Restoration Through Agroforestry: Options for Reconciling Livelihoods With Conservation in the Cerrado and Caatinga Biomes in Brazil

Abstract

SUMMARYThe new Brazilian Forest Code obliges farmers to restore degraded lands on conservation set-asides required on all rural properties, known as Permanent Preservation Areas and Legal Reserves. While farmers can do so through agroforestry systems (AFS) to improve their livelihoods and offset the costs of restoration, these areas must also maintain basic ecological functions. How this can be done in practice, however, stills need to be regulated at the state level, but there are few scientific studies in Brazil on the costs and benefits of restoration through AFS. These knowledge and policy gaps have left ample room for interpretation and thus discouraged technicians from recommending -and policymakers from regulating -AFS for restoration. Aiming to bridge these gaps, this study draws from a comprehensive literature review, expert knowledge, stakeholder participation and analyses of agroforestry-based restoration efforts in the field. First, we discuss the social and ecological benefits of AFS as well as key constraints to upscaling agroforestry-based restoration. Focusing on different biophysical and social contexts within the Brazilian Cerrado and Caatinga biomes, we conclude that AFS can provide win-win solutions for reconciling livelihoods needs with conservation goals and propose practical options to do so, which vary according to farmer objectives, resource constraints and opportunities. In order to guide implementation of these agroforestry options, we propose design principles and criteria as well as key species and management practices most suited to different contexts and farmer objectives.

People-Centric Nature-Based Land Restoration through Agroforestry: A Typology

“…Key constituencies (including policy-makers, funders, local stakeholders, scientists) need commonly understood metrics to achieve progress [82,83]. Restoration is commonly differentiated by geographic contexts, such as China [84], Southeast Asian fallow to forest transitions [85], East and South African drylands [86], Horn of Africa [87], or Brazil [88]. Still, a more incisive way of describing similarities and differences is needed.…”

The Options by Context Approach: A Paradigm Shift in Agronomy

“…The performance, measured in multiple dimensions (P 1 ,…P n ), of options for small holders (O 1 ,…O n ) depend on the context defined by multiple factors (C 1 ,…C n ). (Franke et al, 2019;Mazon et al, 2019;Vanek and Drinkwater, 2019;Miccolis et al, 2019). In this Editorial, lessons are drawn from across the diverse set of experiences documented in these individual articles and elsewhere, to arrive at a synthesis of where the OxC approach has reached in terms of being an operational approach to supporting agronomic innovation at scale.…”

“…The prospects for incorporating both local knowledge (Lamond et al , 2019; van der Wolf et al , 2019) and the latest advances in crowdsourcing data (van Etten et al , 2019) in implementing an OxC approach are considered. Examples of applying the approach to a range of crops and soils in contrasting farming systems across Africa and Latin America are included (Franke et al , 2019; Mazon et al , 2019; Vanek and Drinkwater, 2019; Miccolis et al , 2019). In this Editorial, lessons are drawn from across the diverse set of experiences documented in these individual articles and elsewhere, to arrive at a synthesis of where the OxC approach has reached in terms of being an operational approach to supporting agronomic innovation at scale.…”

“…Mazon et al (2019) investigated a very different type of ‘option’, different ways for a research organisation to work with farmers, and found interactions between ways of working and types of farmers. Miccolis et al (2019) provide an analysis of the complex sets of social, economic and ecological context that drive the multiple options needed to implement policy on land rehabilitation in Brazil.…”

Integrating co‐production and functional trait approaches for inclusive and scalable restoration solutions

“…A key advantage of integrating agricultural production in forest restoration is the ability to offset planting and maintenance costs with crop and nontimber forest product sales (Vieira, Holl, & Peneireiro, 2009). Including crops in restoration can also improve livelihoods (Miccolis, Peneireiro, Vieira, Marques, & Hoffmann, 2019) and broaden restoration to contexts where conventional restoration may be difficult or impractical (Park, Turner, & Higgs, 2018). Similarly, increasing plant diversity on farms can increase a suite of ecosystem services such as pollination ( F I G U R E Ecosystem restoration and diversified agriculture are often conceptualized separately.…”