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Effective environmental governance is deemed essential in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals. However, environmental dimensions have no specific reference across the SDG 16 targets and indicators. In achieving SDG 16—the realization of peace, justice, and strong institution, polycentric environmental governance involving multiple actors across scales deserves thoughtful consideration. This study illustrates the potential of a polycentric approach to environmental governance in achieving SDG 16, using case studies of forest, watershed, and transboundary bushland and seascape management in Southeast Asia and Eastern Africa, namely Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Kenya–Somalia cross-border. By highlighting four key elements of polycentric governance namely, political will, legal framework, support from higher-level governance and capacity building, the case studies demonstrate that polycentric governance play a significant role in achieving three environment-relevant SDG 16 targets, yet these targets are silent about environmental governance dimensions. Since many conflicts arise from the environment and natural resources sector, we suggest that (i) polycentric environmental governance be strongly pursued to achieve SDG 16, and (ii) SDG 16 includes indicators specifically directed on polycentric environment and natural resource governance.

We are living in a time of crisis on planet Earth. Urgent calls for transformational change are getting louder. Technical solutions have an important role to play in addressing pressing global challenges, but alone they are not enough. After all, who decides what kind of transformation is needed, of what, and for whom? What principles guide those decisions, and how are decision-makers held accountable? This commentary article argues that these governance questions are central in any solution, in order to simultaneously address the planetary crises of forest and biodiversity loss and degradation and growing inequality. To this end, we examine governance in forests and around trees, in landscapes and on farms, through the lens of power and social justice. For applied research aimed at actionable solutions to these global problems, we propose a governance research agenda for the next decade that is both transformative and just.

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) schemes have been increasingly implemented in developing countries where gender-related inequalities are generally prevalent. A randomized field trial in Kenya revealed the impacts of participants’ gender in conservation auctions and in environmental performance of action- and outcome-based PES schemes and provided evidence for associations between the gender effects and traditional gender roles. First, we identified differences between men and women in the utilities of the contract and relative risk aversion as potential drivers of the decrease in bids by women compared to men in the auction for action-based contracts. Second, we observed a gender-specific difference in perceptions of risk in the outcome-based approach when women increased their bids. Third, women achieved lower tree survival than men, despite women providing more effort. In this context, we identified the inequality in reciprocal labor for male and female contract holders as a possible source of the gendered tree survival. This case study showed that targeting women improves gender equity in terms of access to project decision-making, trainings and cash, and can significantly improve the effectiveness of the PES scheme.

Docynia indica is a tree indigenous to South and Southeast Asia. In Vietnam its fruits are used in the production of juice, tea, syrup, vinegar and wine. In 2012 commercial harvesting from ...

To mobilize more resources for conservation, the government of Vietnam has implemented a Payment for Forest Environment Services (PFES) policy that creates a market by collecting payments from a rather limited set of ecosystem services (ES) buyers and setting up a forest protection and development fund. Herein ES buyers do not interact with ES providers, and their participation is primarily based on regulatory compliance. We therefore asked, ‘what could be the real motivation for private-sector buyers of ES in Vietnam?’ We found that, although private-sector voluntary engagement is currently lacking, it is interested and willing to pay for ES. However, in their perspective, the ES that are regulated by the PFES policy had very weak elements of private goods and are thus difficult to be rationed. On the governance side, although the government has created a PFES structure, it neither facilitates direct engagement between ES buyers and providers, nor does it create an enabling environment for the emergence of voluntary payment schemes. To sustain the PFES, we suggest that along with amending laws and regulatory procedures to make ES more marketable, the government should evolve from regulating to enabling PFES negotiations using existing structures.

The central question that we ask in this paper is: do people cheat or behave dishonestly when they are unsupervised? This question is motivated by our work on environmental management programs in developing countries where local conservation effort can be either too expensive or difficult to monitor by outsiders. We combine responses from a household survey with results from a set of field experiments in rural Vietnam to examine how people behave when they are unsupervised, and how well are they able to predict the behavior of others in their community. Both the survey and the field experiments are structured along the lines of an environmental project in which local people receive an incentive for providing their time and labor to undertake project activities. Our total sample size is 400 with experimental treatments varying by group size, whether people receive cash or in-kind incentives, and whether they are monitored. In contrast to existing studies that predict compulsory cheating, we find very little cheating behavior among our subjects. Moreover, people can accurately predict the behavior of others except in a scenario when people collect cash incentives for others. In that case, people become extra cautious than what they were predicted to be. We explain these results by invocating the theory of self-concept maintenance and conclude with a discussion on potential applications of these results.

