Sustainable Land Use and Rural Development in Southeast Asia: Innovations and Policies for Mountainous Areas

Sustainable Land Use and Rural Development in Southeast Asia: Innovations and Policies for Mountainous Areas
Author: Holger L. Fröhlich
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 490
Release: 2013-04-03
Genre: Science
ISBN: 364233377X

This book is based on the findings of a long-term (2000-2014) interdisciplinary research project of the University of Hohenheim in collaboration with several universities in Thailand and Vietnam. Titled Sustainable Land Use and Rural Development in Mountainous Areas in Southeast Asia, or the Uplands Program, the project aims to contribute through agricultural research to the conservation of natural resources and the improvement of living conditions of the rural population in the mountainous regions of Southeast Asia. Having three objectives the book first aims to give an interdisciplinary account of the drivers, consequences and challenges of ongoing changes in mountainous areas of Southeast Asia. Second, the book describes how innovation processes can contribute to addressing these challenges and third, how knowledge creation to support change in policies and institutions can assist in sustainably develop mountain areas and people’s livelihoods.

Shifting Cultivation Policies

Shifting Cultivation Policies
Author: Malcolm Cairns
Publisher: CABI
Total Pages: 1117
Release: 2017-11-13
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1786391791

Shifting cultivation supports around 200 million people in the Asia-Pacific region alone. It is often regarded as a primitive and inefficient form of agriculture that destroys forests, causes soil erosion and robs lowland areas of water. These misconceptions and their policy implications need to be challenged. Swidden farming could support carbon sequestration and conservation of land, biodiversity and cultural heritage. This comprehensive analysis of past and present policy highlights successes and failures and emphasizes the importance of getting it right for the future. This book is enhanced with supplementary resources. The addendum chapters can be found at: www.cabi.org/openresources/91797

Shifting Cultivation and Environmental Change

Shifting Cultivation and Environmental Change
Author: Malcolm F. Cairns
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 1405
Release: 2015-01-09
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1317750187

Shifting cultivation is one of the oldest forms of subsistence agriculture and is still practised by millions of poor people in the tropics. Typically it involves clearing land (often forest) for the growing of crops for a few years, and then moving on to new sites, leaving the earlier ground fallow to regain its soil fertility. This book brings together the best of science and farmer experimentation, vividly illustrating the enormous diversity of shifting cultivation systems as well as the power of human ingenuity. Some critics have tended to disparage shifting cultivation (sometimes called 'swidden cultivation' or 'slash-and-burn agriculture') as unsustainable due to its supposed role in deforestation and land degradation. However, the book shows that such indigenous practices, as they have evolved over time, can be highly adaptive to land and ecology. In contrast, 'scientific' agricultural solutions imposed from outside can be far more damaging to the environment and local communities. The book focuses on successful agricultural strategies of upland farmers, particularly in south and south-east Asia, and presents over 50 contributions by scholars from around the world and from various disciplines, including agricultural economics, ecology and anthropology. It is a sequel to the much praised "Voices from the Forest: Integrating Indigenous Knowledge into Sustainable Upland Farming" (RFF Press, 2007), but all chapters are completely new and there is a greater emphasis on the contemporary challenges of climate change and biodiversity conservation.

Voices from the Forest

Voices from the Forest
Author: Malcolm Cairns
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 853
Release: 2010-09-30
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 113652228X

This handbook of locally based agricultural practices brings together the best of science and farmer experimentation, vividly illustrating the enormous diversity of shifting cultivation systems as well as the power of human ingenuity. Environmentalists have tended to disparage shifting cultivation (sometimes called 'swidden cultivation' or 'slash-and-burn agriculture') as unsustainable due to its supposed role in deforestation and land degradation. However, a growing body of evidence indicates that such indigenous practices, as they have evolved over time, can be highly adaptive to land and ecology. In contrast, 'scientific' agricultural solutions imposed from outside can be far more damaging to the environment. Moreover, these external solutions often fail to recognize the extent to which an agricultural system supports a way of life along with a society's food needs. They do not recognize the degree to which the sustainability of a culture is intimately associated with the sustainability and continuity of its agricultural system. Unprecedented in ambition and scope, Voices from the Forest focuses on successful agricultural strategies of upland farmers. More than 100 scholars from 19 countries--including agricultural economists, ecologists, and anthropologists--collaborated in the analysis of different fallow management typologies, working in conjunction with hundreds of indigenous farmers of different cultures and a broad range of climates, crops, and soil conditions. By sharing this knowledge--and combining it with new scientific and technical advances--the authors hope to make indigenous practices and experience more widely accessible and better understood, not only by researchers and development practitioners, but by other communities of farmers around the world.

