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The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic points to unequally distributed vulnerabilities in society. Unevenly distributed disadvantages are also found in processes of a social-ecological transformation. The concept of working-class environmentalism arguably presents a way out of this deficiency through incorporating and focusing on working class and precarious people in processes of social change. We develop four theses for our argumentation to revisit working-class environmentalism and conclude that this would build social resilience for coping with future crises of the whole of society.

In Jambi province, Sumatra, Indonesia, flooding is a recurrent rainy season phenomenon. Historically considered manageable, recent political economic developments have changed this situation. Today, flooding is an environmental hazard and a threat to people’s livelihoods and health. Based on qualitative research and literature that has developed relational approaches to risk and water, we investigate past and present hydrosocial relations in Jambi province and reconstruct the changing meaning of flooding. We suggest that flooding as a hazard in Jambi was produced through the introduction of the plantation industry to the area and its prioritization of dry land for agro-industrial development. This development altered the materiality of water flows, reconfigured power relations and changed the socio-cultural dimensions of flooding. Together, these changes have led to a separation of flooding from its original social and geographic realm, producing new risks and vulnerabilities. This paper provides insights into the material and symbolic dimensions that influence how environmental processes come to be imagined, controlled and contested. It shows how tracing the socionatural production of hazards may help explain the increasingly systemic nature of risks and provide insights into the wider social meaning of environmental risks.

The growing demand for natural rubber is increasingly threatening biodiversity and forest ecosystems. Recently, the French Michelin Group started a cooperation with the World Wide Fund for Nature (...

In discourses on sustainability, its underlying conceptualizations and meanings, the role of imaginations and their influence on concrete social practices and mutually dependent sociomaterial structures have been overlooked. Therefore, our article uses Adloff and Neckel’s (Sustain Sci 14(4):1015-1025, 2019) conceptual framework to explore the role of imaginations in generating different trajectories from a concrete environmental problem, namely issues attributed to manure surpluses in Germany, to assess the hurdles and conflicting goals of a transformation toward a sustainable livestock system. Our study builds on qualitative, semistructured, and problem-centered interviews with both new innovation actors and incumbent actors in the current system. Our results show that different trajectories of “manure futures” exist, as we identify “preservation”, “modernization” and “transformation” as trajectories representing ideal types of change. We discuss the results in light of the theory of imaginations and reflect on the usefulness of the concept of imaginations for analyzing environmental discourses and practices. Furthermore, we find that normative framings of problems rather than factual knowledge describe contesting imaginations as barriers to sustainability transformations, a point that must be acknowledged when developing a sustainable livestock system. We conclude that contesting imaginations could result in conflicts that must be moderated as drivers for change yet could also point to transformations that are already underway.

Agricultural land acquisition for urbanization (ALAFU) has strongly impacted agriculture in Vietnam during the last decades. Given the mixed data obtained from a survey (with 50 households who lost 50% of their farmland area), in-depth interviews, a group-focused discussion and observation, this study shows the different impacts of ALAFU on each agricultural activity of affected household by comparing before and after ALAFU. Rice cultivation and animal breeding have sharply declined, but potted flower plantation (PFP) has quickly grown and is the main income of 34% of surveyed households. Rice cultivation has declined not only as a result of agricultural land acquisition, which has resulted in the loss of rice land, but also as a result of urbanization, which has resulted in rice land abandonment. Conversely, PFP is growing due to advantages associated with urbanization, such as a good consumer market and upgraded infrastructure. However, whether they are declining or increasing, all agricultural activities have to face challenges related to the shortcomings in agricultural land allocation and agricultural development plans. This study suggests that if ALAFU projects are continued, the government should evaluate agricultural development and forecast farmland abandonment after ALAFU. Simultaneously, they should put more effort into maintaining agriculture in the form of peri-urban or urban agriculture, which is significant for sustainable development in affected communities.

One nowadays un denied phenomena is that society changed. Jambi Province rural community has also changed toward modernization. The main goal of this research is to analyze factors effect gotong royong (cooperation) transformation in Jambi Province rural communities based on its remoteness from urban area. The research analysis used in this research is the Delphi method. Research found that there has been a change in the value of gotong royong in Jambi Province. It was also found that there are differences in changes in rural locations that are close to city and that are far from city. Some factors effecting the transformation are information technology, household income and accessibility while some factors that keeps gotong royong alive are family, harmony and help. The strategy to keep gotong royong value remain solid in Jambi Province’s villages should be to wisely accept global technology, income increases and better accessibility while still maintain the social capital strength.

