Agroforestry governance for operationalising the landscape approach: connecting conservation and farming actors

Abstract

The expansion and intensification of agriculture as well as the associated land clearing are threatening both biodiversity and human wellbeing in tropical areas. Implementing agroforestry systems through a landscape approach has a strong potential for integrating nature conservation objectives into agricultural systems. A key challenge for implementing the landscape approach is that political processes and conservation initiatives operate in 'silos', being largely disconnected from farmers and local key agents responsible for tree governance. In this study we brought together different stakeholders in facilitated, structured focus discussions to analyse the role of actor groups in tree governance. We used social network analysis to quantitatively and qualitatively analyse agroforestry governance networks and actor interactions related to information exchange, finance flows, and regulation. The analyses were conducted at national, sub-national and local levels in four countries: Honduras, Peru, Indonesia, and Uganda. Using trees on farms as a boundary object enabled all participants to bridge common interests and illuminate some of the constraints and opportunities of local governance systems while overcoming institutional and ideological barriers. The quantitative results of the social network analysis identify a strong density of actor linkages. Despite this density, results indicate incoherent and fragmented actor networks undermining the support for agroforestry on all levels. Nevertheless, existing processes related to finance, information, and regulation can be better aligned to ensure an effective implementation and mainstreaming of agroforestry for biodiversity conservation. Building social capital among key actors on both national and local levels can reveal a strong potential for adaptive learning processes mainstreaming agroforestry as essential component of "good farming" and integrating incentive systems for a coherent and effective agroforestry governance. We conclude that redirecting both public and private funding towards continuous seed-funding for the facilitation of these integrated learning processes can transform landscape management and at the same time reduce transaction costs.

Agroforestry for sustainable landscape management

“…All of the studies generated both useful research findings, and important inputs for advancing integrated landscape management in real-world practice. Zinngrebe et al (2020) demonstrate how the Net-Map tool proved powerful in building and understanding critical aspects of collaboration among actors in selected socioecologically diverse landscapes. The study generates novel insights into structural characteristics of effective governance, including the benefits of building on established networks of local land users, and shed light on how flows of finance, regulation and information affect potential for agroforestry support.…”

“…1). Interestingly, a number of articles describe comparative research that has been performed across two regional landscape corridors (Buck et al 2020); between two protected areas (Therville et al 2020); between the four tropical countries of Honduras, Indonesia, Peru, and Uganda (Zinngrebe et al 2020); across the Mediterranean Basin (Flinzberger et al 2020;Wolpert et al 2020); and across ten agroforestry landscapes and landuse systems in the European Union (Rolo et al 2020). Studies were carried out at local (n = 3), regional (n = 6), national (n = 1), and supranational scales (n = 1).…”

“…The authors demonstrate how five key elements of ILM-shared goals, cross-sectoral collaboration, community engagement, integrated spatial planning of agroforestry and related land-use systems, and market and policy support-work synergistically to advance the knowledge-intensive and adaptive collaborative management processes needed to scale up agroforestry adoption and to develop a coherent scaling strategy. Zinngrebe et al (2020) argue that understanding of the roles of different actors in trees-on-farm governance should inform strategies of multi-stakeholder landscape platforms and of national programs. Through social network analysis in Honduras, Peru, Indonesia, and Uganda, the authors find that implementation of agroforestry-specific policy instruments requires complementary structures for regulation, finance, and information.…”

Agroforestry-Based Ecosystem Services: Reconciling Values of Humans and Nature in Sustainable Development

“…The scope for a more connective agroforestry landscape concept has never been larger than now, as a key challenge for implementing the landscape approach is that political processes and conservation initiatives still operate in "silos", largely disconnected from farmers and local key agents responsible for tree governance [99]. The recent "making peace with nature" report [100] urges for a coherent approach to climate change, loss of biodiversity, and pollution as part of reimagining and transforming the ways in which the values of humans and nature are reconciled.…”

Introduction: Ten Years of Forests, Trees and Agroforestry Research in Partnership for Sustainable Development

“…A key component of the landscape approach (Freeman et al 2015;Minang et al 2014bMinang et al , 2015Sayer et al 2017;Zinngrebe et al 2020) has been to reconcile value chains, economic actors, governance systems and local communities. Impacts of international timber procurement policies were studied; for example, in Cameroon (Atyi et al 2013), as were impacts of timber certification in a number of countries (Cerutti et al 2011;Romero et al 2017).…”