The ASSETS project:Attaining Sustainable Services from Ecosystems through Trade off Scenarios
Photo by Erwin Palacios CI Colombia © The Economist
http://espa-assets.org/Twitter @espaassets
Our Team Southampton (UK) (PI Poppy)
plus Dawson, Dundee)
Conservation International (USA) (Co-PI Honzak)
Basque Centre for Climate Change (Spain) (Co-PI Villa)
CIAT: International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (Cali, Colombia) (Co-PI Jarvis)plus Colombian research centres, universities and NGOs
Chancellor College, Malawi, (Co-PI Chiota) LEAD Africa plus Ministry of Forestry, Forest Research Institute of Malawi and Rhodes University South Africa
The pursuit of food security through increased agricultural production (including through changes in land use, land cover and irrigation) is a key driver of landscape change (UNEP, 2011). At the same time, food
security for many of the world’s rural poor is particularly dependent on their being able to benefit from the flow of ecosystem services (ES) –
the benefits humans obtain from nature (MA, 2005).
The overarching goal is to explicitly quantify the linkages between the natural ecosystem services that affect – and are affected by – food security and nutritional health for the rural poor at the forest-agricultural interface
Photo by Erwin Palacios CI Colombia
A complex ecosystem where agro-ecosystem meets “natural” ecosystems
Africa & Amazonia: different situations…… much in common
• Deforestation: Africa much more advancedAmazonia in rapid transition due to a range of drivers
• impacted by climate change and extreme weather events• issues of extreme poverty, malnutrition and inequality
• Our workshops selected paired case study regions in Malawi and Colombia- as the best locations to address our research questions, but also because of links to partner organisations already active locally
Choice of Case studies- cutting across two continents
ASSETS Research Themes
Theme 1
Drivers, pressures and linkages between food security, nutritional health and ES
Participatory research
Aims:– To understand links between ES and food security– To derive non-monetary values for different ES
Well-being ranking of study communities Focus groups (differentiated by social group) to:– Understand local concepts of food (in)security– Identify ES that contribute to food security at different
temporal and spatial scales Seasonal calendars – seasonal coping strategies Community timelines – inter-annual food security Matrix scoring and ranking to prioritise the most important ES for
food security for different groups Participatory economic valuation of some ES
Participatory Rural Appraisals (PRA)
Participatory Rural Appraisals (PRA)
Participatory Rural Appraisals (PRA)
The Food Estimation and Export for Diet and Malnutrition Evaluation (FEEDME) Model
Measuring household poverty, food security, and nutrition health
Aims:
Identify poverty status of households using objective and subjective measures (expenditure, subjective wealth, assets)
Measure food security and nutritional status of under-five children in households across the forest-agricultural gradient
Deeper understanding of coping mechanisms
Disseminate to, and feedback from the local community
ASSETS Research Themes
Theme 2
Crises and tipping points: Past, present and future interactions between food insecurity and ES at the forest-agricultural interface
Coping strategies
Future scenarios
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ARIES: summary
• A rapid spatial assessment tool for ecosystem services and their values; not a single model but an artificial intelligence assisted system that customizes models to user goals.
• Demonstrates a mapping process for ecosystem service provision, use, sink and flow while most ES assessments only look at provision.
• Probabilistic, Bayesian models inform decision-makers about the likelihood of possible scenarios; users can explore effects of policy changes and external events on estimates of uncertainty.
Components of the ARIES system
Precise spatial representationand Area of Critical Flow
Area of Critical Flow
ASSETS Research Themes
Theme 3
The science-policy interface: How can we manage ES to reduce food insecurity and increase nutritional health?
Minimising risk of future environmental change
Influencing policy to better manage ES conflicts, trade-offs and synergies to sustain food security and health?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7445570.stm
Pidgeon …Poppy 2006 Proc Roy Soc
ASSETS: Science-Policy Interface
Map different factors affecting ESMap different factors affecting ES
Report on climate change impacts on ES provision, food security and nutritional health
Report on climate change impacts on ES provision, food security and nutritional health
Identify critical changes and tipping points that can accelerate the degradation of key ecosystems (that can be addressed through timely policy interventions)
Identify critical changes and tipping points that can accelerate the degradation of key ecosystems (that can be addressed through timely policy interventions)
Report on current and future impact of land use change on sustainable provision of ES and food security
Report on current and future impact of land use change on sustainable provision of ES and food security
Identify the factors with highest negative impact on ES (and which are more relevant for food security and nutritional health)
Identify the factors with highest negative impact on ES (and which are more relevant for food security and nutritional health)
Provide input for policies that can counterbalance the most urgent needs of the population exerting pressure on ES
Provide input for policies that can counterbalance the most urgent needs of the population exerting pressure on ES
Caqueta’s Development Plan
The project….– funded by ESPA & implemented by CIPAV,
Conservation International, CIAT & partners
Hopes to…– give key inputs to contribute to a better management of
Caquetá environmental resources and– to improve the food security of its population.
More exactly…– to analyze the links between ecosystem services that have a
predominant role in food security and nutritional health for the rural poor
Scientific contributions are expected to serve as input for the formulation of better policies for intervention, prioritization of actions and management of regional and local authorities
Our consortium will undertake world class research on ecosystem services (ES) for poverty alleviation at the forest-agricultural interface and deliver evidence from a range of sources and in various formats to inform policy and promote behavioural change.
We hope to make a difference to the lives of 2 million poor people living in our case-study regions – up to 550 million people living in similar environments around the world
Photo by Erwin Palacios CI Colombia
Thank You - www.espa-assets.org
This presentation was produced by ASSETS (NE-J002267-1), funded with support from the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation Programme (ESPA). The ESPA programme is funded by the Department for International Development (DFID), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), as part of the UK’s Living with Environmental Change Programme (LWEC). The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the funders, the ESPA Programme, the ESPA Directorate, or LWEC.
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