Download or read book Agrobiodiversity Community Participation and Landscapes in Agroecology written by León-Sicard Tomás Enrique and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2024-08-20 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Maintaining and managing agrobiodiversity is a key issue proposed by agroecology, not only to maintain high agricultural productivity, but also to increase the resilience, stability and sustainability of the agroecosystems, meant as the functional relationship between the natural assets and the human use of them, at farm and farm matrix scale. The main hypothesis of this approach is that, the greater the interactions between organisms of different trophic levels (edaphic organisms, multiple crops, weed plants, herbivores, carnivores, plants in living fences, corridors or forest patches within agroecosystems), the greater will be the possibilities of obtaining abundant and varied harvests, with fewer external inputs (pesticides, fertilizers) and better environmental performance. The agrobiodiversity is meant as the variety and the disposition of the cultivations, pastures, farms, that affect the soil properties and create habitat diversity, landscape diversity and connectivity. At the level of landscapes or territories, the set of biodiverse agroecosystems generate natural matrices that have a powerful impact on the recovery and restoration of forest corridors, which, in turn, positively influence many ecosystem services for nature conservation and free movement and recovery of many populations of animal species, including those in danger of extinction.
Download or read book Agriculture Biodiversity and Markets written by Stewart Lockie and published by Earthscan. This book was released on 2010 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Debate about how best to ensure the preservation of agricultural biodiversity is caught in a counter-productive polemic between proponents and critics of market-based instruments and agricultural modernization. However, it is argued in this book that neither position does justice to the range of strategies that farmers use to manage agrobiodiversity and other livelihood assets as they adapt to changing social, economic, and environmental circumstances.
Download or read book Protected Landscapes and Agrobiodiversity Values written by Thora Amend and published by Kasparek Verlag. This book was released on 2008 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents twelve case studies from different parts of the world illustrating the role Protected Landscapes are playing in conserving agrobiodiversity and related knowledge and practices. This title includes a synthesis that focuses on the key lessons to be learned from these case studies
Download or read book Agroforestry and Biodiversity Conservation in Tropical Landscapes written by Götz Schroth and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2013-03-22 with total page 537 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Agroforestry -- the practice of integrating trees and other large woody perennials on farms and throughout the agricultural landscape -- is increasingly recognized as a useful and promising strategy that diversifies production for greater social, economic, and environmental benefits. Agroforestry and BiodiversityConservation in Tropical Landscapes brings together 46 scientists and practitioners from 13 countries with decades of field experience in tropical regions to explore how agroforestry practices can help promote biodiversity conservation in human-dominated landscapes, to synthesize the current state of knowledge in the field, and to identify areas where further research is needed. Agroforestry and Biodiversity Conservation in Tropical Landscapes is the first comprehensive synthesis of the role of agroforestry systems in conserving biodiversity in tropical landscapes, and contains in-depth review chapters of most agroforestry systems, with examples from many different countries. It is a valuable source of information for scientists, researchers, professors, and students in the fields of conservation biology, resource management, tropical ecology, rural development, agroforestry, and agroecology.
