Climate resilient traditional agroforestry systems in Silite district, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Agroforestry is recognized as one of the strategies for climate change mitigation and adaptation under the Kyoto protocol. The system has been practiced in Ethiopia for a while by smallholder farmers by incorporating crops with trees providing extensive socio-economic and environmental benefits. This unaccounted benefit of the system needs further and specific study. Thus, this study aimed to examine the resilience of three (homegardens, woodlots, and parkland) traditional agroforestry systems (TAFS) on the basis of biomass carbon accumulation and socio-economic characteristics in Silite district, Southern Ethiopia. Systematic random sampling was employed to collect social and biological data. Height and diameter at breast height (DBH) were measured to determine the biomass carbon stock and a questionnaire was performed for the socio-economic data. The mean differences across the system were analyzed using a post hoc test. Socioeconomic data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the chi-square test. Climate change awareness was perceived almost by half of the respondents, thus the contribution of TAFS to climate change adaptation and mitigation was revealed socio-economically and ecologically. Carbon stock and socio-economic benefits gained from agroforestry systems consist in a great sink of carbon and food security.

Above-ground Carbon Stocks of Tectona grandis and Gmelina arborea Plantations in Njala University, Southern Sierra Leone

“…The plantation trial was previously farmland, while the spacing trial was an abandoned grassland; therefore, the site characteristics to support tree growth might be more favourable in the former. This aligns with the findings of Semere and Gebreyesus [17] that the intensity of management can dictate the carbon stock accumulation potential of a site or plantation. Furthermore, the variation in carbon stocks between the two tree species might be accounted for by the planting density used in plantation establishment.…”

“…The differences in above-ground and below-ground biomass for the two experimental sites show higher means for the plantation trial than the spacing trial. The means for AGB were relatively higher than BGB between the species and sites, which agrees with Semere and Gebreyesus [17]. The species performance portrayed Gmelina arborea as accumulating a higher AGB and BGB than Tectona grandis.…”

“…This assertion is in line with Vallejos-Barra et al [20] that for plantations of the same age, lower plantation densities seem to correspond to slightly higher carbon absorption rates. However, Semere and Gebreyesus [17] argued that the carbon stock potential of plantations established on the same type of soil is not merely a function of the number of trees planted but depends largely on the dendrometric parameters of the plantation, such as DBH and height. In fact, Dida and Tiburan [21] found that trees with large DBH had the highest AGB estimates on the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) campus.…”

Biomass production, carbon stock and sequestration potential of prominent agroforestry systems in north-western Himalaya, India

“…Agroforestry has been acknowledged as a GHG mitigation strategy under the Kyoto Protocol because it is an integrated approach (Birhane et al, 2020;Das et al, 2020;Sarkar et al, 2021). This recognition is based on carbon capture and utilisation efficiency leading to greater carbon sequestration (Das et al, 2020;Semere et al, 2022).…”