icraf 2012-13 annual report-8
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2012-2013Transforming lives and landscapes with trees
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Our visionOur vision is a rural transformation in the developing world as smallholder households increase their use of trees inagricultural landscapes to improve food security, nutrition, income, health, shelter, social cohesion, energy resources and
environmental sustainability.
Our missionThe Centres mission is to generate science-based knowledge about the diverse roles that trees play in agricultural
landscapes, and to use its research to advance policies and practices, and their implementation that benet the poor and
the environment.
Our core values Professionalism
Mutual respect
Creativity
Inclusiveness
Our strategic goals Building livelihoods by generating knowledge, choice and opportunities
Improving landscapes and their sustainability by better managing their complexity
Transforming agroforestry impacts to large-scale through policy, innovation and partnerships
Our partnersThe World Agroforestry Centre has always implemented much of its work in partnership with a range of public,
private and international bodies. Our partnerships are based on a clear recognition of the value that is added through
working jointly with partners and sharing strengths to achieve specic outcomes. We partner with universities, advanced
research institutions, national agricultural research organizations, private sector organizations, and government and non-
government agencies in the elds of agriculture, forestry, environment, conservation and climate change.
World Agroforestry Centre, Nairobi, Kenya, 2013
ISSN 1995-6851
World Agroforestry Centre. 2013. Annual Report 2012-2013: Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees. Nairobi: World Agroforestry
Centre
Articles appearing in this publication may be quoted or reproduced without charge, provided the source is acknowledged. No use of this publication may be
made for resale or other commercial purposes. The geographic designation employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the
expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the World Agroforestry Centre concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or its
authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. All images remain the sole property of their source and may not be used for any
purpose without written permission of the source.
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01 Message from the ChairMessage from the Director General
ICRAF Strategy 2013-2022
The right trees for the right place
Trees and the changing climate
Biodiversity, health and food security
The living earth
Market matters
How we work
Annexes
pg 02
pg 04
pg 06
pg 08
pg 12
pg 24
pg 30
pg 36
pg 44
pg 54
Contents
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Message fromthe ChairThe year 2012 saw the nal phases of the reform process launched by the
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). All the
CGIAR Research Programmes (CRPs) became fully operational during the year
and I believe our scientists are now condent about the direction in which they
are moving.
I welcome the fact that we have established closer collaboration with the
Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and our other partners
within the framework of CRP 6, which focuses on forests, trees and agroforestry.
Although the bulk of our future research will take place under this programme,
we will also be making important contributions to several other CRPs, including
those related to water, land and ecosystems; climate change; health and nutrition;
institutions and markets; and, more generally, agriculture and food security.
During the course of the year, the Board of Trustees approved a refreshed
strategy developed by staff and our partners. This was a major event. The Board
also gave its approval to the establishment of a new biofuels facility with theInternational Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). This will lead to new
types of research and public-private partnerships on tree-based biofuels. We also
launched a new GeoScience Lab, which will enable our scientists to signicantly
improve their storage, management and analysis of spatial data.
Our West and Central Africa ofce in Yaound, Cameroon, celebrated its 25 th
anniversary in 2012, and the November Board meeting was held there. Zac
Tchoundjeu, the regional coordinator, received the 2012 Buffett Award for
Leadership in African Conservation from the National Geographic Society for
his work on tree domestication. We are all proud about that.
The staff satisfaction survey held during Science Week in 2012 conrmed what I
have always intuitively believed. The World Agroforestry Centre is a great place
to work! Over 90 per cent of staff participated in the survey, and their feedback
was largely positive.
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From a nancial perspective, this was another successful year, and we managed to close without a decit. This
is my last message as chair, as I am leaving the Board in 2013. I personally feel rather sad as it has been such
a challenge, but at the same time I have a feeling of fullment and accomplishment, not only for myself, butfor the Board, the Board secretariat, the senior leadership team, and for the whole institution and its many
partners. So much has been achieved since I joined the Board in 2006. Many challenges remain, but the Centre
has never been in better shape to meet these challenges than it is now.
Eric Tollens
Chair of the Board of Trustees
The World Agroforestry Centreis a great place to work!
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Transforming lives andlandscapes with trees:the Strategy of the World AgroforestryCentre 2013-2022
A refreshed corporate strategy was developed during
2012 and received nal approval from the Board
of Trustees early in 2013. The vision of the World
Agroforestry Centre is a rural transformation in the
developing world as smallholder households increase
their use of trees in agricultural landscapes to improve
food security, nutrition, income, health, shelter, social
cohesion, energy resources and environmental
sustainability.
The new direction in the Strategy includes ve
operational goals: enhancing science quality; increasing
operational efciency; building and maintaining strong
partnerships, accelerating the use and impact of our
research; and greater cohesion, interdependence and
alignment.
The Strategy also lays out roles for the Centre, which
are:
Generating and validating knowledge as
International Public Goods (IPGs)
Building robust evidence for higher level decisionson policies and investments
Working with partners at multiple scales to
translate IPGs into actionable knowledge
Developing and mobilizing capacity at institutional
and individual levels
Demonstrating proof of application of knowledge to
accelerate impact and advance the science of scaling up
Convening, advocacy and interfacing amongst a
wide range of partners to be co-responsible for
development outcomes and better engaged with
realities faced by development agencies.
The roles and operational goals derive from the
mission of the World Agroforestry Centre, which is
to harness the best science, people and partnerships
within a framework of research for development to
fully exploit and extend the positive effects of trees and
agroforestry in landscapes across the developing world.
Considering the trends and challenges in the global
environment, the emerging research needs and
opportunities, as well as the comparative advantages of
the Centre led to the development of three innovative
new strategic goals in a programme of research for
development impact. These are:
Build livelihoods by generating knowledge, choice
and opportunities
Improve landscapes and their sustainability by better
managing their complexity
Transform agroforestry impacts to large-scale
through policies, innovation and partnerships.Each strategic goal is accompanied by a series of broad-
scale objectives that form the core of our business.
1. Build livelihoods by generating knowledge, choice
and opportunities:
Generate knowledge and viable agroforestry
technologies to support livelihoods with trees,
particularly for the poor and women
Provide information relevant for all land users,
managers and planners
Explore different ways and implementation
mechanisms of how to turn knowledge andmaterials into livelihood benets
Identify livelihood options and choices
Generate options for enhancing greater self-
determination
Enhance the contribution of trees to human diets
and income
Enable tomorrows smallholders to adapt and
prosper through tree-based options
Provide smallholders with locally relevant options to
increase the productivity and protability of farming
systems through sustainable intensication withtrees
Strengthen tree product value chains enabling the
poor and women to have greater access to lucrative
markets.
2. Improve landscapes and their sustainability by better
managing their complexity:
Integrate trees into landscapes for sustainable
intensication of agriculture
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Reduce deforestation and forest degradation in
mixed agriculture-forest landscapes
Increase the multi-functionality of agriculturallandscapes, and understanding of trade-offs and
synergies
Prevent and reverse landscape degradation with
better soil structure and water holding capacity
Enhance or maintain biodiversity in agricultural and
associated landscapes
Avoid eutrophication of water bodies, siltation of
reservoirs and disruption of hydrological cycles
Develop natural asset accounting and valuation/
pricing of externalities
Model and monitor the land use and land cover
changes in tree-based landscapes
Raise awareness on ecosystem services and map,
monitor and value these and devise policies that
create the incentives to preserve this natural capital.
3. Transform agroforestry impacts to large-scale
through policies, innovation and partnerships:
Highlight and mainstream agroforestry into
international, regional, national and local policies
Participate in, convene and communicate about
pilot development initiatives that use agroforestry
innovations to go beyond proof of concept to proof
of application
Support development initiatives concerning
agroforestry with tools and information
Make information and evidence context specic
Conceive and test innovative extension approaches
Develop frameworks for and build knowledge on
the science of scaling up
Better target resources and technologies for
specied agroforestry systems and technologies
Help catalyse provision of inputs and materials (e.g.
germplasm) for successful testing and adoption of
agroforestry practices at scale
Determine how to scale up the benets of value
chain development interventions so as to benet
large numbers of smallholders and other poor value
chain actors
Take responsibility for delivery of information in
ways that diverse audiences can assess, understand
and use.
