Combining land restoration and livelihoods - examples from Niger
DIFFERENCES IN LOCAL AND EXTENSION KNOWLEDGE FAVOURS THE USE OF EXOTIC OVER NATIVE SPECIES IN AGROFORESTRY INTERVENTIONS
1. DIFFERENCES IN LOCAL AND EXTENSION KNOWLEDGE
FAVOURS THE USE OF EXOTIC OVER NATIVE SPECIES IN
AGROFORESTRY INTERVENTIONS
A SCOPING STUDY FROM LAKE TANGANYIKA IN UVIRA, DRC
Emilie Smith
with Dieudonné Kilola
World Agroforestry Centre
ICRAF
2. CONTEXT OF THE STUDY
ICRAF consultative and training role in the Lake
Tanganyika Sustainable Catchment Management
Program .
Transboundary program aiming to :
Promote of agroforestry and sustainable land use
practices to:
• Reduce sediment loading
• Mitigate the degradation of lake resources
• Improve local livelihoods
3. RATIONALE
Success of AF interventions is strongly dependant on:
• Local perceptions of trees (opportunities, constraints, trade-offs)
• Available knowledge and technology
Building on Local Knowledge is essential to understand where to place
trees in the landscape and with which species and assemblages
Local knowledge wealth can inform further research and development
needs
Knowledge gaps can be identified and addressed through training
provision
4. OBJECTIVES
• Elicit qualitative information on drivers of land use changes and
their impact
• Collect and collate local ecological knowledge about land use and
land cover changes and ecosystem services associated with trees
• Evaluate possible agroforestry interventions in the catchment
through:
a. Participatory assessment of farmers’ preference and priorities
for tree planting (attributes, utilities and spatial
characterisation)
b. Review of governance and socio-economic indicators
5. RESEARCH SITES 1. Mulongwe
Uvira
2. Kalimabenge
3. Kakumba/Kigongo
6. METHODOLOGY
Qualitative scoping research using a combination of participatory
research techniques applied through :
• A selection of tools designed within the TULSEA framework:
- DRILUC - Drivers of land use change
- RAFT - Rapid Appraisal of Agroforestry Practices, Systems &
Technology
• AKT Agroecological Knowledge Toolkit – methodology and
software for knowledge aquisition
Trees in Multi-Use Landscape in Southeast Asia (TUL-SEA) A negotiation support toolbox for
Integrated Natural Resource Management http://www.worldagroforestrycentre.org/tul_sea
Information on AKT methodology and applications http://akt.bangor.ac.uk/
7. HYPOTHESES
AND SAMPLING STRATEGY
Farmers possess important local ecological knowledge of trees, erosion process and
land degradation
• There are variations in local ecological knowledge of farmers determined by altitude
• There are gender differences in knowledge about trees
• Extension knowledge differs from local farmers knowledge about land management
and trees
AND that it is useful to analyse these variations in order to generate a range of
options to address erosion and land degradation
Combination of purposeful, convenience, self-selecting
sampling to obtain representation of knowledge variations
in the area.
10. PRESENTATION
OF SOME RESULTS
1. Knowledge variations (extension/farmers/
upland-lowland farmers – Gender)
2. Priorities for intervention elicited from farmers
11. REFORESTATION PROGRAMS
AND EXTENSION KNOWLEDGE DERIVATION
• PROBLEMS IN THE CATCHMENT ARE NOT NEW: Long history of reforestation/anti-
erosion programs to address land degradation
• Extension knowledge derived from training as part of external programs through
local peasant associations or parishes (e.g. CEPAC and churches)
• Programs concentrated on the lower catchment due to easier accessibility
• Programs using mainly exotic species (historically Eucalyptus though with an
increasing and recent interests in other species)
• Promotion of species which are not adapted to the higher altitude in the
catchment ( Acacia mangium, Senna siamea, Pterocarpus angolensis, Tamarindus
indica)
12. EXTENSION KNOWLEDGE
Local extension staff (agronomists or agricultural technicians )
have theoretical knowledge of :
• Different soil and water conservation techniques (contour
farming, terraces, mulch, compost)
• Exotic tree species
• Agroforestry species (including Calliandra, Leucena, Moringa sp.
Acacia sp).
