Forests Sourcebook - HCV Resource Network

Box 4.5
Tradeoffs Framework Used in the Alternatives to Slash-and-Burn Initiative
Successful employment of initiatives at the landscape
level requires a clear understanding and identification
of potential tradeoffs and opportunities for synergies.
An improved understanding should lead to reduced
power differentials among stakeholders, increased
equity in outcomes, and minimization of losses suffered
by specific stakeholder groups. Developing and adopting
a suitable framework for identifying and assessing
the various ecological, economic, and social tradeoffs
would facilitate such understanding and decision making
regarding which tradeoffs are acceptable.
ASB–Partnership for the Tropical Forest Margins
(ASB) is a global partnership of research institutes,
nongovernmental organizations, universities, community
organizations, farmers’ groups, and other local,
national, and international organizations. ASB works
at the nexus of two important problems: tropical
deforestation and human poverty. ASB focuses on
landscape mosaics (comprising both forests and agriculture)
where global environmental problems and
poverty coincide at the margins of remaining tropical
forests. ASB applies an integrated natural resource
management approach to analysis and action through
long-term engagement with local communities and
policy makers at various levels.
In the ASB matrix, natural forest and the land-use
systems that replace it are scored against different criteria
reflecting the objectives of different interest
groups. To enable results to be compared across locations,
the systems specific to each are grouped according
to broad categories, ranging from agroforests to
grasslands and pastures. The criteria may be fine-tuned
for specific locations, but the matrix always comprises
indicators for the following:
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two major global environmental concerns: carbon
storage and biodiversity
agronomic sustainability, assessed according to a
range of soil characteristics, including trends in
nutrients and organic matter over time
policy objectives: economic growth and employment
opportunities
smallholders’ concerns: their workloads, returns to
their labor, food security for their families, and
start-up costs of new systems or techniques
policy and institutional barriers to adoption by
smallholders, including the availability of credit,
markets, and improved technology
Below is an illustrative example of an ASB Summary
Matrix for the Forest Margins of Sumatra. This matrix
provides information on benefits at different scales
(based on rigorous analytical work). The matrix allows
researchers, policy makers, environmentalists, and others
to identify and discuss tradeoffs among the various
objectives of different interest groups.
ASB Summary Matrix: Forest Margins of Sumatra
Adoptability
Global Agronomic National policymakers’ by
Land-use environment sustainability concerns smallholders
Production
Plot-level Potential incentives
Carbon production profitability (at (at private
sequestration Biodiversity sustainability social prices) Employment prices)
Aboveground, Aboveground, Overall Returns Average Returns
time-averaged plant species/ rating to land labor input to labor
Description (tons/ha) standard plot (US$/ha) (days/ha/yr) (US$/day)
Natural forest 306 120 1 0 0 0
Community-based
forest management 136 100 1 11 0.2 4.77
Commercial logging 93 90 0.5 1080 31 0.78
Rubber agroforest 89 90 0.5 506 111 2.86
Oil palm monoculture 54 25 0.5 1653 108 4.74
Upland rice/bush tallow rotation 7 45 0.5 (117) 25 1.23
Continuous cassava degrading
to imperata 2 15 0 28 98 1.78
Source: Alternatives to Slash-and-Burn, Policy Brief 05, http://www.asb.cgiar.org/PDFwebdocs/PolicyBrief5.pdf.
CHAPTER 4: OPTIMIZING FOREST FUNCTIONS IN A LANDSCAPE 129