To implement this programme, six new Science
Domains (SDs) were established. These are:
SD1-AgroforestrySystemsseeks to understand how agroforestry systems can
function better, be more productive, more attractive
for investments and be more ecologically sustainable
in the long term
SD2-TreeProductsandMarkets
encompasses the science behind understanding
and developing value chains for agroforestry tree
products as well as the institutions that support and
participate in tree product markets
SD3-TreeDiversity,Domesticationand
Delivery
involves identifying, delivering and conserving quality
tree germplasm as well as supporting the optimal
use of the right tree in the right place for the right
purpose
SD4-LandHealth
concerned with understanding land degradation
and how it can be prevented, reversed and its
signicance better communicated and recognized
SD5-EnvironmentalServices
focused on understanding and promoting the
benets and sustenance of key environmental
services associated with tree-based landscapesincluding water, soil stabilization, carbon and
biodiversity
SD6-ClimateChange
concerned with the vulnerability of smallholders
and developing countries to the negative effects of
climate change.
These SDs are based in the headquarters in Nairobi,
but the bulk of the implementation will be done in the
Centres ve Regional Programmes:
East and Southern Africa
West and Central Africa
Southeast and East Asia
South Asia
Latin America.
The budget of the Centre is estimated to grow
consistently year by year from US$59 million in 2013 to
US$100 million by 2022. This ambitious growth target
will allow us to make signicant progress in achieving
large-scale impact in the developing countries.
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Choosing the right treesErosion in the hills surrounding Lake Tanganyika is not
only depriving farmers of fertile topsoil, it is leadingto sedimentation and nutrient enrichment, which
threatens sh stocks and the livelihoods of communities
along the shoreline. To tackle these problems, the
Global Environment Facility (GEF) funded a 4-year
programme to identify the hotspots of degradation and
promote practices to control erosion and improve local
livelihoods. By the time it came to an end in 2012, much
had been achieved.
In Tanzania and Zambia, the project was managed by
government departments. In DRC, in contrast, the lack
of any coherent government meant that the task of
managing the project was awarded to the World Wide
Fund for Nature (WWF) East Africa, which beneted
from technical advice from the World Agroforestry
Centre. The Centre was also involved in the project in
Tanzania and Zambia.
Remote sensing revealed that about 40 per cent of
the lake basin had lost some of its vegetation over
the past 30 years, and 5 per cent had suffered serious
degradation. In DRC, research focused on the remote
mountains of Kivu District. Emilie Smith Dumont, ascientist from the World Agroforestry Centre, identied
the hotspots of degradation, which had been largely
caused by poor agricultural practices and charcoal
burning. Besides leading to serious erosion, the loss oftrees had deprived the local population of a signicant
source of food, fodder and fuelwood.
Once we had identied the worst affected areas,
we began to think about the sort of agroforestry
interventions which could help to reduce erosion, says
Smith Dumont. She and her colleagues interviewed
farmers to nd out what they knew about local tree
species, and what sort of products and services they
wanted the trees to provide. It was the knowledge
gathered during this process that shaped the villagers
tree-planting strategies.
Makingthemostoflocalknowledge
Combining scientic knowledge with the information
gathered from farmers, the scientists developed an
electronic tool which enables extension workers and
farmers to assess which species work best in different
locations. The Useful Trees for the Lake Tanganyika Basin
Toolkit was published in 2012, with a user guide and
eld manuals for DRC, Tanzania and Zambia. Lets say
a farmer wants to grow trees which provide timber,
but is also keen on getting honey, says Smith Dumont.
Using the toolkit, he or she can identify which species
produce timber and good forage for bees.
ICRAF/EmilieSmithDumon
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When Smith Dumont revisited Kivu area in early 2013,
she was encouraged to nd that local communities hadestablished nurseries with a wide range of trees, mostly
native, tailored to suit their needs.
An independent evaluation of the project was carried
out by Saskia Marijnissen at the end of 2012. The
approach used by this project demonstrates that
techniques do not have to be rudimentary to be useful
at the local level, she wrote. While most extension
manuals recommend a few priority tree species,
the tree selection tool was more sophisticated and
far more effective because farmers receive more
customized and therefore locally relevant advice.
The tree selection tool puts farmers at the centre
of decision-making when it comes to tackling
environmental degradation and adopting measures
to improve soil fertility. However, Fergus Sinclair, who
leads the World Agroforestry Centres research on
agroforestry systems, stresses that the tool alone is not
enough. You also need people like Emilie with the
right mix of knowledge, enthusiasm and skills to work
with local communities, he says.
Trees with your cocoa?When Philippe Vaast returned to western Cte
dIvoire in 2012, having last been there in the 1980s,
he was astonished by the changes which had taken
place. When I was last there, the Bas-Sassandra
region was covered with dense forest, he recalls.
Now, its nearly all been replaced by perennial tree
crops.
From 1980 onwards, there was a massive wave of
migration from the other regions of the country, as
well as Burkina Faso and Mali, towards the west, with
the newcomers clearing the forest to make way for
cocoa, coffee, oil-palm and rubber. The conventional
wisdom was that cocoa was most productive when
grown in full sun. Initially, farmers got decent yields,
but since many could not afford to buy fertilizers
the soils became progressively poorer and yields
declined, explains Vaast, who leads the WorldAgroforestry Centres research on multi-strata tree
crop systems.
The Vision for Change project a public-private
partnership launched by the World Agroforestry
Centre and Mars Inc, and described on page 11 is
helping farmers to increase their yields and incomes
by rehabilitating old cocoa gardens. This is to be
welcomed, says Vaast. However, he also believes there
is scope for the project to encourage farmers to
plant native species in their cocoa gardens. There
is evidence to suggest that cocoa can still produce
high yields under what Vaast describes as managed
shade.
But are farmers interested? Preliminary surveys
conducted by Vaasts colleague Emilie Smith Dumont,
in collaboration with her local colleagues, suggest
they are. In October 2012, they interviewed 355
farmers in Bas-Sassandra region. Despite the massive
levels of deforestation, they identied 139 species
growing on their land. Around 95 per cent of farmers
were enthusiastic about the idea of planting native
species in their cocoa gardens. These, they believe,
could provide them with a range of products,
including fruit and timber. They also mentioned thatthese could help to improve soil fertility and reduce
heat stress, a threat to the cocoa bushes.
This is work in progress. In 2013, the scientists
will establish demonstration plots to gain a better
understanding of how different trees can be matched
to different needs and farm conditions.
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Improving livelihoods andlandscapes in SulawesiBetween April and September 2012, some 7000 men
and women in Sulawesi received training on a wide
range of topics, following the launch of the Agroforestry
and Forestry in Sulawesi (AgFor Sulawesi) project.
Over the next few years, the initiative aims to improve
rural livelihoods by encouraging better governance
and better environmental management and by raising
on-farm productivity, says project leader James
Roshetko, a tree and market specialist with the World
Agroforestry Centre and Winrock International.
Funded by the Canadian International Development
Agency (CIDA), AgFor Sulawesi is being led by theWorld Agroforestry Centre, with assistance from the
Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR),
Winrock International, the National Planning and
Development Agency of Indonesia and several local
partners. The initial focus has been on South and South-
east Sulawesi. These provinces were selected on the
grounds that they suffer relatively high levels of poverty,
have a range of population densities and possess
signicant tracts of natural forest.