Download or read book Landscape Agroecology written by Paul Wojtkowski and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2003-12-12 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn how the principles and practices of landscape agroecology can help to overcome drought, flooding, poor soil, damaging winds, plant diseases, plant-eating insects, and more! Examining the concepts, conventions, and components that underlie the ecology of human-managed landscapes, this is the first book to address landscape agroecology. Incorporating ideas from agroecology, forestry, agronomy, agroforestry, landscape ecology, and environmental science, Landscape Agroecology is a comprehensive look at a cutting-edge topic. From the author: “Farm or forestry landscapes can be designed to address any number of objectives. Commonly, the focus is entirely on production with few, if any, secondary goals. These landscapes typically achieve their purpose but are not entirely in harmony with nature. Landscape agroecology offers the same potential for productivity, but also focuses on sustainability and environmental friendliness as strong secondary objectives.” While the idea of formulating landscapes for specific purposes is comparatively new, countless examples exist where landscape modifications have been made to inhospitable areas in order to overcome the natural obstacles that hamper crop growth. This book illuminates the principles behind these triumphs, bringing this local knowledge into the mainstream. Landscape Agroecology will familiarize you with the concepts and terminology needed to understand this exciting new field: complementarity—usually defined in terms of plant-plant growth—expanded to include the rural countryside desirable agroecosystems properties—what an agroecosystem needs in order to overcome landscape stresses such as drought, flooding, insect infestation, etc. agrotechnologies—the classification of agroecosystems based on visual characteristics and the land-use problems addressed cultural agroecology—what we can learn from the superior land-use techniques of various societies and cultures, and how these ideas can be brought into the mainstream cultural motif—culturally related land-use patterns that are openly manifested in the landscape Essential for university/college libraries and for research stations as well as professors and students of agroecology, this book will be referred to again and again. In addition to basic agroecological concepts, chapters in this essential book address the management of wind, water, and pests; biodiversity; physical and temporal patterns; principal, auxiliary, and temporal agrotechnologies, and much more. For professors and students in environmental science, this book offers many previously un-dicussed alternatives for resolving the earth's environmental dilemmas. Photographs, tables, figures, and illustrations help make important points easy to access and understand.
Download or read book Agrobiodiversity Conservation and Economic Development written by Andreas Kontoleon and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2008-10-03 with total page 572 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book reflects current developments in the economics of agrobiodiversity and focuses its attention on the role agrobiodiversity can have for economic development. As a new and rapidly expanding subfield at the interface of environmental/ecological, agricultural and development economics, the editors and contributors to this volume provide a thorough, structured and authoritative coverage of this field. Topics covered include the economic modelling of agrobiodiversity, policy and governance solutions for the conservation of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes, contracts, markets and valuation. The authors include well-known and respected academics and researchers who have a real policy perspective into the role of agrobiodiversity and economic development. The book provides coherent and up to date coverage of the economics of in-situ agrobiodiversity conservation which is to a large extent currently absent. Though the material in the volume is primarily written for economists, its content and style are highly relevant and accessible to ecologists and conservation biologists, and to academics from other broad disciplines that are located within the areas of economics and ecology.
Download or read book A Systems Approach to Agroecology written by Pablo Tittonell and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-10-14 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As agroecology gains momentum in the international research-for-development arena, there is an urgent need for methods and tools to support the codesign and evaluation of agroecological systems and their transitions. The social and ecological complexity of agroecosystems, their dynamics, uncertainties and sustainability, calls for a holistic, systemic approach to agroecology. As such, several questions arise for example: how do we deal with heterogeneity, landscapes, biodiversity or learning processes in agroecosystems analysis? How do we categorise diversity or analyse trade-offs in social-ecological interactions? How do we conceptualise, codesign and monitor agroecological transitions? This book sets out to answer these questions by building on the valuable ‘classics’ in agroecology. The book presents a systems perspective that underpins a combination of methodologies, ranging from participatory tools and field observations to mathematical simulation modelling. Researchers, advanced students and transdisciplinary practitioners will find in this book insights and methods to design research and (co-) innovation processes to foster agroecological transitions.
Download or read book The Ecology of Agricultural Landscapes written by Stephen K. Hamilton and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-04-07 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evidence has been mounting for some time that intensive row-crop agriculture as practiced in developed countries may not be environmentally sustainable, with concerns increasingly being raised about climate change, implications for water quantity and quality, and soil degradation. This volume synthesizes two decades of research on the sustainability of temperate, row-crop ecosystems of the Midwestern United States. The overarching hypothesis guiding this work has been that more biologically based management practices could greatly reduce negative impacts while maintaining sufficient productivity to meet demands for food, fiber and fuel, but that roadblocks to their adoption persist because we lack a comprehensive understanding of their benefits and drawbacks. The research behind this book, based at the Kellogg Biological Station (Michigan State University) and conducted under the aegis of the Long-term Ecological Research network, is structured on a foundation of large-scale field experiments that explore alternatives to conventional, chemical-intensive agriculture. Studies have explored the biophysical underpinnings of crop productivity, the interactions of crop ecosystems with the hydrology and biodiversity of the broader landscapes in which they lie, farmers' views about alternative practices, economic valuation of ecosystem services, and global impacts such as greenhouse gas exchanges with the atmosphere. In contrast to most research projects, the long-term design of this research enables identification of slow or delayed processes of change in response to management regimes, and allows examination of responses across a broader range of climatic variability. This volume synthesizes this comprehensive inquiry into the ecology of alternative cropping systems, identifying future steps needed on the path to sustainability.
