Mangrove restoration has become a popular strategy to ensure the critical functions and economic benefits of this ecosystem. This study conducts a meta-analysis of the peer-reviewed literature on the ...outcomes of mangrove restoration. On aggregate, restored mangroves provide higher ecosystem functions than unvegetated tidal flats but lower than natural mangrove stands (respectively RR' = 0.43, 95%CIs = 0.23 to 0.63; RR' = -0.21, 95%CIs = -0.34 to -0.08), while they perform on par with naturally-regenerated mangroves and degraded mangroves. However, restoration outcomes vary widely between functions and comparative bases, and are mediated by factors such as restoration age, species, and restoration method. Furthermore, mangrove restoration offers positive benefit-cost ratios ranging from 10.50 to 6.83 under variable discount rates (-2% to 8%), suggesting that mangrove restoration is a cost-effective form of ecosystem management. Overall, the results suggest that mangrove restoration has substantial potential to contribute to multiple policy objectives related to biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation and sustainable development.
Kenya is one of the leading countries in the development and commercialization of clean bioenergy stoves in Sub-Sahara Africa. However, due to a series of interconnected factors, the adoption and ...sustained use of clean bioenergy stoves remains low in the country. This study synthesizes the current knowledge about clean and efficient bioenergy stoves in Kenya through a comprehensive review that brings together the disparate knowledge about the context, status, adoption and impacts of clean bioenergy stoves in Kenya. We start by outlining the main national policies technological, options and stakeholders involved in the clean bioenergy stove value chain such as government agencies, private companies, research organisations, and the civil society. Despite their different roles and interests, there is a shared expectation among all involved stakeholders that clean bioenergy stoves will curb the negative sustainability impacts of traditional cooking options on energy security/poverty, human health, rural livelihoods, gender equality, and the environment. However, a series of factors affect the adoption and sustained use of clean bioenergy stoves such as market structure, consumer awareness, stove design/performance, and the socioeconomic status and cultural practices of stove users. We develop a conceptual framework that illustrates the interlinkages between these factors of adoption and impacts, and outline their varying degree of importance in Kenya. We finish this review by suggesting six policy and practice domains that need to be targeted by policies and research if an effective transition towards universal clean cooking is to be achieved in Kenya. These include to (a) adopt integrated policy approaches and enhance stakeholder collaboration; (b) raise awareness of the benefits of clean bioenergy cooking options; (c) facilitate access to funding and establish appropriate economic incentives; (d) implement quality assurance mechanisms; (e) facilitate behavioural change among stove users; (f) enhance research, development, and technical capacity.
•The promotion of clean cookstoves is a major policy priority in Kenya.•Clean bioenergy stoves have been promoted extensively in last decades in Kenya.•Various interlinked factors affect the adoption of clean bioenergy stoves in Kenya.•Clean bioenergy stoves have multiple environmental and socioeconomic impacts in Kenya.•Coordinated policy support and stakeholder engagement is needed to scale up clean stove adoption.
An extensive body of theoretical work has advocated the use of multiple human wellbeing indicators to assess the outcomes of agricultural investments in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). However, few studies ...have actually achieved it. This study investigates the human wellbeing outcomes of involvement in industrial crop production in Ghana by comparing the levels of different objective and subjective wellbeing measures for groups involved in industrial crop production as plantation workers and smallholders, and groups not involved (i.e. control groups). We use household income, adult consumption and the multidimensional poverty index (MPI) as indicators of objective wellbeing. We measure subjective wellbeing through self-reported levels of satisfaction with life, worthwhileness, happiness and anxiousness. Propensity Score Matching (PSM) analysis is used to assess whether involvement in industrial crop production increases household income and consumption. Overall, for most indicators of objective wellbeing industrial crop outgrowers, smallholders and independent smallholders are better off compared to other groups in their respective sites (in terms of mean scores), but involvement does not necessarily brings human wellbeing benefits (PSM analysis). On the other hand plantation workers are either worse off or have similar level of objective human wellbeing with control groups in their respective sites (in terms of mean scores), but involvement sometimes brings human wellbeing benefits (PSM analysis). However, workers tend to benefit from access to plantation infrastructure, which has a positive effect to their multi-dimensional poverty. In most cases the objective wellbeing measures do not correlate well with self-reported levels of subjective wellbeing. It is important to combine such indicators when evaluating the human wellbeing outcomes of agricultural investments in order to obtain a more comprehensive outlook of whether industrial crop production can become a valuable rural development strategy in SSA.
There is a wide consensus within policy, practice, and academic circles that the adoption of modern cooking options can benefit sub-Saharan Africa. Numerous studies have examined the various ...demographic, socioeconomic and institutional factors affecting the adoption of clean cooking options. However, most such studies did not properly consider how geographic and environmental factors and fuel availability can affect stove adoption. In this study we use a transect-based approach, from an area of high fuelwood abundance (a state forest) to an area of high fuelwood scarcity (the semi-arid interior of Muranga county) and a peri-urban area with many fuel options (the peri-urban area of Kiambu county). We survey 400 randomly selected households along the two transects from enumeration areas used in the Kenyan national census to understand how factors intersect to affect the adoption of improved biomass stoves as primary stoves. A probit analysis suggests that stove adoption depends not only on demographic and socioeconomic factors (e.g., income, education), but also on geographical and environmental factors that reflect biomass availability and accessibility, and market access. Female-headed households tend to have lower rates of improved biomass stove adoption, largely due to lower income and related enabling factors (e.g., education, land size). Through path analysis we identify that such households can improve their opportunities to adopt improved biomass stoves through better access to credit services and participation in social groups. Overall, this study suggests the need for non-uniform and spatially explicit stove promotion strategies informed by fuelwood availability and accessibility, and market access considerations. Such strategies that are conscious of local contexts could catalyze the large-scale adoption of clean cooking options in Kenya, and elsewhere on the continent.