Communities here face a number of challenges. There
is a high dependence on exotic crops, such as cocoa,
rubber and coffee. This implies a relatively high degree
of risk: a fall in commodity prices or the emergence
of new pests and diseases could have a catastrophic
impact on incomes. Possible changes in the climate and
the variability in weather conditions could also pose a
challenge to farmers in the future.
So far, weve done a lot of capacity building, working
with farmers to improve their technical knowledge
and on-farm management, says Roshetko. The project
is promoting a diverse mix of species in agroforestry
systems. Between April and September 2012, 38
nurseries of excellence produced almost 200,000
high-quality seedlings. Training exercises have also
encouraged farmers to think more carefully about
producing crops for which there is an existing market.
Encouragingbettergovernance
A second component of the programme, managed
by CIFOR, is raising awareness about the importance
of good governance. The project is encouraging local
authorities to adopt a participatory approach to
decision-making and involve local communities in land-
use planning. The third component of AgFor Sulawesi,
managed by the World Agroforestry Centre, focuses
on improving environmental management across
a range of ecosystems and habitats, from intenselymanaged farmland to natural forest. This component is
developing a participatory vulnerability tool to enable
farmers to assess threats to their agroforestry systems.
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In many parts of Indonesia, womens rights are not
given adequate attention. Getting women involved
is a priority for all AgFor partners, says Roshetko,and I think weve done well in achieving our targets
for female participation. A third or more of those
involved in project activities have been women. As it can
be difcult for women to leave their elds and farms
during busy times of the agricultural calendar, Roshetko
and his colleagues have done their best to rearrange
activities to suit the women. Weve also found that
women are more focused on growing annual crops than
men, so weve designed training sessions to meet theirspecic interests and time constraints, says Roshetko.
It is too early to say whether the project has had any
signicant impact on incomes and livelihoods. However,
Roshetko is condent that after another year or so,
households will begin to see tangible benets from
activities promoted by the project.
A public-private partnership involving the World
Agroforestry Centre, Mars Inc. and a range ofnational institutions is helping to transform cocoaproduction in Cte dIvoire. Launched in 2010, the
Vision for Change (V4C) project aims to increaseyields and improve incomes. By grafting improved
scions of high-yielding, disease- and pest-resistantcultivars onto old trees, and adopting goodagricultural practices, farmers will dramatically
increase their yields.
Cte dIvoire is the worlds leading producer ofcocoa. However, farmers in Bas-Sassandra region, the
main focus for the V4C project, face many challenges.
Their cocoa farms are old and productivity is low.The majority of farmers lack the funds needed tobuy fertilizer; as a result the soils have become
progressively poorer. Pests and diseases have alsodepressed yields. Currently, the average farmerharvests around 400 kg per hectare. Interventions by
the V4C project should push yields up to 1000 kg perhectare.
In 2012, the project made considerable progress.
By the end of the year, 13 new Centres deDveloppement du Cacao (CDCs) were providing
technical advice to some 10,000 smallholder
farmers. V4C is also supporting various communitydevelopment projects, such as the renovationof a school in Kragui. However, the highlight ofthe year was the opening of the Cocoa Somatic
Embryogenesis Laboratory at the headquarters ofthe Centre National de Recherche Agronomique
(CNRA) in Adiopodoum on 20 November 2012.
Funded by the V4C project, the laboratory will
conduct research on the mass propagation of elitecocoa clones using modern tissue culture techniques.
Somatic embryogenesis provides an alternative
approach to the clonal propagation of cocoa. Plantsderived from somatic embryos are geneticallyidentical to their parental donor cells, and have a
taproot system and growth pattern similar to that ofseed-derived plants.
Among those present at the opening ceremony
were the Ivorian Minister of Higher Education andScientic Research, the Vice President of Mars Inc.,
and the director generals of CNRA and the WorldAgroforestry Centre.
This ceremony crowns the scientic and technical
partnership of this highly credible national institution,CNRA, with a committed private sector partner on
one hand and ourselves as an international researchinstitution on the other, said Tony Simons, the WorldAgroforestry Centres Director General. He pointed
out that although somatic embryos for cocoa wererst reported in 1977, they remained a scientic
curiosity. This laboratory will help to increase theproduction of high-quality planting materials. Simply
put, from single cells come multiple plants comeabundant produce, he said.
Brave new world for cocoa growers
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Agroforestry reducesvulnerability to climate changeClimate models predict rises in temperature, greater
variability in rainfall and an increase in extreme weather
events that could reduce agricultural productivity in
developing countries by 1020 per cent over the next
40 years. Small-scale farmers in tropical regions are
particularly vulnerable to climate change and variability.
It is often claimed that agroforestry can help farmers
adapt to climate change, but there has been little
quantitative evidence to back this assertion. However,
a study by Tannis Thorlakson, a former student at
Harvard University, and Henry Neufeldt of the World
Agroforestry Centre has provided clear evidence that
agroforestry can reduce the vulnerability of farmers to
climate change. 1
Their research focused on Kenyas Nyando Valley,
an area which suffered severe drought in 2009 and
ooding in 2010. These had a serious impact on many
households. During these periods, 72 per cent of the
farmers in Lower Nyando were forced to consume
seeds which should have been reserved for planting, 85
per cent reduced the quantity and quality of the food
they ate, and 72 per cent were forced to sell some
of their assets, including livestock. Such short-term
strategies to cope with climatic variability can have
serious long-term repercussions. Once farming families
fall into the poverty trap they may nd it difcult to
recover lost ground.
Farmers in the Nyando Valley believe the best way to
adapt to climate-related shocks is through improving
their income. To evaluate agroforestrys potential to
help, the researchers made a comparison between
farmers who had been involved for two to four years in
an agroforestry project and a control group which had
not.
ICRAF
1Thorlakson T, Neufeldt H. 2012. Reducing subsistence farmers vulnerability to climate change: evaluating the potential contributions of
agroforestry in Western Kenya. Agriculture & Food Security, 2012.
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Food security and innovationWhy is it that small-scale farmers frequently fail to
adopt new practices and technologies such as
agroforestry when there is so much evidence to
suggest that these practices could raise their yields and
incomes? A survey in four East Africa countries, whose
ndings have been published in the journal Food Security2,
may have provided an answer.
The evidence suggests that there is a direct correlation
between food insecurity and a lack of innovation, says
Henry Neufeldt, head of climate change research at the
World Agroforestry Centre. This is a very important
nding, and has signicant implications for the way we
go about development.
The research, which was led by the Climate Change,
Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) Program,
explored the relationship between food security and
changes in farming practices made by 700 households.
The study found that many households were adapting
to changing circumstances, such as climatic variability
and demographic pressures, although these changes
tended to be marginal, rather than transformational.
There is nothing surprising about this: farmers are
always adapting to change. However, the nding that
the least food secure households those most likely
to experience food shortages and malnutrition are
the least likely to introduce changes to their farming
practices is of major importance.
We cant say for sure that a lack of food security is
leading to a lack of innovation, rather than vice versa,
says Neufeldt, but my feeling is that that is what is
happening. Poor households are so preoccupied with
the business of day-to-day survival that they have
neither the time nor the funds to invest in farming
practices which, paradoxically, could lift them out of
poverty and ensure they have a better supply of food.3
CCAFS scientist Patti Kristjanson points out that
more research is needed before we can have a full
understanding of the relationship between food
insecurity and innovation. It is critical that we learn
more about both the factors that enable and facilitate
innovation, and how to lower the often hidden costs
and barriers associated with changing agricultural
practices, she says.
The ndings suggest that development agencies and
governments, as well as organizations like the WorldAgroforestry Centre, need to tailor their activities to
meet the needs of different groups. If they want to
reach the poorest households, they will need to think
about improving their access to food before they can
begin promoting new farming practices.
