Category: Flagship 1: Tree genetic resources to bridge production gaps and promote resilience


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  • Challenges for women’s participation in communal forests: Experience from Nicaragua’s indigenous territories

Challenges for women’s participation in communal forests: Experience from Nicaragua’s indigenous territories

13 October, 2016

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This paper analyzes sex-differentiated use, decision-making and perceptions regarding communal forests in indigenous communities of Nicaragua’s Atlantic coast. Methods include a survey, focus groups, participant observation and adaptive collaborative management processes over a two-year period. Results revealed that while a higher percentage of men than women participate in the harvest of eight forest products, women participate substantially in product sales and have some control over income. A majority of men and women believe that women participate in decision-making, but that participation was of low efficacy. Women face significant obstacles to effective participation in forest decision-making in the community: weak community organization, pressure by spouses, difficulty organizing among themselves and informal sanctions. Improving meaningful participation of women in decision-making requires addressing challenges and obstacles at multiple levels; obstacles at the communal level, where the future of the forests will be decided, cannot be overcome without attention to the household.

Source: CIFOR Publication

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  • It takes a village to re-raise a forest

It takes a village to re-raise a forest

10 October, 2016

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To stem the effects of climate change on the country and its people, Ethiopia is looking towards forestry as a key solution.

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  • FTA event coverage: Highlights from the 2016 Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit

FTA event coverage: Highlights from the 2016 Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit

15 August, 2016

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By Leona Liu, originally published at CIFOR’s Forests News

The Summit’s 300+ participants brought perspectives from across geographic and sectoral boundaries to discuss ways toward a more integrated approach to forests, people and the region.

Global momentum is building to sustainably manage forests and landscapes, as a key factor for mitigating climate change and promoting development.

The Asia-Pacific, a dynamic region with rich natural assets, will be a crucial focus of this movement going forward. Rainforests in the Asia-Pacific account for 26 percent of the region’s land area, and support the livelihoods of some 450 million people.

Building on global commitments under the Paris Agreement and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the 2016 Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit, brought together stakeholders from government, business, civil society and the research community to catalyze practical action on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and achieving sustainable development in the region.

The Summit, held from 3-5 August in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam, was hosted by the Government of Brunei Darussalam and supported by the Australian Government.

In the video below, event participants including Peter Holmgren, Director General of CIFOR; Josh Frydenberg, Australia’s Minister for the Environment and Energy; and Dato Ali Apong, Brunei’s Minister of Primary Resources and Tourism, discuss the importance of integration- both across the region and between the private and public sectors – to achieve impact.

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  • Community forestry and forest stewardship

Community forestry and forest stewardship

12 August, 2016

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  • Agouti on the wedding menu: Bushmeat harvest, consumption and trade in a post-frontier region of the Ecuadorian Amazon

Agouti on the wedding menu: Bushmeat harvest, consumption and trade in a post-frontier region of the Ecuadorian Amazon

09 August, 2016

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Authors: Cummins, I.; Pinedo-Vasquez, M.; Barnard, A.; Nasi, R.

The availability, consumption and trade of bushmeat is highly variable across time and space. This paper examines how the bushmeat market in Napo, Ecuador has evolved alongside a variety of interconnected factors including local game scarcity, increased law enforcement, infrastructure development and increasing urbanization. Much of the human occupied landscape has already undergone extinction filters with only the most hunting resistant species still present. However, Napo maintains significant areas of largely intact forest which are not hunted due distance from roads and rough topography, which may serve as source habitat in the future. Two modes of hunting are identified both of which have very different implications for conservationists and for rural livelihoods. Supplemental or sustenance hunting generally focuses on more abundant species and thus occurs primarily within local agroforestry systems or nearby patches of forests. Commercial hunting meanwhile takes place within larger catchments and is focused on large-bodied species, which are especially susceptible to hunting pressure. Efforts by the Ecuadorian government to interdict bushmeat have largely driven the trade underground making it difficult to estimate current consumption rates. Demand generated by traditional Kichwa wedding parties remain a significant driver of commercial hunting. Policy recommendations include a greater focus on species-level game management, greater education about endangered species and more emphasis on using conservation programs to create corridors between protected areas. Due to the relatively small size of most communal forest areas, wildlife management is especially difficult for wide-ranging species and conservation efforts should focus on common pool resource management.

