By Kate Langford, ICRAF News
As the concept of a landscape approach to food production and poverty alleviation gains momentum, a group of scientists met this week to fine tune just how they will measure the health of landscapes across the globe.
“A landscape approach allows us to recognize that ecosystems and people are intertwined,” explains Anja Gassner, Head of the Research Methods Group with the World Agroforestry Centre and coordinator of the Sentinel Landscapes initiative.
“Before we can effectively manage at a landscape scale, we need to be able to assess landscape health both in terms of peoples’ livelihoods and ecosystem services such as soil fertility, carbon storage or biodiversity conservation.”
In 2011 the Sentinel Landscapes initiative was conceived as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry. A total of 9 landscapes were chosen for detailed study in Asia, Latin America and Africa. The initiative is in line with the CGIAR Consortium’s efforts to collect information across various scales that can adequately describe the existing and expected dynamics of rural households.
Over the coming months, experts from the Forests, Trees and Agroforestry program together with researchers from partner organizations will gather high resolution data about trees and people within the chosen landscapes to develop a baseline on their present condition, and to better understand changes in each of the landscapes over time.
“This is the first time we will have a rigorous and consistent methodology across a range of landscapes, allowing us to make comparisons about how people manage and use forests, agroforestry and tree genetic resources,” says Gassner. “Our goal is to understand how the health of landscapes and peoples’ livelihoods influence one another.”
At a workshop in Costa Rica from 3 to 7 March 2014, 38 scientists from 14 different research organizations discussed research questions, sampling designs and data analysis as part of the Sentinel Landscape initiative. These scientists are part of a wider team consisting of scientists and development practitioners from more than 60 partner organizations.
A considerable amount of the data needed on household livelihoods and natural landscapes has already been gathered from previous research projects and networks. However, Gassner believes the real value of the Sentinel Landscapes initiative is that it sees the emergence of a more coordinated and collaborative research approach across landscapes. It also allows for comparisons across different institutional, cultural and ecological conditions in different parts of the world over a period of time.
“By having a global experimental design, it will be possible to investigate global patterns between tree cover, tree quality and livelihoods of people,” says Roeland Kindt from the World Agroforestry Centre, who attended the workshop.
“The Sentinel Landscape baseline will collect a more diverse set of variables and information and allow for a ‘bigger picture’ understanding of the landscape,” emphasizes Bronwen Powell, a nutritional scientist working for the Center for International Forestry Research, another of the workshop’s participants.
“These many variables will also allow for unique analysis that may not otherwise be possible with other datasets.”
The initiative aim is to accumulate, over time, important scientific knowledge on key landscapes which can use be used to analyze the links between decision making and the health of a landscape.
“Landscape approaches are now an integral component in rural development strategies in Central America, where one of the Sentinel Landscapes is located,” Eduardo Somarriba from CATIE where the workshop was hosted. “To be effective in improving livelihoods and the environment, innovations at the plot and farm level must be linked to both markets and value chains, and to good governance of the landscape.”
“The program can provide information about the state of the landscape and the processes that lead to these conditions,” outlines Eric Coleman, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Florida State University and member of the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) network. He added that the project also “has the potential to set a baseline from which future development interventions can be analyzed to assess the future impacts on local people.”
The team that met in Costa Rica plan to gather again in November 2014 to report back with first results from their landscape assessment and discuss with development partners how to best use this information in the design of development projects.
More information and related stories
Visit the Sentinel Landscapes website: http://www.cifor.org/sentinel-landscapes/home.html
Visit the Landscape Portal which will provide a data sharing platform for the initiative.
A landscape approach to management and conservation of natural resources: Change of paradigm or new illusory fad?
Landscapes approach: a red herring or a boon for food security?
Landscape Portal – an open space to explore the newest spatial data and maps
