TS13: PARTICIPATORY APPROACHES FOR CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION Building resilience to climate change through a landscape design approach • Jean‐Christophe CASTELLA
Regional Forum on Climate Change (RFCC) LOW CARBON AND CLIMATE RESILIENT SOCIETIES: BRIDGING SCIENCE, PRACTICE AND POLICY 01‐03 July, 2015 – A.I.T, Bangkok
Building resilience to climate change through a landscape design approach Jean‐Christophe Castella, Marion Rivera, Leonor Bonnin, Sisavath Phimmasone, Pascal Lienhard, Soulikone Chaivanhna Regional Forum on Climate Change (RFCC), 1‐3 July 2015, Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand
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Outline • The agrarian transition in the uplands of Lao PDR • Influencing agrarian changes – Conceptual framework: ecological intensification – Operational framework: a landscape approach to agroecology
• Understanding village trajectories • Designing ‘climate smart’ landscapes
The agrarian transition in the uplands of Lao PDR • Changing landscapes – changing livelihoods
Swidden agriculture
Rubber mono‐cropping
Subsistence farming
Commercial crop
Staple crops – little cash
Cash income ‐> buy rice
Forest resources ‐ NTFP
No forest safety net
Livestock as savings
Large livestock sold
High poverty rate
Better‐off farmers
Strong social ties
Individualistic behaviors
High biodiversity
Low biodiversity
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The agrarian transition in the uplands of Lao PDR • Changing landscapes – changing vulnerabilities Forest
Swidden
Agric.
Ecosystem services
Poverty, limited assets, but
Multifunctional landscapes
livestock, social solidarity
Increased population
Forest
Decreasing NTFP safety net
Traditional coping mechanisms alternative food sources in forests and rivers,
Low carbon practices Maintain biodiversity Resilience to external shocks
Restricted access to nat.resources
Agriculture
Indebtness Carbon Ecosystem sequestration Increased services Water regulation return to labor Vulnerability to Soil conservation & land climatic events Biodiversity - economic Socioshocks economic differentiation
Better‐off, better education, but
Degraded, less diverse environment
New coping mechanisms crop specialization chemical input use indebtedness
Castella J.C. et al. (2013) Effects of landscape segregation on livelihood vulnerability. Human Ecology 41(1) 63‐76.
The agrarian transition in the uplands of Lao PDR • Changing agricultural practices: a continuum of local situations between 2 unsustainable extremes
Shifting cultivation ‐ Shortening fallows 10‐12 years ‐> 3‐5 years ‐ Increased labour requirement for weeding ‐ Decreasing yields
High input monocropping ‐ Mechanization ‐ Increased use of chemical inputs ‐ Decreasing yields
• Which alternatives? • Which intervention mechanisms? …towards ecological intensification
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Influencing agrarian changes in the uplands Healthy landscapes
Natural ecosystems
Ecological knowledge Social capital Ecosystem services - Biodiversity - Carbon Durability - resilience
Traditional swidden systems Natural landscapes
Adapted from Griffon, 2013
Intensive monocrop systems
Managed landscapes
Degraded landscapes
Conceptual framework Griffon M. (2013) Qu’est ce que l’agriculture écologiquement intensive ? ‐ Édition Quae, Paris
Influencing agrarian changes in the uplands Healthy landscapes
Natural ecosystems
Opportunity windows
Traditional swidden systems Natural landscapes
Adapted from Griffon, 2013
Ecologically intensive systems
Intensive monocrop systems
Managed landscapes
Degraded landscapes
Conceptual framework
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Influencing agrarian changes in the uplands Healthy landscapes
Natural ecosystems
Ecologically intensive systems
Traditional swidden systems Natural landscapes
Adapted from Griffon, 2013
Intensive monocrop systems
Managed landscapes
Degraded landscapes
Conceptual framework
Influencing agrarian changes in the uplands Healthy landscapes
Natural ecosystems Traditional swidden systems Natural landscapes
Adapted from Griffon, 2013
Ecologically intensive systems Agroecological practices ‐biomass increase and recycling ‐protect soils and biogeochemical cycles ‐optimize functional agrobiodiversity ‐harness beneficial natural interactions
Intensive monocrop systems
Managed landscapes
Degraded landscapes
A landscape approach to agroecology
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Influencing agrarian changes in the uplands Healthy landscapes
Ecologically intensive systems Landscape approach
Natural ecosystems Traditional swidden systems Natural landscapes
Adapted from Griffon, 2013
‐understand the diversity of local contexts ‐co‐design desirable landscape ‐multicriteria evaluation of performances ‐manage different sources of knowledge
Intensive monocrop systems