Series: CIFOR Occasional Paper no. 138

Publisher: Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bogor, Indonesia

Publication Year: 2015

ISBN: 978-602-387-009-7

Also published at Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)

 

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  • Wildlife: a forgotten and threatened resource

Wildlife: a forgotten and threatened resource

27 July, 2016

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Presentation by Robert Nasi, Director of the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry, et al. at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation in Montpellier, France, 19-23 June 2016.

The harvest of forest wildlife provides invaluable benefits to local people, but understanding of such practices remains fragmentary. With global attention drawn to the issue of declining biodiversity, this talk assesses the consequences, both for ecosystems and local livelihoods, of the loss of important forest resources, and alternative management options.

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  • Agricultural biodiversity nourishes people and sustains the planet: Bioversity International Annual Report 2015

Agricultural biodiversity nourishes people and sustains the planet: Bioversity International Annual Report 2015

18 July, 2016

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From the foreword by M. Ann Tutwiler, Director General and Cristián Samper, Board Chair

In 2015, at the United Nations in New York, countries agreed on the Sustainable Development Goals; in Paris at the Climate Summit, they reached an agreement on Climate Change; and at the Convention on Biological Diversity, countries focused on mainstreaming agricultural biodiversity into health, nutrition and production systems.

Agricultural biodiversity has an increasingly important role to play in creating long-term food system sustainability, with contributions to make in terms of improving nutrition, enhancing resilience of agricultural production system and increasing adaptation to climate change,.

In the report you will find examples that show the impact of Bioversity International’s work on people’s lives on the ground in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Our work is organized around three initiatives: ‘Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems’; ‘Productive and Resilient Farms, Forests and Landscapes’; and ‘Effective Genetic Resources Conservation and Use’. Through these initiatives, we investigate how to safeguard agricultural and tree biodiversity for future generations and how to use it to diversify diets, production systems, seeds and planting materials.

See the full report here

 

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  • Financial and economic values of bushmeat in rural and urban livelihoods in Cameroon: Inputs to the development of public policy

Financial and economic values of bushmeat in rural and urban livelihoods in Cameroon: Inputs to the development of public policy

17 July, 2016

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Authors: Guillaume Lescuyer, Robert Nasi

Published at Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)

Source: International Forestry Review

Traditional wildlife hunting has been described mainly from studies of local practices and from the monitoring of urban bushmeat markets. However, the overall value chain connecting hunters to end consumers remains largely unknown, thus preventing any estimate of the actual socio-economic importance of the bushmeat sector. On the basis of existing literature, this paper provides an order of magnitude for the financial and economic benefits of the bushmeat commodity chain in Cameroon.

The following conservative conclusions were arrived at:

(1) The annual turnover of the bushmeat sector in the country is likely to be close to €97 million, i.e. 36% more than the official assessment derived from public accounts.

(2) The bushmeat sector may contribute 0.17% to Cameroon’s GDP (non-oil), as much as the mining sector.

(3) Self-consumption of bushmeat in rural areas may amount to gross annual economic benefit of more than €142 million.

However, bushmeat in a country like Cameroon needs to be managed so as to guarantee the food security of urban and rural populations, as well as maintain a substantial source of revenue for communities, all of this without depleting the resource. Achieving this goal requires policy makers to disassociate wildlife harvesting from ‘poaching’ and the extirpation of species. It is crucial to go beyond the dominant narrative of a (real but over simplified) notion of a conservation crisis, to address its important livelihood and welfare dimensions.

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  • Hunting for sustainability: Bushmeat in Colombia

Hunting for sustainability: Bushmeat in Colombia

11 July, 2016

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Click on image to watch the video on bushmeat hunting in Colombia.
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Looking at bushmeat hunters in the Columbian Amazon, this video by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) addresses the importance of wildlife for rural ticuna families, including the importance for culture, food security and extra income. This research forms part of the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry.

