Cultivating Biodiversity

by Brookfield, Harold; Padoch, Christine; Parsons, Helen; Stocking, Michael A.

• ISBN13: 9781853394935
• ISBN10: 1853394939
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-10-01
• Publisher: Practical Action Pub

Summary

The United Nations University project on People, Land Management and Environmental Change (PLEC) has used the traditional skills of smallholder farmers -- for cultivating their crops, managing the soil, water and vegetation and maintaining their livelihoods in difficult circumstances - to produce this book. Arguably, these farmers have conserved and even created more biological diversity and more economically important species than all protected areas combined. The book draws on the experience of demonstration sites that are the farmers' own enterprises, combining superior production along with enhancement of biological diversity. It is based on work in 12 countries with more than 200 collaborating scientists and about 2500 collaborating farmers, showing how its authors perceive and quantitatively analyze agrodiversity, and how they work together with farmers. This book will be of interest to all concerned with sustainable development, global change issues and participatory approaches to conservation with rural people. Published in collaboration with the United Nations University

Table of Contents

Introductory note and acknowledgements	vii
List of figures	viii
List of tables	ix
List of boxes	xi
List of acronyms and abbreviations	xii
Part I. Understanding and analysing agricultural diversity
Cultivating biodiversity: setting the scene	1	(8)
Harold Brookfield
Christine Padoch
Helen Parsons
Michael Stocking
Agrodiversity and agrobiodiversity	9	(6)
Harold Brookfield
Agrodiversity at the scales of farm and landscape	15	(11)
Harold Brookfield
Agrodiversity, environmental protection and sustaining rural livelihoods: the global view	26	(15)
Michael Stocking
Guidelines on agrodiversity assessment	41	(16)
Harold Brookfield
Michael Stocking
Muriel Brookfield
Guidelines on the assessment of plant species diversity in agricultural landscapes	57	(13)
Daniel J. Zarin
Guo Huijun
Lewis Enu-Kwesi
Household-level agrobiodiversity assessment	70	(8)
Guo Huijun
Christine Padoch
Fu Yongneng
Dao Zhiling
Kevin Coffey
Quantitative methods for the analysis of agrodiversity	78	(18)
Kevin Coffey
Part II. Focus on people
Spotting expertise in a diverse and dynamic landscape	96	(9)
Christine Padoch
PLEC demonstration activities: a review of procedures and experiences	105	(21)
Miguel Pinedo-Vasquez
Edwin A. Gyasi
Kevin Coffey
Indigenous knowledge in space and time	126	(6)
Kojo Sebastian Amanor
Working with expert farmers is not simple: the case of PLEC Tanzania	132	(13)
Fidelis B. S. Kaihura
Genesis and purpose of the women farmers' group at Jachie, central Ghana	145	(8)
William Oduro
Part III. Agrodiversity case studies
Agrodiversity assessment and analysis in diverse and dynamic small-scale farms in Arumeru, Arusha, Tanzania	153	(14)
Fidelis B. S. Kaihura
Paulo Ndondi
Edward Kemikimba
Biodiversity as a product of smallholder responses to change in Amazonia	167	(12)
Miguel Pinedo-Vasquez
Christine Padoch
David Mcgrath
Tereza Ximenes-Ponte
From forests to fields: incorporating smallholder knowledge in the camu-camu programme in Peru	179	(7)
Miguel Pinedo-Vasquez
Mario Pinedo-Panduro
Sustainable management of an Amazonian forest for timber production: a myth or reality?	186	(8)
Miguel Pinedo-Vasquez
Fernando Rabelo
Diversity of upland rice and wild vegetables in Baka, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan	194	(6)
Fu Yongneng
Chen Aiguo
Evaluation of the cultivation of Amomum villosum under tropical forest in southern Yunnan	200	(7)
Guan Yuqin
Dao Zhiling
Cui Jingyun
Diversity at household level in wet-rice fields at Daka, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan	207	(6)
Fu Yongneng
Guo Huijun
Chen Aiguo
Cui Jingyun
Promoting sustainable agriculture: the case of Baihualing, Yunnan	213	(7)
Dao Zhiling
Du Xiaohong
Guo Huijun
Liang Luohui
Li Yingguang
Intensification and diversification of land use in the highlands of northern Thailand	220	(13)
Kanok Rerkasem
Charal Thong-Ngarn
Chawalit Korsamphan
Narit Yimyam
Benjavan Rerkasem
Improvement of production and livelihood in the Fouta Djallon, Republique de Guinee	233	(12)
I. Boiro
A. K. Barry
A. Diallo
S. Fofana
F. Mara
A. Balde
M. A. Kane
O. Barry
Traditional forms of conserving biodiversity within agriculture: their changing character in Ghana	245	(11)
Edwin A. Gyasi
Part IV. The way forward
The message from PLEC	256	(5)
Harold Brookfield
List of contributors	261	(3)
Notes	264	(5)
References	269	(15)
Index	284