Agroforestry World
Forests are already certified for the quality of their wood, amongst other things. A new study is looking at whether ecosystem services can be included in certification, says Sini Savilaakso Led by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC),...
It’s still difficult to integrate ecological priorities into development processes, especially those related to the management of tropical forested landscapes. A recent comparative study of different forest landscapes in Indonesia proves the point, says Yves Laumonier A...
Prospective participatory analysis has helped communities on Seram Island, Indonesia, see the likely results of decisions about land use and provided a focus for their efforts, says Nining Liswanti According to Nining Liswanti, a researcher with the...
Legally binding planning at multiple levels, from local to central governments, will help ensure continued protection and improvement of ecosystem services, says Leony Aurora ‘If it’s not statutory, you’re wasting your time. No one is going to...
Today, development can no longer be measured solely in economic models that show improvement in material consumption but rather on progress in sustaining human wellbeing, says Elizabeth Kahurani Sustainable wellbeing on a national and global scale largely...
A new study puts the cost of using the environment at around USD 20 trillion a year, up substantially on the last estimate from 1997, says Leony Aurora The world’s gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 2.3...
The integrated rice-field irrigation system of Bali, Indonesia, has been awarded World Heritage Cultural Landscape status by UNESCO. It has maintained agricultural ecosystem services for over 1000 years but might not survive its popularity, says Elizabeth Kahurani ...
People creating payments-for-ecosystem-services schemes need to reorient their thinking from strict financial transactions based on performance towards ‘co-investment’, says Leony Aurora Co-investment typically involves various groups with different types of assets working together to achieve agreed goals....
The Government of Indonesia has officially published a strategy to research and develop agroforestry throughout the archipelago. The strategy was created with help from the World Agroforestry Centre, says Robert Finlayson For more than a year, the...
Local knowledge is proving a valuable starting point in adapting Ethiopian farming systems to climate change and ensuring greater productivity to combat food insecurity. A new technical paper by the World Agroforestry Centre analyses what farmers in the...
Greater involvement of women in landscape-level decision-making will increase emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in Sumatra, Indonesia, posing challenges to emissions reduction efforts. This is according to a study by Villamor et al, published in ‘Mitigation and...
Grandma was right to raise her tree seedlings in that broken old gourd; this biodegradable container helped her saplings establish more successfully on the farm. A new article in the journal Small-scale Forestry confirms the superiority of biodegradable...
This work paves the way for the development of environmental quality guidelines for the continent’s soils. Scientists at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and partners have adapted a technique commonly used in clinical, archeological, and other applications so...
A new handbook on scaling up sustainable land management practices is now available online. The 45-page how-to guide is aimed primarily at the densely populated East African highlands, where the best practices garnered from the African Highlands Initiative—a...