Local Livelihoods

Learning from Change in the Sangha Tri-National Landscape

Background

The authors discuss the lessons learned from a participatory landscape monitoring initiative in the Sangha Tri-National landscape. The initiative was started in 2006 in the Sangha Tri-National landscape; it involved a variety of stakeholders to monitor changes in peoples' livelihoods and land uses. The group collected data on certain indicators, which allowed them to produce simple simulation models on landscape change over time. 

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Les sociétés rurales et les pratiques d’utilisation multiple des terres (Rural societies and land-use practices)

This chapter focuses on rural poverty in central Africa and the contribution of multiple land use practices to local development.

The authors discuss the paradox of belonging to an area that is on the one hand extremely rich in natural resources, and on the other hand extremely poor in national and local development.

They stress the importance of maintaining globally important natural resources that will be able to respond to the needs of future generations of central Africans.

 

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Stakeholders and Tropical Reforestation: Challenges, Trade-Offs, and Strategies in Dynamic Environments

Background

The authors recognize that reforestation efforts require trade-offs, yet they claim that successful efforts requires stakeholder engagement beyond the planning stages and the acknowledgement that stakeholder dynamics, interests, and roles change over time. To support this claim, the authors first do a relevant literature review and then the examine a single case study of a multi-stakeholder workshop in Mexico. 

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Impacts of Large-Scale Forest Restoration on Socioeconomic Status and Local Livelihoods: What We Know and Do Not Know

Background

This literature review focuses on the practice of Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR), which has been proposed as an approach to forest restoration that takes local livelihoods into account. The review addresses a lack of understanding of how FLR impacts local livelihoods on a large scale, delivers a conceptual framework for evaluating the effects of large-scale restoration on local livelihoods, and then use this framework to conduct a literature review. 

 

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Integrating Livestock Production with Forest Management among Leroghi Forest Adjacent Pastoral Communities in Samburu County, Kenya

Background

The study examines a forest based livestock production system in Samburu Country, Kenya. It focuses on nomadic and semi-nomadi pastoralists whom rely on water, dry season fodder, and pastures for their livelihoods. 

Open access copy available

Disappearing Forests in Malawi: Causes and Solutions

Background

Malawi has experienced rapid population growth coupled with soil erosion, land degradation, deforestation, hunger, and poverty. While it appears these trends are related, the author argues that the causes are more complex. 

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Assessment of Drivers of Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Phnom Tbeng Forest Based on Socio-Economic Surveys

background

Since the 1960s, Cambodia has lost over 20% of forest cover, with a decline from 13.2 million hectares to 10.4 million as a result of civil war, population growth, and migration patterns. This study seeks to understand the drivers of deforestation in Cambodia through the eyes of rural village residents in five different villages.

Open access copy available

National Forest Policy of Malawi

Background

In Malawi, there has been extensive forest degradation, estimated at an annual loss of 2.8%. The degradation is caused by a variety of factors, including agriculture expansion, human settlement, fire use, timber and non-timber over extraction. The 2016 Forest Policy of Malawi outlines a policy-approach to stop and revert these trends. 

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Land Degradation, Less Favored Lands and the Rural Poor: A Spatial and Economic Analysis.

Background

Previous studies have examined the differing economic consequences of land degradation for various groups of people, finding that the rural poor of less developed countries rely on some of the most marginal, degraded land. Yet, these studes seignificantly differ in their use of key spatial land and population indicators and the spatially referenced data generated are inadequate for cross-country economic analysis of the impact of land degradation on global poverty. This study aims to rectify these shortcomings. 

Open access copy available

Agroforestry Solutions to Address Food Security and Climate Change Challenges in Africa

background

Many parts of Africa face food insecurity and land degradation, challenges which will only be exacerbated by the impacts of climate change. The article proposes that agroforestry has the potential to improve the resilience of small farmers by enhancing soil fertility and providing food and fuel sources. However there has not been widespread adoption of agroforestry strategies across Africa.

Open access copy available
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