A Review of the Role of Forests and Agroforestry Systems in the FAO Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) Programme

Feature enhancement guided network for yield estimation of high-density jujube

BACKGROUND

Automatic and precise jujube yield prediction is important for the management of orchards and the allocation of resources. Traditional yield prediction techniques are based on object detection, which predicts a box to achieve target statistics, but are often used in sparse target settings. Those techniques, however, are challenging to use in real-world situations with particularly dense jujubes. The box labeling is labor- and time-intensive, and the robustness of the system is adversely impacted by severe occlusions. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop a robust method for predicting jujube yield based on images. But in addition to the extreme occlusions, it is also challenging due to varying scales, complex backgrounds, and illumination variations.

RESULTS

In this work, we developed a simple and effective feature enhancement guided network for yield estimation of high-density jujube. It has two key designs: Firstly, we proposed a novel label representation method based on uniform distribution, which provides a better characterization of object appearance compared to the Gaussian-kernel-based method. This new method is simpler to implement and has shown greater success. Secondly, we introduced a feature enhancement guided network for jujube counting, comprising three main components: backbone, density regression module, and feature enhancement module. The feature enhancement module plays a crucial role in perceiving the target of interest effectively and guiding the density regression module to make accurate predictions. Notably, our method takes advantage of this module to improve the overall performance of our network. To validate the effectiveness of our method, we conducted experiments on a collected dataset consisting of 692 images containing a total of 40,344 jujubes. The results demonstrate the high accuracy of our method in estimating the number of jujubes, with a mean absolute error (MAE) of 9.62 and a mean squared error (MSE) of 22.47. Importantly, our method outperforms other state-of-the-art methods by a significant margin, highlighting its superiority in jujube yield estimation.

CONCLUSIONS

The proposed method provides an efficient image-based technique for predicting the yield of jujubes. The study will advance the application of artificial intelligence for high-density target recognition in agriculture and forestry. By leveraging this technique, we aim to enhance the level of planting automation and optimize resource allocation.

Traditional management of ancient Pu'er teagardens in Jingmai Mountains in Yunnan of China, a designated Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems site

BACKGROUND

Pu'er Traditional Tea Agroecosystem is one of the projects included in the United Nations' Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) since 2012. Against the background of having rich biodiversity and a long history of tea culture, the ancient tea trees in Pu'er have experienced from wild-transition-cultivation for thousands of years, and the local people's knowledge about the management of ancient teagardens has not been rigorously recorded. For this reason, it is important to study and record the traditional management knowledge of Pu'er ancient teagardens and the influence on the formation of tea trees and communities. This study focuses on the traditional management knowledge of ancient teagardens in Jingmai Mountains, Pu'er, and monoculture teagardens (monoculture and intensively managed planting base for tea cultivation) were used as the control, through the community structure, composition and biodiversity of ancient teagardens to respond to the influence of traditional management, and this work with a view to providing a reference for further research on the stability and sustainable development of tea agroecosystem.

METHODS

From 2021 to 2022, information on traditional management of ancient teagardens was obtained through semi-structured interviews with 93 local people in the Jingmai Mountains area of Pu'er. Informed consent was obtained from each participant before conducting the interview process. The communities, tea trees and biodiversity of Jingmai Mountains ancient teagardens (JMATGs) and monoculture teagardens (MTGs) were examined through field surveys, measurements and biodiversity survey methods. The Shannon-Weiner (H), Pielou (E) and Margalef (M) indices were calculated for the biodiversity of the teagardens within the unit sample, using monoculture teagardens as a control.

RESULTS

The tea tree morphology, community structure and composition of Pu'er ancient teagardens are significantly different from those of monoculture teagardens, and the biodiversity is significantly higher than that of monoculture teagardens. The local people mainly manage the ancient tea trees mainly using several methods, including weeding (96.8%), pruning (48.4%) and pest control (33.3%). The pest control mainly relies on the removal of diseased branches. JMATGs annual gross output is approximately 6.5 times that of MTGs. The traditional management of ancient teagardens is through setting up forest isolation zones as protected areas, planting tea trees in the understory on the sunny side, keeping tea trees 1.5-7 m apart, as well as consciously protecting forest animals such as spiders, birds and bees, and reasonably rearing livestock in the teagardens.