To date, the role of borderlands in global production networks is an under-researched topic. In this study, we take the production network of the highly valuable non-timber forest product ophiocordyceps sinensis (yarsagumba) as a case to study the trans-border connectivities of state and non-state actors in the borderland of India, Nepal and China located within the rural Kailash Landscape. We present the results of an in-depth qualitative study on the informal trade networks through which non-state actors transport yarsagumba from India to Nepali markets, and on the related governmental marketing mechanisms for non-timber forest products in India and Nepal. By looking through the lens of borderland studies we focus our analysis on the power and embeddedness of state authorities and non-state actors on both sides of the border within these legal and illegal trade networks and relate the findings to the function of borders as both material and institutional demarcation lines. Our case study shows that state authorities and non-state actors are closely enmeshed with each other, using or bypassing state regulations for their own benefits. This reproduces a ‘licit’ but illegal cross-border trade system. Besides economic interdependencies, social relations between actors are crucial for building trust between business partners who deal with high product values and cash flows outside formal regulatory spaces or between different regulatory spaces across state borders. We conclude that the power and embeddedness of actors in the production networks enable a network dynamic that undermines the function of the border as a line of separation.

By using an inductive qualitative approach, investigating the micro scale, that is, the individual level, we conducted a case study on the PermaKulturRaum in Goettingen, Germany—an experimental space for students to explore alternative lifedesigns. On the supposition that only a radical transition can achieve sustainability on a global scale, we identified permaculture as an appropriate method to achieve this. However, permaculture is not widely spread and largely ignored by scientific research. We started a first attempt to understand the underlying motivations of permaculturists. Using behavioral studies as our theoretical framework, we found out that behavioral determinants, like biospheric values, green-identity, and the intention to act green were extraordinarily high and that the core of their pro-environmental behavior is most likely their strong intrinsic motivation. Regarding the PermaKulturRaum, we could formulate following theses: (1) a comprehensive implementation of permacultural aspects requires an urge for an alternative lifedesign, (2) a radical lifedesign attracts primarily like-minded people, which creates isolated spaces, (3) early childhood experiences or single key moments are important to trigger a pro-environmental interest.

Land-use transitions can enhance the livelihoods of smallholder farmers but potential economic-ecological trade-offs remain poorly understood. Here, we present an interdisciplinary study of the environmental, social and economic consequences of land-use transitions in a tropical smallholder landscape on Sumatra, Indonesia. We find widespread biodiversity-profit trade-offs resulting from land-use transitions from forest and agroforestry systems to rubber and oil palm monocultures, for 26,894 aboveground and belowground species and whole-ecosystem multidiversity. Despite variation between ecosystem functions, profit gains come at the expense of ecosystem multifunctionality, indicating far-reaching ecosystem deterioration. We identify landscape compositions that can mitigate trade-offs under optimal land-use allocation but also show that intensive monocultures always lead to higher profits. These findings suggest that, to reduce losses in biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, changes in economic incentive structures through well-designed policies are urgently needed., Identifying economic and ecological trade-offs of land-use transitions is important to ensure sustainability. Here, Grass et al. find biodiversity-profit trade-offs in tropical land-use transitions in Sumatra, and show that targeted landscape planning is needed to increase land-use efficiency while ensuring socio-ecological sustainability.

The rapid expansion of rubber and oil palm plantations in Jambi Province, Sumatra, Indonesia, is associated with large-scale deforestation and the impairment of many ecosystem services. According to villagers' observations, this land use change has, together with climate change, led to an increase in the magnitude and frequency of river flood events, which constrain village and plantation development. Based on this empirical societal problem, we investigate whether we can find measurable indications for the presumed linkages between land use change, climate change, and changing flooding regimes. We follow an explorative, bottom-up research approach that builds on a review of multidisciplinary datasets, integrating local ecological knowledge with scientific measurements from soil science, climatology, hydrology, and remote sensing. We found that water levels of one of the largest rivers in Jambi Province, the Tembesi, have increased significantly during the last two decades. Data of local and regional meteorological stations show that alterations in rainfall patterns may only partly explain these changes. Rather, increased soil densities and decreased water infiltration rates in monoculture plantations suggest an increase in surface runoff following forest conversion. Moreover, additional interview data reveal that an increasing encroachment of wetlands in Jambi Province may contribute to changes in local flooding regimes, as the construction of drainage and flood control infrastructure redistributes floodwater at the local scale. We conclude that changing flooding regimes are the result of multiple interacting social-ecological processes associated with the expansion of rubber and oil palm plantations in Jambi Province. Although ecohydrological changes are likely to contribute to an increase of flood occurrence, their social impacts are increasingly mediated through flood control infrastructure on industrial oil palm plantations.

