Search

This data paper presents a survey conducted in a participatory manner in the territory of Santarém, in the Brazilian Amazon. The aim is to understand how global changes are affecting family farmers. In the study area, family farming has been confronted over the past 20 years with the rapid expansion of large-scale monocultures, especially soybean. As part of the Odyssea socio-environmental observatory, academic researchers and family farming organizations entered into a partnership to co-produce data that could be strategically useful for these organizations. A process of co-construction of the expectations allowed priorities to be established and the data collection strategy to be defined. Three levels of analysis were chosen in order to allow an integrated understanding of the dynamics of change: the Santarem Plateau territory, the rural community level (living place recognized by the farmers) and the farmers’ households. Twenty-one farmers, called community researchers, organized in 3 teams, applied a questionnaire through the KoboCollect smartphone application to 544 families in the municipalities of Santarém, Mojuí dos Campos and Belterra. Meetings were previously held in the rural communities and questionnaires were applied with representatives of 32 communities. Data was collected between April and June 2019. The community researchers and academic researchers then came together for two collective sessions of data analysis and interpretation in July and October 2019. Data was standardized and cleaned using SPSS software, between September and December 2019. The metadata and databases are available on the CIRAD dataverse.

This paper investigates the perceptions of a diversity of stakeholders supporting smallholders in the eastern Brazilian Amazon about ecosystem services and agricultural practices. Our results come from 30 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders in two contrasting municipalities in this region (Paragominas and Irituia). We identified 17 different ecosystem services and 15 agricultural practices. Using a multidimensional scaling (MDS), we differentiated the stakeholders’ perceptions of co-production of ecosystem services. The most mentioned ecosystem services are food supply, regulation of water cycles, soil fertility and erosion prevention. Overall, there is a positive perception that agricultural practices are providing ecosystem services. Biodiversity-based practices are associated with the provision of a broad range of ecosystem services whereas mechanical-chemical practices are mainly linked to food supply. Use of fire, deforestation and use of chemical pesticides are perceived as having most negative effects on the provision of ecosystem services. The type of activity performed by the stakeholders and their municipality are the main factors influencing their perception of ecosystem services co-production. In conclusion, the concept of co-production of ecosystem services related to agroecosystems is relevant as local actors recognize a diversity of effects of agricultural practices on service provision.

Copyright of Desenvolvimento e Meio Ambiente is the property of Universidade Federal do Parana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Brazil is one of the few countries that has implemented policies aimed at supporting agroecological transition processes on a national scale. While its experience has caught the attention of the international community interested in building sustainable and healthy food systems, recent literature points to the dismantling of these policies. This article identifies the variety of dismantling strategies to analyze how they are linked to the modification of the policy paradigm. Results suggest that the formation of a 'clientelist–corporocratic' paradigm legitimized active and visible dismantling strategies, such as the extinction of policy instruments and the delegitimization of agroecology through discursive mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sustainability in Debate / Sustentabilidade em Debate is the property of University of Brasilia, Center for Sustainable Development and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of VertigO is the property of La Revue Electronique en Sciences de l'Environnement VertigO and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Cahiers Agriculture is the property of EDP Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of People & Nature is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Byline: Emilie Coudel, Helene Rey-Valette, Jean-Philippe Tonneau Implementing decentralisation of public policies requires adequate governance devices, but local actors also need new competencies to get involved in the new devices. What are the competencies required, and how can they be built? This paper analyses a Farmer University in Brazil to see how the actors trained have been able to mobilise their newly acquired knowledge for territorial development. We formalised the learning process as the construction of human, social and institutional capital, which, when combined, enable local actors to play an active role in governance. Our evaluation analyses how the students have become involved individually in different organisations, and how the collective involvement of these actors in territorial governance has been possible through the creation of a student association. Although the learning process helped in building the actors' capital, several limits were identified, especially the difficulty in developing legitimate relations with other institutions in the territory.

Byline: Dominique Cairol, Emilie Coudel, Karlheinz Knickel, Patrick Caron This last paper aims to summarise reflexions made in the preceding papers of this Special Issue. We will first show the common conclusions of the different reviews on multifunctionality, and discuss the global state-of-the-art: multifuntionality does not yet appear as a very stabilised concept, and its scientific use suffers from confusions with political discourses. We suggest therefore that research should detach itself from multifunctionality as a political goal and should instead consider multifunctionality as a useful conceptual and analytical framework. In order to support this recommendation, directions for this analytical framework are sketched out, by referring to three main elements which appear in previous papers: functions and their interrelations, reembedding agriculture in society, and linking multifunctionality and sustainability. From this global picture, theoretical, methodological and empirical research gaps are identified. To conclude this paper, we suggest other inputs for research on multifunctionality, from other disciplines which deal with functionalism, and discuss the potential of this concept for rural development.

