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396 | IAASTD Global Report
6.4 Improve Forestry and Agroforestry Systems as Providers of Multifunctionality 6.4.1 On-farm options |
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Rights to land and trees tend to shape women's incentives and authority to adopt agroforestry technologies more than other crop varieties because of the relatively long time horizon between investment and returns (Gladwin et al., 2002). Agroforestry systems have high potential to help AKST achieve gender equity in property rights. This is especially true in customary African land tenure systems where planting or clearing trees is a means of establishing claims, on the trees, but also on the underlying land (Gari, 2002; Villarreal et al., 2006). Reducing land degradation through agroforestry. Land degradation is caused by deforestation, erosion and salinization of drylands, agricultural expansion and abandonment, and urban expansion (Nelson, 2005). Data on the extent of land degradation are extremely limited and paradigms of desertification are changing (Herrmann and Hutchinson, 2005). Approximately 10% of the drylands are considered degraded, with the majority of these areas in Asia and Africa. In all regions more threatened by deforestation, like the humid tropics, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Central Africa, deforestation is primarily the result of a combination of commercial wood extraction, permanent cultivation, livestock development, and the extension of overland transport infrastructure (Zhang et al., 2002; Vosti et al., 2003; Nelson, 2005). Decreasing current rates of deforestation could be achieved by promoting alternatives that contribute to forest conservation. Methods may include improving forest management through multiple-use policies in natural forests and plantations of economic (cash) trees within forests (Wenhua, 2004) off-farm employment (Mulley and Unruh, 2004); and implementing an industrial development model, based on high-value added products. Sustainable timber management implies ensuring forests continue to produce timber in long-term, while maintaining the full complement of environmental services and non-timber products of the forest. Although sustainable timber management sometimes provides reasonable rates of return, additional incentives are often needed as conventional timber harvesting is generally more profitable (Pearce and Mourato, 2004). Effective use of AKST supported by sustainable policy and legal systems and sufficient capacity is needed; the Chinese government's forest management plan implemented in 1998 offers a working example (Wenhua, 2004). However, local authorities are often inefficient in monitoring and enforcing environmental laws in large regions, as in Brazilian Amazonia where the construction of highways and the promotion of agriculture and cattle ranching facilitated the spread of deforestation. Off-farm employment can contribute significantly to forest conservation in the tropics, e.g., the tea industry in western Uganda (Mulley and Unruh, 2004). 6.4.2 Market mechanisms and incentives for agroforestry |
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