The agricultural use and conversion of tropical peatlands is considered a major source of land-based greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, the protection and restoration of tropical peatlands has recently turned into an important strategy to mitigate global climate change. Little research exists that has investigated the impacts and dynamics that such climate mitigation efforts evoke in local communities living in and around peatlands. We present insights on this from Sumatra, Indonesia and use a climate justice lens to evaluate local outcomes. We show how an increasingly transnational network of state and non-state actors has become involved in developing new laws, policy programs and land-use agreements on Sumatra’s coastal peatlands, aiming at supposedly win–win low-carbon development pathways. We argue that such efforts are open to much of the same criticism that has been raised regarding previous policies and projects aimed at reducing GHGE from deforestation and forest degradation. These projects disregard local perspectives on development, fail to deliver the promised benefits and, through a reconfiguration of local land-use rights, reduce the capabilities of smallholder farmers to benefit from their land. In sum, our analysis suggests that recent policies and projects aimed at mitigating GHGE from tropical peatlands contribute to a redistribution of the global climate mitigation burden onto smallholder farmers in Indonesia. This occurs through their threefold assignment to protect forests, prevent fires and help restore degraded peatlands.

Indonesia has attracted increasing global attention in recent years due to concerns over large-scale deforestation. The island of Sumatra in particular is severely affected by the rapid expansion of monoculture cash crops. Since Dutch colonial times, land tenure regulations here have generally favored such resource exploitation. The current National Development Plan continues to see Sumatra as a center of resource production in order to eradicate poverty and accelerate national development. This developmental focus, however, is accompanied by contested land use scenarios. Taking a historical perspective, this research discloses different layers of past and present land tenure regulations to understand present contestations of land use, resource exploitation, and their social consequences. Based on a village case study, the research demonstrates how different political eras and their accompanying land tenure approaches are inscribed in today's local landscape. We found that de jure regulations which were added to customary laws created a situation of legal pluralism. Our case study explains how local actors craft institutional arrangements in a process of institutional bricolage to use ‘their’ resources.

Sustainable development of land use is determined by changes of the regional supply of Land Use Functions (LUFs) and the demand of future societal land use claims. LUFs are based on the ecosystem services concept, but more adapted to human land use. In this paper, we assessed two peatland-use scenarios towards sustainable development in Northeast Germany in order to understand their impacts on LUFs and land use claims. For this, we extended an analytical framework designed to confront LUFs with land use claims identified in multi-level stakeholder strategies in a participatory manner. The sustainability assessment was performed with peatland-use scenarios “Services for services” and “Market determines usage” that favoured environmental and economic land use claims, respectively. Findings revealed possible trade-offs between land use claims for biomass production and regional value creation as well as for peatlands` carbon and nutrient sink, and habitat functions. The core achievement is an extended sustainability assessment framework integrating land use demands of multi-level stakeholder strategies into participatory impact assessment, in a way that land use claims serve as benchmarks for LUFs. This facilitates the understanding of sustainable land use in both supply and demand perspective, and the normative evaluation of ecosystem services.