2 Kristjanson P et al. 2012. Are food insecure smallholder households making changes in their farming practices? Evidence from East Africa. FoodSecurity, Vol 4
3 See also: Thorlakson T, Neufeldt H. 2012. Reducing subsistence farmers vulnerabil ity to climate change: evaluating the potential contributions ofagroforestry in western Kenya,Agriculture & Food Security, 2012 1:15.
The results were revealing. Households involved in
agroforestry had signicantly improved their well-
being through improvements in farm productivity
and increases in income, for example from the sale
of seedlings, timber, fuelwood and fruit. Agroforestry
projects also reduced the amount of time women spent
collecting fuelwood.
Households practising agroforestry also experienced
less hunger when there were droughts, oods or other
signicant climatic events. We found that the level of
food insecurity during those periods the amount of
time during the year when people were hungry was
reduced by approximately one month for households
practising agroforestry, says Neufeldt. He adds that
by combining agroforestry with index-based insurance,
farmers could protect themselves against risk and invest
in higher-yielding but less hardy crop varieties.
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Tackling Indonesiasgreenhouse gas emissionsIndonesia is one of the worlds largest emitters of
greenhouse gas emissions. In 2005, these amounted to
2.05 Gt of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), some 80
per cent of which came from deforestation and other
forms of land-use change. This compared with 5.95 Gt
for the US and 5.06 Gt for China, making Indonesia the
third largest emitter of greenhouse gases at the time.
In 2009, a Presidential Decree pledged to reduce
Indonesias greenhouse gas emissions by 26 per cent,
relative to a business-as-usual trajectory, by 2020;
and by 41 per cent if international nance was made
available. Indonesia is the only developing country tomake a clear and measured commitment to reduce its
greenhouse gas emissions, says Sonya Dewi, a scientist
with the World Agroforestry Centre.
The Centre has been working with the government
to make the commitment a reality, rather than just
an aspiration. This has involved establishing baseline
datasets for greenhouse gas emissions and providing
training and technical assistance to the national and
provincial governments on a range of subjects, such as
the establishment of baseline and mitigation scenarios
and the potential for reducing emissions from land-use
change.
The Presidential Decree requires all provincial
governments to submit locally appropriate mitigation
actions known as LAMAs to the countrys National
Development Planning Board. During 2012, Dewi and
her colleagues produced guidelines for developing
action plans and conducted numerous trainings to help
provincial staff draw up their plans, using its LUWES
(Land Use Planning for Low Emission Development
Strategy) decision-making platform.
Land-use activities that generate economic benets,
such as forestry enterprises and palm oil plantations,
can cause considerable carbon loss if developed in
carbon-rich areas. However, halting these activities
could lead to serious economic losses if not carefully
planned. LUWES provides a set of tools and principles
which enable those involved in land-use planning to
work out how best to reduce emissions without
causing undue economic hardship.
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Some provinces required more thorough training
and several training sessions than others. We found
there were variations in both technical capacities and
available data across provinces in Indonesia, says
Dewi. Capacity tends to be much lower as you move
towards the eastern part of Indonesia. However, we
found that when a handful of individuals are willing to
champion the process, it can make a big difference. By
the end of 2012, more than half of the provinces had
submitted their LAMA plans.
Working out the levels of current emissions and
projecting what they will be in future if no action istaken is a pre-requisite to establishing measurable
reductions in emissions. To enable provinces to do
this, Dewi produced technical guidelines, published
in the local language, Bahasa Indonesia. The World
Agroforestry Centre also published a complete manual
for LUWES in Bahasa Indonesia.
In response to local demand, the Centre also conducted
training sessions on developing LAMAs, using LUWES,
in Viet Nam and Cameroon. Similar sessions have
been planned for Peru. During the course of 2012, the
software developed within LUWES, known as ABACUS,
was translated from English into Bahasa Indonesia and
Vietnamese. A French version will be published in 2013.
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Making climate finance workfor small farmersAgriculture is both a cause of climate change directly
responsible for 10-12 per cent of human-generated
greenhouse gas emissions and a victim, with increases
in temperature, changing patterns of rainfall and more
extreme weather events already having an impact on
food production.
A range of practices that come under the heading of
climate-smart agriculture can help farmers reduce
their emissions, become more resilient to climate
change and increase food production. But theres a
catch: if the worlds smallholder farmers are to adopt
low-carbon practices such as agroforestry there must
be some incentive, nancial or otherwise. The big
challenge at present is how to connect small-scale
farmers to international climate nance, says Henry
Neufeldt of the World Agroforestry Centre.
This is the subject of a policy brief Climate Finance
for Agriculture and Livelihoods published by the
World Agroforestry Centre in 2013. 4 This issue was
also explored in depth during the 18th Conference
of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention onClimate Change (COP 18), held in Doha in November
2012. Jointly organized by the World Agroforestry
Centre, CARE International and the Climate Change,
Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) Program, a
roundtable session on climate nance was held as part
of Agriculture, Landscapes and Livelihoods Day.
During the session, Neufeldt drew on an analysis of
seven biocarbon schemes in East Africa, all of which
seek to link smallholders to the carbon market.
Carbon is the currency that pays for many projects,but only a small amount of the money actually reaches
farmers, he says. Most goes on setting up the
projects and on measuring and verifying carbon stocks.
Nevertheless, farmers gain in other ways.
To give just one example, the Sustainable Agriculture in
a Changing Climate (SACC) project, managed by CARE
International in western Kenya, estimates that farmers
will receive an average carbon payment of just US$3
per year over the projects 25-year lifespan hardly
an incentive. However, the income from tree products
such as timber, rewood and building poles is estimated
to be 50 times greater, and therefore highly signicant.
Farmers also stand to benet from the provision of free
tree seedlings, the sale of fruit and fuelwood, and higher
crop yields that result from improved farming practices.
Smallholder carbon projects invariably require upfront
public nance. There is a long lag time between setting
up projects and gaining a signicant income from
carbon. In the case of the SACC project, Phil Franks of
CARE International told the meeting that the projects
breakeven point would be around year 15, and that was
being optimistic. This inevitably deters private investors.
However, there is scope for public-private partnerships.
There is plenty of evidence that there is private money
looking to invest in sustainable land management, butthe investors will need to make a return to do so, says
Neufeldt. This theme was explored by Lou Munden,
who described the Munden Projects Inari approach to
nancing sustainable land-use initiatives. This involves
leveraging risk across a wide range of investments,
spanning countries, landscapes and land-use activities,
in order to provide long-term, low-cost credit to
producers, with better returns to investors.
Another speaker, Rachel Diro of Colombia University,
talked about the importance of providing incentivesto help farmers adapt to climate change. These
include index-based insurance schemes which buffer
farmers against the risks they take when investing
in technologies and practices which are designed to
increase productivity.
4Foster K, Neufeldt H, Franks P, Diro R, Munden L, Wyatt M, Anand M, Wollenberg E. 2013. Climate Finance for Agriculture and Livelihoods. ICRAF
Policy Brief 15. Nairobi, Kenya. World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)
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Whereas conventional crop or livestock insurance
involves the direct measurement of losses in farmers
eld, which can be difcult and costly, payments made
under index-based insurance schemes are triggeredwhen an agreed parameter such as rainfall falls
below a certain level.
More information can be found about this and other
aspects of climate nance in the policy brief. It stresses
the importance of seeing the subject through the lens
of livelihoods and not just carbon sequestration andunderlines the need for an innovative and integrated
approach that connects rural farmers to public and
private nance at the global level.
Going carbon neutralThe World Agroforestry Centre is the rst
CGIAR institution to make a rigorous assessment
of its carbon emissions and in January 2013 its
headquarters in Nairobi was ofcially certied ascarbon neutral.
Greenhouse gas emissions for the Nairobi
headquarters amounted to approximately 2600 t of
carbon dioxide equivalent for 20115. Approximately
half the emissions came from staff travel and
ground transport; most of the rest came from the
consumption of electricity and individual commuting.
