14CONFAP: Implications of enhanced ecological intensification and resilience for smallholder farming in the eastern Amazonia region

亚马逊外围地区以前的森林砍伐弧线主要是大片牧场和刀耕火种的轮作耕作。这些土地管理干预措施导致了严重的环境退化，限制了农业生产力，并造成了农村贫困。随着人口的持续增长，显然需要更具生态可持续性的集约化小农农业，其生态效率高，外部投入少。该项目旨在建立一个新的研究伙伴关系，以解决生物多样性和生态系统复原力问题，并评估生态集约化(生产力更高、投入更少的可持续系统)对亚马逊东部边缘小农耕作的影响。我们将重点关注四个关键优先领域，即：i)景观生态学；ii)土壤碳和养分管理；iii)全球变化生物学；以及iv)养护和生物多样性。I)景观生态：农业的生态集约化需要了解景观层面的生态系统进程如何与现有的小农耕作系统、优先事项和制约因素相结合。需要解决的关键问题包括：1)应如何管理森林以提供最佳生计和环境效益？2)我们如何才能确保与邻近耕作系统交界处的森林管理是可持续的，而不是被耕作社区过度开发？ii)碳和营养传统的小农耕作依赖低投入战略，未来的努力必须努力提高复原力，将外部风险降至最低。由于多种因素降低作物的养分效率，在潮湿的热带地区很难实现可持续的低投入农业。要考虑的关键问题包括：1)小农土地管理如何影响土壤质量；2)如何才能最好地恢复土壤？iii)全球变化生物学全球变化正在改变农业和社会经济，我们迫切需要更好地了解相关过程和模式。这里要解决的关键问题是：1)作物管理可以在多大程度上缓解与环境变化有关的压力，如干旱、洪水？2)盐度入侵淡水湿地的短期和长期影响是什么？IV)保护和利用生物多样性生物多样性对生态系统的可持续管理至关重要。关键问题包括：1)森林废物如何使农业系统受益；以及4)生物多样性如何提供对农业景观的更多适应能力，以应对极端事件？

The former 'arc of deforestation' of peripheral Amazonia is dominated by extensive pastures and slash-and-burn shifting cultivation. These land management interventions have resulted in severe environmental degradation, restricted agricultural productivity and caused rural poverty. As populations continue to rise, there is a clear need for a more ecologically sustainable intensification of smallholder agriculture with high eco-efficiency and low external inputs. This project aims to create a new research partnership to tackle biodiversity and ecosystems resilience and assess the impacts of ecological intensification (more productive, reduced input sustainable systems) on smallholder farming at the eastern fringe of Amazonia. We will focus on four key priority areas namely: i) landscape ecology; ii) soil carbon and nutrient management; iii) global change biology and iv) conservation and biodiversity. i) Landscape ecology: Ecological intensification of agriculture requires an appreciation of how ecosystem processes at the landscape-scale can be integrated with existing smallholder farming systems, priorities and constraints. Key questions that need to be addressed include: 1) how should forests be managed to deliver optimal livelihood and environmental benefits? and 2) how can we ensure that forest management at the interface with neighbouring farming systems is sustainable and not over-exploited by farming communities?ii) Carbon and nutrientsTraditional smallholder farming relies on low input strategies and future efforts must strive to increase resilience to minimize external risks. Sustainable low-input agriculture is difficult to achieve in the humid tropics, due to a combination of factors that reduce nutrient-efficiencies of crops. Key questions to be considered include: 1) how does smallholder land management impact on soil quality and 2) how can soils best be restored?iii) Global change biology Global changes at field, regional and global scales are transforming agriculture and socio-economics and we urgently require a better understanding of the processes and patterns involved. The key questions to be addressed here are: 1) to what extent can crop management mitigate against environment change-related stresses such as droughts, flooding? and 2) what is the short- and long-term effect of salinity intrusions into freshwater wetlands?iv) Conservation and use of biodiversityBiodiversity is essential to the sustainable management of ecosystems. Key questions to include: 1) how might forest wastes benefit farming systems; and 4) how does biodiversity provide more resilience to agricultural landscapes to cope with extreme events?