Current debates on climate change have led to an increased demand for sustainable commodities. Serving this demand, sustainability certification schemes and eco-friendly labels have become prominent mechanisms of climate governance. Smallholder farmers in Jambi province, Indonesia, producing palm oil and rubber as the two dominant smallholder crops, are impacted by this distal demand. Zimmerer et al. (2018) suggest analyzing the potential sustainability in such a context with the multilevel smallholder telecoupling framework. Applying this framework to case studies from Jambi province, our first case reveals that smallholder certification for so-called sustainable palm oil does not necessarily influence smallholder towards more sustainable management practices. One explanation might be a discrepancy in sustainability perception between sender and receiver systems. The second case is the setup of an allegedly eco-friendly rubber plantation. The establishment of this model plantation is implemented by a transnational corporation in collaboration with a nature conservation organization, impacting the access to land for adjacent smallholders. The struggle over access to land is not only negotiated between smallholders and the corporation producing &ldquo, eco-friendly&rdquo, rubber but also between smallholders and big land mammals lacking access to land since the rubber plantation began to be established. We argue that the concept of sustainability as demanded by the receiving system does not mirror management practices in the sending system, even though the products reach the Global North as supposedly socially and climate-friendly. The smallholder telecoupling framework is helpful for assessing potential sustainability but can be expanded towards conflictive spillovers, second order effects, and a mismatch in sustainability perceptions in order to draw a more comprehensive picture.

Even in industrialized countries like Germany, drinking water quality is a sensitive issue. Despite a generally high level of drinking water safety, contamination events do occur. We address the question whether demographic change may cause a spatial mismatch between installed capacities at the supply side and actual demand by water users, thereby increasing risks of microbiological contamination. Our investigation is based on a quantitative analysis using the largest publically available data-set on drinking water quality in Germany. We found that the number of reported contamination events in areas affected by population decrease was about twice as high as in areas with a stable or growing population. The relative frequency of microbiological contamination was found to be significantly correlated with rapidly depopulating areas. We conclude that in regions with negative population development, a statistically higher risk of microbiological drinking water contamination may coincide with a greater...

Oil palm plantations have expanded rapidly in recent decades. This large-scale land-use change has had great ecological, economic, and social impacts on both the areas converted to oil palm and their surroundings. However, research on the impacts of oil palm cultivation is scattered and patchy, and no clear overview exists. We address this gap through a systematic and comprehensive literature review of all ecosystem functions in oil palm plantations, including several (genetic, medicinal and ornamental resources, information functions) not included in previous systematic reviews. We compare ecosystem functions in oil palm plantations to those in forests, as the conversion of forest to oil palm is prevalent in the tropics. We find that oil palm plantations generally have reduced ecosystem functioning compared to forests: 11 out of 14 ecosystem functions show a net decrease in level of function. Some functions show decreases with potentially irreversible global impacts (e.g. reductions in gas and climate regulation, habitat and nursery functions, genetic resources, medicinal resources, and information functions). The most serious impacts occur when forest is cleared to establish new plantations, and immediately afterwards, especially on peat soils. To variable degrees, specific plantation management measures can prevent or reduce losses of some ecosystem functions (e.g. avoid illegal land clearing via fire, avoid draining of peat, use of integrated pest management, use of cover crops, mulch, and compost) and we highlight synergistic mitigation measures that can improve multiple ecosystem functions simultaneously. The only ecosystem function which increases in oil palm plantations is, unsurprisingly, the production of marketable goods. Our review highlights numerous research gaps. In particular, there are significant gaps with respect to socio-cultural information functions. Further, there is a need for more empirical data on the importance of spatial and temporal scales, such as differences among plantations in different environments, of different sizes, and of different ages, as our review has identified examples where ecosystem functions vary spatially and temporally. Finally, more research is needed on developing management practices that can offset the losses of ecosystem functions. Our findings should stimulate research to address the identified gaps, and provide a foundation for more systematic research and discussion on ways to minimize the negative impacts and maximize the positive impacts of oil palm cultivation.

Kosuke Mizuno, Motoko S. Fujita, and Shuichi Kawai, eds. Singapore: NUS Press, 2016. xxvii and 466 pp; 14 tables, 80 figures, 4 photographs, glossary, index. $46.00 SGD (ISBN 978-4-87698-877-8).Whe...