In December 2012, the Centre bought carbon
credits, based on the 2011 gures, to offset
its emissions for the next two years via the
CarbonNeutral Company. The rst tranche of
credits was bought from the Kasigau Corridor
REDD+ project in Kenya. This is helping to protect
over 200,000 ha of forest, an important wildlife
migration route, between East and West Tsavo
national parks.
We put out a call to tender and looked at 10
different projects in East Africa, explains Audrey
Chenevoy, who is responsible for overseeing the
Centres carbon offsetting programme. We wanted
to make sure that the projects we chose were really
beneting local communities. The Kasigau Corridor
is creating jobs, improving education and providing
direct nancial benets from carbon nance to over
100,000 local people.
As well as offsetting its emissions, the Centre is
reducing its carbon footprint by encouraging better
recycling, switching to energy-saving lighting and
improving video-conferencing as a way of cutting
down on travel. Over the coming years, the regional
ofces will also be assessing their emissions and
reducing their carbon footprint.
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Promoting carbon-richagriculture in PeruInternational climate change negotiations have been
much preoccupied with Reducing Emissions from
Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). Since
deforestation is responsible for 15 per cent of global
greenhouse gas emissions, this makes sense. However,
scientists from the World Agroforestry Centre have
pointed out that more could be achieved by reducing
emissions from all land uses (REALU), as carbon
emissions outside areas ofcially dened as forests are
often highly signicant.
Take, for example, the Ucayali region in Peru. Since the
1930s, this once remote area in the upper Amazon
has seen wave upon wave of migration. This led to a
rubber boom and, much later, the building of a new
highway to link the region with the capital, Lima. Since
then migrants from the Andes and elsewhere have
continued to convert forest into farmland, says Claudia
Silva of the World Agroforestry Centre. While many
have practised shifting cultivation, others have made a
living from highly protable coca the raw material for
cocaine and, more recently, cocoa and oil palm.
In 2012, the ASB Partnership for the Tropical Forest
Margins initiated a REALU project in Ucayalis Padre
Abad province, one of the most deforested regions in
the Amazon. The research is exploring ways of working
with farmers to enhance carbon stocks in a range
of land-use systems. Scientists are also conducting
research on the design of payment schemes which
could encourage farmers to increase carbon stocks.
Frombusttoboom
Many families who migrated to Padre Abad during the
1980s and 1990s cleared forest to make way for coca
bushes. As part of a programme to reduce production
of coca, farmers have been encouraged to plant crops
such as cocoa and oil palm. The US-funded Alternative
Development Programme, known by its Spanish
acronym PDA, was particularly inuential in shaping the
y
Slash-and-burn farming practices have turned PadreAbad province into one of the most deforested regionsin the Amazon.
Farmers are being encouraged to increase carbon stocksby planting native species in their cocoa gardens.
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land-use systems
and encouraging
the conversion of
forest to farmland
in Padre Abad.
The PDA also
helped to
establish farmer
cooperatives.
One of these
the Asociacin
de Cacaoteros
Tecnicados
de Padre Abad
(ACATPA) is
now working
with the World
Agroforestry Centre on REALU. Scientists from the
Centre had previously collaborated with ACATPA on
a project which involved, among other things, planting
shade trees in cocoa gardens. Because of our past
relationship, we knew about environmental services,
says ACATPAs chief executive ofcer, Ranfol Crdenas.
When Claudia told us about the possibility of getting
carbon payments, the idea immediately appealed to us.
In 2012, Claudias team, which included technicians from
ACATPA, conducted socio-economic surveys of 30
farms covering 931 ha, 128 ha of which were devoted
to cocoa. The surveys provided information about every
aspect of management, from the crops grown to the
length of fallows, from the use of trees on farmland to
methods of tackling pests and diseases. At the same
time, scientists measured carbon stocks for a range of
land-use systems, from high forest to tree crops and
degraded pasture.
Layingoutthechoices
By the end of the year, we had come up with a menu
of options for farmers, each with different implications
for storing and trapping carbon, says Silva. At one end
of the spectrum is business as usual. In this scenario,
smallholders will continue to emit carbon by clearing
forests and older fallows to make way for crops. At the
other end are farming systems which involve a range of
different options which will increase carbon stocks.
Weve calculated that by planting trees, farmers couldincrease carbon stocks in their cocoa gardens from an
average of 7590 t of carbon to 120 t, without reducing
productivity, explains Silva. Scientists are currently
assessing the sort of measures, and legal arrangements,
which will enable smallholders to receive payments for
their carbon enrichment activities under the voluntary
carbon market.
Many of ACATPAs members have high hopes for the
project. I think this scheme could provide us with
some income, says Nicolas Agero, who manages
9 ha of cocoa gardens with one of his sons. It may
not be much, but it will help. He says he would be
happy to plant more trees in his cocoa gardens; even
if the payments are modest, the trees will provide him
with timber and fruit. Agero also knows that better
management could increase the productivity of his
cocoa gardens. This, stresses Silva, is an important part
of the project. Its not just about carbon, she says.
Its about creating sustainable and productive farming
systems.
Nicolas Agero is one of manyfarmers who hope to benet fromthe REALU project.
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Adapting to climate change inthe West African SahelClimate models suggest that the West African Sahel is
likely to become hotter and drier, with a more variable
climate, during the next century. This has serious
implications for rural communities. Strengthening their
ability to analyse vulnerability to climate change and
develop plans to adapt to change is one of the priorities
of a World Agroforestry Centre project funded by the
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
A participatory methodology to analyse the
vulnerability of livelihoods was developed and applied in
villages in one region in Mali, another in Niger and two
in Burkina Faso. Using the methodology, scientists wereable to gather information about how the landscape has
changed, the major threats to natural resources, and the
villagers plans if any to reduce their vulnerability to
climate change.
Villagers typically cited a number of changes to the
landscape. Woodlands had disappeared as a result of
over-harvesting for fuel and fodder; many native tree
species had disappeared, especially in drier regions;
most wild animals had become locally extinct, largely
because of over-hunting; and constant cropping had
led to soil degradation and the loss of fertility. Many
villagers also said that rainfall had become more meagre
and less predictable; they attributed this to changes in
the climate, rather than any human activities.
The fact that most villagers recognized that they
themselves, and their ancestors, are responsible for
the negative changes in the landscape is crucial for any
climate change adaptation plan, says John Weber, who
led the research with Carmen Sotelo Montes. If they
accept responsibility for causing change, then they know
that they can alter certain practices to reverse thetrends and adapt to a hotter, drier and more variable
climate.
However, Weber points out that relatively few villagers
understood the effect of tree cover on local rainfall
and water table levels. This highlights the need for
extension and education programmes to explain why
the retention of tree cover is important.
During subsequent discussions, the villagers highlighted
practices which could help them adapt to climate
change. These included farmer-managed natural
regeneration, which has helped to re-green large
expanses of once degraded parklands in Niger, and the
planting and protecting of drought-tolerant tree species,
and provenances within species, especially in drier areas.
Ageandgendermatter
The methodology also involved interviews and
discussions with different gender and age groups: adult
men, young men, adult women and young women.
Members of each group began by listing the principal
activities including agriculture, animal herding, the sale
of food products from trees and fuelwood collection
which contributed to their livelihoods, and the threats
to these activities. Having assessed the vulnerability of
each activity on a scale of 0 to 3, they then discussed
specic adaptation plans for each of them.
The gender group analysis illustrated the importance
of developing adaptation plans that respond to the
specic vulnerability issues of each group, says SoteloMontes. Our research suggests that livelihoods of
different gender and age groups may be vulnerable to
different factors that are directly or indirectly affected
by climate change. Vulnerability should therefore be
assessed not only by region, but by gender and age
groups within each region when developing climate
change adaptation plans.
In several villages, adult women identied two major
threats to the livelihood activities of all groups: a
large number of children who cannot be properly fed,
clothed and educated; and limited farm size, especially
in the drier and hotter regions. Their solution: family
planning.
