Category Archives: News

Originally published on the World Resources Institute website.

 

 

Where is deforestation worsening around the world? It’s a difficult question to answer, as many forest assessments are often years or even a decade out of date by the time they’re published. But we’re getting there, thanks to better data and advanced computing power.

A new study by Global Forest Watch,Blue Raster, Esri and University of Maryland released today outlines a method for mapping changes in deforestation hot spots through time. Combining 14 years of annual forest loss data with Esri’s emerging hot spot analysis and big data processing techniques, we can analyze where new deforestation hotspots are emerging and see the effect that countries’ forest policies are having.

Click here for the full story

Originally published on the World Agroforestry Centre website.

 

 

Anyone who has walked outside on a sunny day knows that forests and trees matter for temperature, humidity and wind speed. Planting trees speaks to concerns about climate change, but the directly important aspects of the tree-climate relationships have so far been overlooked in climate policy where it relates to forest.

Trees-WaterThat, at least, is the conclusion of a new review. The authors suggest that the global conversation on trees, forests and climate needs to be turned on its head: the direct effects via rainfall and cooling may be more important than the well-studied effects through the global carbon balance.

Yet, current climate policy only recognizes the latter. While farmers understand that trees cool their homes, livestock and crops, they had to learn the complex and abstract language of greenhouse gasses and carbon stocks if they wanted to be part of climate mitigation efforts. Not anymore, if the new perspectives become widely accepted.

In the review, published in the journal Global Environmental Change, the 22 authors provide examples for the planet-cooling benefits of trees. Scientists found evidence for the widespread perception that trees and forests also influence rainfall. As such, the review insists that water, and not carbon, should become the primary motivation for adding and preserving trees in landscapes.

“Carbon sequestration is a co-benefit of the precipitation-recycling and cooling power of trees. As trees process and redistribute water, they simultaneously cool planetary surfaces”, says Dr David Ellison, lead author of the study.

Click here for the full story

Originally published on the World Agroforestry Centre website.

 

 

Rubengera, Rwanda — Farmer Cecile Mukabutera , 32, looks approvingly at her small tree, one of ten she received from One Acre Fund. Its branches will eventually give her up to 30 poles per year.  These 2-3 meter poles are essential for the cultivation of climbing bean, a crop commonly grown in land-constrained Rwanda. “I can use some and sell the rest for 20 francs a piece,” she says. “I am interested in trees.”

The tree she received is a Grevillea robusta, an Australian tree that is popular in East Africa for its fast growth. It is also only slightly competitive with crops and even less so when pruned.  The mother of four has been a One Acre Fund client for seven years. “Since I joined, my farm has improved.”

Dr. Athanase Mukuralinda nods. What the farmer says tallies with what he knows. “When you manage Grevillea, you allow light to reach the crop. You also reduce water consumption when you prune,” says the representative of the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Rwanda.

One Acre Fund is a nonprofit that provides its farmer clients with inputs on credit and offers frequent training in modern and sustainable agricultural techniques. The organization has grown exponentially since it was founded in 2006—it now serves more than 400,000 farmers across six countries and plans to reach 1 million by 2020.

Click here for the full story

Originally published on the World Agroforestry Centre website.

 

A new publication offers researchers guidelines on how best to engage with marginalized, ethnic-minority farming communities in the Greater Mekong region, so that research innovations reach and benefit their lives and livelihoods.

The Greater Mekong region, made up of Cambodia, Laos, southwest China, Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam, is characterized by rich ethnic diversity, but all too often, ethnic minority groups have found themselves left behind, or made worse off, by development initiatives in their countries.

Titled “Guidelines to engage with marginalized ethnic minorities in agricultural research for development in the Greater Mekong, the book is published by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) as an output of the CGIAR Research Program on Integrated Systems for the Humid Tropics.

Click here for the full story

TAGS
COUNTRIES

Originally published on the FMNR Hub website.

Tony Rinaudo, Natural Resources Advisor at World Vision Australia, explains in an audio interview with Lou Del Bello from SciDev.Net how the restoration technique known as Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) can help communities prepare for climate stresses.

Click here to listen to how FMNR has enabled farmers in Ethiopia cope with the extensive period of drought brought by El Niño in late 2015.

Originally published on the FMNR Hub website.

In 2008, decades of continuous clearing of trees for charcoal and firewood had left thousands of hectares of hills barren, exposing the residents to severe drought and starvation. To address this degradation, and the negative effects it was having on the community, the Humbo FMNR project began. World Vision’s intervention brought the forest back, transforming the lives of hundreds of families living around hill bottoms.

Thirty-five year old Aster Tantu married to Ergado Urgu, 45, and gave birth to six children explained the situation, “We used to cut trees on the hills unwisely for charcoal and the trees were dwindled year after year. When it was raining, our land used to be covered with huge infertile mud and stones washed down from the top of the hills. I used to harvest less than 200kg of maize from my one hectare of land in a year.”

As a result of the villagers’ own actions and erosion, the land was left with bare hills where there were stones all over the place which made farmland around hill bottoms very infertile. Families living around hill bottoms used to experience the terrible effects of hunger and starvation frequently.  “My family of seven did not get even one meal a day and usually go to bed hungry for more than six months of the year, “Aster remembered her horrible experience.

Click here for the full story