The multi-functional agroforestry system associating rainfed lowland rice and sugar palm (RLR-SP) hedges has been sustaining emblematic cultural landscapes in the Indianized countries of Southeast ...Asia for centuries. Often established in areas facing very constrained soil–water conditions, it played a crucial role in the agro-ecological, social and economic resilience of these agrarian systems. Recent changes in communication infrastructure, commercialization, urbanization, state interventions and private initiatives have driven the transformations of these iconic cultural landscapes, but analyses of their socio-ecological impacts on household livelihoods and landscapes features are lacking. In this study, we quantified and analysed the transformations of a coastal RLR-SP cultural landscape in Southeast Thailand. We used remote sensing data to characterize and quantify land-use change during 1983–2015, and interviews with diverse stakeholders to understand the impacts of the driving factors of change on livelihood systems. After the mid-1980s, market integration facilitated by the construction of bridges and all-weather roads led to the diversification of farming and off-farm activities, increasing the mobility of farm labourers sizing wage-earning opportunities in neighbouring urban centres. In the 1990s, the RLR-SP system faced the introduction of an irrigation canal, shrimp farming, tree plantations, and the partial conversion of deep-water rice areas into mixed gardens. More recently, the demand for sugar palm fruits by the caning industry has revived an interest in sugar palm groves. A policy to raise the farm incomes associated with palm oil companies supported the conversion of paddy fields into small oil palm plantations, which is the most important recent land-use change and future threat to the survival of the RLR-SP system. Like in other Southeast Asian coastal areas, the increased frequency of extreme climatic events is another major threat faced by this emblematic but increasingly vulnerable cultural agroecosystem. The profitable and land/water resource efficient association of the RLR-SP system with commercial vegetable production on diversified smallholdings is a promising way towards a more sustainable landscape management that could be supported by improving on-farm water storage.
PurposeThis paper aims to uncover new factors that influence the spread of malaria.Design/methodology/approachThe historical data related to malaria were collected from government agencies. Later, ...the data were cleaned and standardized before passing through the analysis process. To obtain the simplicity of these numerous factors, the first procedure involved in executing the factor analysis where factors' groups related to malaria distribution were determined. Therefore, machine learning was deployed, and the confusion matrices are computed. The results from machine learning techniques were further analyzed with logistic regression to study the relationship of variables affecting malaria distribution.FindingsThis research can detect 28 new noteworthy factors. With all the defined factors, the logistics model tree was constructed. The precision and recall of this tree are 78% and 82.1%, respectively. However, when considering the significance of all 28 factors under the logistic regression technique using forward stepwise, the indispensable factors have been found as the number of houses without electricity (houses), number of irrigation canals (canals), number of shallow wells (places) and number of migrated persons (persons). However, all 28 factors must be included to obtain high accuracy in the logistics model tree.Originality/valueThis paper may lead to highly-efficient government development plans, including proper financial management for malaria control sections. Consequently, the spread of malaria can be reduced naturally.
The diversity and abundance of marine crabs from a collapsible crab trap fishery at Kung Krabaen Bay, Gulf of Thailand, were observed from August 2012 to June 2013 using 10 sampling stations. The ...results showed that there were seven families, 11 genera and 17 species (two anomuran and 15 brachyuran crabs). The two anomuran species were
(1,710 individuals) and
(558 individuals). For brachyuran crabs, Portunidae was the most common family, including 10 species. The dominant species of brachyuran crabs included
(897 individuals),
(806 individuals),
(344 individuals),
sp. (201 individuals), and
(100 individuals). The abundance of crabs was affected by the habitat type. Anomuran crabs had the highest abundance in
seagrass beds, whilst brachyurans had the highest abundance in
seagrass beds. The dominant brachyuran species were found in pelagic areas near the bay mouth, such as
,
,
,
,
,
, and
. Lastly, reforested mangroves were important habitats for
and
. Seasonal and physical factors influenced the abundance of some crabs, for example, the abundance of
was correlated with temperature, and the abundance of
was correlated with transparency depth. Our results revealed that Kung Krabaen Bay serves as the home to many marine crab species; however, our results also revealed that 49% of the harvested crabs (2,308 out of 4,694 individuals) were simply discarded and subsequently died. Moreover, our research noted that eight non-target species will become target species in the near future. Therefore, research on the reproductive biology of some marine crabs and an improved understanding of the importance of marine crabs by local fishermen are necessary to prevent biodiversity degradation and loss in this area.
Background
A green roof is a man-made ecosystem created when a rooftop is covered with substrate and vegetation. Although green roof ecosystems (GREs) are able to provide ecosystem services, there is ...currently no assessment tool available to specifically evaluate this. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a rapid assessment checklist (RAC) to assess GRE services (GRES), which was developed and tested on 10 green roofs in Bangkok, Thailand.
Results
The RAC consisted of 46 proxy indicators (33 qualitative and 13 quantitative indicators) encompassing various aspects of GRESs. The GRES values or scores varied according to structural differences in the green roofs. The average score (from a maximum of 100) of total ecosystem services was 61 ± 7, which could be inferred as a good performance in ecosystem service provision. The highest scores were obtained from the regulating services at 68 ± 7. The lowest average score was 53 ± 11 from the provisioning services.
Conclusions
The RAC was able to evaluate the levels of GRES provided by the selected green roofs, enabling the meaningful comparison of their potential capability to provide GRES. Therefore, this RAC could be an innovative tool for evaluation of four categories of GRES.
Background. Many Thai farmers who live in national parks farmlands lack a formal education. They usually lack of knowledge on soil quality improvement and proper use of fertilizer. They illegally ...trespass in forest areas because of soil deterioration in their own limited expanses of farmland. Consequently, most of them are arrested, creating individual and family problems.