Many traditionally-minded men refused to listen to
these discussions. However, there were also many
young men and women who clearly understood the
need for family planning as part of their strategy
to adapt to climate change. We need to recognize
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that human beings are also natural resources, and
that managing the size of the human population is an
essential component of a natural resource management
plan, says Weber.
Obviously, the World Agroforestry Centre and other
institutions conducting research on natural resource
management should not become involved in developing
management plans for the human population. However,
Weber believes they should promote dialogue about
these issues both within and among governmental and
non-governmental organizations involved in resource
management and climate change adaptation planning.
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Adapting to climate change inViet Nam
How are small-scale farmers in Viet Nam and thePhilippines adapting to extreme weather events, such
as oods and typhoons? And to what extent are
agroforestry practices helping them to cope? These
are among the questions which scientists from the
World Agroforestry Centre are putting to farmers in a
research project assessing adaptive strategies to climate
change in Southeast Asian watersheds. Under another
project, conducted in parallel, scientists are providing
support to local governments so that they can develop
policies for climate change adaptation.
Most of the farmers weve talked to say that eventhough there were extreme weather events in the past,
they tended to be regular, says World Agroforestry
Centre scientist Elisabeth Simelton, who is responsible
for overseeing research activities in Viet Nam. Now,
they say that there are more extreme events and they
are less predictable.
In Viet Nam, the projects have focused on two districts:
Yen Bai, a mountainous area near the border with
China; and Ky Anh, a coastal area which is frequently
hit by typhoons. Prior to conducting interviews with
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farmers, local extension workers received training
in the use of participatory tools these will be
published in 2013 specically designed to guide
discussions about extreme weather events, climate
change adaptation, and the role of trees. Together
with Simelton, they subsequently held focus group
discussions, involving some 90 people, in 18 villages.
They found that farmers are exposed to at least ve
types of extreme weather events, and these contribute
along with other factors, such as pests and diseases
to crop failures, livestock deaths and the loss of income.
Where extreme weather was not the direct cause ofharvest failure, it was often the nal nail in the cofn,
says Simelton.
Most of the coping strategies identied by the research
were reactive, with farmers taking measures after
the events, rather than before. Knowledge about
agroforestry and its potential to buffer farmers against
climatic shocks, for example by preventing landslides,
was scanty.
The information gathered during the focus group
discussions will help local governments to develop andrene their land-use plans. Although some district staff
had received training on climate change issues, most
had never worked on mainstreaming climate change
into land-use plans. To improve their knowledge and
skills, Simelton and her colleagues organized a number
of workshops, which included feedback from the focus
group discussions and an introduction to climate-smart
agriculture and the role of agroforestry.
Local government ofcials showed considerable interest
in developing their knowledge. Thats partly because
the districts are legally obliged to develop climate
change adaptation plans, and the government has to pay
compensation for some losses of crops and livestock,says Simelton. But theyve also heard the testimony
of farmers, and that has encouraged them to take a
greater interest in climate-change adaptation.
During the second year of these three-year projects,
Simelton and her colleagues will analyse household
surveys, existing meteorological data and farmers
perceptions about changes in the climate. This will help
them to assess vulnerability to climate shocks at the
household level. The project will also continue to help
local governments develop their land-use plans.
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Trees, biodiversity and healthThere may be 60100,000 species of tree in the
world. Between them, they offer an astonishing array
of products and services. They provide us with timber,fuelwood, fruit, medicines, livestock fodder and much
else, and they help to maintain the health of landscapes
and ecosystems. The future of humankind depends, to
a considerable degree, on our ability to safeguard this
rich source of biodiversity.
In October 2012, the World Agroforestry Centre played
a prominent role at the 11th Conference of the Parties
(COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity,
which attracted some 5000 policymakers, scientists and
environmental activists to Hyderabad, India. This was
the rst time we have attended a biodiversity COP,
says Ramni Jamnadass, head of the research programme
on domestication, and it provided an excellent
platform for discussing the roles and importance of
trees on farms.
One of the main side events during the week was
Tree Diversity Day, which the World Agroforestry
Centre co-hosted with Bioversity International, the
Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
and the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture
(CIAT). There is always a strong focus on policy during
international COPs like this, but Tree Diversity Day
helped to create some space to describe some of the
scientic issues of importance, says Stepha McMullin,
who coordinated the event.
Meine van Noordwijk from the World Agroforestry
Centres Southeast Asia ofce opened the morning
session by describing the importance of tree diversity
in the UN conventions on biological diversity, climate
change and desertication. Ramni Jamnadass discussed
the role of trees for food, health and nutrition;
Eike Luedeling contributed to the discussion about
biodiversity and climate change; and Roeland Kindt
spoke about vegetation mapping (see page 45) in a
session on restoring biodiversity to landscapes.
Whatscooking?
An evening event organized by the World Agroforestry
Centre Whats cooking on farms? Trees for health,
fuel and nutrition proved so popular that, in the
words of the organizer, Stepha McMullin, there were
people hanging out of the doors and windows.
Speakers talked about the contribution of medicinal
trees and shrubs to human health, the importance of
domesticating wild fruit trees, and health issues related
to the use of fuelwood.
According to Tony Cunningham, a senior associate
with the World Agroforestry Centre, some 2.4 billion
people in developing countries rely on wood, charcoal
and animal dung for cooking and heating. In Africa, 90
per cent of the rural population use these solid fuels,
and they would be lost without them. You cannot eat
raw beans; it would be dangerous to eat raw chicken
or pork. In short, much of the food we eat must be
cooked.
While many types of fuelwood do the job theyresupposed to do without signicantly damaging human
health, others pose or could pose a serious health
risk. Cunningham gave the example ofEuclea divinorum,
whose local name in Africa ichitamuzi means to
split the family. Any use of the wood is thought to lead
to family arguments, so it is never used for cooking. This
is just as well, said Cunningham. Not only does Euclea
wood produce a lot of smoke, it contains diterpenes
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that can have serious health consequences when
inhaled.
Some tree species contain aromatic hydrocarbons
that are carcinogenic when inhaled; and certain metal
ions, released when wood is burned, can lead to eye
cataracts. With charcoal and fuelwood becoming more
expensive, many poorer families nd they can no longer
afford to buy non-toxic fuelwood, and end up using
whatever they can.
One way of tackling this problem is through the
cultivation of trees that produce good quality
fuelwood on farms. Cunningham recommended using
participatory processes that combine modern science
and local knowledge to select tree species with low
toxins.
The World Agroforestry Centre already has
considerable experience of participatory tree
domestication, a practice which it pioneered in West
and Central Africa. This was the focus of a presentationby Roger Leakey, the author ofLiving with the Trees of
Life, a book which draws heavily on his long experience
as a former research scientist with the Centre.
Diverse agroforestry systems, argued Leakey during
the Whats cooking? event, could help to stem the
loss of biodiversity, and at the same time tackle land
degradation and social deprivation. Participatory
domestication can play an important role in improving
the protability and productivity of smallholder farming
systems.
A new dealDuring the 11th Conference of the Parties in
Hyderabad, the World Agroforestry Centre and the
United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity
(CBD) signed an agreement which aims to improvesmallholders livelihoods. The agreement will do
this through the development and application of
knowledge on the use of trees to diversify farming
systems. It will contribute directly to the CBD
Strategic Plan for Biodiversity and a series of targets
known as the Aichi Nogoya targets to protect
the worlds biodiversity. So far, 197 countries have
signed up to these.
Agriculture should no longer be seen as the enemy
of biodiversity, said Ravi Prabhu, the Centres
Deputy Director General for Research, as he signed
the new Memorandum of Understanding with CBDExecutive Secretary Braulio Ferreria de Souza Dias.