BUT little knowledge of local species beyond those
economically important (export timber species) or trees
located in the lower part of the catchment
13. SCIENTIFIC/TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE
• Lack of taxonomic identification for native species
• Absence of scientific documentation/publication on
native species (identification guide)
(only publication 1944 – long list of forest species in
the Kivu region)
• Identification of trees complicated by the different
local vernacular names giving rise to confusions
14. LOCAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE
• Utilitarian knowledge (provisioning services,
preferences) linked to ancestral practices
• Highly developed local taxonomic
knowledge
• Knowledge elicited vegetation behaviour,
niches, regeneration, biodiversity
associations derived from observations
• Explanatory knowledge of processes and
interactions (deforestation- erosion-river
regimes) derived from observations
15. LOCAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE
Farmers interviewed classify 3 main agro-ecological zones
determined mainly by altitude conditions
1. Plain and lacustrian zone (dry and hot zone)
2. Lower mid-plateaux (temperate zone )between 900m until 1500m
3. Upper mid-plateaux (cold zone) (1500 to 2200 m)
Within these zones farmers have different experiences with
trees and land management and different knowledge about
native tree species
BOUNDARY LOWER AND MID CATCHMENT
16. LOCAL KNOWLEDGE AND INFLUENCES
• Lack of access to technical knowledge or improved technologies
• Little if no interactions with extension agents especially for farmers
located upland
• Absence of government extension services
• Hearsay about successful reforestation programs from neighbouring
countries (part. Rwanda)
• Hearsay about Leucena sp. widespread negative image (CEPAC
project)
17. LK AND GENDER VARIATIONS
Cultural household division of labour: knowledge and interests
MEN WOMEN
Main concern : FEEDING THE FAMILY
fruit groves, construction, hunting, bee- Direct interest in fuel-wood and fruit
keeping, timber trade trees (exotic and indigenous) important
for family nutrition and income
wide knowledge of different trees
More interested in talking about soil
fertility and mainly about cassava and
a strong interest in trees
their need for cuttings from improved
mosaic disease resistant varieties
AND a lot more time to discuss trees
18. PRIORITIES FOR AGROFORESTRY INTERVENTIONS
ELICITED FROM FARMERS
1. Fruit trees
2. Woodlots
3. Restoring soil fertility
4. Pastures
5. Erosion hotspots (landslides, river,
buffer, paths)
19. 1. FRUIT TREES
• Decline in all fruit trees - wild and
exotic (war, abandonned groves,
trees felled for charcoal)
• Important for nutrition, health
and income (diversity of trees with
different phenology)
• Lack of reproduction material
Loss of genetic diversity
20. 1. FRUIT TREES
Grown near homestead , River buffer zones
Potentially highly productive systems in gullies and near watercourses
Absence of grafting and improved reproduction techniques
Extremely severe pest and disease problems and the urgent need to develop IPM
programs – This is causing large scale abandonment of banana based gardens
(previously mutli-strata fruit gardens)
21. 2. WOODLOTS
exotic plantations : fuelwood,
construction and income source
Individual and community plantations
dominated by Eucalyptus but also
Grevillea and Cypressus
Potential for use on marginal upslope
fields with low fertility
Alternative plantations (eg. Khaya spp,
Terminalia spp, Haegenia abyssinica, Syzygium
sp.) But ambiguous status of native forest
trees
23. PROBLEMS IN CROP LAND
WIDESPREAD EROSION (SURFACE RUN-OFF PREVENT VERTICAL INCISIONS, GULLYING)
FERTILITY LOSS, CROP LOSS , LAND LOSS, PESTS AND DISEASES
HUNGER
24. DOMINANT CULTIVATION PRACTICES
Luhongolo traditional practice of vertical
stone alignment
In general trees are absent in crop fields
Slash and burn field preparation
Rare application of soil and water
conservation techniques
(No contour planting, green terraces, rare
horizontal furrows)
Thitonia diversifolia for improvement of short fallow
Digging trenches to prevent water from entering
fields - Earth banks along pathways
25. TRADITIONAL AGROFORESTRY PRACTICES
Live-fences, boundary planting
Newly established KILONDOLONDO branch Remanants of Boundary planting KIGOHWA (Erythrina
cuttings (Ficus cf. tremula) abyssinica) (Nfixer)