Managed landscapes
Degraded landscapes
A landscape approach to agroecology
Understanding village trajectories • Diversity of villages and agricultural systems can be understood as a combination of a limited number of factors: – Geomorphology • village located on top of hill or along river • percentage of lowland / upland
– Accessibility • village accessible whole year or only dry season • access to market opportunities and services
– Population • density and dynamics • composition (ethnic groups)
– History • social capital • governance of natural resources
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Understanding village trajectories Lowland intensification
Vegetable
Swidden agriculture Forest cover Segregation agric‐forest Soil erosion Inequalities
Remote areas
Upland intensification
Tree plantations
Accessible areas
Upland crops (maize)
Castella J.C., Lestrelin G., Buchheit P. (2012) The agrarian transition in the northern uplands of Lao PDR: A meta‐analysis of changes in landscapes and livelihoods. 3rd International Conference on Conservation Agriculture in Southeast Asia. Hanoi
Understanding village trajectories • Population changes 1
– From 10‐15 children to 3‐4 – Better education, less arms for agriculture
Maize prod
0,75
Farm inc
• Paddy – swidden interactions
0,5
0,25
F2 (16,46 %)
Medium
Plantation area
– Objective: rice sufficiency – Increasing paddy ‐> decreasing swidden
Pig off‐farm inc
Upland rice prod
• Livestock
Assets
0
Poor
Big livestock
‐0,25
Fish pond Rich
Paddy prod HH members Labor force
‐0,5
– Savings, cash income, but – Disease outbreaks, unpredictable losses
• Maize (cash crops) expansion – Increasing income ‐ indebtedness – Land degradation
‐0,75
‐1 ‐1
‐0,75
‐0,5
‐0,25
0
0,25
0,5
F1 (27,69 %)
e.g. Vangseng village
0,75
1
• Plantations – Securing land tenure – Market uncertainty (mak kao, rubber, etc.)
Operational framework
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Understanding village trajectories
Typology of land use patterns and landscape management styles
25
20
MLAK/HH
15
+ household surveys + focus group discussions
10
5
0 Houaykay
Samsoom
Hadphaot
Houayvat
Data analysis
Understanding village trajectories
Hadphaot
• Landscape segregation o rubber concession (Chinese company), o livestock area (district policy) o conservation forest area
• Shrinking agricultural area o Agric. intensification in gardens o Diversification with sesame and plantation o Improved pasture for livestock
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Understanding village trajectories
Houaykai
• Maize expansion o o o o
road opening for cash crops use of herbicides on maize conversion of rice fallows deforestation
indebtedness land degradation
• Poverty trap o poor fallow ‐> no way back to swidden rice o pay debts by selling rice ‐> food insecurity o shift to off‐farm jobs and migration
Understanding village trajectories
Samsoom
• Population changes o migration of several households o search paddy land elsewhere o less children, longer studies
limited labor force
• Diversification of agric. activities o cucumber and job’s tear in swidden fields o interest in gardening but lack water o intensification of livestock systems ‐> need to change crop‐livestock management
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Understanding village trajectories
Houayvat
• Poor accessibility o limited access to market o no road to production areas o pigeon pea – stick lak village
limited options for income generation
• Complex landscape mosaics o scattered cultivation by individual households o limited strength of village committee o constraints to livestock intensification
Understanding village trajectories Hadphaot External and internal pressure for change Samsoom
Houayvat DIVERSIFICATION
Houaykai
INTENSIFICATION
Landscape artificialisation
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Designing ‘climate smart’ landscapes 2016
2015
2017
2025
Samsoom
Houayvat
Cover crops
Improved fallow
Control of roaming animals
Improved pasture
A landscape approach to agroecology
Take home messages • Complexity of agrarian changes in the uplands ‐> need for a landscape approach to agroecology innovation
• Villages are the lower landscape management unit ‐> relevant intervention level for sustainable intensification
• An agrarian transition with multiple trajectories of villages ‐> requires specific diagnostic and intervention approaches o to capture the dynamics (baseline + monitoring system) o to adapt generic agroecology principles to the specificities and singular trajectory of each village
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Thank you for your attention…
Regional Forum on Climate Change (RFCC) LOW CARBON AND CLIMATE RESILIENT SOCIETIES: BRIDGING SCIENCE, PRACTICE AND POLICY 01‐03 July, 2015 – A.I.T, Bangkok
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