Download or read book Participatory Research and On farm Management of Agricultural Biodiversity in Europe written by Michel P. Pimbert and published by IIED. This book was released on 2011 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Agrobiodiversity written by Karl S. Zimmerer and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2023-10-31 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Experts discuss the challenges faced in agrobiodiversity and conservation, integrating disciplines that range from plant and biological sciences to economics and political science. Wide-ranging environmental phenomena—including climate change, extreme weather events, and soil and water availability—combine with such socioeconomic factors as food policies, dietary preferences, and market forces to affect agriculture and food production systems on local, national, and global scales. The increasing simplification of food systems, the continuing decline of plant species, and the ongoing spread of pests and disease threaten biodiversity in agriculture as well as the sustainability of food resources. Complicating the situation further, the multiple systems involved—cultural, economic, environmental, institutional, and technological—are driven by human decision making, which is inevitably informed by diverse knowledge systems. The interactions and linkages that emerge necessitate an integrated assessment if we are to make progress toward sustainable agriculture and food systems. This volume in the Strüngmann Forum Reports series offers insights into the challenges faced in agrobiodiversity and sustainability and proposes an integrative framework to guide future research, scholarship, policy, and practice. The contributors offer perspectives from a range of disciplines, including plant and biological sciences, food systems and nutrition, ecology, economics, plant and animal breeding, anthropology, political science, geography, law, and sociology. Topics covered include evolutionary ecology, food and human health, the governance of agrobiodiversity, and the interactions between agrobiodiversity and climate and demographic change.
Download or read book Integrating Agriculture Conservation and Ecotourism Societal Influences written by W. Bruce Campbell and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-06-23 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Agroecology not only encompasses aspects of ecology, but the ecology of sustainable food production systems, and related societal and cultural values. To provide effective communication regarding status and advances in this field, connections must be established with many disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, environmental sciences, ethics, agriculture, economics, ecology, rural development, sustainability, policy and education, or integrations of these general themes so as to provide integrated points of view that will help lead to a more sustainable construction of values than conventional economics alone. Such designs are inherently complex and dynamic, and go beyond the individual farm to include landscapes, communities, and biogeographic regions by emphasizing their unique agricultural and ecological values, and their biological, societal, and cultural components and processes.
Download or read book Interactions Between Agroecosystems and Rural Communities written by Cornelia Flora and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2001-02-05 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is an increasing realization among biophysical scientists that human behavior drastically impacts the degree to which sound agroecosystems are implemented. Written by an international team of experts assembled by a leading rural sociologist, Interactions Between Agroecosystems and Rural Communities shows how human behavior impacts agroecosyst
Download or read book Agrobiodiversity written by David Wood and published by Cabi. This book was released on 1999 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why agrobiodiversity?; The origins of agrobiodiversity in agriculture; The nature and role of crop biodiversity; Biodiversity in domesticated animals; The regulation and functional significance of soil biodiversity in sgroecosystems; Pathogen biodiversity: its nature, characterization and consequences; Insect biodiversity in agroecosystems: function, value and optimization: Determinants of agrobiodiversity in the agricultural landscape; Traditional management of agrobiodiversity; Does mplant breeding lead to a loss of genetic diversity?; The effects of pest management strategies on biodiversity in agroecosystems; The effects of alternative tillage systems on biodiversity in agroecosystems; Seed management systems and effects on diversity; Conservation of agrobiodiversity; A conceptual framework for valuing on-farm genetic resources; Regulatory issues; Agrtobiodiversity and natural biodiversity: some parallels; Optimizing biodiversity for productive agriculture.