CONCLUSIONS

This study shows that local people have rich traditional knowledge and experience in the management of ancient teagardens in Pu'er, and that this traditional management knowledge has impacted the growth of ancient tea trees, enriched the structure and composition of tea plantation communities and actively protected the biodiversity within ancient teagardens.

Adaptation and biocultural conservation of traditional agroforestry systems in the Tehuacán Valley: access to resources and livelihoods strategies

Traditional agroforestry systems (TAFS) are important areas for conserving biodiversity, ecosystems benefits and biocultural heritage, outstandingly local knowledge, management techniques, and domestication processes. These systems have adapted to environmental, social, technological, and cultural changes throughout history. However, contemporary drastic socio-environmental changes as climate variability, economic inequality, migration, among others, have caused a productive crisis, with several consequences as productive land abandonment, threaten the sustainability of TAFS and vulnerating livelihoods. In such context, the question arises of what kind of adaptations are needed to face these changes, and how access to water and land, should be managed to improve adaptation of TAFS? The study analyzes TAFS in the Tehuacán Valley, a region with high biological and cultural diversity and early signs of agriculture in Mexico, where TAFS have remained active until present. The study analyzes the capacity of TAFS to conserve biodiversity and sustain local livelihoods, despite socio-environmental threats. It is based on a political ecology approach, which proposes that socio-ecological systems degradation is linked to unequal access to land and natural resources. Looking for an integral study of adaptations of TAFS to socio-environmental changes, this study combines qualitative and historical research methodology with quantitative methods evaluating plant diversity and spatial analysis. The study findings show that differentiated access to resources, water, land, and forest, is a key factor that limits adaptation of TAFS, impacting livelihood strategies, changing management patterns, and constraining social capacities for coping with socio-environmental changes. TAFS have significantly higher species richness than forests but lower diversity. The main contribution of the study is the methodological approach looking for an integral analysis of natural resources management and biocultural conservation in agroecosystems, and the identification of the unequal access to resources, as a keystone to understand and act for improving adaptive strategies of TAFS to socio-environmental changes.

•Traditional agroforestry systems (TAFS) are dynamic and highly adaptable to maintain biodiversity and peoples' livelihood.

•Access to natural resources is key to understand and act for agroecosystems analysis.

•Differentiated access to water and land drastically limits social adaptation.

•Integral assessment of social and environmental factors limiting TAFS is needed to understand their adaptation capacity.

•TAFS play a crucial role in sustainable food production and deserve strong actions for their conservation.

Does Agroforestry Correlate with the Sustainability of Agricultural Landscapes? Evidence from China’s Nationally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems

Compared with industrial monoculture, agroforestry has been perceived as a more sustainable approach to landscape management that provides various landscape-specific benefits. However, little is known about agroforestry’s influence on the comprehensive sustainability of agricultural landscapes. This study focused on the importance of agroforestry and its influence on landscape sustainability, using 118 China National Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (China-NIAHS) as cases. In each China-NIAHS, we evaluated the importance of agroforestry and the landscape’s comprehensive sustainability and explored their correlation. The findings indicate that agroforestry is important in most China-NIAHS. Agroforestry’s importance is strongly correlated with most sustainability indicators, including biodiversity, income diversity, resource utilization, hydrogeological preservation, and water regulation. Based on the findings, we discuss the role of agroforestry in promoting sustainability and provide suggestions for sustainable management and policymaking for agricultural landscapes on a national scale.