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  • Mammalian biogeography and the Ebola virus in Africa

Mammalian biogeography and the Ebola virus in Africa

13 June, 2016

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Authors: Olivero, J.; Fa, J.E.; Real, R.; Farfán, M.A.; Márquez, A.L.; Vargas, J.M.; Paul Gonzales, J.; Cunningham, A.A.; Nasi, R.

  1. Ebola virus is responsible for the fatal Ebola virus disease (EVD).
  2. Identifying the distribution area of the Ebola virus is crucial for understanding the risk factors conditioning the emergence of new EVD cases. Existing distribution models have underrepresented the potential contribution that reservoir species and vulnerable species make in sustaining the presence of the virus.
  3. In this paper, we map favourable areas for Ebola virus in Africa according to environmental and zoogeographical descriptors, independent of human-to-human transmissions. We combine two different biogeographical approaches: analysis of mammalian distribution types (chorotypes), and distribution modelling of the Ebola virus.
  4. We first obtain a model defining the distribution of environmentally favourable areas for the presence of Ebola virus. Based on a review of mammal taxa affected by or suspected of exposure to the Ebola virus, we model favourable areas again, this time according to mammalian chorotypes. We then build a combined model in which both the environment and mammalian distributions explain the favourable areas for Ebola virus in the wild.
  5. We demonstrate that mammalian biogeography contributes to explaining the distribution of Ebola virus in Africa, although vegetation may also underscore clear limits to the presence of the virus. Our model suggests that the Ebola virus may be even more widespread than previously suspected, given that additional favourable areas are found throughout the coastal areas of West and Central Africa, stretching from Cameroon to Guinea, and extend further East into the East African Lakes region.
  6. Our findings show that the most favourable area for the Ebola virus is significantly associated with the presence of the virus in non-human mammals. Core areas are surrounded by regions of intermediate favourability, in which human infections of unknown source were found. The difference in association between humans and other mammals and the virus may offer further insights on how EVD can spread.
Published at Mammal Review 6 June 2016
Also at: Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)

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  • CIAT Annual Report 2015-2016 - Sustainable Food Futures: Getting the Fundamentals Right

CIAT Annual Report 2015-2016 – Sustainable Food Futures: Getting the Fundamentals Right

03 May, 2016

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  • CIAT Annual Report 2015-2016: Sustainable Food Futures--Getting the Fundamentals Right

CIAT Annual Report 2015-2016: Sustainable Food Futures–Getting the Fundamentals Right


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Originally published at CIAT blog

The world has never produced or consumed so much food. We cannot, however, ignore the pressure that food production is putting on the environment and the ecosystem services we all depend on. We cannot ignore either the unprecedented threat that climate change poses on agriculture – and the need to adapt swiftly. And we must ensure that food production and distribution systems give farmers in developing countries – men and women alike – a fair deal, and consumers around the world, adequate access to varied, affordable, and nutritious foods.

In this Annual Report covering the period April 2015 through March 2016, CIAT offers a dynamic overview of our contribution in addressing these challenges and building sound fundamentals for sustainable food futures. Working with hundreds of partners, we are helping conserve the integrity of vital ecosystem services in Latin American, African, and Asian rural landscapes, while generating increased economic and social benefits. Inspired by our experience with Colombia’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to better shield important value chains from climate variability, we are now extending our support to Peru and Honduras.

The fourteen country profiles on climate-smart agriculture (CSA) that have been produced so far also enable policymakers and investors to quickly and easily review the opportunities for CSA prioritization at a national level. As one of the pioneers of big data in agricultural science, CIAT uses large, uncontrolled, real-world data sets, and cutting-edge analytics to scour the data and produce reliable and highly site-specific recommendations.

