Assessing local perceptions of deforestation, forest restoration, and the role of agroecology for agroecosystem restoration in northern Malawi

Abstract

Deforestation drives climate change and reinforces food insecurity in forestdependent communities. What drives deforestation varies by location and is shaped by livelihood systems. But how locals perceive restoration is crucial for developing restoration policies. Evidence suggests that applying sustainable farming strategies can potentially restore forests and sustain livelihoods. Applying a broad-based conceptualization of deforestation and restoration in policymaking, however, results in missed opportunities for addressing deforestation and restoration. Here, we explore the drivers of deforestation, the perceptions of restoration, and the challenges to restoration among smallholder farmers in northern Malawi and examine how agroecology can contribute to restoring degraded agroecosystems. Participants report agricultural land expansion, charcoal production, climate change, burnt brick production, and government subsidies as the major drivers of deforestation. We observed that although perceptions of forest restoration reflect farmers' traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) to include reclamation of degraded farmlands, reconstruction of native tree species, and replacement of felled trees on farmlands, there are challenges including splitting families to gain access to more subsidized fertilizers and food aid, embedded cultural practices, growing demand for charcoal in cities, and weak ecosystem governance structures that hinder the effectiveness of restoration efforts. We, however, do find that agroecological intensification can increase yield from smaller farmlands and allow for larger and longer-lasting fallows of spare lands which regenerate forests. Key overarching implications of these findings include the need to integrate livelihoods more explicitly into restoration plans, accounting for TEK in restoration policies in forest-dependent communities and encouraging the adoption of agroecology.

Climate Change, Food Security, and Health: Harnessing Agroecology to Build Climate-Resilient Communities

“…Specifically, agroecology improves agricultural productivity and food security, making diverse crops available that can improve dietary diversity and income for smallholder farmers. In addition, agroecology contributes towards the restoration of degraded lands and forestry [66], which improves carbon sequestration. As an alternative to industrial agriculture, agroecological practices such as agroforestry maintain habitats and connectivity for biodiversity and support ecosystem functions under climate stress.…”

“…Evidence points to the fact that agroecology leads to the restoration of farmlands and degraded forests [65,66]. In a study examining the perceptions of deforestation, forest restoration, and the role agroecology, it was found that farmers who practise agroecology reported varied levels of forest restoration after applying agroecological practices on their farms compared to farmers who did not practise agroecology [66].…”

“…Evidence points to the fact that agroecology leads to the restoration of farmlands and degraded forests [65,66]. In a study examining the perceptions of deforestation, forest restoration, and the role agroecology, it was found that farmers who practise agroecology reported varied levels of forest restoration after applying agroecological practices on their farms compared to farmers who did not practise agroecology [66]. Agroecological practising farmers engaged in extended fallows and polyculture, which stimulated the revitalization of ecological functions that facilitate forest restoration and agroecosystems, ultimately increasing opportunities for carbon sequestration-more so than current capitalist monocultures.…”

Agroecology: Can it inform disaster risk management in fragile settings?

“…Some agroecology principles can help to mitigate the impacts of climate change and reduce the risk of future disasters (Kpienbaareh et al, 2022). For example, in regions where prolonged droughts and floods have disrupted traditional agriculture, agroforestry systems that combine crops, trees and livestock have effectively provided diverse and nutritious food sources while restoring degraded landscapes.…”

Using Time Series Image Data to Improve the Generalization Capabilities of a CNN – The Example of Deforestation Detection With Sentinel-2

“…The application considered in this paper is bi-temporal deforestation detection in tropical rain forests, e.g. those in the Brazilian Amazon region, which is particularly important because deforestation is one of the major causes of global warming (Kpienbaareh et al, 2022). The goal is to analyse a pair of co-registered satellite images acquired at different points in time in order to predict at pixel level whether deforestation occurred between the two dates or not, which can be seen as a special case of pixel-wise classification.…”