Global environmental change has motivated multiple interventions in pursuit of sustainable outcomes within tropical forest landscapes. Fire is recognised as a key stressor facing forest conservation efforts. Large‐scale accidental fires are increasingly prevalent across the forested tropics, generating negative impacts across sectors and scales. Policy responses to mega‐fires in the Brazilian Amazon have been diverse but all are dominated by an anti‐fire narrative that highlights long‐stigmatised smallholder agricultural practices. Despite forest conservation initiatives and fire management policies, escaped fire (wildfire) remains pervasive. Forest conservation initiatives are often situated in contexts where swidden agriculture prevails, generating a need for an improved understanding of the interplay between fire management and conservation initiatives on the ground. We explore these dynamics through a case study approach in three leading forest conservation initiative types, situated across diverse contexts in the Brazilian Amazon: a Reduction of Emissions of Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) site (in Middle Solimões region), an extractive reserve (RESEX) (in Arapíuns region), and a Green Municipality Pact (GMP) (in Paragominas). Between sites, climate and colonisation histories vary, yet all demonstrate that farmers experience the burden of escaped fire, attesting to the failure of fire management policies and suggesting that fire (as currently managed) threatens forest conservation goals. Restrictive fire management policies do not replace the necessity of fire‐based agriculture and rather serve to disempower swidden farmers by making burning increasingly illicit. We show that awareness of fire‐free alternatives exists, yet experience is limited and constraints are considerable. We argue that marginalising fire use in the context of forest conservation initiatives contributes to a legacy of failed interventions and jeopardises partnerships between communities and conservation practitioners. Finally, we suggest that given the absence of imminent and viable fire‐free alternatives, particularly in sites where swidden and conservation collide, a new model of fire warrants experimentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decentralized governance can facilitate the participation of non-government actors in natural resource management. Yet efforts to increase participation can also enhance the power of existing elites. Here, we analyse the role of landowning elites in developing and operating a hybrid governance arrangement in response to the decentralization of anti-deforestation policy in the Brazilian Amazon. We employ a framework that permits examination of the role played by different actors, the rationale that promoted collaboration in the first place, and the distribution of power that shapes the still evolving governance arrangement. By engaging state and non-state actors in a hybrid governance partnership, the local landowning elite in Paragominas, a municipality in the Eastern Brazilian Amazon, successfully achieved the specific goals set by federal policies to be removed from a high deforestation 'Red List'. Yet the local governors, together with the rural elite, transformed the crisis generated by inclusion in the Red List into an opportunity to shift the rural economy on a path towards more legalized large-scale agriculture. By aligning production and conservation objectives, the project attracted medium and large landowners, but also failed to prevent − or potentially exacerbated − the further marginalization of smallholders. Rural elites can effectively mobilize hybrid government arrangements in pursuit of their own interests while also producing wider benefits such as a more stimulated urban economy and strengthened environmental compliance. However, inclusion of more marginalized populations in this process remains a severe and largely unaddressed challenge. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land use governance in the Brazilian Amazon has undergone significant changes in the last decade. At the national level, law enforcement capacity has increased and downstream industries linked to commodity chains responsible for deforestation have begun to monitor some of their suppliers' impacts on forests. At the municipal level, local actors have launched a Green Municipality initiative, aimed at eliminating deforestation and supporting green supply chains at the territorial level. In this paper, we analyze the land use transition since 2001 in Paragominas—the first Green Municipality—and discuss the limits of the governance arrangements underpinning these changes. Our work draws on a spatially explicit analysis of biophysical variables and qualitative information collected in interviews with key private and public stakeholders of the main commodity chains operating in the region. We argue that, up to now, the emerging multi-level scheme of land governance has not succeeded in promoting large-scale land use intensification, reforestation and rehabilitation of degraded lands. Moreover, private governance mechanisms based on improved product standards, fail to benefit from potential successful partnerships between the public and private sector at the territorial level. We propose a governance approach that adopts a broader territorial focus as a way forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with Roldan Muradian, senior researcher at Radbound University Nijmegen, Netherlands, and Esteve Corbera, a senior fellow at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, is presented. When asked about the Payment of Ecosystem Services (PES), Muradian describes his interest on understanding the behavioral implications of persuading people to the common good. Corbera discusses the impact of PES on environmental policies. He shares his views on the participation of farmers in PES.

