managing agricultural landscapes for ecosystem services, resilience and human well-being
TRANSCRIPT
Managing agricultural landscapes for ecosystem services, resilience
and human well-beingCibele Queiroz
Postdoc researcher, Stockholm Resilience Centre
Feeding a growing world population within a safe operating space for the humanity
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Image source: F.Pharand-Deschênes /Globaïa
A challenge for agricultural landscapes across the planet
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Kenya
Source: Corbis images
Portugal Australia
Source: http://envirohistorynz.com
Japan
Agricultural landscapes are complex social-ecological systems
External Drivers
Processes
Internal Drivers
Fee
db
acks
Feed
backs
External Drivers
Feedbacks
Feedbacks
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External Drivers Processes
Internal Drivers
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ks Feedb
acks
External Drivers
Feedbacks
Feedbacks
Global
Local
Agricultural landscapes are affected by drivers and feedbacks across scales
Agricultural landscapes are dynamic over time
Processes
Internal Drivers
Feed
bac
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Feedb
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Processes
Internal Drivers
Feed
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Feedb
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Processes
Internal Drivers
Feed
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Ecosystem services
Provisioning
Food
Water
Fiber and timber
Regulation
Water cycle
Nurient cycle
C Sequestration
Supporting
Primaryproduction
Soil formation
Cultural
Aesthetic values
Recreation
Tourism
Biodiversity
Ecosystem services
Material well-being Physical well-being Social well-being Security well-being
Freedom of action and choice
Human well-being
MA, 2005
Why are ecosystem services a useful tool in agro-ecology?
• As intrinsically social-ecological they make a direct connection between the outputs of the agro-landscape and human-well being, providing an integrated perspective of agricultural landscapes.
• Bring to light multiple values of the agricultural landscape.
• Highlight the multidimensionality of the global food security challenge (food, health, equity and access among beneficiaries)
• Identify synergies and trade-offs among services, making visible potential unexpected effects of different management strategies
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Why are ecosystem services a useful tool in agro-ecology?
• As intrinsically social-ecological they make a direct connection between the outputs of the agro-landscape and human-well being, providing an integrated perspective of agricultural landscapes.
• Bring to light multiple values of the agricultural landscape.
• Highlight the multidimensionality of the global food security challenge (food, health, equity and access among beneficiaries)
• Identify synergies and trade-offs among services, making visible potential unexpected effects of different management strategies
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Why are ecosystem services a useful tool in agro-ecology?
• As intrinsically social-ecological they make a direct connection between the outputs of the agro-landscape and human-well being, providing an integrated perspective of agricultural landscapes.
• Bring to light multiple values of the agricultural landscape.
• Highlight the multidimensionality of the global food security challenge (food, health, equity and access among beneficiaries)
• Identify synergies and trade-offs among services, making visible potential unexpected effects of different management strategies
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Why are ecosystem services a useful tool in agro-ecology?
• As intrinsically social-ecological they make a direct connection between the outputs of the agro-landscape and human-well being, providing an integrated perspective of agricultural landscapes.
• Bring to light multiple values of the agricultural landscape.
• Highlight the multidimensionality of the global food security challenge (food, health, equity and access among beneficiaries)
• Identify synergies and trade-offs among services, making visible potential unexpected effects of different management strategies
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Cro
ps
Inco
me
Farm
ers
Ecosystem services
Benefits to human well-being Beneficiaries
Management
Governance
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Reviewing ecosystem services from trees in
an agro-landscape in West African Sahel
Sinare and Gordon, 2015
Reviewing ecosystem services from trees in
an agro-landscape in West African Sahel
Sinare and Gordon, 2015
Reviewing ecosystem services from trees in
an agro-landscape in West African Sahel
• Literature was very scattered across different disciplines
• Ecosystem services approach useful for integrating these different perspectives
Sinare and Gordon, 2015
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• It is the interaction between ecosystem services that is more useful for managing complex agricultural landscapes, as it highlights trade-offs and synergies among services, benefits and stakeholder groups
Reasoning:
• Some services come often together in bundles while others never do
• Exploring interactions and bundles of ecosystem services allows to identify those relationships and understand what services are dependent on the same social-ecological processes.
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Mapping bundles of ecosystem services in the Norrström basin, Sweden
Queiroz et al., 2015
Advantages:
• Focusing on bundles allows for integrated management options targeted for the enhancement of groups of services instead of individual services.
• It avoids some of the perverse outcomes of single-services targeted strategies
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Mapping bundles of ecosystem services in the Norrström basin, Sweden
Queiroz et al., 2015
Ecosystem services in the Norrström basin
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Mapping bundles of ecosystem services in the Norrström basin, Sweden
Queiroz et al., 2015
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Ecosystem services for poverty alleviation – the need for disaggregating human well-being
Daw et al. 2011
• Highlights the need for disaggregating human well-being in its different dimensions and the relative contribution of each dimension to different beneficiaries
Ecosystem services for poverty alleviation – the need for disaggregating human well-being
• Explores the concept of well-being elasticity (how much can local ecosystems degrade before human well-being is affected)
Daw et al. 2011
Challenges and future directions
• Ecosystem services are still difficult to measure. Need for indicators that are easily available.
• Using publically available data
• Developing a framework and methodology for assessing supply, use and demand of ecosystem services
• Develop further the analysis of interactions among services
Challenges – current work
Challenges and future directions
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• Ecosystem services are still difficult to measure. Need for indicators that are easily available.
• Further research on the connections between ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes and the different dimensions of well-being is needed
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• Map the distribution of the multiple dimensions of well-being in an agricultural landscape
• Map how are benefits from the local agro-landscape distributed among users/stakeholder groups
Challenges – current work
The EAT initiative. A global initiative that addresses the challenge of global food security by:
• Aiming to the integration of sustainable food production, nutrition and health and equity and access to food
• Engaging several science and business partners across the world
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Challenges – current work
Challenges and future directions
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• Ecosystem services are still difficult to measure. Need for indicators that are easily available.
• Further research on the connections between ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes and the different dimensions of well-being is needed
• Move from snapshot assessments of ecosystem services distribution and interactions to assessing the dynamics of services over time in agricultural landscapes
• Ensuring the resilience of desirable multifunctional agricultural landscapes and/or the transformation of less desirable states
• Define the components of desirable agricultural landscapes in terms of ecosystem services and their relation with the multiple dimensions of human well-being and distribution of benefits
• Investigate further the features that provide social-ecological response diversity in food production landscapes (work ongoing by J.Haider SRC).
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Challenges – current and future work
• Define the components of desirable agricultural landscapes in terms of ecosystem services and their relation with the multiple dimensions of human well-being and distribution of benefits
• Investigate further the features that provide social-ecological response diversity in food production landscapes (work ongoing by J.Haider SRC among others).
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Challenges – current and future work