The
ASB Program: A Proposal
for Phase III
(1999-2002)
Profitable,
Resilient, and Environmentally
Sound Agroecosystems
At the Tropical Forest
Margins
Countries
containing the bulk
of the remaining moist,
tropical forests are
currently experiencing
major economic turmoil.
This uncertainty,
combined with global
environmental events
such as El Niño,
has exacerbated the
use of fire to clear
forests, resulting
in major smoke pollution
that crosses national
boundaries. Unsustainable
slash-and-burn agricultural
practices are increasing
and perpetuating local
poverty, reducing
biodiversity, and
increasing greenhouse
gas fluxes.
The Alternatives to
Slash-and-Burn (ASB)
programme is a system-wide
initiative of the
CGIAR comprising a
multi-institutional
and multidisciplinary
consortium. The ASB
programme has been
undertaking research
since 1994, to identify,
further develop, and
test promising land
use alternatives that
can both improve the
livelihoods of local
people and reduce
the deforestation
caused by unsustainable
slash-and-burn agriculture.
In
the five years of
its existence, the
ASB programme has
established well-characterised
benchmark sites in
the humid tropics,
developed innovative
new methods, trained
large numbers of local
researchers in these
methods, and identified
and evaluated several
'best bet' land uses
and other forest and
degraded land uses(as
points of reference).
Three factors characterise
the uniqueness of
the ASB work:
-
The
use of standardised
methods that yield
comparable data
across benchmark
sites. These sites
are representative
of large areas of
the humid tropical
forest margins.
-
The
gathering of data
on land use dynamics
at forest margins
which allows for
analysis of the
impact of major
macroeconomic and
environmental shocks.
-
Joint
biophysical and
socioeconomic research
which facilitate
the assessment of
tradeoffs among
the different concerns
surrounding alternative
land uses.
The
focus has been at
the plot and farm
scales, and the
ASB consortium now
proposes to scale
up the evaluations
of the 'best-bets'
to account for the
complex and non-additive
effects of mosaics
of these systems at
the watershed and
landscape scales.
This proposal presents
a four-year Phase
III programme of work
and budget to enable
the ASB consortium
to build upon the
exciting and valuable
findings of Phases
I and II. We need
to conclude the crucial
studies, training
activities, and policy
dialogue and debate
to ensure the successful
implementation of
the ASB findings.
Phase III activities
will
-
develop
methods that integrate
biophysical and
socioeconomic issues
of land-use systems
at the landscape
scale,
-
predict
the impact of adoption
of 'best bet' options
at the landscape
scale,
-
target
analysis of policy
and institutional
reforms needed to
support 'best bets',
-
test
additional promising
'best bet' land
uses to improve
the robustness of
the ASB "best-bet"
portfolio and
-
increase
the domain of extrapolation
of the ASB work
by including key
additional benchmark
sites
The
consortium is requesting
US$2 million per year
for four years to
continue the research
through Phase III.
This proposal presents
a programme of work
and budget for a four
year Phase III (1999
- 2002), which will
result in action plans
to improve rural livelihoods,
reduce deforestation,
sequester carbon,
rehabilitate degraded
lands, and conserve
biodiversity in resilient
agroecosystems at
stable margins of
increasingly threatened
tropical forests.
The major achievements
of the ASB programme,
click on Phase
I and
Phase II.
Introduction
| Goal
of the ASB Program
| The
ASB Consortium |
Management
and Operational Structure
| Donors
to the ASB Program
| ASB
Phase 1 (1994-1995)
| ASB
Phase 2 (1996-1998)
| ASB
Phase 3 (1999-2002)
| ASB
Publications | ASB
Links
BACK
Page
preparation by Dr. Erick
C.M. Fernandes, Cornell
University.
--ASB Global Coordinator
(1998-1999)-- |