Land-use planning is an important policy instrument for governing landscapes to achieve multifunctionality in rural areas. This paper presents a case study conducted in Na Nhan commune in the northwest montane region of Vietnam to assess land-use strategies toward multiple ecosystem services, through integrated land-use planning. The assessment employed the Land-Use Planning for Multiple Ecosystem Services (LUMENS) framework and a number of methods and tools, including land-use mapping, GIS-based land-use change analysis, survey questionnaire, rapid carbon-stock appraisal for different land uses, qualitative ecosystem services assessment, and a backcasting technique. Our findings suggest that a lack of participation and acknowledgement of customary land-use practices inhibit successful implementation of current land-use planning and relevant policies such as payment for forest environmental services and the nationally determined contributions. The study also confirmed the contributions of forests and the land-use sector in achieving national emission reduction targets, especially when local stakeholders are involved early in the planning process. Other findings with important policy implications are: (i) tree-based land uses such as agroforestry are key to securing multiple ecosystem services and are highly relevant to local stakeholders, yet their potentials were not made explicit in current debates at the local level; (ii) local stakeholders are highly aware of the co-benefits of ecosystem services to climate-change mitigation and this should be considered in nationally determined contributions; and (iii) an approach for integrated, participatory land-use planning can help catalyze stakeholder engagement, and hence improve governance in rural landscapes.

In Southeast Asia, 8.5% of the global human population lives on 3.0% of the land area. With 7.9% of the global agricultural land base, the region has 14.7% and 28.9% of such land with at least 10% and 30% tree cover, respectively, and is the worlds’ primary home of ‘agroforests’. Landscapes in the region include the full range of ‘forest transition stages’, as identified in global analysis. A long tradition of top-down national reforestation and tree planting programs has not had success proportional to the efforts and resources allocated. By contrast, farmers in the region have a long tradition of retaining (and managing natural regeneration of) useful trees among planted trees (e.g. tree crops or timber) and annual crops to prevent degradation and avoiding the labour costs of weed control. Meanwhile, state-controlled forests have lost a lot of their diverse tree cover, both legally and illegally. The restoration agenda includes four levels of intensity and stakeholder involvement: (RI) ecological intensification within a land use system; (RII) recovery/regeneration, within a local socioecological system; (RIII) reparation/recuperation, within rules and rewards set by the national policy context; and (RIV) remediation, requiring international support and investment. Major opportunities for restoring the multifunctionality of landscapes in the region are formed by resolution of existing conflicts over multiple claims to ‘forest’ land stewardship. The chapter summarizes lessons learnt in 26 landscapes, grouped in seven ‘degradation syndromes’: Degraded hillslopes, fire-climax grasslands, over-intensified monocropping, forest classification conflicts, drained peatlands, converted mangroves and disturbed soil profiles. It also addresses two overarching concerns: Disturbed hydrology and supply sheds at risk. In each landscape, a driver-pressure-state-impact-response analysis of the socioecological system supported a diagnosis beyond the primary degradation symptoms. Appropriate actions reflect six requirements for effective restoration: (1) community involvement, aligned with values and concerns, (2) rights, (3) knowledge and knowhow of sustainable land use practices, (4) markets for inputs (incl. Soil amendments, tree germplasm, labour) and outputs (access, bargaining position), (5) local environmental impacts (often primarily through the water cycle and agrobiodiversity) and (6) global connectivity, including interactions with climate and global biodiversity agendas. All six can be a ‘starting point’ for restoration interventions, but progress is typically limited by several (or all) of the others. In our analysis, all 17 Sustainable Development Goals can contribute to and benefit from a coherent rights-based approach to restoration through agroforestry with specific technologies and choice of species dependent on local context and market access.