The penetration of modern supermarkets is believed to be the cause of the declining role of traditional markets and street vendors in Indonesia. Nevertheless, the competition between state-promoted markets and traditional markets is rarely discussed, both adaptation of market institution and strategy of market actors. This research outlined a theoretical understanding of the dynamics of traditional markets, along the concepts of market flexibility as an adaptation strategy and coordination problems as market actor strategies. The researchers empirically reflect the strategies of four traditional vegetable markets that still survive from tight competition&mdash, both the market itself as a social institution, and the strategies of actors involved in market transactions. The traditional market builds flexibility by: (1) Specifying commodities, (2) segmenting customers, (3) changing market operating hour, (4) modifying transportation to operate more efficiently, and (5) low cost market management. At the actor level, competition problems are resolved by utilizing an emotional sentiment of friendship social relations, the formation of prices is determined by developing effective networks of information, and the cooperation problem is dealt with by building a system of punishment and reward based on informal mechanisms. This finding verifies the thesis stating that market competitiveness is determined by institutional flexibility against competition and the ability of market actors to build effective social interactions to maintain market sustainability. Based on the above explanation, further research needs to be focused on calculating how much efficiency is built due to market flexibility, both the transaction cost and the production cost in a quantitative manner. At the actor level, it is necessary to delineate the strategies being built, whether based on pure rational or economic and moral or non-economic considerations in solving coordination problems in the market.

The recent expansion of protected areas and oil palm plantations in Jambi (Sumatra), Indonesia, has been notably disruptive. This article investigates the scalar dimensions of land conflicts within a privately managed conservation area. We built on qualitative research focusing on struggles related to the formation of two informal settlements within the conservation area. Results indicate that, especially in the context of rapid rescaling (e.g., decentralization), new power constellations emerge, thereby altering preexisting property relations. We argue that competing scales of meaning and regulation are structuring the ability of actors to access land and, consequently, reflect tensions between structure and agency.

Tropical lowland rainforests are increasingly threatened by the expansion of agriculture and the extraction of natural resources. In Jambi Province, Indonesia, the interdisciplinary EFForTS project focuses on the ecological and socio-economic dimensions of rainforest conversion to jungle rubber agroforests and monoculture plantations of rubber and oil palm. Our data confirm that rainforest transformation and land use intensification lead to substantial losses in biodiversity and related ecosystem functions, such as decreased above- and below-ground carbon stocks. Owing to rapid step-wise transformation from forests to agroforests to monoculture plantations and renewal of each plantation type every few decades, the converted land use systems are continuously dynamic, thus hampering the adaptation of animal and plant communities. On the other hand, agricultural rainforest transformation systems provide increased income and access to education, especially for migrant smallholders. Jungle rubber and rubber monocultures are associated with higher financial land productivity but lower financial labour productivity compared to oil palm, which influences crop choice: smallholders that are labour-scarce would prefer oil palm while land-scarce smallholders would prefer rubber. Collecting long-term data in an interdisciplinary context enables us to provide decision-makers and stakeholders with scientific insights to facilitate the reconciliation between economic interests and ecological sustainability in tropical agricultural landscapes.

Oil palm plantations have expanded rapidly in recent decades. This large-scale land-use change has had great ecological, economic, and social impacts on both the areas converted to oil palm and their surroundings. However, research on the impacts of oil palm cultivation is scattered and patchy, and no clear overview exists. We address this gap through a systematic and comprehensive literature review of all ecosystem functions in oil palm plantations, including several (genetic, medicinal and ornamental resources, information functions) not included in previous systematic reviews. We compare ecosystem functions in oil palm plantations to those in forests, as the conversion of forest to oil palm is prevalent in the tropics. We find that oil palm plantations generally have reduced ecosystem functioning compared to forests: 11 out of 14 ecosystem functions show a net decrease in level of function. Some functions show decreases with potentially irreversible global impacts (e.g. reductions in gas and climate regulation, habitat and nursery functions, genetic resources, medicinal resources, and information functions). The most serious impacts occur when forest is cleared to establish new plantations, and immediately afterwards, especially on peat soils. To variable degrees, specific plantation management measures can prevent or reduce losses of some ecosystem functions (e.g. avoid illegal land clearing via fire, avoid draining of peat, use of integrated pest management, use of cover crops, mulch, and compost) and we highlight synergistic mitigation measures that can improve multiple ecosystem functions simultaneously. The only ecosystem function which increases in oil palm plantations is, unsurprisingly, the production of marketable goods. Our review highlights numerous research gaps. In particular, there are significant gaps with respect to socio-cultural information functions. Further, there is a need for more empirical data on the importance of spatial and temporal scales, such as differences among plantations in different environments, of different sizes, and of different ages, as our review has identified examples where ecosystem functions vary spatially and temporally. Finally, more research is needed on developing management practices that can offset the losses of ecosystem functions. Our findings should stimulate research to address the identified gaps, and provide a foundation for more systematic research and discussion on ways to minimize the negative impacts and maximize the positive impacts of oil palm cultivation. peerReviewed

