Browsing by Subject "Indikator"

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Measurement of sustainability at farm-level : stakeholders perceptions and indicators of the social dimension
(2020) Herrera Sabillon, Beatriz Soledad; Knierim, Andrea
While there is a consensus between researchers, decision makers and consumers that an operationalization of the concept of sustainability is necessary, there exist huge disagreements on how to transform the multidimensional concept of sustainability into usable metrics. Due to the multiple actors involved, diverse objectives and complex interactions, the selection of metrics to be monitored is expected to be science-based, but also relevant to the main concerns of the stakeholders. This dissertation address these gaps investigating stakeholders’ arguments about the suitability of a set of sustainability indicators in an accountancy agricultural information system for policy evaluation. The research is framed in the FP7 EU-Project Farm Level Indicators for New Topics in Policy Evaluation (FLINT). The thesis pursues two objectives: i)to elicit stakeholders’ perceptions about the adoption of sustainability indicators into an established farm accountancy data system and ii)to contribute to assess the usefulness of collecting indicators of social sustainability at farm-level. The first objective is reached by exploring the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) stakeholders’ perceptions on feasibility and usefulness of a set of sustainability indicators. Using discussion groups and semi-structured interviews in nine European countries, we collected arguments about the measurement of sustainability at farm level. Participant stakeholders identified that the request of sustainability information of the farm is already taking place under simultaneous, embedded and sometimes overlapping requirements from regulations, markets or research agents. We found that stakeholders have diverging perceptions toward the value of that information, especially for those indicators not expected to be used for farm-level decision making. For the second objective, two empirical studies were conducted using an integrated data set of FADN and FLINT project in a sample of 1100 FADN farms distributed in nine countries. In the first study we explored the linkage between the use of advisory services by farm managers and the economic, environmental and social performance of farms. We identified three clusters of farms that have a different sustainability performance and that relate differently to advisory services. In the three groups of farms, the number of contacts with advisory services is positively correlated with the adoption of innovations, the number of information sources and the adoption of farm risk management measures. We failed to find linear relationship between advisory services and environmental and social sustainability. The second study investigated the influence of farm-level factors in farmers’ satisfaction with farming and its relationship with the level of satisfaction they have with their overall quality of life. We propose a path model using a Structural Equation Model-Partial Least Squares approach, testing the validity and reliability of a farmers’ work satisfaction construct and determining on how far the farm variables are related with it. Results suggest that while it is valid and reliable to measure work satisfaction as a construct, the farm level data that is currently available explains farmers’ satisfaction with their own standard and values only partially. Therefore a metric that measures those values should be further developed and tested. This doctoral dissertation contributes to the identification and prioritization of standardized indicators of farm-level sustainability. Two main learnings can be implied from the findings. The first one is that ontological differences between the agents that are involved in the functioning and evolvement of an information system can be identified (but not solved) applying inter and transdisciplinary research methods. The second one is that standardized indicators of social sustainability are desirable, feasible and useful to be collected and integrated in the same data sets with economic and environmental indicators. That said, due to the complexity of the relationship between sustainability dimensions, the value of standardization of indicators is limited by how are they going to be used.
Participatory evaluation of sustainability of farming systems in the Philippines
(2010) Vilei, Sonja; Dabbert, Stephan
Forest cover in the Philippines has been greatly reduced in the past and slightly recovered since, estimated at around 24% of land surface currently. Small-scale farmers have to survive on small landholdings (2 ha on average and mostly under 5 ha), face insecure land tenure, and the high population density leaves little scope for gaining new agricultural land. Their farming systems continue to form an important part of their livelihoods, but often their strategies are unsustainable in the long run. While the need for evaluating common farming systems and compare them with new alternatives exists, it is important to involve local stakeholders in the search for suitable sustainability indicators. In this study, the search was based on the Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Framework and therefore organised under its five types of capital assets: natural, financial, physical, human and social capital. Farmers from five study sites along the Western side of the island of Leyte were gathered in eight focus group discussions to discuss the issues of success and sustainability of their farming systems and identify and rank possible criteria for an evaluation of sustainability. Nine other stakeholders from the same sites were interviewed individually. In a second research phase, all 49 identified criteria were given to 30 farmers and 18 other stakeholders for ranking. Three groups of farmers from the municipality of Baybay were used for comparison: one group of rice and coconut farmers; a second group with (additional) exotic timber trees (usually Gmelina and Acacia mangium); a third group with (additional) indigenous timber trees (?Rainforestation Farming?). The identified indicators were tested regarding their usefulness for comparing the three groups of farmers. Rainforestation Farming, as promising alternative farming system, was analysed further regarding financial aspects and its adoptability with regard to small-scale farmers. The Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Framework was