Vietnam is one of the countries where a shift from net deforestation to net reforestation is taking place. This study examines the pattern of tree-cover transition and gender-specific land-use preferences and decisions in northern Vietnam. We employed a mixed-method approach that combined a land-use transition analysis, gender-disaggregated survey and role-playing games (RPG) to assess the relationship between tree-cover transition and gender. The first two methods revealed continuous conversion of protection forest to tree plantations and upland crops (dominated by swidden rice). Factors affecting conversion identified through regression analysis were elevation and labor availability. The land-use RPG revealed gender-specific preferences for annual crops and tree-based agroforestry systems, and the underlying motivation of those preferences. The overall pattern of tree-cover transition in northern Vietnam falls under the smallholder agricultural intensification path. Agroforestry potentially balances the specific land-use preferences of men and women, and helps to achieve their specific land use related livelihood objectives.

Agroforestry is known to have multiple economic and environmental benefits. Despite this, the adoption of agroforestry in Viet Nam is limited both in extent and diversity of components and practices. Our study identified gaps for agroforestry adoption in current policies and policy implementation. National policy and provincial instructions and decisions were reviewed and discussed during ten stakeholders’ consultation workshops. The review and workshops concluded that there were no specific national and few provincial specific policies promoting agroforestry. In addition, the segregation of policies into agriculture and forestry, promoted monoculture practices and discouraged the integration of mixed annual and perennial tree species. Completing the forestland allocation process was considered essential for long-term investment on land and providing collateral for loans. More holistic policies, such as a provincial strategy for agroforestry development that would enable flexible integration of agriculture, forestry and livestock were perceived to be more effective and inclusive to poor and non-poor farmers. Specific cross-cutting budget allocation would be necessary for capacity building, upscaling agroforestry models, procurement of high-quality inputs, and establishing post-harvest processing and marketing investments.

Farm-level tree planting has been suggested to have potential to decrease pressures on natural forests and, consequently, contribute towards reducing deforestation and forest degradation. However, the scientific evidence for such a link is limited. We examined farmers’ beliefs, attitudes and behaviours in relation to tree planting on farms and cutting down trees from the forest, as one way of establishing this link. A household survey was administered to 200 farmers in two rural districts in Malawi, which included an attitude scale based on the theory of planned behaviour. The results showed that farmers in Malawi recognise the benefits of planting trees, feel encouraged by fellow farmers, and feel capable of planting trees on their land. In addition, they believe cutting down trees from the forest will result in mainly negative outcomes, and feel discouraged by others and hindered by control factors to cut down trees from the forest. In total, 76 % of respondents planted trees in the past 5 years, 50 % collected firewood from the forest and 21 % collected poles. There was no evidence for a direct relationship between attitudes towards planting trees and cutting down trees, nor were the behaviours in relation to tree planting and cutting down trees from the forest significantly associated. However, there was evidence for an indirect relationship between tree planting behaviour and cutting down trees from the forest, as respondents who had planted trees had more negative attitudes towards cutting down trees from the forest. Future research should further explore the direct relationship between agroforestry and deforestation to establish if and under what conditions such a relationship might exist.

Although tree-based farming systems are often assumed to be “resilient” or “climate-smart” options, adoption is limited. It could be that the sensitivity of individual tree species to extreme weather events is poorly documented or new systems include unfamiliar species and technologies. This paper reports on initial results of an evaluation of farmers’ experiences with trees and crops for responding to major climatic exposures in 21 villages in northern and north-central Viet Nam. Our study assessed the suitability and roles of trees by analyzing data gathered through focus group discussions, workshops and a survey of 661 households. The results showed that a majority of households were exposed annually to what they perceived as natural hazards. Experiences with using trees for coping and adaptation depended on household income status, awareness and policies. In particular, farms with trees had shorter recovery time after most types of natural disasters, except for cold spells, demonstrating economic and environmental buffers. Many leaders were unfamiliar with agroforestry and mainly looking for economies of scale, hence oriented to land use rather than landscape planning. This indicates disconnects between farmers’ needs and policymakers’ priorities with respect to climate change adaptation strategies. Existing agroforestry systems reflected a transition from indigenous or current farming systems via changing to either new species or technologies rather than changing both at the same time. Gaps in current adaptation strategies and key areas for policy and research interventions are finally discussed.

