The ASSETS project:Attaining Sustainable Services from Ecosystems through Trade off Scenarios

Photo by Erwin Palacios CI Colombia © The Economist

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Our Team Southampton (UK) (PI Poppy)

plus Dawson, Dundee)

Conservation International (USA) (Co-PI Honzak)

Basque Centre for Climate Change (Spain) (Co-PI Villa)

CIAT: International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (Cali, Colombia) (Co-PI Jarvis)plus Colombian research centres, universities and NGOs

Chancellor College, Malawi, (Co-PI Chiota) LEAD Africa plus Ministry of Forestry, Forest Research Institute of Malawi and Rhodes University South Africa

The pursuit of food security through increased agricultural production (including through changes in land use, land cover and irrigation) is a key driver of landscape change (UNEP, 2011). At the same time, food

security for many of the world’s rural poor is particularly dependent on their being able to benefit from the flow of ecosystem services (ES) –

the benefits humans obtain from nature (MA, 2005).

The overarching goal is to explicitly quantify the linkages between the natural ecosystem services that affect – and are affected by – food security and nutritional health for the rural poor at the forest-agricultural interface

Photo by Erwin Palacios CI Colombia

A complex ecosystem where agro-ecosystem meets “natural” ecosystems

Africa & Amazonia: different situations…… much in common

• Deforestation: Africa much more advancedAmazonia in rapid transition due to a range of drivers

• impacted by climate change and extreme weather events• issues of extreme poverty, malnutrition and inequality

• Our workshops selected paired case study regions in Malawi and Colombia- as the best locations to address our research questions, but also because of links to partner organisations already active locally

Choice of Case studies- cutting across two continents

ASSETS Research Themes

Theme 1

Drivers, pressures and linkages between food security, nutritional health and ES

Participatory research

Aims:– To understand links between ES and food security– To derive non-monetary values for different ES

Well-being ranking of study communities Focus groups (differentiated by social group) to:– Understand local concepts of food (in)security– Identify ES that contribute to food security at different

temporal and spatial scales Seasonal calendars – seasonal coping strategies Community timelines – inter-annual food security Matrix scoring and ranking to prioritise the most important ES for

food security for different groups Participatory economic valuation of some ES

Participatory Rural Appraisals (PRA)

Participatory Rural Appraisals (PRA)

Participatory Rural Appraisals (PRA)

The Food Estimation and Export for Diet and Malnutrition Evaluation (FEEDME) Model

Measuring household poverty, food security, and nutrition health

Aims:

Identify poverty status of households using objective and subjective measures (expenditure, subjective wealth, assets)

Measure food security and nutritional status of under-five children in households across the forest-agricultural gradient

Deeper understanding of coping mechanisms

Disseminate to, and feedback from the local community

ASSETS Research Themes

Theme 2

Crises and tipping points: Past, present and future interactions between food insecurity and ES at the forest-agricultural interface

Coping strategies

Future scenarios

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ARIES: summary

• A rapid spatial assessment tool for ecosystem services and their values; not a single model but an artificial intelligence assisted system that customizes models to user goals.

• Demonstrates a mapping process for ecosystem service provision, use, sink and flow while most ES assessments only look at provision.

• Probabilistic, Bayesian models inform decision-makers about the likelihood of possible scenarios; users can explore effects of policy changes and external events on estimates of uncertainty.

Components of the ARIES system

Precise spatial representationand Area of Critical Flow

Area of Critical Flow

ASSETS Research Themes

Theme 3

The science-policy interface: How can we manage ES to reduce food insecurity and increase nutritional health?

Minimising risk of future environmental change

Influencing policy to better manage ES conflicts, trade-offs and synergies to sustain food security and health?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7445570.stm

Pidgeon …Poppy 2006 Proc Roy Soc

ASSETS: Science-Policy Interface

Map different factors affecting ESMap different factors affecting ES

Report on climate change impacts on ES provision, food security and nutritional health

Report on climate change impacts on ES provision, food security and nutritional health

Identify critical changes and tipping points that can accelerate the degradation of key ecosystems (that can be addressed through timely policy interventions)

Identify critical changes and tipping points that can accelerate the degradation of key ecosystems (that can be addressed through timely policy interventions)

Report on current and future impact of land use change on sustainable provision of ES and food security

Report on current and future impact of land use change on sustainable provision of ES and food security

Identify the factors with highest negative impact on ES (and which are more relevant for food security and nutritional health)

Identify the factors with highest negative impact on ES (and which are more relevant for food security and nutritional health)

Provide input for policies that can counterbalance the most urgent needs of the population exerting pressure on ES

Provide input for policies that can counterbalance the most urgent needs of the population exerting pressure on ES

Caqueta’s Development Plan

The project….– funded by ESPA & implemented by CIPAV,

Conservation International, CIAT & partners

Hopes to…– give key inputs to contribute to a better management of

Caquetá environmental resources and– to improve the food security of its population.

More exactly…– to analyze the links between ecosystem services that have a

predominant role in food security and nutritional health for the rural poor

Scientific contributions are expected to serve as input for the formulation of better policies for intervention, prioritization of actions and management of regional and local authorities

Our consortium will undertake world class research on ecosystem services (ES) for poverty alleviation at the forest-agricultural interface and deliver evidence from a range of sources and in various formats to inform policy and promote behavioural change.

We hope to make a difference to the lives of 2 million poor people living in our case-study regions – up to 550 million people living in similar environments around the world

Photo by Erwin Palacios CI Colombia

Thank You - www.espa-assets.org

This presentation was produced by ASSETS (NE-J002267-1), funded with support from the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation Programme (ESPA). The ESPA programme is funded by the Department for International Development (DFID), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), as part of the UK’s Living with Environmental Change Programme (LWEC). The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the funders, the ESPA Programme, the ESPA Directorate, or LWEC.