be articulated into an integrated systems research approach producing fine-tuned and well-targeted innovations. Their role in helping the needed institutional change in these less-favoured ecosystems is also underlined.

Methodological integration for sustainable natural resource management beyond field/farm level: lessons from the ecoregional initiative for the humid and sub-humid tropics of Asia

SUMMARY Integrated natural resources management (INRM) has to address both the livelihood goals of farmers and the ecological sustainability of agroecosystems and natural resources. Under the Ecoregional Initiative for the Humid and Sub-Humid Tropics of Asia — Ecor(1)Asia — one major set of activities has been the development of approaches, methodologies, and tools to meet the challenges of INRM research for sustainable agricultural development. Examples provided illustrate the role of these methodologies in the three main phases of knowledge development for improving INRM impact: knowledge generation, knowledge capitalization, and knowledge mobilization. The methodologies are designed for better integration across disciplines, spatial scales, and hierarchical levels of social organization. Attempts are made to quantify trade-offs between biophysical sustainability and socio-economic considerations. The case is made for using these methodologies in a more complementary manner to help bridge the topdown and bottom-up approaches in INRM. Inherent in the developing and implementing of these methodologies is the forging of partnerships and fostering linkages with multiple stakeholders, as well as using the knowledge base and integrative tools as communication platforms.

New partnership mechanisms for integrated natural resource management: the Red River Basin (Vietnam) pilot region for operational ecoregional approach

The Red River Basin (RRB) in Vietnam was selected in 1997 as the first ecoregional pilot site of the Ecoregional Initiative for the Humid and Subhumid Tropics of Asia (EcoR(I)-Asia) as it encapsulates many of the problems and issues commonly found in the Asian tropics, associated with the demands and pressures of rapidly increasing population and rapid economic development on the natural resource base and raising concerns of sustainability. The RRB ecoregional project aims at developing an operational model for a multi-scale, integrated approach to natural resource management (NRM) that would help to overcome the shortcomings of traditional R&D approaches and organisations in tackling complex and inter-related NRM issues. The process of building up a common vision of NRM issues and setting up new partnership mechanisms within a holistic framework is documented. Lessons are drawn from this experience, that will be further applied to new pilot sites in Southeast Asia in an adaptive social learning mode in order to validate and then extrapolate the operational methodology to larger geographic domains and finally to the whole ecoregion under the mandate of EcoR(I)-Asia.

Aquaculture adaptation to climate change in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta

Most of the aquaculture production in South-east Asia occurs in the fl oodplains and coastal areas that are highly exposed and vulnerable to climate change impacts and sea-level rise (SLR). Th is chapter presents an example of economic estimation of autonomous adaptation by shrimp and catfi sh farms in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. It illustrates how planned adaptation measures can help defray catfi sh farmers’ escalating costs of raising pond dykes in response to increased fl ooding in the delta. It also indicates that government policy and public investment into planned adaptation towards climate change impacts, particularly for water resources management, would necessarily take account of socio-economic development targets of the aquaculture industry. From these analyses, broader implications of plans for water resources management in the delta on the prospects and challenges to the aquaculture sector are discussed. In the long term, a ‘no-regrets’ strategy of reducing the high dependence on shrimp and catfi sh culture and diversifying into more ecologically oriented production systems can also hedge the aquaculture industry against the increasing risks and uncertainties brought about by climate change.