Hormesis induced by silver iodide, hydrocarbons, microplastics, pesticides, and pharmaceuticals: Implications for agroforestry ecosystems health

Increasing amounts of silver iodide (AgI) in the environment are expected because of the recent massive expansion of weather modification programs. Concurrently, pharmaceuticals, microplastics, hydrocarbons, and pesticides in terrestrial ecosystems continue contaminating forests and agroforests. Our review supports that AgI induces hormesis, a biphasic dose response characterized by often beneficial low-dose responses and toxic high-dose effects, which adds to the evidence for pharmaceuticals, microplastics, hydrocarbons, and pesticides induced hormesis in numerous species. Doses smaller than the no-observed-adverse-effect-level (NOAEL) positively affect defense physiology, growth, biomass, yields, survival, lifespan, and reproduction. They also lead to negative or undesirable outcomes, including stimulation of pathogenic microbes, pest insects, and weeds with enhanced resistance to drugs and potential negative multi- or trans-generational effects. Such sub-NOAEL effects perplex terrestrial ecosystems managements and may compromise combating outbreaks of disease vectors that can threaten not only forest and agroforestry health but also sensitive human subpopulations living in remote forested areas.

Understanding Socio-Economic and Environmental Impacts of Agroforestry on Rural Communities

Several studies have highlighted the benefit of implementing agroforestry for rural communities. From the perspective of socio-economic, agroforestry can potentially improve smallholders’ income, increase food security, promote gender equality and stimulate cultural activities in rural areas. Furthermore, agroforestry can enhance ecosystem service through improved soil structure, increased carbon sequestration and higher water retention. Despite having many advantages, the adoption of agroforestry among rural communities, particularly among smallholder farmers in developing countries remains limited. The absence of agroforestry in public policy causes little recognition of this system to tackle the climate crisis as well as to improve rural livelihood. This may be due to, among others, a less comprehensive evidence on impacts that simultaneously touch upon social, economic as well as environmental aspects of agroforestry on the community. This review gives a special emphasis on the current evidence depicting the characteristics of agroforestry adoption, its benefits and potential drawbacks, as well as challenges for the adoption in some developing countries. The outcomes might help related stakeholders to make appropriate decisions to improve rural livelihood.

Post-fire restoration of land under shifting cultivation: A case study of pineapple agroforestry in the Sub-Himalayan region

Access to the knowledge associated with traditional and/or indigenous land-use systems can help develop adaptive strategies, more productive systems and, design sustainable development models and technologies. This article describes the evolution of traditional pineapple (Ananas comosus) agroforestry systems (PAFS) developed by the ethnic Hmar communities as a strategy for the restoration of land under slash-and-burn agriculture in the Sub-Himalayan region. We critically examine the social and ecological perspectives on rural livelihoods and environmental management, and documented the native tree species managed under different age groups of PAFS. We also interviewed farm managers to gain insights into the traditional farming practices and the uses and services of the different multipurpose tree species (MPTs) along with their traditional management. The study showed that PAFS are an integral part of the rural landscape in the study region exemplifying unique agroforestry systems that have evolved as a strategy to improve land under slash-and-burn on hilly landscapes. PAFS are post-fire sedentary systems evolving as a by-product of shifting agriculture. The system combines pineapple crops with remnant fallow vegetation and subsequent plantations of cash-oriented MPTs in the same farmland. MPTs such as the critically endangered Aquilaria malaccensis and the economically important tree bean (Parkia timoriana), which is no longer found in the wild are largely conserved in the PAFS. Our study demonstrates that PAFS can play a vital role in post-fire restoration of land under slash-and-burn agriculture, which is still practiced among many tribes in the Indian Eastern Himalayas.