useful for identifying suitable evaluation criteria. The importance of the five capital assets groups was perceived similarly by farmers and other stakeholders, but ranking results for single criteria (i.e. soil quality, membership in organisation) differed. The same holds true when comparing results for the four study regions, where the individual ranking was carried out: significant differences existed for single, mostly financial, criteria (i.e. record-keeping, investment costs) but not for importance of the five capital asset groups. The ranking results differed quite substantially, though, between focus groups and individual farmers, indicating on the one hand the influence of group leaders. But, on the other hand, farmers had the complete list of criteria for the individual ranking, including several criteria which they had not thought of previously, but which they still regard as important. Fifteen criteria were selected as indicators for comparing the three farmers groups. Rainforestation farmers were the group scoring significantly higher on most indicators (i.e education level adults and children, land available per capita, (perceived) soil quality, number of soil conservation measures used, membership in organisation) than farmers without timber trees. Farmers having planted exotic timber trees scored closer to Rainforestation farmers. But to be able to judge if the specific farming system leads to a more sustainable livelihood, time series data would have been necessary. The data of this study allowed concluding that tree farmers planting (indigenous or exotic) timber trees are endowed with higher resources ? more land, higher income, higher education levels. Most likely they had these resources before starting their farming systems. In addition, these farmers were also more actively engaged in organisations and had more contact to extension agents, therefore enhancing their social (and human) capital. The higher score regarding (perceived) soil quality and (non-) use of pesticides these farmers groups reached are likely to be an outcome of the farming system practiced. Analysing the financial feasibility and adoptability of Rainforestation Farming, it shows that the system has the potential to be profitable, but coming with a high risk: investment costs are very high and it takes up to 13 years to regain them. Consequently, the first adopters either had unused land areas or substantial off-farm income, and the subsequent adoption rate is low. Sustainability has to be understood as a dynamic and not a static concept and the concept of sustainable land management must consequently evolve as well. This study tried to add further findings regarding the use of suitable methods for this cause, but as already mentioned above, time series data would be necessary to assess the progress of farming systems towards ?sustainability?.
Reconciling indigenous and scientific ecosystem and soil fertility indicators in swidden systems of Northern Thailand
(2021) Tongkoom, Krittiya; Cadisch, Georg
Crop rotations in today’s swidden systems of Northern Thailand typically include five to ten years of fallow. Regarding ecosystem functions, these systems are relatively close to secondary forests when compared to modern agricultural systems; but they are under pressure for intensification, i.e. shortened fallow periods. In general, criteria are needed to decide whether fallow duration can be reduced, safeguarding ecosystem restoration and provision of food and income for farmers. Acknowledging that a comprehensive assessment would cover multiple aspects, our study focuses on the role of fallow duration on tree community succession and use abundances of tree species considered as soil fertility indicators. We studied recovery indicators of tree communities at two potential broad-leaved forest climax sites that differ in soils, forest type and agricultural intensification: An intensive system of one-year upland rice, then one- to two-year maize cultivation with synthetic inputs followed by six years fallow; and an extensive system with one-year upland rice cultivation without agrochemicals and ten years fallow. In a case study village of extensive site, we investigated in how far abundance of indicator tree species corresponded to measured soil fertility parameters and whether an extended list of indicator species could improve prediction of these soil properties. Contrasting systems were chosen to test the applicability of our indicators, not to compare their management practices. From 2010 to 2011, eight variables related to stand structure and tree diversity and four soil properties were either monitored or surveyed in chronosequence plots representing different fallow ages. For each variable, means per fallow year were compared by least squares means (LS-means), and quadratic regressions from mixed models were fitted. Significant differences between LS-means and optima of regressions served to distinguish fallow stages and served as indicators of recovery and system stability. Stepwise multiple regressions confirmed fallow age as main determinant for most variables. Tree species indicator also identify by the component of multiple linear regressions function of each interested soil properties. Numbers of tree species and diversity index recovered to levels of the previous rotation within the respective fallow time, but in both systems were far from climax communities, probably due to seed-bank depletion and shift toward resprouting species. While species dominance changed over time in the extensive system, the intensive system was dominated by a single species. In the extensive system only tree density passed a peak during the fallow period, while biomass-related variables approached plateaus. In combination with the replacement of early fallow species, this points to the onset of competition and transition between successional stages. For the intensive system, no structural variable passed a maximum. With only one of eight indicators on the extensive site fulfilling the statistical criterion of passing a peak during the prevailing fallow time, reducing fallow periods is not recommended for our cases. Generally, combining LS-means and quadratic regression allowed assessing fallow duration based on distinct successional stages at different sites. The approach should include various relevant site-specific indicators, in our case representing biomass and carbon storage, species and structural diversity, considered crucial for both sites. From interview on the extensive site, farmers listed 11 tree species that relate to certain soil