Mountain social–ecological systems (SES) are often rich in biological and cultural diversity with sustained human–nature interactions. Many mountain SES are experiencing rapid environmental and ...socio-economic change, demanding viable action for conservation to sustain ecosystem services for the benefit of their communities. This paper is a synthesis of 71 case studies of mountain-specific SES, submitted to the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI) that identifies major drivers of change, associated impacts, and response strategies. We find that overexploitation, land use change, demographic change, and the regional economy are the most prevalent drivers of change in the IPSI mountain SES, leading to negative consequences for biodiversity, livelihoods, indigenous knowledge, and culture. To counter these challenges in the study SES, stakeholders from the public, private, and civil society sectors have been implementing diverse legal, behavioral, cognitive, technological, and economic response strategies, often with strong community participation. We outline the lessons learned from the IPSI case studies to show how community-based approaches can contribute meaningfully to the sustainable management of mountain landscapes.
► Biofuel production and use can affect ecosystem services, biodiversity and human wellbeing. ► Services include provisioning (food, fuel, water), regulating (climate, air, soil erosion) and cultural ...services. ► The MA conceptual framework can be used to make explicit the trade-offs of biofuel production and use.
First generation biofuels provide a number of ecosystem services (e.g., fuel, climate regulation) but they also compromise other ecosystem services (e.g., food, freshwater services) which are of paramount value to human wellbeing. However, this knowledge is fragmented and little is known about how the ecosystem services provided and/or compromised by biofuels link to human wellbeing. In fact, whether biofuels production and use can have a negative or positive impact on the environment and society depends on several interconnected factors. This paper provides a critical review of the drivers, impacts and tradeoffs of biofuel production and use. In particular, it rationalizes the evidence coming from diverse academic disciplines and puts it into perspective by employing the ecosystem services framework popularized by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA). An outcome of this systematic review is a simplified conceptual framework that illustrates the main trade-offs of biofuel production and use by employing a consistent language grounded on the concepts of ecosystem services. Given the almost complete lack of literature explicitly linking biofuels and ecosystem services, our review concludes by identifying priority research areas on the interface of biofuels, ecosystem services and human wellbeing.
Abstract
Cocoa and oil palm are the major commodity crops produced in Ghana and livelihood options for hundreds of thousands of rural households. However, their production has negative environmental ...and socioeconomic impacts. Certification standards have been promoted as a market-led mechanism to ensure their sustainable production. Even though food security does not feature in the theory of change of most certification standards, there are interesting intersections. This paper assesses the food security outcomes of certification adoption among cocoa and oil palm smallholders in Ghana. We analyse 608 household surveys from two study sites using propensity score matching and multiple standardized metrics of food security such as the Food Consumption Score (FCS), the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) and the Coping Strategies Index. Certified cocoa/oil palm farmers are more food secure than uncertified farmers and food crop farmers across most indicators and group comparisons. However, the differences are for most indicators not substantial or statistically significant (except the HFIAS). In fact, 65% and 68% of the certified cocoa and oil palm farmers are vulnerable to food insecurity in terms of the FCS. These results suggest that even though certification adoption can improve the livelihoods and yields of farmers, in reality it has marginal effect on food security. Certification standards would need to emphasize food security in their guidelines, theories of change and support packages to smallholders if they are to enhance food security and have a truly positive effect on the sustainability of cocoa and oil palm production.
Myanmar undergoes rapid urban expansion and experiences its negative impacts, often due to the loss of urban green spaces. National and local authorities lack sufficient knowledge, capacity and plans ...on how to preserve urban green spaces and benefit from their ecosystem services, with such gaps being particularly pronounced in the smaller secondary cities. This study focuses in such as secondary city, Pyin Oo Lwin, and analyzes land use and land cover (LULC) change, tree diversity and carbon stored in aboveground and belowground biomass, and soil. We focus on the main green spaces of the city, which contain different configurations of urban forest, grassland and agricultural land. Remote sensing analysis tracked LULC change between 1988 and 2018, and showed the extensive increase of built-up area, and the decline of urban forests and urban farms. Even though a substantial amount of green spaces has been converted to built-up land, the remaining urban green spaces are still serving as an important habitat for many different tree species, with a total of 82 species from 35 families observed in the different green spaces. Furthermore, these green spaces contain significant carbon stocks, which are, however, highly variable: botanical garden (383.67 t/ha), coffee farms (355.64 t/ha), monasteries (277.14 t/ha), golf course (208.45 t/ha), and seasonal farms (123.22 t/ha). Nevertheless, the extensive LULC change has reduced carbon stocks from 2.41 Mt (1988) to 1.65 Mt (2018). The findings of this study provide a better understanding of LULC change in secondary cities of Myanmar, and build an evidence base on how urban green spaces preservation and green infrastructure development can contribute to green economic transitions, and sustainable, resilient, and low-carbon cities in the country.
This perception mapping exercise elicits and synthesizes the perceptions of the main relevant stakeholder about the drivers, impacts, and challenges of cocoa and oil palm certification in Ghana. ...Through an institutional analysis, we identify the main stakeholders and elicit their perceptions through 36 expert interviews. Perceptions are rather diverse, reflecting stakeholder position in (and knowledge of) the certification processes for the two commodity crops. Most stakeholders perceive that market-related factors drive standard adoption, and financing-related constraints challenge their wide adoption. There are major trade-offs and power asymmetries in certification processes, manifesting differently, due to variations in the implementation approaches and overall regulations of the two value chains.
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