RCUK-CIAT Newton Fund Towards BIO-smart livestock farming in Colombia: cultural landscapes, silvo-pastoral systems and biodiversity

哥伦比亚是世界上第二个生物多样性最丰富的国家，农村人口为小农户和低收入农民。随着对肉类和奶制品需求的增加，畜牧业继续扩大到不适合耕种的土地上，通过森林砍伐、生物多样性丧失和土地退化造成环境破坏。不同的国家举措旨在鼓励更可持续的农业，支持农民的生计，保护环境及其丰富的生物多样性。森林畜牧业是其中一项举措，因为它结合了林业和放牧。国际热带农业中心实施了两个相互关联的项目，即“畜牧业附加”和“可持续亚马逊景观”，以鼓励采用森林畜牧业。然而，农民发现林牧结合农业改变了他们农场的景观，这与他们对“好农场”的看法相冲突。这些社会因素，加上可能的经济和农业影响，可能会限制可持续的森林畜牧业的做法。这个跨学科项目汇集了文化地理学，环境经济学和农业生态学，以调查旨在保护和恢复哥伦比亚生物多样性的森林畜牧业实践的低采用的文化和社会经济原因。它还将量化森林畜牧业对植物和昆虫生物多样性的好处，既包括其内在价值，也包括其对支持长期可持续生产的贡献。在这样做的过程中，这项研究将提供证据，支持有效的政策，允许集约化畜牧业，同时支持环境优先事项。这可能会鼓励农民采用更可持续和生物多样性增强的林牧系统。

Colombia is the second most biodiverse country in the world with a rural population of small-holder, low income farmers. As the demand for meat and dairy increases, livestock farming continues to expand onto land that is not apt for farming, causing environmental damage through forest clearance, loss of biodiversity and land degradation. Different national initiatives aim to encourage more sustainable farming that support farmers' livelihoods, and protect the environment and its rich biodiversity. Silvo-pastoral farming is one of those initiatives as it combines forestry and grazing. The international Centre for Tropical Agriculture CIAT runs two interrelated projects, "Livestock Plus" and "Sustainable Amazon Landscapes" to encourage the adoption of silvo-pastoral farming. However, farmers find silvo-pastoral farming changes the landscape of their farm in ways that conflict with their ideas of what 'a good farm' should look. These social factors, in combination with possible economic and agronomic influences, may limit the uptake of sustainable silvo-pastoral practices. This interdisciplinary project brings together cultural geography, environmental economics and agricultural ecology to investigate the cultural and socio-economic reasons for low adoption of silvo-pastoral livestock farming practices that have been designed to protect and restore biodiversity in Colombia. It will also quantify the benefits of silvo-pastoral farming for plant and insect biodiversity, both for their intrinsic value but also the contribution it may make to support long-term sustainable production. In doing so, this research will provide evidence to underpin effective policy that allows intensification of livestock farming while supporting environmental priorities. This may encourage farmers to adopt more sustainable and biodiversity enhancing silvo-pastoral systems.