Among the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) three broad groups coexist: first, articulating demand for further human resource appropriation, second, sustaining the resource base, and third, redistributing power and benefits. Agriculture and forestry jointly interact with all three. The SDG portfolio calls for integrated land use management. Technological alternatives shift the value of various types of land use (forests, trees and agricultural practices) as source of ‘ecosystem services’. At the interface of agriculture and forestry the 40-year old term agroforestry has described technologies (AF1) and an approach to multifunctional landscape management (AF2). A broadened Land Equivalence Ratio (LER) as performance metric indicates efficiency. Agroforestry also is an opportunity to transcend barriers between agriculture and forestry as separate policy domains (AF3). Synergy between policy domains can progress from recognized tradeoffs and accepted coexistence, via common implementation frames, to space for shared innovation. Further institutional space for integral ‘all-land-uses’ approaches is needed.

Agroforestry has been practiced for a long time in Vietnam. In this study, the cost - benefit was analyzed in four agroforestry systems, which have been widely established in north mountainous provinces with Star Anise ( Illicium verum ) + t ea (IT), bead tree ( Melia azedarach ) + cassava (MC), Acacia hybrid + cassava (AC) and Acacia mangium + maize (AM). A questionnaire was used to obtain information on (1) Inputs , which included costs for seeds/seedlings, fertil izers, pesticides, and labor costs, and (2) Incomes , which included benefits from selling fruits, leaves, corns, and timbers. The results indicated that IT had the highest economic benefit (6,527 US$ ha - 1 y - 1 ), followed by MC (2,905 US$ ha - 1 y - 1 ), AC (1,043 US$ ha - 1 y - 1 ), and AM (870 US$ ha - 1 y - 1 ), respectively. However, even with such economic benefits, these agroforestry models could not be established across all mountainous regions because of site specific ecological requirements of tree species and crops. In addition, unstable market and fluctuating price of agroforestry product s is a big concern leading to un sustainability of these agroforestry systems. It is recommended that

The United Nations (UN) Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) program offers incentives for developing countries to reduce CO2 emissions and to invest in low-carbon paths to sustainable development. In designing and deploying REDD programs, the UN is asking that participating nations go beyond focusing just on technical issues associated with carbon management and also include a range of social considerations; for example, program managers are being asked to undertake stakeholder-based processes aimed at incorporating community concerns in program design, implementation, and management. The research reported here discussed the application of structured decision making to the design of REDD programs in Vietnam. The goal of structured decision making is to place the values, objectives, and concerns of stakeholders squarely in front of managers so that they may lend maximum insight to decisions that require trade-offs across environmental management options.

Efforts towards Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation plus conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of carbon stocks (REDD+) have grown in importance i...

Despite the great potential of agricultural innovations, the uptake by smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa seems to be slow. We reviewed existing theories and frameworks for the uptake of agricultural innovations and found that these tend to emphasize the role of extrinsic factors such as the characteristics of the adopter and the external environment in the decision-making process. In this paper, we argue that intrinsic factors such as the knowledge, perceptions and attitudes of the potential adopter towards the innovation play a key role, but this has been less studied. We present an analytical framework that combines both extrinsic and intrinsic factors in farmers' decisions to adopt new agricultural technologies and apply the framework to agroforestry adoption as a case study. We review the literature on agroforestry adoption in sub-Saharan Africa and identify the extrinsic and intrinsic variables affecting the uptake of agroforestry technologies. We conclude that the uptake of agricultural tech...

Climate variability is contributing to water-scarcity problems in Kenya and to extreme flooding and drought in Vietnam. This paper compares diversity-based climate adaptation approaches in current land use in the Cam Xuyen district, Ha Tinh province, Central Vietnam and in the Kapingazi river watershed in Embu district, Eastern province, Kenya, in order to understand local responses to climate variability and examine the potential for policy support of diversity management by local people. Literature reviews and trend analysis of local time series of rainfall and temperature were combined with stakeholder interviews and workshops to identify technology and policy options for dealing with current and future climate variability. At all study sites, diversity in land use at farm level and along agriculture–forestry landscape gradients was a key strategy. Policy options to support such an approach could include legalization of agroforestry in Vietnam and a combination of regulations and incentive-based approa...

Atmospheric moisture (“rainbow water”) is the source of all green, blue and grey water flows. Current water-related legislation and policies have moved beyond blue (water allocation) and grey (waste water treatment) water concerns to incorporate the green water concept of additional water use by fast-growing trees; it may require further change to incorporate rainbow water relations as evident in recent literature on short-cycle rainfall derived from evapotranspiration over land. Specific teleconnections relate rainfall dynamics at any specific site to land use and sea conditions elsewhere. Government-mandated water use charges for payments for ecosystem services (PES) exist in some African countries but their use in enhancing actual water related ecosystem services covering the full hydrological cycle is still evolving as rainbow water science is new.