Forest Dynamic in the Italian Apennines

In recent decades, many mountain areas of the Mediterranean countries show spontaneous reforestation or densification due to depopulation and the consequent abandonment of traditional agricultural and pastoral activities, leading to the loss of open habitats. In this paper, dynamics of natural and semi-natural areas in the summit areas of the Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise National Park are investigated, highlighting changes that occurred from 1954 to present days. Historic Land cover maps have been produced by photo interpretation. A quantitative description of changes and habitats loss in relation to the socio-economic changes is provided. As expected, a forest surface expansion and an open areas decrease are observed similarly to many marginal mountains, where land abandonment and general forest/shrub recovery are the inevitable tendencies. An intense debate is still ongoing regarding the opportunity of rewilding, allowing the natural reforestation processes, versus the management of some areas, in order to preserve habitats and cultural traditional landscapes. For the EU biodiversity conservation policy to be effective, proper planning and management of interventions as well as public support and funding, become crucial when traditional activities are no longer profitable and viable for local inhabitants.

Assessing tree diversity and carbon storage during land use transitioning from shifting cultivation to indigenous agroforestry systems: Implications for REDD+ initiatives

Indigenous agroforestry systems are important reservoirs of biodiversity, and ecosystem services with a potential contribution for conservation of biodiversity while sustaining the livelihood of the rural populace. Pineapple (Ananas comosus) agroforestry systems (PAFS) form an essential constituent of the rural landscape in the Indian Eastern Himalayas and other parts of Asia. The traditional PAFS management in southern Assam is unique in that it involves shifting cultivation transitioning from native forests to a PAFS. Scarcity of information on the functioning and services in terms of species diversity and carbon storage potential in the traditional PAFS has restricted the opportunities for consideration under the nature-based solutions of climate action including REDD+. Therefore, the present study assessed the tree diversity and ecosystem carbon storage in a chronosequence from swidden agriculture through different phases of PAFS establishment. The result demonstrated that basal area in the PAFS increased with age. The most dominant species in the native forests was Palaquium polyanthum, while agricultural land use and PAFS aged <5, 11-15 and > 15 years old were dominated by Gmelina arborea, Albizia procera, Areca catechu and Hevea brasiliensis, respectively. The highest value of Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H) was recorded in native forests (2.71), and lowest in 5-10 years old PAFS. The ecosystem carbon storage declined from 261.43 Mg ha^-1 in native forests to 181.07 Mg ha^-1 in <5-years old PAFS. In <5 years old PAFS, the ecosystem carbon storage was 30 % lower than the native forest; while at >15 years it was merely 5 % less than the native forests. The traditional PAFS maintains a steady ecosystem carbon stock while reducing land use related carbon emission and providing additional co-benefits to the communities. Therefore, the traditional PAFS constitute a good opportunity for REDD+.

Study Progress of Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (IAHS): A Literature Analysis

Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (IAHS), as a new type of heritage, has received extensive attention from the international scientific communities. With the increase of IAHS research, reviews on it have been conducted by many scholars. However, visualized research to show future research trends of IAHS are lacking. Therefore, using metrology analysis methods, this study aims at presenting the progress of research and the general development trends of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) in the world from 2006 to 2020 to provide ideas for the development of countries or regions in the future. This study mapped 292 literatures from Web of Science core collections from 2006 to 2020 by CiteSpace software. The results show that research on IAHS from 2006 to 2020 experienced two stages: the fluctuating increase stage, and the steady growth stage. Author groups from China, Italy, the USA, Japan, etc., contributed many papers on IAHS. Institutions including the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the University of Florence and the University of Padua in Italy, etc., have a relatively high influence on international IAHS research. Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment is the most cited journal. Agricultural Heritage Systems, regeneration, agriculture, agroforestry, dry-stone wall, social capital, instability, and agricultural biodiversity have been hotspots in the past 15 years. The research themes mainly focus on GIAHS, tourism, livelihood assets, and direct georeferencing. Authors in different regions concern different research themes. In the future, the fields of applications and microscopic views, social sciences, applications of standardized quantitative research methods, and broadened international cooperation should be paid more attention.

