ALTER - Alternative Carbon Investments in Ecosystems for Poverty Alleviation

ALTER - 生态系统替代碳投资以扶贫

• 批准号: NE/K01059X/1
• 负责人: Simon Langan
• 金额: $ 32.33万
• 依托单位: International Water Management Institute
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2013 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FK01059X%2F1
• 关键词: ALTER; Alternative; Carbon; Investments; Ecosystems

ALTER aims to demonstrate that there are real and lasting benefits for wide scale poverty alleviation, particularly for the rural poor, by tackling soil degradation at a range of spatial scales, from field to landscape, and using opportunities within agricultural as well as severely degraded land. Throughout the world, soil degradation impacts on the health, wealth and well-being of rural people in many different ways. Soils have a key supporting role in maintaining agricultural yields, water availability, water quality, resources for grazing animals and other ecosystem services. Some are perhaps less obvious but still valued such as maintaining habitats to support honey-bees and local wildlife. In Africa, soil degradation is recognised as a major constraint to alleviating poverty in rural communities. We have chosen to work in Ethiopia and Uganda where there are contrasting issues of soil degradation in mineral and organic soils are a result of agricultural land use but similar reliance in rural communities' on a range of benefits from soils. Solutions to soil degradation are not simple and require a much better understanding of how people benefit from soils, what they stand to gain if they can improve the condition of the soils that they manage whether for crops, livestock, timber production or as semi-natural areas, what they would need to do to accomplish this and what barriers may prevent this. In parallel we need to gain better insight into the likely success of different management options to improve soils. Ultimately these options will require some form of investment whether that be via money, time, resources or other mechanisms. We will investigate the relative pros and cons of these mechanisms from the perspective of local people, organisations involved with markets for Payments for Ecosystem Services and national objectives in alleviating poverty. A broader view of carbon benefits and trading is an opportunity to invest in lasting improvements in degraded ecosystems and the livelihoods of the poor that depend on these. All of this research and evidence building needs to be placed into the context of climate change. We need to establish that whatever might be suitable, acceptable and viable for tackling soil degradation now will have long-term benefits to local people and that these benefits will not be negated by the on-going changes to local climate. The ALTER project is an international consortium between The James Hutton Institute (UK), University of Aberdeen (UK), Hawassa University (Ethiopia), The Ethiopian Government's Southern Agricultural Research Institute (SARI, Ethiopia), Carbon Foundation for East Africa (CAFEA, Uganda) and the International Water Management Institute (Nile Basin & Eastern Africa Office, Ethiopia). This team brings together natural scientists, social scientists and economists to work together with rural communities and other local decision-makers and facilitators to improve our capacity to predict how human-environment linked systems respond to incentives and other drivers change. This predictive capacity is needed to be able to explore whether different options for change could result in substantive poverty alleviation.

ALTER旨在证明，通过在从农田到景观的一系列空间尺度上解决土壤退化问题，并利用农业和严重退化土地中的机会，大规模扶贫，特别是对农村贫困人口来说，可以带来真正和持久的好处。在世界各地，土壤退化以多种不同方式影响农村人口的健康、财富和福祉。土壤在维持农业产量、水资源供应、水质、放牧动物资源和其他生态系统服务方面发挥着关键的支持作用。有些可能不太明显，但仍然很有价值，例如维护栖息地以支持蜜蜂和当地野生动物。在非洲，土壤退化被认为是农村社区减贫的主要制约因素。我们选择在埃塞俄比亚和乌干达开展工作，这两个国家存在着截然不同的问题：矿质土壤和有机土壤因农业用地使用而退化，但农村社区也同样依赖土壤带来的一系列效益。土壤退化的解决方案并不简单，需要更好地了解人们如何从土壤中受益，如果能够改善他们管理的土壤状况（无论是用于农作物、牲畜、木材生产还是半自然区域），他们将获得什么收益，他们需要做什么来实现这一目标，以及哪些障碍可能会阻止这一目标。与此同时，我们需要更好地了解改善土壤的不同管理方案可能取得的成功。最终，这些选择将需要某种形式的投资，无论是通过金钱、时间、资源还是其他机制。我们将从当地人民、参与生态系统服务支付市场的组织以及国家扶贫目标的角度来研究这些机制的相对利弊。更广泛地看待碳效益和贸易是投资于持久改善退化生态系统和依赖这些生态系统的穷人生计的机会。所有这些研究和证据建设都需要置于气候变化的背景下。我们需要确定，目前解决土壤退化问题的任何合适、可接受和可行的措施都将为当地人民带来长期利益，并且这些利益不会因当地气候的持续变化而被抵消。 ALTER 项目是詹姆斯赫顿研究所（英国）、阿伯丁大学（英国）、哈瓦萨大学（埃塞俄比亚）、埃塞俄比亚政府南方农业研究所（埃塞俄比亚 SARI）、东非碳基金会（乌干达 CAFEA）和国际水管理研究所（埃塞俄比亚尼罗河流域和东非办事处）之间的一个国际联盟。该团队汇集了自然科学家、社会科学家和经济学家，与农村社区和其他当地决策者和促进者合作，提高我们预测人类与环境相关系统如何响应激励措施和其他驱动因素变化的能力。需要这种预测能力来探索不同的变革选择是否能够带来实质性的减贫。

项目成果

Ecosystem-based interventions and farm household welfare in degraded areas: comparative evidence from Ethiopia

• DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2017.03.001
• 发表时间: 2017-06
• 期刊: Agricultural Systems
• 影响因子: 6.6
• 作者: Kindie Getnet;Wolde Mekuria;S. Langan;M. Rivington;P. Novo;H. Black