Cultivating resilient landscapes – opportunities for restoring degraded and vulnerable land

with agroforestry systems

Trees for Life – Accelerating the Impacts of Agroforestry

World Congress on Agroforestry, New Delhi 2014

Matilda Palm and Eskil MattssonChalmers University of Technology, Sweden

Global challenges…

BILDER

…with local implications

Vietnam• Land degradation

– Increasing forest cover– 41% of the land is degraded– Promotes tree-planting and

land restoration partly through land allocation

Sri Lanka• Land degradation

– Declining forest cover– Slowed down, but continues– 32% of the land is degraded– Promotes tree-planting and

intensification of homegardens

Photo Matilda Palm

Restoring degraded land – multipurpose option

• Global restoration potential - 2 billion Ha – 0.5 billion Ha for wide-scale restoration of

closed forest– 1.5 billion Ha for mosaic restoration

• Restoration covers a wide range of approaches – reforestation – agricultural interventions to reduce harmful

practices

“Land restoration is the process of cleaning up and rehabilitating a site that has sustained environmental degradation, such as those by natural cause and those caused by human activity”

Restoring degraded land with agroforestry

• Restoration through agroforestry– Potential for multifunctional land use

systems• Improved livelihoods – i.e. increasing

the potential of the land to sustain production

• Ecosystems services – i.e. decreased erosion, biodiversity conservation, watershed protection

• Mitigation – i.e. carbon capture in biomass and soils

• Adaptation – i.e. increase resilience of extreme weather events

• Combining production and protection– Sustain the overall productivity of marginal

land

Aim of the project

Investigating the utilization of homegardens as multipurpose agroforestry system and the opportunities and constraints of extending homegarden-

like systems to degraded lands.

• Comparative study from Sri Lanka and Vietnam• Based on empirical field data

– Biophysical parameters• Biomass/carbon• Soil characteristics• Biodiversity

– Socioeconomic parameters• Land use, income• Adaptation strategies

Photo Matilda Palm

Multi-strata homegarden, Ky Son Commune, Vietnam Photo: Matilda Palm

Acacia plantations on degraded forest Degraded forest, Ky Son Commune, Vietnam

Photo Matilda Palm

Forest garden, Ky Son Commune, Vietnam

Photo Matilda Palm

Forest garden, Ky Son Commune, Vietnam

Photo Matilda Palm

Mean (n=38) Home garden Forest garden

Man days 58.5 120

Area (ha) 0.18 2.23

Income (million VND) 5 27

Plant diversity (no of species) 37 5

Cash crops (no of species) 3.4 4.9

Way forward…

“the farmers in this region are dependent of their forest gardens, earlier years we collected timber, firewood and NTFPs from the natural forest. That was a hard life. Now we can invest in our forest and have the resources closer at hand”

Nguyễn Xuân Thụy age 29, Ky Son commune, Ha Tinh provice

Thank you for listening!

Contact details: matilda.palm@chalmers.se

Way forward…

Thank you!

Contact details: matilda.palm@chalmers.se

Photo Matilda Palm

Preliminary results

Mean (n=38) Home garden Forest garden

Man days 58.5 120

Income( MVND) 5 27

Area (ha) 0.18 2.23 h

Plant diversity (no of species) 37 5

Cash crops (no of species) 3.4 4.9