While decision-making processes of land managers drive land-use change and affect the provision of ecosystems services, there is no concrete understanding of whether gender specificity in decision-making influences the multifunctionality of landscapes. We distinguish eleven elements in a typical management cycle. In reviewing the literature, we found apparent gaps on gendered knowledge, preferences, risk taking and access to innovation in land-use decision making. Male and female responses in the adoption of agroforestry practices and other investment opportunities reflect differing exposure to and perceptions of risk. Innovative approaches such as agent-based models and role-playing games are currently applied to study gendered behavior in land-use decisions. These approaches can assist researchers to explicitly and empirically compare potentially self-reinforcing behaviors or feedback loops with local impacts on ecosystem services.

Shortage of domestic water is a key problem in Nairobi. The Sasumua Reservoir supplies 20% of Nairobi's water. However, reservoir water quantity has been impacted by human activities. Landholders within the catchment have no incentives to take into account this impact in their decision. The objective of this study was to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) of Nairobi residents for reliable domestic water via catchment conservation. Data were collected through face-to-face surveys. A censored regression model was employed to estimate the WTP. Results show that monthly mean WTP of an average household is about 275 Kenya shillings; income, education, and age are the key variables affecting WTP; and lack of an appropriate institutional regime is the major public concern that could hinder implementation of market-based schemes.

Traditional local institutions were studied in the highlands of Ethiopia and Tanzania to understand their role in natural resource management. Focus group discussions as well as individual interviews were conducted to identify the existing local institutions and their roles. Historical trend analyses were done to determine how the importance of local institutions has changed over the years. Results show that several local institutions with diverse objectives and varying levels of importance exist in the study sites. The article suggests ways in which local institutions can contribute to effective natural resource management for sustainable social and economic development of highland communities in eastern Africa.

Payments for environmental services (PES), the non-provisioning part of ecosystem services, target alignment of microeconomic incentives for land users with meso- and macroeconomic societal costs and benefits of their choices across stakeholders and scales. They can interfere with or complement social norms and rights-based approaches at generic (land-use planning) and individual (tenure, use rights) levels; they interact with macroeconomic policies influencing the drivers to which individual agents respond. In many developing country contexts, community scale factors strongly influence land users' decisions, whereas unclear land rights complicate the use of market-based instruments. PES concepts need to adapt. Multiple paradigms have emerged within the broad PES domain. Evidence suggests that forms of “coinvestment in stewardship” (CIS) alongside rights are the preferred entry point. Commodification of environmental services (ES) and ES markets might evolve later on, but require strong government regulation to set and enforce rules of the game. We frame hypotheses for wider testing and “no-regrets” recommendations for practitioners.

SUMMARY In the peatlands of Central Kalimantan, expectations of payments for reducing carbon emissions shape the discourse over natural resource management as a means of influencing policy and exercising power. Different types of actors have their own choice of argument and interpretation of facts, rules and norms over resource use or conservation. This article examines the discursive strategies used by contestants in the struggle over property rights in a failed development project (‘ex-Mega Rice Area’) in Central Kalimantan and traces their changes and developments in the justification for policy influence in the face of REDD++ implementation. Shifting national policy priorities have affected the distribution of power that shapes the practice and use of forest peatland. The case study highlights the historical baggage of perceived injustice between state and local communities and the contest between national and provincial government authorities that complicates the debate on current efforts to mitigate...