During the same event, the CBD Secretariat signed
another MoU with the CGIAR Research Programme
on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry, in which the
World Agroforestry Centre is a major partner.
The vast majority of families in rural Africa rely on wood for cooking.
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Agroforestry and treeconservationThe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species estimates
that 1200 trees and shrubs are critically endangered,
1700 are endangered and another 3700 are
vulnerable. The decline in availability of many tree
species, and the loss of habitats in which they are found,
is of particular concern to rural communities who
depend on them for their sustenance and livelihoods.
It is frequently claimed that agroforestry, now practised
by an estimated 1.2 billion people, has a signicant role
to play when it comes to conserving trees and shrubs.
But to what extent is this true? A review published in
BiodiversityandConservation in 2013 sifted the evidence.6
What we tried to do for the rst time, I think
was bring together into a single consideration the
different mechanisms of tree conservation, and explore
the linkages between them, says the reviews leading
author, Ian Dawson, an Associate Fellow with the World
Agroforestry Centre.
Agroforestry systems frequently boast high tree species
diversity, and they can therefore make a signicant
contribution to conservation. However, the review
points out that in some situations this is a transitorystate of affairs. For example, an agroforest may contain
trees which are remnants of the old forest cover, and
these may not be replaced when they die. If we are
to successfully conserve trees on farmland we need
to understand how to promote connectivity among
individual trees in low-density populations.
We also need to understand how issues such as
climate change will affect pollination, and potentially
reduce connectivity, says Dawson. This is particularly
important when it comes to conserving trees whose
main function is the provision of fruit. If particular fruit
tree species are found at such low densities that their
pollination becomes problematic, and hence little fruit is
produced, farmers will gain little from keeping them.
Conventional wisdom suggests that cultivating trees
on farms, or in plantations, helps to take pressure off
nearby natural forests. However, the review suggests
that there is little hard evidence for this. Indeed, the
opposite may be true if cultivation increases markets
or eases access to resources. The conditions under
which cultivation can promote forest protection are
being explored more fully in partnership with Bioversity
International and the Center for International ForestryResearch (CIFOR).
6Dawson IK, Guariguata MR, Loo J, Weber JC, Lengkeek A, Bush D, Cornelius JP, Guarino L, Kindt R., Orwa C, Russell J, Jamnadass RH. 2013. What
is the relevance of smallholders agroforestry systems for conserving tropical tree species and genetic diversity in circa situm, in situ and ex situ
settings? A review. Biodiversity and Conservation, Vol 22, No 2. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10531-012-0429-5
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Dawson and his co-authors believe that the presence
of tree seeds in collections held by commercial
dealers, research institutes, national tree seed centres
and genebanks may lead to a false sense of security,
promoting the belief that the species are being
conserved and will be available for future use. However,
these ex situ collections do not necessarily represent
the best way of conserving many species, not least
because of the high costs of regenerating stored seed,
and the fact that many species are represented only
once or a few times and may be lost as commercial
demands and research trends change.
Ultimately, conservation relies on a combination of
forest, farm and ex situ approaches. According to the
authors, conservation will increasingly rely on retaining
a diverse range of tree species on smallholders farms.
However, concerns about the long-term effectiveness
of this strategy need to be properly quantied and
addressed. More research is also needed on the stability
of tree seed collections held by dealers, researchers
and seed centres.
Safeguarding the genetic heritageIn 2012, the World Agroforestry Centres Genetic
Resources Unit received the rst tranche of a
grant which will lead to major improvements in the
conservation and storage of tree germplasm. This will
strengthen its ability to provide the genetic material
required for research and conservation, and for
programmes involving domestication. The ve-year
grant will be divided between the long- and medium-
term storage of seeds at low temperatures and
conservation in eld genebanks.
Over the years, the Centre has established an ex
situ collection of around 3700 accessions of some
300 agroforestry species in medium-term storage
at its headquarters in Nairobi. It also has over 1500
accessions in the Millennium Seed Bank in the UK
and over 750 accessions in Kunming, in China, in
long-term storage. About 770 accessions are in
safety duplication at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in
Norway.
We aim to conserve as many different varieties of
the priority agroforestry tree species as possible,
to represent their range of genetic diversity,
says genebank manager Alice Muchugi. The new
grant means that we can now expand our ex situ
collections and improve the seed research and
storage facilities at our headquarters.
Many agroforestry tree species valued by farmers,
including many important fruit trees, are recalcitrant;
that is, they produce seeds which cannot be
conserved in cold, dry conditions. Instead, they
must be grown from either seeds or clones in eld
genebanks, where they can be used for multiplication
and distribution, as well as for conservation.
The World Agroforestry Centre has some 60 eld
genebanks in over 20 countries. Most of these
were established for evaluation and multiplication of
indigenous tree germplasm in domestication projectswith national partners in the respective countries,
explains Ramni Jamnadass. However, once projects
were completed they tended to suffer from neglect,
even though they still contain important genetic
variation. The new grant will help the Centre to
restore and expand these eld genebanks and make
better use of them to develop new cultivars for use
on farmers elds.
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Herbal medicine: good for health,bad for the environment?According to the World Health Organization, 7080per cent of people in developing countries use herbal
medicines, with thousands of plant species many of
them trees providing the raw material. However,
despite their importance, there has been relatively little
research on medicinal trees and shrubs.
Its not an easy subject to explore, says Stepha
McMullin, a scientist with the World Agroforestry
Centre. Transactions tend to be informal, the quantities
and species traded dont appear in government
statistics, and traders tend to lack formal education.
Furthermore, there has been a paucity of research
on the bio-chemical properties of species used in
traditional health care.
To gain a better understanding of the trade in Kenya,
McMullin conducted surveys in traditional medicine
markets in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu, the largest
cities in the country. Her study, published in 2012,
provides one of the most comprehensive analyses to
date of the use of medicinal trees and shrubs in Kenya
and the impact of the trade on wild populations. 7
McMullin interviewed 91 traders. Between them, they
were buying and selling bark, roots, leaves and other
material harvested from 53 species of trees and shrubs.
Some of these were bought and sold in relatively
small quantities. However, others were traded in large
amounts. These included Warburgia ugandensis, which is
widely used as a cure for malaria, stomach ache and a
variety of other ailments.
The vast majority of material sold in the markets came
from wild harvesting, either by traders or collectors.Many traders said there had been a signicant decline
in the availability of many species during the two
years prior to the study. The reasons varied, with 30
per cent citing overharvesting, 23 per cent changing
environmental conditions and 19 per cent restrictions
on access. Almost two out of three traders said they nolonger had enough material to satisfy demand.
McMullin also interviewed over 180 consumers while
she was in the markets. Getting to the truth wasnt
always easy. Many people are reluctant to speak about
traditional medicines, especially in urban areas, because
there is a stigma attached to their use, she says. The
perception is that its more modern to use conventional
medicine.
According to some of the medical doctors McMullin
spoke to, this is a major concern. Although many were
sympathetic to the use of traditional medicines, they
were worried about the reluctance of patients to admit
to their use. Potentially, combining traditional and
conventional treatments could have a lethal effect, says
McMullin. She suggests that consumers would be more
willing to acknowledge their use of herbal medicines
if traditional medicine was recognized as a legitimate
form of health care by the government.
7McMullin S, Phelan J, Jamnadass R, Iiyama M, Franzel S, Nieuwenhuis M.2012. Trade in medicinal tree and shrub products in three urban centres in
Kenya. Forests, Trees and Livelihoods 21, 3: 188-206. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14728028.2012.733559
ICRAF/ReaganSirengo
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Transforming lives and landscapes with trees
McMullins research conrms what many suspected: the
demand for medicinal trees and shrubs is leading to
signicant levels of overharvesting. The increasing rarity
ofWarburgia ugandensis, to give just one example, has
led to it being classied as vulnerable on the IUCN
Red List of Endangered Species. Although some of the
traders said that they were cultivating medicinal trees,
this was happening on a very small scale, says McMullin.
