Funding
Needs
Activity
IV. Include and test
additional promising
'best bet' land uses.
The
outputs of significant
amounts of previous
agronomic and agroforestry
research at ASB sites
can be used to test
more promising, or
'best bet' options
at the existing benchmark
sites. This will entail
some additional data
collection to fill
in gaps regarding
carbon stocks, gas
emissions, above and
below ground biodiversity,
agronomic sustainability,
poverty and profitability
measures, and institutional
arrangements. The
ASB consortium has
now collected unique
field-level data on
these parameters using
standardised methods
at three benchmark
sites. It is, therefore,
crucially important
to ensure that this
data set be completed,
with sufficient data
points to ensure that
our predictive models
are robust. It is
likely that this testing
and analysis will
bring to light the
need to include additional
practices (or components).
These additional practices
will be characterised
using the methods
developed in Phases
I and II. The adoptability
and feasibility of
these land-use alternatives
will then be examined,
using participatory
approaches. This work
is particularly important
in light of increasingly
widespread social,
economic and environmental
uncertainty. Land
users need of a full
range of options to
increase the risk-buffering
capacity and resilience
of the systems, at
a range of scales.
The
development of integrated
soil management strategies
is one example of
the type of work we
will conduct as part
of this activity.
An underlying hypothesis
in this work will
be that 'soil
management practices
that utilise renewable
sources of energy
are more profitable
and sustainable than
those that rely solely
on non-renewable sources.'
The database collected
during Phases I and
II will be used to
devise soil management
strategies based first
on the optimal use
of available resources
and second on the
opportunities arising
if additional resources
are made available
either through changes
in system design or
by the use of purchased
inputs. The modelling
capacity developed
in the project will
enable the ecological
and economic implications
of alternative strategies
to be evaluated as
a component of experimental
design.
As
another example, an
area in which ASB
has begun to study
and on which we will
intensify our focus
is the
potential of ''best
bet'' options for
rehabilitation of
already deforested
and degraded lands
in the humid tropics.
If these millions
of hectares of land
can be made productive,
this could significantly
reduce the deforestation
pressure on primary
forest lands.
Clearly, more secure
tree and land tenure
rules are necessary
to facilitate smallholder
rehabilitation of
such lands; but these
may not be sufficient
to promote broad-based
adoption. A range
of technological options
exist to transform
lands into tree-based
production systems,
but technical support
can facilitate the
process of adoption
and reduce the risks
of costly errors.
As fires are part
of the problem, village-level
institutions are required
before individual
farmers can start
to invest in their
lands. The ASB consortium
in Indonesia has made
a start with an approach
to the policy, institutional
and technical problems
at farm, landscape
and national scale.
Work on the rehabilitation
of Imperata grasslands
in Sumatra is a good
example on which further
work will draw. In
the Philippines and
the northern Amazon
of Brazil there are
other projects from
which ASB can draw.
The
role of tropical forest
margins for sequestering
carbon is currently
under debate. More
ground-level data
will assist with this
assessment. Results
from Phases I and
II indicate that vegetation
recovery rates following
slash-and-burn may
be more rapid than
previous estimates.
Further measurements
in young secondary
vegetation are needed
to confirm this. These
data are also essential
for verifying existing
models, which are
used to assess and
predict the impact
of alternative land
uses.
The
ASB consortium will
strengthen existing
links with the International
Geosphere-Biosphere
Programme (IGBP),
in particular the
Global Climate and
Terrestrial Ecosystem
(GCTE ) and Land Use
and Cover Change(LUCC)
programmes.
The comparative advantage
of ASB in this collaboration
are the well-established
benchmark sites in
developing countries;
links with national
researchers and decision-makers;
and ground-level data
on carbon stocks,
greenhouse gas emissions
and biodiversity.
The IGBP researchers
have well-developed
global data sets on
land cover and climate
change. The potential
for a fruitful collaboration
is very strong. These
links will ensure
that ASB data are
used in improving
regional and global
carbon and greenhouse
gas models. The research
results can be directly
applied to proposed
policy refinements
to the Kyoto protocol
which will incorporate
farmer management
into the definition
of a forest. As a
specific example for
the Brazil site, a
major focus of the
LBA programme, linked
to both GCTE and LUCC,
is the development
of sustainable land-use
systems for the degraded
pasture and forest
lands in the Amazon.
Similarly, the ASB
benchmark in Sumatra
is linked to the GCTE
transect there.
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