The Agroforestry Tree Seeds Association of Lantapan (ATSAL) in Bukidnon province of Mindanao, Philippines, was organized in 1998, facilitated by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). Farmers were trained on germplasm collection, processing and marketing of agroforestry tree seeds and seedlings. ATSAL has been marketing various tree seeds and seedlings with apparent success, and has provided training on seed collection and nursery management to farmers, government technicians, and workers from non-government organizations. This paper reports initial results of a continuing study to assess the effectiveness of ATSAL’s marketing strategy, including group dynamics, and the issues and challenges the group faces. It was found that during the first 2 years, ATSAL’s market share of highly demanded timber tree species grew rapidly, thus helping to disseminate widely these important species among farmers. ICRAF’s technical back-up was an advantage, increasing the Association’s market credibility. Subsequently, ATSAL extended its market to the central Philippines, but failed to meet the demand for seeds due to organizational limitations. Market competition exists, where a non-member was able to take a larger market share than was the group. Nonetheless, ATSAL has established its name as a viable community-based seed and seedling producer, maintaining a stronghold in local and regional markets. Collective action is important for smallholders to gain market access, but is unlikely to sustain sales. Facilitating smallholder collective action is essentially an arduous task, requiring the supporting agency to hold a firm grasp of market realities, to invest in the maintenance of collective action, to provide continuous technical back-up, and to ascertain the conditions that make collective action succeed.

This section discusses the roles that women play in agricultural production, as well as their land use choices and the implications of those choices on landscape restoration. Based on case studies from Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines, we argue that the pathway to land restoration is influenced by the way that land is appreciated by direct stakeholders. Women, due to their increasingly productive roles, could become agents of either land degradation or restoration. Ignoring their specific needs may lead to unsuccessful implementations of land restoration programs. We recommend a greater emphasis on understanding gender-specific differences over land-use and land management practices as an entry point, followed by nuanced design and implementation of gender-responsive and gender-focused land restoration approaches and investments.

Incentives generally imply something that contributes to or serves as motivation to accomplish a task, which may lead to rewards. Today, “incentives” are used in many agriculture and forestry initiatives in developing countries to promote wider adoption of agroforestry. In this chapter, we have used the experience from the Philippines to illustrate how, in the midst of various challenges, global and locally designed incentive mechanisms can stimulate smallholder investments in agroforestry. The global carbon market has opened up opportunities for agroforestry through which smallholders benefit from carbon trading. At the national level, a plethora of policy incentives exist for agroforestry, but smallholders hardly benefit from such policies due to lack of information and resources to leverage policy implementation. We conclude that incentives can facilitate the adaptive capacity of smallholders and can stimulate agroforestry investments. We suggest that national institutions should catalyze international carbon incentives for smallholders, while local governments should be primed to address smallholder needs through locally designed incentive mechanisms. Ultimately, effective coordination and linkages are needed to harmonize global, national, and local incentive mechanisms for smallholders to have optimal benefits from agroforestry.

Previous research on the determinants of effectiveness in knowledge systems seeking to support sustainable development has highlighted the importance of “boundary work” through which research communities organize their relations with new science, other sources of knowledge, and the worlds of action and policymaking. A growing body of scholarship postulates specific attributes of boundary work that promote used and useful research. These propositions, however, are largely based on the experience of a few industrialized countries. We report here on an effort to evaluate their relevance for efforts to harness science in support of sustainability in the developing world. We carried out a multicountry comparative analysis of natural resource management programs conducted under the auspices of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. We discovered six distinctive kinds of boundary work contributing to the successes of those programs—a greater variety than has been documented in previous studies. We argue that these different kinds of boundary work can be understood as a dual response to the different uses for which the results of specific research programs are intended, and the different sources of knowledge drawn on by those programs. We show that these distinctive kinds of boundary work require distinctive strategies to organize them effectively. Especially important are arrangements regarding participation of stakeholders, accountability in governance, and the use of “boundary objects.” We conclude that improving the ability of research programs to produce useful knowledge for sustainable development will require both greater and differentiated support for multiple forms of boundary work.

Previous research on the determinants of effectiveness in knowledge systems seeking to support sustainable development has highlighted the importance of “boundary work†through which research communities organize their relations with other fields of science, other sources of knowledge, and the worlds of action and policymaking. A growing body of scholarship postulates specific attributes of boundary work that promote used and useful research. These propositions, however, are largely based on the experience of a few industrialized countries. We report here on an effort to evaluate their relevance for efforts to harness science in support of sustainability in the developing world. We carried out a multi-country comparative analysis of natural resource management programs conducted under the auspices of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). We discovered 6 distinctive kinds of boundary work contributing to successes of the CGIAR programs—a greater variety than has been documented in previous studies. We propose that these different kinds of boundary work can be understood as a dual response to the different uses for which the results of specific research programs are intended, and the different sources of knowledge drawn on by those programs. We show that these distinctive kinds of boundary work require distinctive strategies to organize them effectively. Especially important are arrangements regarding participation of stakeholders, governance, and the use of boundary objects. We conclude that improving the ability of research programs to produce useful knowledge for sustainable development will require both greater and differentiated support for multiple forms of boundary work.