Future research, she suggests, should focus on further
evaluation of the threat to natural populations
of priority species; on analysing value chains for
sustainable production and marketing; and on assessing
the economic and ecological benets of cultivating
medicinal trees and shrubs on smallholder farms.
A domestication primerDuring the last two decades, the World Agroforestry
Centre has pioneered the practice of participatory
tree domestication, and this has become one of the
great agroforestry success stories. Scientists and
farmers have worked together to bring wild trees
out of the forests and onto farmland and develop
superior, high-yielding varieties of indigenous trees
like African plum, Bush mango and kola nut. This has
helped to increase the incomes of tens of thousands
of small-scale farmers in Africa, Latin America and
Asia.
2012 saw the publication ofAgroforestry Tree
Domestication: A Primer. Its a sort of bible, saysRamni Jamnadass, one of the co-authors. It pulls
together all the elements of domestication in
ways which will be useful to universities, research
institutes and extension agencies.
The primer consists of ve modules on key topics
related to tree domestication. These include basic
principles; choosing the right tree; evaluating variation
within species; obtaining high-quality germplasm; and
delivering the results to farmers. Written in a lively,
non-technical language, and illustrated with case
studies and photographs, the primer will be updated
at regular intervals, providing readers with the latest
information on the subject.
ICRAF/Ste
phaMcMullin
ICRAF
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Linking life above ground withlife belowBefore he joined the World Agroforestry Centre in2010, Edmundo Barrios conducted extensive research
on the Quesungual slash-and-mulch agroforestry
system in Honduras. This involves farmers pruning trees
interspersed among annual crops and spreading the
green matter to decompose on the soil. Barrios found
signicantly higher concentrations of biological activity,
more carbon and nutrients and greater availability of
water in the soil under the inuence of trees than in
the soil in nearby elds without trees.
This and other studies conrm that trees can play amajor role in maintaining and enhancing fertility by
acting as a refuge for soil organisms, improving soil
structure and increasing the supply and availability of
nutrients. But which particular tree species, and what
mixtures of species, do the most to promote biological
activity in the soil? It is questions such as these that
Barrios and his colleagues now seek to answer.
We are currently assessing the impact of trees on soil
biodiversity at the landscape level, building on the soil
and vegetation characterization work which has been
done by the Africa Soil Information Service (AfSIS),
says Barrios. This four-year project, which comes to an
end in 2013, conducted a systematic evaluation of soil
health at 61 sentinel sites in 21 countries. At random
plots within each site, scientists took soil samples
and recorded data on key plant and soil parameters,
including erosion risk, tree cover and land use.
Working at sentinel sites in four countries Malawi,
Kenya, Uganda and Mali Barrios and his colleagues
have been sampling life below ground, thus adding
another layer of information to the AfSIS data. Soil
macro-organisms which are visible to the naked eye,
such as earthworms and centipedes, are hand-sorted
and taxonomically classied; micro-organisms are
investigated using novel DNA ngerprinting techniques.
This is providing scientists with a better understanding
of the interactions between trees and soil biodiversity,
and the impact of trees on below-ground biologicalactivity that is benecial to agriculture.
Diggingdeeper
But the research doesnt end there. To evaluate the
precise impact which particular tree species have on
soil organisms, Barrios is enlisting the help of local
farmers. At the Kiberashi sentinel site in Tanzania,
scientists organized a workshop with seven local
communities (See box: Blending local and scientic
knowledge). The farmers were able to share theirknowledge and experience with scientists on specic
trees which were having an inuence on biological
activity below the soil either for better or for worse.
We then selected a number of plots for intensive
sampling, and analysed soil biodiversity at various
distances around and beyond these trees, says Barrios.
At the time of going to press, the data was still being
analysed, but Barrios is convinced that the information
gathered here, and at other sites, will provide valuable
guidance to farmers, national research and extensionservices, agricultural ministries, policymakers and
others interested in soil health. Among other things,
soil biodiversity information will act as an early warning
system, providing evidence of degradation before it is
visually obvious.
The research at the sentinel sites will also be useful
for organizations and individuals who wish to manage
landscapes for their ecosystem services. The more
we know about the links between vegetation and the
biological activity underpinning key soil functions, theeasier it will be to evaluate the role specic landscapes
play in sequestering carbon, storing clean water and
controlling pests and diseases. Barrios stresses that this
is work in progress. However, theres no doubt that
we are gaining a much better understanding about the
relationships between life above and below ground.
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Transforming lives and landscapes with trees
Blending local and scientific knowledgeIn May 2012, a ve-day workshop organized by the
World Agroforestry Centre, the Brazilian Agricultural
Research Corporation (Embrapa) and Mozambiques
National Institute of Agronomic Research (IIAM)
explored the benets of linking local knowledge
with scientic expertise when assessing soil health.
Researchers, extension workers and some 50
farmers from eight communities in Rapale District
used a methodological guide8 developed through
a collaboration involving the World Agroforestry
Centre, Embrapa and the International Centre for
Tropical Agriculture (CIAT).
One of the aims of the guide is to provide tools
that facilitate communication between scientists and
farmers, so they can develop a shared view about
which soil fertility constraints should be tackled
rst, and what agroecology principles and integrated
soil fertility management options should be used to
address such constraints, says Edmundo Barrios.
The Mozambique workshop involved training onthe systematic identication, classication and
prioritization of local knowledge with farmers, and
the use of tools to integrate local knowledge with
science. Agroforestry is usually high on the list of
options because it can simultaneously address several
constraints, given its multifunctional character, says
Barrios.
The workshop was part of a new South-South
initiative, Fostering Knowledge Sharing for Integrated
Natural Resource Management in Agricultural
Landscapes of Southern Africa. This is funded by theAfrica-Brazil Agricultural Innovation Marketplace and
led by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa
(FARA) and Embrapa. I think it was a huge success,
says Barrios, and it was a good example of effective
collaboration between Latin America and Africa.
ICRAF
/EdmundoBarrios
8Barrios E et al. 2012. InPaC-S: Participatory Knowledge Integration on Indicators of Soil Quality Methodological Guide. ICRAF, Embrapa,
CIAT.
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In search of stable crop yields
As rural populations have increased in sub-Saharan
Africa, the average size of land holdings has shrunk
and soils have become exhausted through continuous
cropping, with most small-scale farmers unable to
afford mineral fertilizers. As a result, maize yields have
stagnated at a meagre 1 tonne per hectare. This is one
of the reasons why Africa suffers from such high levels
of malnutrition.
But it neednt be like this. Research by the World
Agroforestry Centre has shown that farmers can
increase their yields, and improve soil fertility, by
integrating leguminous trees in their cropping systems.
Evidence suggests that the greatest response to the use
of fertilizer trees is on nutrient-poor soils.
However, until recently little work had been done
on the stability of these yields. Led by agro-ecologist
Gudeta Sileshi, senior scientists from the Centre
compared the stability of maize yields in three long-
term trials in Malawi and Zambia under three different
regimes: the maize-gliricidia systems promoted by the
World Agroforestry Centre; monoculture maize grown
with mineral fertilizers the option favoured by many
better off farmers; and maize grown without either
fertilizer trees or mineral fertilizers, the practice of
most poor farming families.9
As expected, the intercropping of maize with gliricidia
signicantly increased maize yields when compared
with maize grown without any external inputs. At the
Makoka research site in Malawi, for example, the green
leaves and twigs of gliricidia added up to 302 kg of
nitrogen per hectare per year. This is highly signicant,
bearing in mind that the average amount of nitrogen
fertilizer used by African farmers is a meagre 10 kg per
hectare.
The experimental plots of maize grown with mineral
fertilizers also produced high yields. However, in
contrast to the maize-gliricidia systems, yields were
unstable in all three trials; in other words, they did not
remain constant year after year. This hig