Thumbnail Image

Assessing and promoting trees outside forests (TOF) in Asian rice production landscapes

The Asia regional rice initiative Biodiversity, landscapes & ecosystem services in Rice Production Systems

Year of publication 2014

Pages 37 p.

Author Borelli, S.;Conigliaro, M.

Product type Book (stand-alone)

ISBN 978-92-5-108611-7

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) Mature planted or spontaneous tree systems scattered throughout or surrounding agricultural landscapes have been proven to be an excellent source of goods and services for increasing the socio-economic and environmental sustainability of agricultural landscapes. In spite of this, their role in supporting the livelihoods and the well-being of rice-based smallholder farmer communities and in environmental sustainability is mostly overlooked. Consequently, their potential contribution is still far from being fully exploited. The “Assessment of Trees outside forests in Asian rice production landscapes” pilot project was developed in 2013 in the framework (Biodiversity, landscape, and ecosystem services) of the FAO Regional Rice Initiative for Asia, with the final objective of providing policy and decision makers with evidence of the contribution that tree systems located in rice production landscapes can provide in terms of socio-economic and environmental sustainability, as well as in ter ms of resilience. This document reports on the outcomes of the project and could be used as a reference to feed higher-level national and regional dialogues, in order to promote an integrated and sustainable approach to the management of rice production landscapes.

Language English

Also available in:
No results found.

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Thumbnail Image
    Document
    The Role of Forests, Trees and Wild Biodiversity for Nutrition-Sensitive Food Systems and Landscapes 2013
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    Many contend that in order to overcome the world’s nutrition problems, nutrition must become a crosscutting issue, with concrete commitment and attention from a wide range of disciplines. From this assertion has grown the promotion of nutrition-sensitive approaches to economic growth, development, agriculture and food systems (nutrition-specific interventions target malnutrition directly, whereas nutrition-sensitive interventions target the causes of malnutrition by integrating nutrition into po licies and programs in diverse sectors). There have been repeated calls for the international community to prioritize identification ways to leverage agriculture (and agricultural landscapes) to enhance nutrition (and health). Land use change is an often overlooked driver of change in diets, nutrition and food security, especially for rural communities. The synergies between food systems approaches to food security and nutrition and landscape approaches to integrated biodiversity and forest cons ervation should be explored and built on. Forests and trees support food security and nutrition in a number of ways. Forests and wild biodiversity provide nutritionally important foods (including fruits, vegetables, bush meat, fish and insects), that contribute to the diversity and nutritional quality of diets of people living in heterogeneous landscapes. Forests and trees provide fuelwood, an essential and often overlooked component of the food systems in rural areas across the globe. Forests a nd tree products make invaluable contributions to the income of people living in and around them, often providing the only means of accessing the cash economy, thus enabling access to nutritious foods through purchasing. Forests also sustain resilience: forest products are often consumed more frequently in times of food scarcity and can provide livelihood safety nets. When they reach markets, forest and tree products can contribute to the nutrition-sensitivity of global food systems (approximate ly 53% of the fruit available for consumption globally is produced by trees), especially when market chains are supported and developed in a nutrition-sensitive manner. Biodiversity, forests and trees outside forests also provide an array of ecosystem services essential for the sustainability and nutriton-senstivity of agricultural systems (e.g. pollination, water provisioning, genetic resources). A better understanding of the importance of these relationships, and the spatial scales at which th ey function, is needed to ensure they are not overlooked in policy and practice.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Brochure, flyer, fact-sheet
    Trees outside Forest in Asian Rice Production Landscapes 2014
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    At global level, trees outside forest represent a significant tree resource whose management concerns a very wide range of stakeholders, but as yet has not been well recognized or addressed in policy considerations.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Book (stand-alone)
    Agroforestry in rice production landscapes in Southeast Asia: a practical manual 2017
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    This publication represents an output of work conducted on trees outside forests (TOF) as part of Regional Rice Initiative (RRI) Phase 2. It provides practical information on the status, benefits and techniques related the use of TOF in rice production landscapes in Southeast Asia. The manual describes the main rice-based farming systems in Southeast Asia, discusses the potential of agroforestry in enhancing the livelihood of smallholder farmers in rice growing areas in Southeast Asia, and gives an overview of traditional and innovative practices integrating trees in rice-based farms and landscapes. The manual also provides practical information to guide the planning, design and management of agroforestry in rice production systems in Southeast Asia, including case studies from several countries in the region.
Show more

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

No results found.