Summary 1. Agricultural intensification reduces ecological resilience of land-use systems, whereas paradoxically, environmental change and climate extremes require a higher response capacity than ever. Adaptation strategies to environmental change include maintenance of shade trees in tropical agroforestry, but conversion of shaded to unshaded systems is common practice to increase short-term yield. 2. In this paper, we review the short-term and long-term ecological benefits of shade trees in coffee Coffea arabica, C. canephora and cacao Theobroma cacao agroforestry and emphasize the poorly understood, multifunctional role of shade trees for farmers and conservation alike. 3. Both coffee and cacao are tropical understorey plants. Shade trees in agroforestry enhance functional biodiversity, carbon sequestration, soil fertility, drought resistance as well as weed and biological pest control. However, shade is needed for young cacao trees only and is less important in older cacao plantations. This changing response to shade regime with cacao plantation age often results in a transient role for shade and associated biodiversity in agroforestry. 4. Abandonment of old, unshaded cacao in favour of planting young cacao in new, thinned forest sites can be named ‘short-term cacao boom-and-bust cycle’, which counteracts tropical forest conservation. In a ‘long-term cacao boom-and-bust cycle’, cacao boom can be followed by cacao bust due to unmanageable pest and pathogen levels (e.g. in Brazil and Malaysia). Higher pest densities can result from physiological stress in unshaded cacao and from the larger cacao area planted. Risk-averse farmers avoid long-term vulnerability of their agroforestry systems by keeping shade as an insurance against insect pest outbreaks, whereas yield-maximizing farmers reduce shade and aim at short-term monetary benefits. 5. Synthesis and applications. Sustainable agroforestry management needs to conserve or create a diverse layer of multi-purpose shade trees that can be pruned rather than removed when crops mature. Incentives from payment-for-ecosystem services and certification schemes encourage farmers to keep high to medium shade tree cover. Reducing pesticide spraying protects functional

Cacao cultivation holds a sweet promise, not only for chocolate consumers and cacao farmers but also for conservationists who argue that diverse cacao agroforests may be used to sustain both livelihoods of smallholders and ecological benefits such as the conservation of biodiversity within human-dominated tropical landscapes. However, regional boom-and-bust cycles are the rule in global cacao production: after initial forest conversion to cacao agroforests, sustaining production is difficult due to dwindling yields as trees age and pest and disease pressure increases. The failure to revitalize plantations often leads to a shift of cacao production to other regions. Shade removal dynamics within these cycles substantially reduce most of the biodiversity benefits. We investigate the conservation implications of these processes. Using examples from the current cacao crisis in Indonesia, we show that until now commitments to sustainability by the cacao-chocolate sector have not been successful, which endangers remaining forests. Conservation can be combined with smallholder cacao production, but if this is to be achieved, greater quantitative and qualitative efforts to halt cacao cycles are needed on the part of the industry by making use of existing opportunities to combine sustainability, carbon storage, and biodiversity conservation.

Losses of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning due to rainforest destruction and agricultural intensification are prime concerns for science and society alike. Potentially, ecosystems show nonlinear responses to land-use intensification that would open management options with limited ecological losses but satisfying economic gains. However, multidisciplinary studies to quantify ecological losses and socioeconomic tradeoffs under different management options are rare. Here, we evaluate opposing land use strategies in cacao agroforestry in Sulawesi, Indonesia, by using data on species richness of nine plant and animal taxa, six related ecosystem functions, and on socioeconomic drivers of agroforestry expansion. Expansion of cacao cultivation by 230% in the last two decades was triggered not only by economic market mechanisms, but also by rarely considered cultural factors. Transformation from near-primary forest to agroforestry had little effect on overall species richness, but reduced plant biomass and carbon storage by approximately 75% and species richness of forest-using species by approximately 60%. In contrast, increased land use intensity in cacao agroforestry, coupled with a reduction in shade tree cover from 80% to 40%, caused only minor quantitative changes in biodiversity and maintained high levels of ecosystem functioning while doubling farmers' net income. However, unshaded systems further increased income by approximately 40%, implying that current economic incentives and cultural preferences for new intensification practices put shaded systems at risk. We conclude that low-shade agroforestry provides the best available compromise between economic forces and ecological needs. Certification schemes for shade-grown crops may provide a market-based mechanism to slow down current intensification trends.

