Narratives are a means of making sense of disasters and crises. The humanitarian sector communicates stories widely, encompassing representations of peoples and events. Such communications have been critiqued for misrepresenting and/or silencing the root causes of disasters and crises, depoliticising them.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhilos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
January 2023
Certified community forests combine local governance with forest certification and aim to serve multiple objectives including forest protection, restoration, human wellbeing and equitable governance. However, the causal pathways by which they impact these objectives remain poorly understood. The ability of protected area impact evaluations to identify complex pathways is limited by a narrow focus on top-down theoretical, quantitative perspectives and inadequate consideration of local context.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe science guiding design and evaluation of restoration interventions in tropical landscapes is dominated by ecological processes and outcomes and lacks indicators and methods that integrate human wellbeing into the restoration process. We apply a new systems approach framework for tree restoration in forest-agricultural landscapes to show how this shortcoming can be addressed. Demonstrating 'proof of concept', we tested statistical models underlying the framework pathways with data collected from a case study in Tanzania.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSoil degradation remains a challenge in African highlands, where land management lacks a strong context-specific evidence base. We investigated the impacts of recently implemented soil and water conservation (SWC) practices-farmyard manure addition, incorporation of crop residues in soil and terracing under an agroforestry system on soil health indicators in the East Usambara Mountains of Tanzania. Farmers' observations of soil changes were combined with conventional soil testing to assess the initial impacts of SWC practices relative to conventional non-SWC practice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMillions of people rely on nature-rich farming systems for their subsistence and income. The contributions of nature to these systems are varied and key to their sustainability in the long term. Yet, agricultural stakeholders are often unaware or undervalue the relevance of those contributions, which can affect decisions concerning land management.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImproving soil health is necessary for increasing agricultural productivity and providing multiple ecosystem services. In the African Highlands (AH) where conversion of forests to cultivation on steep slopes is leading to soil degradation, sustainable land management practices are vital. Farmers' awareness of soil health indicators (SHI) influences their choice of land management and needs to be better understood to improve communication between land managers and other stakeholders in agricultural systems.
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