2015 Conference

Full Presentation Panel

What Community Perspectives on the Roles and Rules of Church Forests in Northern Ethiopia Suggest about Conservation Mechanisms

Krystyna Stave

The vast majority of Ethiopia’s forests have been converted to croplands, pasture, and other non-forest uses. One of the sole exceptions has been on lands managed by followers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, where for centuries priests and rural church communities have conserved patches of indigenous forest around church buildings. While church forests are often studied as sacred spaces, in this context they serve utilitarian as well as spiritual functions, and are an integral part of the smallholder agricultural systems of the surrounding communities.  Church forests can provide firewood, construction timber, fodder, food, medicine, and important ecological benefits such as water regulation, erosion control, local climate stabilization and soil fertility improvement.  However, these unique ecosystems are under threat from increasing land scarcity in the midst of increasingly degraded agricultural landscapes, which leads to encroachment and overuse of forest land and are the focus of efforts to find mechanisms for forest conservation.

This study uses a unique panel survey of smallholder farmers in four Ethiopian Orthodox Communities northern Ethiopia to explore changes in community perspectives on the social and ecological roles of church forests, and rules governing church forest use, in four Orthodox communities over a 10-year period. A total of 244 surveys were completed in 173 households. These include 122 households in 2003 and 122 in 2014 - with 71 of the surveyed households interviewed in both periods.  This sample allows us to observe changes in aggregate community attitudes towards church forests over the past decade, as well as changes in individual smallholder responses between the 2003 and 2014 surveys.  A close look at the perceptions of neighboring smallholder farmers about church forests suggests there may be a role for payment for ecosystem services in conservation efforts that will not destabilize existing institutions and provide potential mechanisms for preservation of these threatened forest ecosystems.

Efficient use of water in agriculture model: the case of family farms in southeast Spain

Laura Piedra-Munoz, PhD. in Economics

This paper aims to relate the environmental impact of water use with the system and organizational relationships that exist in the agricultural model. In particular, the case of family farming inAlmeria, province located in southeastSpain, is considered. This study contributes on the aspects of these family structures that affect a better use of natural resources, particularly in the efficient use of water. It shows the degree of awareness for the efficient use of water in these family businesses and its relationship with certain characteristics of both the owners and the company itself.

To this end, we analyze data from both official statistics and surveys conducted for farmers, irrigation communities and marketers.

Socio-economic factors and ecology in agrarian systems: The case of family farms in southeast Spain

Jose Adolfo Zepeda-Zepeda

The present paper looks at the socio-economic features of food system as a driver to ecological practices. Several behavioral factors and economic characteristics of farmers in horticulture in southeastSpainare analyzed. In particular, it shows how family farms and their networks can integrate socio-economic and ecological goals, contributing to the generation of synergies between the aims of sustainability. To this end, we analyze data from both official statistics and surveys conducted for farmers, irrigation communities and marketers. This study contributes to existing debates on this topic, especially on the role of familiar farming in the management of natural resources and in the adoption of environment-friendly production methods.

Challenges and opportunities of studying socio-ecological transition zones

Sandra Valencia and Chad Boda

What are referred to as frontiers, borders or boundaries in many contexts are not in reality clearly delineated, but rather represent a constantly shifting spectrum of biophysical, socio-economic, cultural and political characteristics which are in a state of transition, for example the rural-urban “boundary” or oceanic “coastlines”. Transition zone dynamics are driven by a complex assemblage of internal and external processes. This complexity is reflected in the diverse applications of the transition zone concept in a variety of disciplines. Not only do the spatial, biophysical and sociopolitical-economic arrangements of these transitioning assemblages change over time, the drivers and processes that produce them also change. The diversity that emerges in transition zones can be both a benefit and a burden, providing increased levels of biological and socio-cultural diversity while simultaneously becoming the loci of increased conflict and competition over access to resources and services. In this paper we explore the challenges and opportunities of studying and working with place-based social-ecological transition zones for sustainability science research. We draw on our work on peri-urban areas in Colombia and coastal areas in Florida, USA to problematize attempts to define the temporal and spatial boundaries used to analyze and manage such transition zones. We scrutinize which aspects are perceived to be in transition, how internal and external interactions between these aspects play out, and how the variety of multi-scalar drivers behind these transitions can influence change dynamics. We argue that the transition zone concept can be considered a boundary concept useful for integrating various social and ecological dimensions in sustainability research. We therefore promote viewing the concept not as static, reified or rigidly defined, but rather open and dialectical. Such an understanding calls for interdisciplinary and process-oriented research as a way to better capture the complex reality of zones in transition.

Local perceptions of land use change in Tanzania: Using participatory art to reveal the past, present, and future

Emma Li Johansson

The overall aim of this study is to explore how the supply and demand of water changes due to land system change from large-scale land acquisitions (LSLA), and how this in turn changes socio-environmental systems in rural Tanzania. In order to understand socio-hydrological interactions I focus on water as a sub-system of land system change by analysing how water availability has changed since land was acquired in terms of quantity, quality and accessibility. For this fieldwork I use the emergent method of participatory art, where people affected by LSLA create three paintings of their perceptions of how their socio-hydrological environment has changed since the arrival of the company: how it was before land was acquired, how it currently is, and what they think the future will be. It is important to investigate how human-induced ecosystem changes impact on rural communities that immediately depend on surrounding natural resources for human well-being. Both art and science attempt to capture the essence of the world around us in creative and innovative ways to create novel knowledge and awareness, and one should not neglect the way arts can synthesize complex issues and communicate this to a wide range of people. By using art as a way to explore how people affected by LSLA perceive water-related changes, this study contributes with a novel way of understanding how socio-environmental conditions are constantly re-shaped in areas that are transitioning from one state to another. The need to integrate art and science is particularly important when doing research in areas where - as in my case - there is a culture and language barrier between the researcher and the studied community, and can help to comprehensively identify key drivers of change as well as desirable socio-environmental pathways to sustainability in a world of persistent uncertainty and change.  Reproductions of paintings produced as part of this project will be on view in the Exhibitors' area of the conference.