Assessing local perceptions of deforestation, forest restoration, and the role of agroecology for agroecosystem restoration in northern Malawi
Assessing local perceptions of deforestation, forest restoration, and the role of agroecology for agroecosystem restoration in northern Malawi
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DOI：
10.1002/ldr.4238
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发表时间：
2022-02
影响因子：
4.7
通讯作者：
Daniel Kpienbaareh;I. Luginaah;R. Bezner Kerr;Jinfei Wang;K. Poveda;I. Steffan‐Dewenter;E. Lupafya
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Daniel Kpienbaareh;I. Luginaah;R. Bezner Kerr;Jinfei Wang;K. Poveda;I. Steffan‐Dewenter;E. Lupafya
砍伐森林会导致气候变化，并加剧依赖森林的社区的粮食不安全。森林砍伐的驱动因素因地点而异，并受生计系统的影响。但当地人对恢复的看法对于制定恢复政策至关重要。有证据表明，实施可持续农业战略有可能恢复森林和维持生计。然而，在决策中广泛应用毁林和恢复的概念会导致错失解决毁林和恢复问题的机会。在这里，我们探索砍伐森林的驱动因素，恢复的观念，以及马拉维北部小农恢复所面临的挑战，并研究农业生态学如何有助于恢复退化的农业生态系统。与会者报告说，农业用地扩张、木炭生产、气候变化、烧砖生产和政府补贴是森林砍伐的主要驱动因素。我们注意到，尽管对森林恢复的看法反映了农民的传统生态知识(TEK)，包括开垦退化的农田、重建当地树种和替换农田上被砍伐的树木，但仍存在一些挑战，包括拆分家庭以获得更多补贴化肥和粮食援助、根深蒂固的栽培做法、城市对木炭日益增长的需求，以及阻碍恢复工作有效性的脆弱的生态系统治理结构。然而，我们确实发现，农业生态集约化可以增加较小农田的产量，并允许更大和更持久的闲置土地再生森林。这些调查结果的主要影响包括需要将生计更明确地纳入恢复计划，在依赖森林的社区的恢复政策中考虑TEK，并鼓励采用农业生态学。
Deforestation drives climate change and reinforces food insecurity in forest‐dependent communities. What drives deforestation varies by location and is shaped by livelihood systems. But how locals perceive restoration is crucial for developing restoration policies. Evidence suggests that applying sustainable farming strategies can potentially restore forests and sustain livelihoods. Applying a broad‐based conceptualization of deforestation and restoration in policymaking, however, results in missed opportunities for addressing deforestation and restoration. Here, we explore the drivers of deforestation, the perceptions of restoration, and the challenges to restoration among smallholder farmers in northern Malawi and examine how agroecology can contribute to restoring degraded agroecosystems. Participants report agricultural land expansion, charcoal production, climate change, burnt brick production, and government subsidies as the major drivers of deforestation. We observed that although perceptions of forest restoration reflect farmers' traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) to include reclamation of degraded farmlands, reconstruction of native tree species, and replacement of felled trees on farmlands, there are challenges including splitting families to gain access to more subsidized fertilizers and food aid, embedded cultural practices, growing demand for charcoal in cities, and weak ecosystem governance structures that hinder the effectiveness of restoration efforts. We, however, do find that agroecological intensification can increase yield from smaller farmlands and allow for larger and longer‐lasting fallows of spare lands which regenerate forests. Key overarching implications of these findings include the need to integrate livelihoods more explicitly into restoration plans, accounting for TEK in restoration policies in forest‐dependent communities and encouraging the adoption of agroecology.