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

哥伦比亚是世界上生物多样性排名第二的国家，农村人口以小农、低收入农民为主。随着对肉类和乳制品需求的增加，畜牧业继续扩张到不适合耕种的土地上，造成森林砍伐、生物多样性丧失和土地退化等环境破坏。不同的国家倡议旨在鼓励更可持续的农业，以支持农民的生计，并保护环境及其丰富的生物多样性。森林牧区农业是其中一项倡议，因为它结合了林业和放牧。国际热带农业中心管理着两个相互关联的项目，即“牲畜+”和“亚马逊可持续景观”，以鼓励采用银牧农业。然而，农民们发现，银牧农业改变了他们农场的景观，与他们对“好农场”应该是什么样子的看法相冲突。这些社会因素，加上可能的经济和农艺影响，可能限制可持续银牧做法的采用。这一跨学科项目将文化地理学、环境经济学和农业生态学结合起来，调查旨在保护和恢复哥伦比亚生物多样性的银牧畜牧养殖方式采用率低的文化和社会经济原因。它还将量化银牧农业对植物和昆虫生物多样性的好处，既包括其内在价值，也包括它可能对支持长期可持续生产作出的贡献。在此过程中，本研究将为制定有效政策提供证据，从而在支持环境优先事项的同时实现畜牧业集约化。这可能会鼓励农民采用更可持续和提高生物多样性的银牧系统。

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.