quality related properties. They named indicators of good soils for cropping, inappropriate soils for upland rice cropping and hard soils. Botanical tree inventories on 135 plots of one to ten years fallow age were conducted. Abundances of farmers’ indicator on one hand as well as inventory species on the other were introduced into different regression models to predict soil fertility parameters measured on the same plots. Both models were then compared regarding predictive power. Measured fertility parameters such as soil organic matter (SOM), pH, plant available phosphorus (Pav) - related to farmers’ criteria ‘good soil’ or inappropriate for rice cropping’ - as well as bulk density (BD, for ‘hard soil’), changed significantly during the fallow period, initially towards temporary pessima in years 6 to 7 followed by recovery towards year ten. Most indicator species, like Macaranga denticulata for Pav or Dalbergia cultrata for SOM, were clearly related to the soil quality characteristics attributed to them by farmers. Only in one case a species used as farmer indicator for hard soils was selected by multiple regression as predictor for high Pav. Including all tree species found during inventories into multiple regressions significantly improved predictions of measured soil parameters by AIC > |2|. Ten additional species from the survey model had potential to improve the farmer indicator model. Relative density, i.e. abundance of indicator tree species over abundance of all species, did not always match soil properties dynamics, so that the use of the regressions appears more informative for cropping decisions. Our approach to relate indicator species and measured soil parameters is not site-specific, but parameters are. Applicability of the approach could be extended if further farmer criteria such as weed suppression, represented by tree structure parameters as predictors of adequate fallow age, would complement soil fertility indicators. Based on the development of the multiple indicators of recovery of ecosystem services and soil fertility, it is not recommended to reduce fallow age at the two investigated study sites.
Sustainability assessment and education for sustainability in the Russian Federation on the example of Tambov region
(2021) Bezgin, Anna; Doluschitz, Reiner
Over the past few decades economic growth has come at the expenses of the environments and the topic of sustainable development is becoming more important. Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The main aim of this dissertation was to investigate the available methodologies of sustainability assessment and to test which of them could be suitable for Russian conditions. Russia is an interesting subject for research as, it has its own history of sustainability science, but quite often the commitment to sustainable development is only in rhetoric and there are some problems with the interpretation of the concept of sustainable development. For example, in Russian official documents the term sustainability is used as a synonym for stable economic growth. The focus of the research was a creation of an indicator system for a regional sustainability assessment on the example of Tambov region of the Russian Federation. At the first stage of the research a regional assessment was performed with the help of the United Nations set of sustainable development indicators, SWOT analysis was performed to identify the main strengths and problems in the region. Also, the availability of statistical data and relevancy for the research region of the indicators was checked. During the next stage of the research a composite indicator was created using different techniques for normalization of indicator and weighting. Then robustness and sensitivity analysis of created indicators was performed, the results were visualised, and composite indicators were decomposed to explain the drivers of the aggregated results. The result of this work has shown that composite indicators together with regional assessment on the base of sustainability indicators are the tools that could support policymakers in sustainability decision-making. There are some problems with the availability of the statistical data in Russia, and there is no monitoring mechanism at the federal district level and lack of coordination with work of statistical agencies. This research is confirming a necessity of further research, and a need to develop a monitoring and assessment system in Russian Federation. The second part of the research was devoted to education for sustainable development. UNESCO is stressing that the approach of Education for Sustainable Development empowers learners to take informed decisions and responsible actions for environmental integrity, economic viability, and a just society for present and future generations, and therefore education is playing a crucial role in reaching sustainability (UNESCO, 2017). The aim of this research was to see how the sustainability topics are integrated into the curriculum of the agricultural universities, to define the sources of integration and research possible problems and formulate the recommendations for strengthening the integration. To research the education for sustainable development in Russia first a literature review was conducted, followed by 16 semi-structured interviews with the representatives of 8 universities. The research confirmed the fact that sustainability is present as a topic in the official documents, for example educational standard, but this mention remains only rhetorical and does not provide the background for the establishment of a framework for integration of sustainability concept. As a result, the integration into education is mostly driven by the personal initiative of the teaching staff. There is a clear demand for an integration framework of sustainability topics in the federal state educational standard. The main problems are uncoordination and competition between departments and ministries, overload of teachers, lack of best-practices, absence of system in the education and limited financing. These problems could be mitigated with creation of interdepartmental centres, creation of interdisciplinary working groups, creation of a systematic concept of education for sustainability and involvement of different stakeholders into educational projects, but the success of these measures depends on the general approach and if the importance of sustainability will be present only in official documents, then there will be no shift in integration, and everything will depend only on individual initiative of teachers.