This paper proposes a way to classify PES projects based on how environmental service payments are justified and determined. Using the IPCC1 approach as a model, we recommend the use of the tier system to classify PES projects. The three tiers are summarized below: Tier 1: Payments based on established ecological principles and local knowledge Tier 2: In addition to the above, payments based on simulation modeling and limited site information Tier 3: In addition to above, payments based on site-specific quantitative measurements of environmental services We illustrate this with case studies from existing PES projects in the Philippines. We then presented a decision tree to determine how the tier system can be used.

‘Landcare’ is a group-based approach to the promotion of conservation farming. A case study of the Landcare program in Lantapan in the southern Philippines is presented to assess the farm-level impacts of this approach. The program was successful in promoting the formation of Landcare groups and a municipal Landcare association, resulting in rapid and widespread adoption of conservation practices, particularly among maize farmers. This in turn significantly reduced soil erosion, though the impact on crop yield and income was somewhat delayed. Adoption was thus not motivated primarily by short-term returns but by a concern to reduce soil erosion and provide a basis for diversification into agroforestry.

"Serious methodological and policy hurdles constrain effective natural resource management that alleviates poverty while protecting environmental services in tropical watersheds. We review the development of an approach that integrates biodiversity conservation with agroforestry development through the active involvement of communities and their local governments near the Kitanglad Range Natural Park in the Manupali watershed, central Mindanao, the Philippines. Agroforestry innovations were developed to suit the biophysical and socioeconomic conditions of the buffer zone. These included practices for tree farming and conservation farming for annual cropping on slopes. Institutional innovations improved resource management, resulting in an effective social contract to protect the natural biodiversity of the park. The production of fruit and timber trees dramatically increased, re-establishing tree cover in the buffer zone. Natural vegetative contour strips were installed on several hundred sloping farms. Soil erosion and runoff declined, and the buffer strips increased maize yields by an average of 0.5 t/ha on hill-slope farms. The scientific knowledge base guided the development and implementation of a natural resource management plan for the municipality of Lantapan. A dynamic grass-roots movement of farmer-led Landcare groups evolved in the villages near the park boundary, which had a significant impact on conservation in both the natural and managed ecosystems. Encroachment in the natural park was reduced by 95% in 3 yr. The local Landcare groups also restored stream-corridor vegetation. This integrated approach has been recognized as a national model for the local management of natural resources and watersheds in the Philippines. Currently, the collaborating institutions are evolving a negotiation support system to resolve the interactions between the three management domains: the park, the ancestral domain claim, and the municipalities. This integrated systems approach operated effectively with highly constrained funding, suggesting that commitment and impact may best be stimulated by a 'drip-feed' approach rather than by large, externally funded efforts."

This study examined farmers' attitudes towards tree planting on farms in Malawi, using the theory of planned behaviour as a conceptual framework. Questionnaires containing a scale that measures attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control in relation to tree planting were administered to 200 farmers in Chiradzulu and Mzimba districts in Malawi. Farmers who reported planting trees in the last five years had more positive attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control compared to farmers who have not planted trees. A hierarchical logistic regression analysis showed that membership of a farmer group and attitudes had a significant positive influence on reported behaviour. Nevertheless, many farmers considered household needs such as buying food and agricultural inputs, as well as children's education, as more urgent than investing their scarce resources in tree planting, suggesting that poverty is a barrier to tree planting. © 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Smallholder farmers are vulnerable to environmental, climate and weather-related stress, including climate change. There is an increase in understanding of the benefits of agroforestry systems both at farm and landscape scales, and that incorporating trees on farms through agroforestry systems has emerged as having the potential to enhance the resilience of smallholders to current and future climate risks including future climate change. Drawing on global examples with a focus on African case studies, this paper demonstrates the versatile roles of trees and agroforestry in reducing smallholder's exposure to climate-related risks. It goes on to identify challenges in the promotion and adoption of agroforestry at the farm and landscape levels as a climate change adaptation strategy. The paper highlights areas for further research, policy and dissemination efforts, and identifies entry points for agroforestry adoption.