Aim. This “soil analysis and appropriate fertilizer use game” (SAAFU game) was designed for farmers having low-formal education to realize the soil analysis before planting and improve the appropriate chemical fertilizer usage.
Method.This quasi-experiential research used pre- and post-tests to evaluate the game session processes and learning of the players. The important steps were: 1) analysis of soil in the land box; 2) making decisions to buy fertilizer; 3) calculating, harvesting and selling products. Debriefing was also used to discuss and exchange their knowledge and experiences. Follow up process was also performed.
Results. The pre- and post-test score showed the better understanding of appropriate fertilizer use of the players. Soon after the gaming sessions, players went to their fields and collected 31 soil samples for soil nutrient analysis. Players also disseminated knowledge to their relatives and neighbors. As a result, non-players of Dongbak(22), Wangmon(9) and Chaimongkol(2) collected soil samples for soil nutrient analysis. Moreover, they grouping together to buy quicklime and fertilizers to get cheaper price.
Conclusion. This simple game can be used effectively with farmers having low-formal education. After the game and simulation, most of them realized how important of soil nutrients and soil analysis before planting and were able to teach their relatives and neighbours about soil collecting. This indicated the successful of this game.
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•Explores how co-production processes can enable sustainability transformations.•Four archetypes can hinder transformation: hero, host, woodpecker, genie.•Co-productive agility opens ...up multiple pathways to transformation.•Introduces a framework to enable agility in sustainability transformations.•Challenges the tendency to close down rather than open up agendas for change.
Co-production, the collaborative weaving of research and practice by diverse societal actors, is argued to play an important role in sustainability transformations. Yet, there is still poor understanding of how to navigate the tensions that emerge in these processes. Through analyzing 32 initiatives worldwide that co-produced knowledge and action to foster sustainable social-ecological relations, we conceptualize ‘co-productive agility’ as an emergent feature vital for turning tensions into transformations. Co-productive agility refers to the willingness and ability of diverse actors to iteratively engage in reflexive dialogues to grow shared ideas and actions that would not have been possible from the outset. It relies on embedding knowledge production within processes of change to constantly recognize, reposition, and navigate tensions and opportunities. Co-productive agility opens up multiple pathways to transformation through: (1) elevating marginalized agendas in ways that maintain their integrity and broaden struggles for justice; (2) questioning dominant agendas by engaging with power in ways that challenge assumptions, (3) navigating conflicting agendas to actively transform interlinked paradigms, practices, and structures; (4) exploring diverse agendas to foster learning and mutual respect for a plurality of perspectives. We explore six process considerations that vary by these four pathways and provide a framework to enable agility in sustainability transformations. We argue that research and practice spend too much time closing down debate over different agendas for change – thereby avoiding, suppressing, or polarizing tensions, and call for more efforts to facilitate better interactions among different agendas.
Coastal agricultural systems in Southeast Asia are vulnerable to climate change. The combination of rising sea levels and extreme rainfall events is eroding fragile coastlines that protect emblematic ...“rice bowls” across the region. A series of recent damaging floods in Southeastern Thailand has raised concerns about their increased frequency. Local and regional trends in rainfall variables relevant to farming were investigated using the resampling-based Mann–Kendall test applied to four rainfall stations of the Songkhla lagoon basin during the period 1957–2019. Using the findings from long-term and multi-scale agrarian change surveys based on Mazoyer and Roudard’s methodology, a vulnerability framework was used to assess the sensitivity and response capacity to these trends of the great Songkhla spit agroecosystem. Significant positive trends in the rainfall depth, number of rainy days, and maximum daily rainfall were observed in January at individual stations and across the region, especially since the early 1980s. Moreover, the annual frequency of extreme rainfall events consistently increased over the same period. The impacts on the unstable coastal main sandbar that protects the flood plain are discussed, while the effects on rice production are analyzed. The coping responses of the cultural rice and sugar palm-based agroforestry system, and the lack of adaptation of recent land-use changes are examined. The agro-ecological, economic, and social importance of the dense hedges of sugar palms to mitigate climatic risks and maintain the resilience of local livelihood systems is underlined. Propositions for short and longer-term measures to adapt water management, diversify cropping systems, and foster participatory disaster risk management are made.
Ethnic minorities living in the highlands of northern Thailand have long been accused of degrading the upper watersheds of the country's major basins. In the nineties, the Thai government reinforced ...his environmental policies and further restricted their access to farm and forest resources. In the meanwhile, the policy framework also favoured decentralization and public participation. This contradiction resulted in an increasing number of conflicts over land-use between local communities and state agencies. This situation underlines the need for adapted participatory methodologies to facilitate the coordination of multiple stakeholders with competing interests. Companion Modelling (ComMod) is one of them. When drawing the lessons from many past participatory projects, several authors highlight their limited impact due to the lack of support at higher institutional levels. Moreover, because of a lack of attention to the local socio-political situations, the less powerful stakeholders were often left behind. This article discusses the usefulness of an area diagnostic study prior to the launch of a ComMod process to avoid such pitfalls and to facilitate genuine communication among stakeholders within and across institutional levels. The article is illustrated by a ComMod experiment conducted in Nan province and is focusing on a conflict between two Yao communities and a recently established national park. We argue that a relatively short but well-structured initial agrarian and institutional analysis to assess the various stakeholders' characteristics, perceptions of the issue to be solved, and interactions is useful to identify the constraints to an equitable outcome of a subsequent participatory process. Such an area diagnosis can also be used to tailor the ComMod process in order to mitigate these constraints. Moreover, an understanding of the initial resource management situation is necessary to be able to monitor changes and to assess the effects of the participatory process.
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