CIAT’s big data operation has yielded game-changing discoveries for the Colombian rice industry – solutions that can easily be scaled up and broadened to include other crops. To boost explanatory power, scientists are looking at incorporating data on soils, pests, and diseases, as well as other factors. Of the 169 targets that make up the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, over 60 relate in some way to the food system.

By conserving bean and cassava varieties as well as tropical forages and their wild relatives in our genebank, accelerating genetic gain, spreading sound agronomic practices, and by promoting business models that give farmers and the environment a better deal, CIAT and our hundreds of partners contribute actively to shaping a sustainable future. More investments and efforts in agricultural research for development are needed. With 21 offices and almost 1,000 staff strategically located across the tropics, we are uniquely placed to pursue sustainable food futures for tropical agriculture in collaboration with our partners, including policy makers, and the private sector.

Read the Annual Report here

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  • Bioversity International financial statements 2015

Bioversity International financial statements 2015

20 April, 2016

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Bioversity International’s financial mandate includes maintaining accountability and transparency in its finances, and to evaluate and communicate direct impact from our work to our donors, partners and the wider research and development community. This also reflects Bioversity’s projects under the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA).

Download here

Bioversity International 2016

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  • Conflict in protected areas: who says co-management does not work?

Conflict in protected areas: who says co-management does not work?

21 March, 2016

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Also published at Bioversity International

Author: De Pourcq, K.; Thomas, E.; Arts, B.; Vranckx, A.; Léon-Sicard, T.; Van Damme, P.

Natural resource-related conflicts can be extremely destructive and undermine environmental protection. Since the 1990s co-management schemes, whereby the management of resources is shared by public and/or private sector stakeholders, have been a main strategy for reducing these conflicts worldwide. Despite initial high hopes, in recent years co-management has been perceived as falling short of expectations. However, systematic assessments of its role in conflict prevention or mitigation are non-existent. Interviews with 584 residents from ten protected areas in Colombia revealed that co-management can be successful in reducing conflict at grassroots level, as long as some critical enabling conditions, such as effective participation in the co-management process, are fulfilled not only on paper but also by praxis. We hope these findings will re-incentivize global efforts to make co-management work in protected areas and other common pool resource contexts, such as fisheries, agriculture, forestry and water management.

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  • Relationships between population density, fine-scale genetic structure, mating system and pollen dispersal in a timber tree from African rainforest

Relationships between population density, fine-scale genetic structure, mating system and pollen dispersal in a timber tree from African rainforest

15 March, 2016

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Also published at Bioversity International

Authors: Duminil, J.; Dainou, K.; Kaviriri, D.K.; Gillet, P.; Loo, J.; Doucet, J.L.; Hardy, O.J.

The reproductive biology and genetic diversity of trees in the Congo Basin don’t seem to be affected by current logging practices. However, researcher recommend further investigations in low-density populations to evaluate (1) whether pollen limitation may reduce seed production and (2) the regeneration potential of the species.

This is the result from a study of genetic diversity, mating system and gene flow in three Central African populations of the self-compatible legume timber species Erythrophleum suaveolens with contrasting densities (0.11, 0.68 and 1.72 adults per ha).

Comparing reproductive biology processes and genetic diversity of populations at different densities can provide indirect evidence of the potential impacts of logging.

Selective logging could affect the demography, reproductive biology and evolutionary potential of forest trees. This is particularly relevant in tropical forests where natural population densities can be low and isolated trees may be subject to outcross pollen limitation and/or produce low-quality selfed seeds that exhibit inbreeding depression.

Researchers found that inbred individuals are eliminated between seedling and adult stages. Levels of genetic diversity, selfing rates (~16%) and patterns of spatial genetic structure (Sp ~0.006) were similar in all three populations.

However, the extent of gene dispersal differed markedly among populations: the average distance of pollen dispersal increased with decreasing density (from 200 m in the high-density population to 1000 m in the low-density one). In other words, at lower population densities, trees are still connected as a result of larger pollen dispersal distances.

The study was conducted by Bioversity International, the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium; Université de Liège, Gembloux, Belgium; Nature+ asbl, Wavre, Belgium; Université de Kisangani, Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo.

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