Copyright of Sustainability in Debate / Sustentabilidade em Debate is the property of University of Brasilia, Center for Sustainable Development and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In loosely structured environments such as rural areas, the objectives and methods to encourage knowledge creation and learning are still much debated, leading to a wide diversity of learning systems. Using action-learning theory as a standpoint from which to understand this diversity, a review of the literature was conducted and five specific approaches were identified: (1) extension, (2) community learning, (3) organizational capacity building, (4) empowerment, and (5) social learning. Extension systems and organizational capacity building represent an operational perspective mainly focused on acquiring knowledge and changing practices, through single-loop learning processes. Community learning and empowerment were developed as alternative systems, focusing on changes in values, which can be achieved through double-loop learning. Social learning provides insight into the capacity to influence a wider environment through triple-loop learning, although methods are still rarely formalized. The action-learning perspective enables an understanding of the complementarities between approaches, and thus provides insight into how to devise better learning systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Agricultural Information Worldwide is the property of International Association of Agricultural Information Specialists (IAALD) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of VertigO is the property of La Revue Electronique en Sciences de l'Environnement VertigO and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This introductory paper provides an overview of the emergence of the concept of 'the multifunctionality of agriculture and rural areas', with particular emphasis on its historical and research dimensions and how it is interrelated with the notion of 'territory'. The paper is based on a state-of-the-art review of the different conceptualizations of the multifunctionality of agriculture and rural areas in policy related discourses. It examines how the concept of multifunctionality was taken on board and operationalized, in scientific analyses, strategic policy analysis and evaluation. In this special issue we focus on policy related analyses and discourses and the related analytical frameworks. We argue that scientific research should dissociate itself from political and interest driven discourses where multifunctionality tends to be primarily defined in economic terms (with a focus on the difference between private and public goods terms), and instead treat multifunctionality as a valuable conceptual framework. This paper emphasizes the important analytical and strategic links between multifunctionality and sustainability. In so doing it also closely links the notions of territory and territorial development with those of multifunctionality and sustainability. The adoption of a wider territorial development perspective has several implications in terms of governance and policies and these will be discussed. Theoretical and empirical gaps relating to these issues are identified, some of which are addressed in the other papers within this special issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decade, supermarkets have spread rapidly in the low-income Mediterranean countries. Focusing on a case of advanced supermarket diffusion (Turkey) and of incipient diffusion (Morocco), this article examines this development and its impact on the fresh fruits and vegetable sector, emphasising the level of backward integration by the retailers into the supply chain and the type of retailer-supplier governance structure. Both countries' food sectors resemble those of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) transition countries in their shift from a mixed traditional/staterun/owned retail system to a liberalised system. Moreover, Turkey is also on the road to joining the European Union, and is classed in policy discussions with the CEE candidates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last few years have seen the emergence of different initiatives designed to promote the biodiversification of agroecosystems as a counterpoint to the global expansion of homogenized industrial agriculture. In Brazil, two food procurement programs demonstrate the potential to promote discussions related to this agroecological transition: the National School Meal Program (Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar, PNAE) and the Food Procurement Program (Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos, PAA). The objectives of this paper are to analyze: (a) how these procurement programs currently integrate agrobiodiversity (crops and cropping systems) according to the local context; (b) the main challenges that key stakeholders perceive for the adoption of biodiverse systems; and (c) the extent to which the key stakeholders involved in these programs associate agrobiodiversity with the provision of ecosystem services. We carried out this research in 2017 in two contrasting municipalities in the eastern part of the Brazilian Amazon, Paragominas and Irituia. Our research shows that these programs have included up to 42 species in Irituia and 32 species in Paragominas. Perennial crop species are the most common type of culture in Irituia (up to 50%), while vegetables are the most common in Paragominas (up to 47%). Although in both municipalities stakeholders identify a large number of ecosystem services (up to 17), services mentioned in Irituia were more closely related to agrobiodiversity. Stakeholders indirectly associated with the programs have a broader view of ecosystem services. We conclude that these procurement programs can be useful tools to promote the biodiversification of local production systems, but their potential may depend on involving institutions not directly associated with their administration. Additionally, despite the observed differences in production context, providing more ecosystem services appears to be a compelling motivation for promoting changes in agroecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]