Download or read book Urban Agroecology written by Monika Egerer and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2020-12-16 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today, 20 percent of the global food supply relies on urban agriculture: social-ecological systems shaped by both human and non-human interactions. This book shows how urban agroecologists measure flora and fauna that underpin the ecological dynamics of these systems, and how people manage and benefit from these systems. It explains how the sociopolitical landscape in which these systems are embedded can in turn shape the social, ecological, political, and economic dynamics within them. Synthesizing interdisciplinary approaches in urban agroecology in the natural and social sciences, the book explores methodologies and new directions in research that can be adopted by scholars and practitioners alike. With contributions from researchers utilizing both social and natural science approaches, Urban Agroecology describes the current social-environmental understandings of the science, the movement and the practices in urban agroecology. By investigating the role of agroecology in cities, the book calls for the creation of spaces for food to be sustainably grown in urban spaces: an Urban Agriculture (UA) movement. Essential reading for graduate students, practitioners, policy makers and researchers, this book charts the course for accelerating this movement.
Download or read book Nature s Matrix written by Ivette Perfecto and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-05-31 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When first published in 2009, Nature’s Matrix set out a radical new approach to the conservation of biodiversity. This new edition pushes the frontier of the biodiversity/agriculture debate further, making an even stronger case for the need to transform agriculture and support small- and medium-scale agroecology and food sovereignty. In the first edition, the authors set out a radical new approach to the conservation of biodiversity. This is based on the concept of a landscape as a matrix of diverse, small-scale agricultural ecosystems, providing opportunities to enhance conservation under the stewardship of local farmers. This contrasts with the alternative view of industrial-scale farms and large protected areas which exclude local people. However, since then the debate around conservation and agriculture has developed significantly and this is reflected in this updated second edition. The text is thoroughly revised, including: a reorganization of chapters with new and timely topics introduced, updates to the discussion of agroecology and food sovereignty, bringing it in line with the current debates, greater coverage of the role of agroecology, in particular agroforestry, as an important component of climate change adaptation and mitigation, highlighting recent studies on the role of intensive agriculture in climate change and loss of biodiversity, and more attention given to the discussion of land sparing versus land sharing. By integrating the ecological aspects of agriculture and conservation biology, with a political and social analysis as well as historical perspective, the book continues to set a progressive agenda and appeals to a wide range of students and professionals.
Download or read book Agrobiodiversity School Gardens and Healthy Diets written by Danny Hunter and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-03-03 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book critically assesses the role of agrobiodiversity in school gardens and its contribution to diversifying diets, promoting healthy eating habits and improving nutrition among schoolchildren as well as other benefits relating to climate change adaptation, ecoliteracy and greening school spaces. Many schoolchildren suffer from various forms of malnutrition and it is important to address their nutritional status given the effects it has on their health, cognition, and subsequently their educational achievement. Schools are recognized as excellent platforms for promoting lifelong healthy eating and improving long-term, sustainable nutrition security required for optimum educational outcomes. This book reveals the multiple benefits of school gardens for improving nutrition and education for children and their families. It examines issues such as school feeding, community food production, school gardening, nutritional education and the promotion of agrobiodiversity, and draws on international case studies, from both developed and developing nations, to provide a comprehensive global assessment. This book will be essential reading for those interested in promoting agrobiodiversity, sustainable nutrition and healthy eating habits in schools and public institutions more generally. It identifies recurring and emerging issues, establishes best practices, identifies key criteria for success and advises on strategies for scaling up and scaling out elements to improve the uptake of school gardens.
Download or read book Agroecological Practices For Sustainable Agriculture Principles Applications And Making The Transition written by Alexander Wezel and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2017-06-19 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Good agroecological practices are indispensable for the development of sustainable agriculture. In this book, principles, diversity and applications of agroecological practices for a range of systems are presented, transforming scientific research and participatory knowledge of production into practical application. It illustrates a broad range of research and teaching being used within the farming community to demonstrate best practice and current state-of-play within the field. Agroecological methods used in crop farming, grass-based livestock farming, fish production, and other complex farming systems are discussed. Conclusions are drawn from studies to provide an outlook on future trends of agroecological practices and on policies supporting implementation.Due to emphasis on real-life application, it is relevant not only to students of the agricultural sciences and public policy, but also to researchers, stakeholders and policy makers involved in the development of sustainable agriculture.
