Take home message of Module I
There are different land-use approaches for balancing human welfare and the environment to maintain high yield while protecting, conserving and enhancing ecosystem functions.
Besides the presented approaches, there are more current approaches in discussion and research-based development. For example, forestry multi-business with oil palm, that is still in political and academical discussion. Also, intercropping is seen as a high potential, environmentally-wise alternative to established oil palm monoculture“, especially for young oil palm cultivation[40].
Collaborative farm-modelling for reconciling socioeconomic and ecological functions is also a promising research-based approach investigated and developed by EFForTS researchers (EFForTS C12 – Carola Paul). This approach takes the high heterogeneity of farmer’s needs, local conditions, and many other socioeconomic and ecological aspects into account.
Figure 25: Collaborative modelling with local stakeholder: Which degree of land-use diversification (ranging from monocultures, block-mixtures to agroforestry systems) might contribute to mitigating ecological-socioeconomic trade-offs? (EFForTS C12 – Carola Paul). Photo: Peter Glatzle
However, in this unit and the following two modules, we will mainly focus on research-based oil palm agroforestry.
