Land Use Practices

Linking forest conservation and food security through agroecology

Background

This chapter, found in Forest Landscape Restoration: Integrated Approaches to Support Effective Implementation, focuses on Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) in the tropics. Specifically, the authors examine agroecology as an integrated approach for both gaining food security and restoring agro-forest landscapes in post-conflict Colombia.

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Forests in the Time of Violence: Conservation Implications of the Colombian War

Background

While there has been extensive attention paid to the social, economic, and political effects of the decades of conflict in Colombia, there has been limited research that seeks to understand the environmental side. This is critical since Colombia ranks among a select few "megadiversity" countries in the world. This article aims to remedy this issue through analyzing the geographic distribution of forest remnants in the Colombian Amazon, Andes, and Chocó in relation to the armed conflict in country. 

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Geographic overlaps between priority areas for forest carbon-storage efforts and those for delivering peacebuilding programs: implications for policy design

Background

Forest-based emmission reductions, such as REDD+, have increasingly been promoted yet the conversation around these initiatives rarely consider opportunities outside the environmental sector. This paper examines one of these opportunities: the interaction between carbon-storage and peacebuilding. Using Colombia as a case-study, the authors investigate the ways in which forest carbon-storage and peacebuilding influence conservation and conflict.

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Green pretexts: Ecotourism, neoliberal conservation and land grabbing in Tayrona National Natural Park, Colombia

Background

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Silvopastoral Systems and their Contribution to Improved Resource Use and Sustainable Development Goals: Evidence from Latin America

Background

Of the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015, livestock can contribute to the majority of them. Specifically, silvopastoral systems, which integrate cattle intensification and natural processes, is often promoted to achieve the joint economic, social, and environmental focus of the SDGs. Using three established silvopastoral systems in Latin American (Argentina, Mexico, and Colombia) as case-studies, this paper applies an analytical framework in order to determine the systems productivity and the socio-economic benefits. 

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Creating space for large‐scale restoration in tropical agricultural landscapes

Background

The large-scale degradation and land-use conversion of ecosystems around the world has led to a global push to restore critical environments in order to preserve biodiversity and ecosystem services. One of the biggest challenges to these efforts though, is ensuring that preexisting land-uses are not simply displaced elsewhere. This article explores this problem, turning to the Brazilian Atlantic Forest as a case-study. The authors examine if restoration will lead to a discplacement of cattle production due to land-shortage. 

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The ecology of peace: preparing Colombia for new political and planetary climates

Background

Written in 2018, this article recognizes that Colombia is emerging from a decades long conflict and this newfound social peace will have ecological and environmental effects. The authors aim to examine how the current, stable state of Colombia along with the continuing changes in global climate may shape both the ecological character and biodiversity of the country. They do so by first reviewing the socio-political state of Colombia and then go on to identify challenges in research and policy and discuss management decisions in the country that may lead to beneficial outcomes. 

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Greening peace in Colombia

Background

Written in 2017, this article reviews the connection between Colombia's recent peace agreement after 50 years of conflict and the country's immense biodiversity. Given the social peace, the forests of Colombia are now more prone for development, specifically the increase of both official and unofficial road and infrustructures, which could have a detrimental affect on wildlife and ecosystem services. This article seeks to outline the challenges and opportunities that Colombia faces to integrate forest biodiversity conservation into economic development.

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Socioecological transition in the Cauca river valley, Colombia (1943–2010): towards an energy–landscape integrated analysis

Background 

Globally, agroecosytems are facing signficant challenges due to socio-ecological trends in which they are pressured to intensify in order to meat growing economic demands while also attempting to avoid the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services typically associated with agricultural intensification. This study uses the Cauca river valley in Colombia as a case-study in order to investigate the land use change and the ways human disturbance in agroecosystems are associated with landscape processes. 

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Partnering with cattle ranchers for forest landscape restoration

Background

In order to address land degradation due to agricultural expansion and intensification throughout Latin America, silvopastoral systems are being promoted as a forest landscape restoration (FLR) approach. Yet, the success of these strategies rely on ranchers voluntary participation and full adoption at a regional scale. The author recognizes a knowledge gap in regards to why ranchers are driven to adopt silvopastoral systems and thus seeks to understand this issue through the examination of a cast study in Colombia. 

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