Practices largely destroyed/abandoned as a result of
the wars
Small scale recent reintegration of these tree systems
can be observed in the landscape
Farmers have reproductive knowledge of these trees
(mainly through branch cuttings)
Live fence MUSHALABA Tetradenia riparia
26. TRADITIONAL AGROFORESTRY PRACTICES :
shade/mulch trees
EXAMPLES OF MULTIPURPOSE NATIVE NITROGEN FIXING TREES
Muvula (Milicia excelsa) in Musa sp. grove Kishenya (Entada abyssinica)
retained with crude pollarding in field
27. CHALLENGES TO THE ADOPTION OF NEW
TECHNOLOGY IN CROP LAND
Combination of SWC and AF techniques
(Contour farming, vegetation strips, live
fences)
Difficulty to change ‘habits’
Negative image of trees competition
with crops
New skills required
Physical and labour intensive Develop techniques with minimal soil
disturbance, least labour intensive,
Lack of land tenure security cheap, giving fast results, using local
resources
28. 4. REHABILITATION OF PASTURES
Loss of tree cover in
previously savannah type
zones
Bush fire incidence
Overgrazing
Loss of palatable forage
Weeds that exhaust an
already fragile soil
30. SEISMIC ZONES AND LANDSLIDES
Participatory mapping of erosion and degradation
hotspots and information elicited from farmers in the
mid-plateaux confirm:
• the scientific study conducted on tectonic mouvements,
landslides and hydrographic regime in the uvira sub-catchments
(Moeyerson et al. 2009) in highlighting zones particulerly prone
to erosion, sediment and rock movements and the dangers for
downstream communities (cf. cyclical calamities linked to
flooding and stone projections)
34. DEGRADATION HOTSPOTS AND SEDIMENT LOADING
Loss of fields or grazing area - Perturbations in river regimes (dam formation, domino effect, )
Farmers suggest reforestation with a variety of grasses and native trees adapted to these zones
(Dombeya sp., Ficus spp, Bamboos) along inside and around landslides
36. RIVER BUFFER ZONE
Are river banks negociable space?
More fertile land with loamy soils and higher water retention
Productive land for off-season crops
Potential for fruit orchards – native riparian species, nappier grass and bamboos
37. DEGRADATION HOTSPOTS : Mountain pathways
• Dynamic transit zone linking the plain to the high-plateaux
39. MOUNTAIN PATHS
Slope stability and erosion
COLLECTIVE AND/OR INDIVIDUAL REFORESTING ACTIVIES
FAST GROWING ANTI-EROSION TREES
MINIMUM INTERFERENCE WITH FIELDS
40. SUMMARY OF OPPORTUNITIES
• Agroecological zones suitable to a wide range of tree species
• Traditional AF knowledge and practices to build on
• Extensive hydrographic network and potential for water
harvesting techniques
• Knowledge of SWC methods held by agronomist and
extension agents, some knowledge of forest nurseries
• Existence of numerous peasant organisations
• Legal recognition of community forest ownership
• Traditional structure for customary land use management
• Social cohesion strong in the upper catchment
• Markets in Uvira,Bujumbura, Bukavu, Goma
41. CONSTRAINTS AND BOTTLENECKS
• Land scarcity and fragmentation
• Bush-fire practices
• Construction material
• Energy dependency on charcoal
• Land tenure
• Isolation and lack of voice
• Poverty and lack of long term vision
• Corruption at all levels of NRM
• Disincentive to reforest (tax)
• Low integration of women in programs
42. Knowledge gaps
Farmers technical knowledge
Soil and water conservation methods
such as contour farming, vegetation SUGGESTIONS TO INCREASE
strips, mulch, improved fallows) KNOWLEDGE CAPACITY
Tree management: Root pruning, spacing Farmer leaders network and
for better integration of trees in fields,
Farmer to farmer visits (e.g. Rwanda)
Village tree nurseries: seed and seedling
management, grafting and improved Community field demonstrations
reproduction methods
Programs specifically targetting
IPM for pest and diseases in fruit trees women for soil fertility management
Animal husbandry (feeding strategies)
linked to improved pasture management
– fodder trees
43. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH:
• Taxonomic identification and ethno-botanic
inventory of native species
• Geophysical analysis of landslide zones for design of
interventions (mechanical + reforestation ?)
• Soil analysis for heavily degraded sites to determine
suitable pioneer trees
• Domestication of native wild fruit species (e.g.
Uapaca spp., Myrianthus holstii)
• IPM for fruit grove rehabilitation