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The expansion of the oil palm industry in Indonesia has improved livelihoods in rural communities, but comes at the cost of biodiversity and ecosystem degradation. Here, we investigated ways to balance ecological and economic outcomes of oil palm cultivation. We compared a wide range of production systems, including smallholder plantations, industrialized company estates, estates with improved agronomic management, and estates with native tree enrichment. Across all management types, we assessed multiple indicators of biodiversity, ecosystem functions, management, and landscape structure to identify factors that facilitate economic–ecological win–wins, using palm yields as measure of economic performance. Although, we found that yields in industrialized estates were, on average, twice as high as those in smallholder plantations, ecological indicators displayed substantial variability across systems, regardless of yield variations, highlighting potential for economic–ecological win–wins. Reducing management intensity (e.g., mechanical weeding instead of herbicide application) did not lower yields but improved ecological outcomes at moderate costs, making it a potential measure for balancing economic and ecological demands. Additionally, maintaining forest cover in the landscape generally enhanced local biodiversity and ecosystem functioning within plantations. Enriching plantations with native trees is also a promising strategy to increase ecological value without reducing productivity. Overall, we recommend closing yield gaps in smallholder cultivation through careful intensification, whereas conventional plantations could reduce management intensity without sacrificing yield. Our study highlights various pathways to reconcile the economics and ecology of palm oil production and identifies management practices for a more sustainable future of oil palm cultivation.

Die andauernde Armut, Nahrungsmittel- und Ernährungsunsicherheit im Subsahara-Afrika (SSA) verweist auf die Notwendigkeit für einen Paradigmenwechsel in Ernährungssystemen, der auf die Diversifizierung von Nahrungsmittelketten wie z.B. durch unzureichend genutzten Pflanzenarten (UPS) abzielt. In diesen Pflanzenarten steckt das Potenzial, SSA mit ertragreichen, ernährungssensiblen und resilienten Nahrungsmittelsystemen zu versorgen. Jüngste Studien belegen, dass UPS zur Ernährungssicherheit beitragen, indem sie Grundnahrungsmittel ergänzen, einen Puffer in Zeiten von Knappheit darstellen und die Nahrungsqualität erhöhen. Sie können somit als ein Hebel zur Armutslinderung verstanden werden. Trotz der Bedeutsamkeit von UPS, fokussiert sich die bestehende Literatur vorwiegend auf angebaute Nahrungsmittel und Nutzpflanzen. Diese Dissertation trägt dazu bei, die Faktoren Geschlecht, kollektives Handeln und die Auswahl von Vermarktungskanälen unter den Sammler:innen von UPS zu verstehen. Sie besteht aus drei Aufsätzen, die auf unterschiedliche Weise einen Beitrag zur existierenden Literatur zu UPS leisten. Alle drei Aufsätze basieren auf Haushaltsbefragungen von 864 Baobabsammler:innen (Baobab ist ein Beispiel für UPS) in Malawi, im Jahr 2021. Im ersten Aufsatz analysieren wir die geschlechtsspezifischen Unterschiede bei der Sammlung und Vermarktung von Baobab. Insbesondere evaluieren wir die Unterschiede zwischen weiblichen Baobabmanagerinnen (FBMs) und männlichen Baobabmanagern (MBMs) in Bezug auf die gesammelte Menge Baobab. Wir erweitern unsere Analyse und betrachten auch die Unterschiede zwischen FBMs in Bezug auf ihren Familienstand (verheiratete FBMs vs. unverheiratete FBMs). Bestehende Literatur über Geschlecht und Agrarwirtschaft hat sich überwiegend auf die geschlechtsspezifischen Unterschiede in Bezug auf agrarwirtschaftliche Ertragfähigkeit und die Einführung von Technologien fokussiert, insbesondere im Hinblick auf den Hauptpflanzenbestand in Afrika. Dahingege, The persistence of poverty and food and nutrition insecurity in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA), highlights the need for a paradigm shift in food systems that focuses on diversification into other food chains such as underutilised plant species (UPS). These crops have the potential to provide SSA with a productive, nutrition-sensitive, and resilient food system. Recent evidence concludes that UPS contribute to food security by supplementing staples, acting as a buffer in time of shortages, and increasing diet quality, and can be viewed as a lever towards poverty alleviation. Despite the significance of UPS, previous literature has extensively focussed on food and cash crops. This dissertation contributes to understanding of the aspects of gender, collective action and market channel choices among collectors of UPS. It is composed of three essays that contribute to the literature on UPS in different ways. All the three essays are based on a household survey of 864 baobab (an example of UPS) collectors in Malawi in the year 2021. The first essay analyses the gender gaps in the collection and marketing of baobab. In particular, I evaluate the differences in the quantity of baobab collected between male baobab managers (MBMs) and female baobab managers (FBMs). We further extend our analysis and also evaluate differences among FBMs relative to their marital status (i.e. married FBMs vs unmarried FBMs). The literature on gender and agriculture has mainly focused on gender gaps in agricultural productivity and technology adoption, especially for major crops in Africa. However, there is limited empirical evidence on gender gaps in UPS, especially in terms of collection and marketing. We employ an exogenous switching regression model in a counterfactual framework, as this method allows us to estimate the causal effects of gender in the collection and marketing of baobab products. We find that female baobab managers and unmarried female managers are more likely to collect and sell l

As of 2020, the world has an estimated 290 million ha of planted forests and this number is continuously increasing. Of these, 131 million ha are monospecific planted forests under intensive management. Although monospecific planted forests are important in providing timber, they harbor less biodiversity and are potentially more susceptible to disturbances than natural or diverse planted forests. Here, we point out the increasing scientific evidence for increased resilience and ecosystem service provision of functionally and species diverse planted forests (hereafter referred to as diverse planted forests) compared to monospecific ones. Furthermore, we propose five concrete steps to foster the adoption of diverse planted forests: (1) improve awareness of benefits and practical options of diverse planted forests among land-owners, managers, and investors; (2) incentivize tree species diversity in public funding of afforestation and programs to diversify current maladapted planted forests of low diversity; (3) develop new wood-based products that can be derived from many different tree species not yet in use; (4) invest in research to assess landscape benefits of diverse planted forests for functional connectivity and resilience to global-change threats; and (5) improve the evidence base on diverse planted forests, in particular in currently under-represented regions, where new options could be tested.