Carbon Sequestration Potential of Agroforestry Systems in Degraded Landscapes in West Java, Indonesia

When restoring degraded landscapes, approaches capable of striking a balance between improving environmental services and enhancing human wellbeing need to be considered. Agroforestry is an important option for restoring degraded land and associated ecosystem functions. Using survey, key informant interview and rapid carbon stock appraisal (RaCSA) methods, this study was conducted in five districts in West Java province to examine potential carbon stock in agroforestry systems practiced by smallholder farmers on degraded landscapes. Six agroforestry systems with differing carbon stocks were identified: gmelina (Gmelina arborea Roxb.) + cardamom (Amomum compactum); manglid (Magnolia champaca (L.) Baill. ex Pierre) + cardamom; caddam (Neolamarckiacadamba (Roxb.) Bosser) + cardamom; caddam + elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum Schumach.); mixed-tree + fishpond; and mixed-tree lots. Compared to other systems, mixed-tree lots had the highest carbon stock at 108.9 Mg ha−1. Carbon stock variations related to species density and diversity. Farmers from research sites said these systems also prevent soil erosion and help to restore degraded land. Farmers’ adoption of agroforestry can be enhanced by the implementation of supportive policies and measures, backed by scientific research.

Agricultural Heritage Landscapes of Greece: Three Case Studies and Strategic Steps towards Their Acknowledgement, Conservation and Management

United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the European Green Deal and the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) are legislative proposals counting on rural and agricultural landscapes to assist climate change mitigation, ecosystem services and preservation of heritage. Agricultural landscapes take up more than 10% of the earth’s land surface (1.5 billion ha), presenting a continuous field of interaction between man and nature, shaping the earth’s epidermis since antiquity. The Mediterranean basin is one of the most evident places on earth exhibiting this relationship, between the anthropogenic and the natural, hosting lands of enormous ecological, economic and cultural value. With Greece’s economy being based largely on agriculture in the past, traditional Greek agricultural landscapes present great socio-cultural importance; those landscapes, managed appropriately, could dynamically help combat climate issues, continue to provide services of high value and also present local character, tradition and culture. Yet, the acknowledgement of agricultural heritage, the creation of mixed productive socio-ecological profiles and the realization of governance schemes towards agricultural connections, such as linking traditional agricultural practices to the wider anthropogenic, ecological and recreational services, are in their infancy for many countries worldwide, including Greece. Landscape heritage is considered as important as archaeological and architectural heritage. In this paper, three examples of high importance Agricultural Heritage Landscapes (AHLs) are presented: the masticulture in Chios island; the black (Corinthian) raisin vineyards in Aigialeia (Egialia), Peloponnese; and the olive groves of Thassos island. Their importance is analyzed and strategic steps towards their acknowledgement, conservation and appropriate management are presented.

Forest Surface Changes and Cultural Values: The Forests of Tuscany (Italy) in the Last Century

Despite the definition of social and cultural values as the third pillar of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) in 2003 and the guidelines for their implementation in SFM in 2007 issued by the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forest in Europe (MCPFE), the importance of cultural values is not sufficiently transferred into forest planning and conservation. Tuscany is widely known for the quality of its cultural landscape, however, the abandonment of agro-pastoral surfaces as a consequence of rural areas depopulation, has led to widespread reforestation and to the abandonment of forest management. In addition, due to the interruption of a regular forest management and to the fact that most of the population lives in cities, forests are no more perceived as part of the cultural heritage, but mainly as a natural landscape. Due to this trend traditional forest management techniques, such as coppicing, have also been considered as a factor of degradation and not even a historical management form. The aim of the study is therefore to analyze forest surface changes in Tuscany in the last century to assess the importance of cultural values. Results highlighted that already in 1881 most of forests were regularly managed and that in 1936 more than 76% of broadleaved forests were managed as coppice. Between 1936 and 2016 forests increased their surface from 876,518 to 1,161,383 hectares due to the abandonment of the countryside, and 30% of the forests currently included in protected areas are the result of secondary successions. The findings of this study suggest the revision of national forest policies and, more in general, the adaptation of forest strategies to local conditions.