Despite scientific progress in operationalizing sustainable development (SD), it is still hampered by methodological challenges at the regional level. We developed a framework to analyse stakeholder based, SD targets for future land use, which are characterized by different impact levels and spatial references. The framework allows for the analysis of land use demands in the context of SD. We identified societal use targets in north-eastern Germany, particularly for the area type’s lowland fens and irrigation fields, represented through strategy documents. We used frame analysis to aggregate and condense the targets into land use claims. Results present a framework for the ex-ante Sustainability Impact Assessment of land use changes at the regional level and the determination and regionalization of the future societal demand for land use functions. For future land use at the regional level, manifold land use claims exist, but on smaller scales, area-specific targets are less apparent. Six key main-use claims and 44 side-use claims were identified at the regional level and for area types. Possible trade-offs among land use claims for land use functions can be identified at each governance level. Implications of the methodological approach are discussed according to moving development targets and SD as multi-sector and multi-level governance issues.

Zusammenfassung: Vergleichende Kulturgeographie: Empirische Befunde zu regionalen Integrationsprozessen in landlichen Raumen Boliviens, der Elfenbeinkiiste und Indonesiens In vielen tropischen Staaten werden Naturwaldgebiete gerodet und kultiviert, um einer wachsenden Bevolkerung Entfal tungsmoglichkeiten zu geben. Migranten bilden neue Gemeinschaften und es entwickeln sich Mechanismen des Zusammen lebens, die sich in gesellschaftlicher Organisation und Stratifikationen auBern. Diese Prozesse werden im vorliegenden Beitrag fiir verschiedene tropische Kulturraume analysiert. Der Vergleich der jiingeren Entwicklungen in ahnlich strukturierten Agrar kolonisationen Boliviens, der Elfenbeinkiiste und Indonesiens lasst Riickschliisse auf Ahnlichkeiten und Unterschiede im Inte grationsprozess der Regionalkulturen und in den Auswirkungen auf die Landnutzung zu. Die vergleichende Studie basiert auf einer empirischen Erhebung, die sich an der sozialwissenschaftlichen Theorie der Integration und ethnischen Schichtung nach esser (2001) orientiert. Die Analyse findet anhand der Aspekte der Systemintegration (Okonomie, Politik, Gesellschaftliche Gemeinschaft, Treuhandsystem) und der Sozialen Integration (Kulturation, Platzierung, Interaktion, Identifikation) statt. So kann gezeigt werden, dass die Prozesse von Migration in den ausgewahlten Regionen ahnlich verlaufen und die kulturellen na tionalen und regionalen Rahmenbedingungen nur geringe Verschiedenheiten bewirken. Die Erwartung, dass die Prozesse der Integration aufgrund der nationalen und regionalen kulturraumlichen Rahmenbedingungen in Bolivien, der Elfenbeinkiiste und Indonesien unterschiedlich sind, kann nicht bestatigt werden. Des Weiteren zeigt sich deutlich, dass Desintegration nega tive Folgen fiir die Ressourcennutzung hat, wobei sich die allgemeine Annahme, dass ethnische Homogenitat integriert und Heterogenitat desintegrierende Tendenzen initiiert, bestatigten lasst. Es wird deutlich, dass die Untersuchungsdorfer nach ihrer demographischen Struktur, nach dem Prozess der Integration und ihrer ethnischen Schichtung typisiert werden konnen, weitestgehend unabhangig von ihrer Lage im Kulturraum.

Tropical rainforests are disappearing, causing irreversible species losses, especially of rare and specialised species (e.g. Owens and Bennett 2000, Acebey et al. 2003, Kessler et al. 2009, Maas et al. 2009). Despite an increasing recognition of the value of biodiversity and associated ecosystem services at national and international levels, rainforests continue to be seriously threatened by human-induced global change such as agricultural intensification and climate change.

