Editorial for Special Issue: “Livelihood and Landscape Change in Africa: Future Trajectories for Improved Well-Being under a Changing Climate”

Shackleton, Sheona; Masterson, Vanessa A; Hebinck, Paul; Speranza, Chinwe Ifejika; Spear, Dian; Tengö, Maria

doi:10.3390/land8080114

Cited by 13 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…It has been argued that in the human-dominated landscapes (e.g., the corn belt of the midwestern United States, rural landscapes in Africa and the Latin American Amazonia), where human activities and impacts on the environment are on the rise, there is an opportunity to preserve aspects of the landscape pattern and ensure sustainable land uses that take care of the livelihoods of the present as well as future generations [46][47][48]. In the ARFR where farmer encroachment along the forest reserve fringes is on the rise [28], better land preservation measures will be needed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Protecting the patches from the footprints: examining the land use factors associated with forest patches in Atewa range forest reserve

2021

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Background Land use practices are noted to contribute to changes in forest landscape composition. However, whereas studies have reported the intermix of land uses and forest patches and measured the direct impacts of land uses on forest patches, little is known regarding the spatially-explicit association between the most recent forest patches and land use footprints in protected areas. In this study, we use methods from GIS, remote sensing, and statistics to model the spatial relationship between footprints of land uses and patches of forest cover by drawing on geospatial data from the Atewa range forest reserve (ARFR). Results The study finds that forest patches that are within 1 km from agricultural land use footprints (AOR = 86.625, C.I. 18.057–415.563, P = 0.000), logging sites (AOR = 55.909, C.I. 12.032–259.804, P = 0.000), mine sites (53.571, C.I. 11.287–254.255, P = 0.000), access roads (AOR = 24.169, C.I. 5.544–105.357, P = 0.000), and human settlement footprints (AOR = 7.172, C.I. 1.969–26.128, P = 0.003) are significantly more likely to be less than the mean patch area (375,431.87 m2 = 37.54 ha) of forest cover. A ROC statistic of 0.995 achieved in this study suggests a high predictive power of the proposed model. Conclusion The study findings suggest that to ensure sustainable land uses and ecological integrity, there is a need for land use policies and land management strategies that ensure responsible livelihood activities as well as further restrictions on logging and mining in the globally significant biodiversity area.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Protecting the patches from the footprints: examining the land use factors associated with forest patches in Atewa range forest reserve

2021

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“…Our motivation for proposing a relational approach to landscape stewardship emerges both from practical, empirical experiences of place-based landscape studies (see for example Cockburn et al [16], Cockburn et al [31], Pollard et al [32], Palmer et al [33], and Shackleton et al [34]), and from the philosophical orientations which underpin our approach to landscape stewardship. The practical, empirical experiences speak to relational practices, whilst the philosophical orientations speak to relational ontology and epistemology.…”

Section: Why Take a Relational Approach?mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Relational Approach to Landscape Stewardship: Towards a New Perspective for Multi-Actor Collaboration

Cockburn

Rosenberg

Copteros

et al. 2020

Land

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Landscape stewardship is increasingly understood within the framing of complex social-ecological systems. To consider the implications of this, we focus on one of the key characteristics of complex social-ecological systems: they are relationally constituted, meaning that system characteristics emerge out of dynamic relations between system components. We focus on multi-actor collaboration as a key form of relationality in landscapes, seeking a more textured understanding of the social relations between landscape actors. We draw on a set of ‘gardening tools’ to analyse the boundary-crossing work of multi-actor collaboration. These tools comprise three key concepts: relational expertise, common knowledge, and relational agency. We apply the tools to two cases of landscape stewardship in South Africa: the Langkloof Region and the Tsitsa River catchment. These landscapes are characterised by economically, socio-culturally, and politically diverse groups of actors. Our analysis reveals that history and context strongly influence relational processes, that boundary-crossing work is indeed difficult, and that doing boundary-crossing work in smaller pockets within a landscape is helpful. The tools also helped to identify three key social-relational practices which lend a new perspective on boundary-crossing work: 1. belonging while differing, 2. growing together by interacting regularly and building common knowledge, and 3. learning and adapting together with humility and empathy.

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“…Masunungure and Shackleton (2018) studied trajectories to propose alternatives that would improve household responses to drivers of change. Shackleton et al (2019) argue that trajectory analysis helps to identify poorly adapted responses, as well as avoid their repetition. Bathfield et al (2016) used household trajectories to describe how coffee and honey farmers make their decisions based on uncertainties, such as the international market.…”

Section: Integrating Multi-scale Trajectories In Landscape Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Integrating these different levels (as was done in this study) provides a better understanding of the context. Interventions that fail to consider socio-economic and political contexts can bring negative consequences to ecosystem services and households (Shackleton et al, 2019).…”

Section: Integrating Multi-scale Trajectories In Landscape Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessing household and landscape trajectories for improving ecosystem services and nutritional self-sufficiency in south Mexico

Novotny¹

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In agricultural landscapes, humans impact the environment through land use change, causing natural resource depletion and potentially reducing crop and animal production. These changes, in turn, can impact the livelihood and food security of the rural population, and lead to socio-economic changes such as induced marginalization and land abandonment. In Mesoamerica, rural development policies aimed at intensifying agriculture in detriment of traditional indigenous systems. These policies are expected to have an impact on rural landscapes and its people, and understanding this intricate interaction is key for assessing household, community, and landscape trajectories. Therefore, this thesis aimed to assess these trajectories as affected by several drivers of change and to evaluate current landscape performances in terms of ecosystem services and food provision to propose landscape alternatives for improving food self-sufficiency without sacrificing other ecosystem services. This study was performed in the geo-cultural Mixtec region in south Mexico, and two municipalities were selected for in-depth analysis. The thesis is divided into four main chapters. First, I assess livelihood strategies and household typologies as affected by migration, government support, and changes in land tenancy policies. Second, I evaluate landscape change at the watershed and municipal level and link these changes to socio-economic and environmental drivers. I then highlight how communities manage their landscape according to their context-specific conditions, demonstrating that regional drivers of change might not be enough for describing land use change. Third, I evaluate changes in food self-sufficiency over time and show the nutritional advantages of milpa, an indigenous polycropping system, over the predominant monocrops of maize and bean. In the last main chapter, I assess the current landscape performance in terms of several nutritional, environmental, and socio-economic indicators to propose landscape configurations that asses multiple stakeholder objectives in conjunction.

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Editorial for Special Issue: “Livelihood and Landscape Change in Africa: Future Trajectories for Improved Well-Being under a Changing Climate”

Abstract: Rural people’s livelihoods are intimately linked to the landscapes in which they live and are particularly vulnerable to changes in these landscapes (Suich et al [...]

Cited by 13 publications

References 23 publications

Protecting the patches from the footprints: examining the land use factors associated with forest patches in Atewa range forest reserve

Protecting the patches from the footprints: examining the land use factors associated with forest patches in Atewa range forest reserve

A Relational Approach to Landscape Stewardship: Towards a New Perspective for Multi-Actor Collaboration

Assessing household and landscape trajectories for improving ecosystem services and nutritional self-sufficiency in south Mexico

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