Doi Moi in the Mountains

Doi Moi in the Mountains
Author: Jean-Christophe Castella
Publisher: Int. Rice Res. Inst.
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2002
Genre: Agricultural systems
ISBN: 9712202704

Innovation in natural resource management

Innovation in natural resource management
Author: Meinzen-Dick, Ruth
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 418
Release: 2002-01-01
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0801871433

International agricultural research is expanding beyond the development of annual crop technologies for individual farms to the development of longer-tern natural resource management techniques for entire landscapes. But technologies of practices with a long lag time between investment and returns are unlikely to be adopted by farmers unless they have secure rights to the underlying resources (property rights). Similarly, technologies that span multiple farms are unlikely to be adopted unless neighbors and groups work together (collective action). But little is know about the way property rights and collective action in developing countries mediate the adoption of technologies by farmers and groups. To address this information gap, this volume brings together international experts in economics, sociology, and natural resource management to examine the links among property rights, collective action, and technological change for a variety of technologies across a rage of community contexts in the developing world.

Soil Quality and Agricultural Sustainability

Soil Quality and Agricultural Sustainability
Author: R. Lal
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 396
Release: 1998-11-01
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9781575040820

Soil degradation causes a shrinking of arable land resources, and the persistence of starvation and malnutrition. The depletion is compounded by the increasing populations of developing tropical nations, and the conversion of agricultural land to other uses. As a result, per capita grain harvesting and irrigated land is in steady decline all over the world. The decrease in horticultural resources and productivity has inspired Soil Quality and Agricultural Sustainability, which is based primarily on papers presented at the 1996 conference on soil degradation, sponsored by Ohio State University, the USAID and the International Agricultural Research Centers. The book addresses itself to six concerns: basic concepts and global issues, nutrient and water inputs, soil quality management in Asia, in Africa, and in the Tropical Americas, and future priorities. The Editor's goal is a new paradigm in soil quality research: a multidisciplinary approach. He proposes that an erosion management program include soil scientists, hydrologists, climatologists, sedimentologists, geographers, agronomists, agricultural engineers, land use planners, economists, anthropologists and social scientists. Lal advocates an optimistic, forward-thinking brand of soil science that concentrates on conservation and fertility. The 26 chapters explore what Lal considers to be the priorities: agricultural sustainability, soil quality, food security, quality restoration, long-term management, and the failure to adopt new technology. In sum, they paint a comprehensive portrait of the current state, and future prospects, for worldwide agronomic viability.

Redefining Diversity and Dynamics of Natural Resources Management in Asia, Volume 2

Redefining Diversity and Dynamics of Natural Resources Management in Asia, Volume 2
Author: Ganesh Shivakoti
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2016-09-01
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0128104724

Redefining Diversity and Dynamics of Natural Resources Management in Southeast Asia, Volumes 1-4 brings together scientific research and policy issues across various topographical areas in Asia to provide a comprehensive overview of the issues facing the region. Upland Natural Resources and Social Ecological Systems in Northern Vietnam, Volume 2, provides chapters on natural resource management in northern Vietnam tied together by the concept that participatory local involvement is needed in all aspects of natural resource management. The volume examines planning for climate change, managing forestland, alleviating food shortages, living with biodiversity, and assessing the development projects and policies being implemented. Without the involvement of local communities, households, and ultimately individual people, the needed action will not be effectively taken. Upland Natural Resources and Social Ecological Systems in Northern Vietnam, Volume 2, goes beyond just Northern Vietnam to address the issue of transboundary natural resource management—an issue that Vietnam is dealing with in its relations with northern neighbor, China, and western neighbor, Laos—as well as the transboundary water governance between Pakistan and India in south Asia, with the hope that some of the lessons learned may one day be useful in the case of Vietnam and its neighbors. - Provides a multi-disciplinary case study into a complex environmental situation involving government institutions, planning, and practices, using northern Vietnam as the focus - Covers the issues of natural resource management and biodiversity in depth using international case studies - Provides examples of measuring the potential climate change impacts on food security in agricultural regions - Examines topics such as planning for climate change, managing forestland, alleviating food shortages, living with biodiversity, and assessing development projects and policies

Ecosystems and Sustainable Development VI

Ecosystems and Sustainable Development VI
Author: Enzo Tiezzi
Publisher: WIT Press
Total Pages: 593
Release: 2007
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1845640888

Containing papers presented at the Sixth International Conference on Ecosystems and Sustainable Development, this book presents research related to different aspects of ecosystems and sustainable development, including physical sciences and modelling. A wide list of topics include: Thermodynamics and Ecology; Sustainability indicators; Mathematical and system modelling; Biodiversity; Sustainability development studies; Conservation and Management of Ecological Areas; Socio-Economic Factors; Energy Conservation and Generation; Environmental and Ecological Policies; Environmental Management; Environmental Risk; Natural Resources Management; Recovery of Damaged Areas; Biological Aspects; Complexity; Remote Sensing; Landscapes and Forestation Issues; Soil and agricultural issues; Water Resources; Sustainable Waste Management; Air pollution and its Effects on Ecosystems.