Payments for Environmental Service (PES) schemes are increasingly discussed as a possibility to promote the conservation of natural resources. However, these pilot schemes are frequently small in size and face high transaction costs, leading to the exclusion of smallholders. Solutions could be to use collectively bundled contracts or existing community resource management arrangement structures. Using the example of the institution of the community conservation agreements (CCA) in Central Sulawesi we assess whether a community arrangement can provide the framework conditions to implement a PES project. Four points are necessary: an organisational structure representing the village households; participation of the resource users in the institutional implementation; monitoring and enforcement by the institution of the forest usage regulations; and, finally, the institutions’ ability to administer funds. Our findings show that the CCAs are backed up by an organisational structure, the village conservation council. However, in most villages the community members were not involved and did not know of the agreement negotiation. A monitoring entity has been constituted. The awareness for nature conservation has increased only in the recent past, but resource extraction has left its marks, and the participants perceived environmental problems to be growing. Finally, compensation payments are regarded on the one hand as a good reimbursement for desisting from using the forest resources. On the other hand, due to the negative experiences with corruption, a clear organisational structure for the administration of such a project is necessary, which does not seem to be given with the current institutional arrangements. Therefore, we recommend using existing community arrangements because established structures can be used. However, these need to be enriched to fulfil the requirements of a PES project. It is of major importance to involve the community members in the management of natural resource projects to increase compliance with regulations.

Climate change poses a major threat to the livelihoods of many people, especially those dependent on agriculture. Adaptation to climate change is a necessity to reduce social vulnerability. The adoption of agricultural innovations presents a suitable strategy to reduce negative impacts of increased inter-annual variability in rainfall and temperature. Focussing on the dominant agroforestry system cacao in the Indonesian province of Central Sulawesi, we investigate the adaptation strategies of agricultural smallholders to El Nico-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) related droughts. We apply a triangulation of Rapid Rural Appraisal Methods (RRA), semi-structured in-depth interviews and participatory observations. In addition, results from an intensive cacao-study (n=144) on yields, plot history, structure and location are used.

Small-scale agriculture continues to account for a significant share of global forest conversion, especially, in remote forest frontier areas such as the mountainous forests of Central Sulawesi. Although much information on the proximate driving forces of deforestation can be obtained from analyses of the household level, the analysis of supra-household level institutional phenomena is indispensable for an adequate understanding of forest conversion. This is particularly true for the interaction of local institutions governing land access and tenure rights. In this contribution, we synthesize results from several related studies conducted around Lore Lindu National Park (LLNP) that investigate this relation. Contrary to the theoretical argument that tenure security fosters resource conservation, we find that the high tenure security of formal land titles increasingly available in the region attracts migrants who are aggressive buyers of land for petty capitalist cocoa production. At the end of the process, a substantial share of the autochthonous population finds itself either landless or is forced to cut marginal forest land, often inside LLNP. Restricting land ownership to traditional forms of community land rights avoids the formation of a class of newly landless locals but it comes at costs in terms of social discrimination and lost agricultural income.

Human activity endangers tropical forests in different parts of the world. The conflicting interests of nature conservation on the one hand, and the livelihood of farmers living at the forest margins, on the other, clash noticeably in so-called hotspots of biodiversity, such as the Lore Lindu region of Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Biodiversity generally decreases along a land use gradient from natural forest to agroforestry and annual crop systems. Thus, before solutions for a sustainable balance between conservation and the needs of people living at the forest margins can be sought, changing land use strategies and the factors that influence them must be analyzed. While similar studies often concentrate on economic indicators of land use change only, this chapter highlights the importance of two cultural realities, namely migration and ethnicity. We will demonstrate the great influence of these two factors on land use decisions and on the accessibility of land in the Lore Lindu region.

Tropical forests play a key role in the world carbon cycle and in maintaining biodiversity, but agricultural activities as well as the extraction of forest products are threatening these functions. Empirical evidence from developing countries suggests that forest products play an important role as a source of income for rural households, particularly for the rural poor. There is, however, still a lack of quantitative studies on the link between poverty and forest products. The research presented in this chapter seeks to fill the gap in general knowledge on the link between poverty, livelihood systems, and extraction of forest products. Considering as an example the vicinity of the Lore-Lindu National Park (LLNP) in Central Sulawesi/Indonesia, this chapter analyses the importance of forest products, especially for the rural poor, and identifies underlying factors which drive households into the forest. Moreover, the paper investigates similarities and differences in the use of forest products in the village of Toro, where an agreement with the national park authority on the use of forest areas exists, and in the research area at large, where such agreements did not exist.