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About the project - COMTESS

Climate change threatens coastal areas of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea primarily through accelerated sea level rise, increasing storm surges, and increasing winter rainwater discharge. Accelerating sea level rise and changes in hydrological cycles are likely to affect coastal ecosystems and may restrict the efficiency of existing protective measures in the future.

Based on a stakeholder analysis and iterative stakeholder involvement, COMTESS performed an inter- and transdisciplinary investigation of four land management options, applied to the German coastal regions of the North and Baltic Seas: (1) In the “Trend” land management option, a continuation of the current land management is expected. This form of management, however, may be seriously affected by flooding and associated costs for water drainage, which reduce the ecological and economic viability of this land use. (2) “Water management/multiple land use” (for the North Sea and Baltic Sea, respectively), stands for investigating the influence of freshwater polders (at the North Sea) and managed realignment (at the Baltic Sea) on the drainage capabilities and on salinization. The primary goal is to strengthen the resilience of the coastal zones against sea level rise and increased winter precipitation. (3) In the “Carbon sequestration” management option the coastal areas are dominated by natural reed stands that lead to active peat accumulation and removal of carbon from the atmosphere. This land management option shows how natural vegetation can be restored if agricultural land use is abandoned.

These three land management options serve as a basis for the fourth, “actor-based” land management option, developed by local and regional stakeholders. Interviews and other methods were used to create this option according to the expectations and interests of the participating stakeholders. All four land management options were combined with three climate change scenarios and three sea level rise scenarios in a spatiotemporal explicit, full-factorial design. For two regions at the North Sea and Baltic Sea coast, COMTESS used ecological production functions to predict the effects of these combinations on the following ecosystem services: forage production, biomass production for biogas, carbon sequestration, water retention, sense of belonging, touristic attractiveness, feeling of safety, and plant and bird conservation value. These predictions were made in yearly time steps until 2100. For the spatial transfer of results to other coastal regions, additional ecological studies were performed in the Netherlands (Zeeland) and in Denmark (Aarhus region).

Funding period: January 2011 to December 2017
Funding: 3.3 million Euros
Leading research institution: Institute of Biology and Environmental Sciences University of Oldenburg

Interview

with the project head Michael Kleyer

Which were the most important scientific results in the field of sustainable landmanagement?

First result: Dykes at the North Sea are relatively safe. The main consequence of climate change may not be catastrophic inundations by storm surges, but rather drowning by rain water, as natural discharge of surface freshwater will probably be impossible in the future, when the sea level may rise above the land elevation even at ebb tide.
Second result: Soils matter. At the North Sea coast, thick clay layers seal the surface from deeper aquifers connected to the sea. Therefore, surface water can effectively be pumped into the sea, even with higher sea levels in the future. In contrast, the soils of the Baltic Sea coastline are sandy and very well permeable for sea water. In case of sea level rise, pumping is no option, because sea water will immediately flow back into the drained areas as subterranean groundwater, even if the coast is protected by dykes. This makes the Baltic Sea coast more vulnerable to sea level rise than the North Sea coast.
Third result: Carbon sequestration by peat formation is not as straightforward as we assumed. Under freshwater conditions, carbon sequestration by peat formation is offset by methane production when water levels are variable between years. This is a critical issue for the land management options involving water retention polders. However, if saline water is allowed to permeate in the polders, methane production does not take place. This points to a polder solution which connects sea water with freshwater.
Fourth result: Trade-offs between ecosystem services are often resolved by separation in space. For instance, the trade-off between forage production and biodiversity conservation is resolved by allocating conservation areas in front of the dyke and production areas behind the dyke. With sea level rise, however, the separation approach in coastal spatial planning is no longer feasible and integrative approaches are necessary in the future.

What were the lessons learnt from the COMTESS project?

It is possible to predict ecosystem service outputs until year 2100 and to analyze trade-offs in a spatiotemporal explicit way, something rarely done so far. However, with a modelling chain as complicated as in COMTESS, mistakes during the collection of primary data can substantially delay the completion of the project.

In which way can the results of COMTESS be transferred into other regions of the world or into practice?

Coastal regions are among the most vulnerable regions in the world, due to combined effects of changes in temperatures and precipitation on the one hand and sea level rise on the other hand. Our results are transferable to other coastal regions worldwide also characterized by land elevations close to sea level.

Prof. Dr. Michael Kleyer works at the University of Oldenburg.

Publications

Kliesch, S., Behr, L., Salzmann, T., Miegel, K. (2016): Simulation des Grundwasserhaushalts in ausgewählten Niederungsgebieten an der deutschen Ostseeküste. Hydrologie und Wasserbewirtschaftung, 60(2): 108–118.
URL: https://doi.org/10.5675/HyWa_2016,2_1

Lara, J.L., Maza, M., Ondiviela, B., Trinogga, J., Losada, I.J., Bouma, T.J., Gordejuela, N. (2016): Large-scale 3-D experiments of wave and current interaction with real vegetation. Part 1: Guidelines for physical modeling. Coastal Engineering, 107: 70–83.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coastaleng.2015.09.012

Miegel, K., Selle, B., Gräff, T., Walther, M., Salzmann, T., Behr, L., Oswald, S., Bronstert, A. (2016): Wasserhaushalt und Salzdynamik eines küstennahen Niedermoores im Grenzbereich zwischen Binnenland und Ostsee unter sich ändernden Bedingungen. Forum für Hydrologie und Wasserbewirtschaftung, 37.16: 45–54.
URL: https://doi.org/10.14617/for.hydrol.wasbew.37.16

Witte, S., Giani, L. (2016): Greenhouse gas emission and balance of marshes at the Southern North Sea coast. Wetlands, 36(1): 121–132.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-015-0722-7

Engler, J.O., Baumgärtner, S. (2015): Model choice and size distribution: A Bayequentist approach. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 97(3): 978–997.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1093/ajae/aau034

Fritz-Vietta, N.V.M., de la Vega-Leinert, A.C., Stoll-Kleemann, S. (2015): Landscape change in the Fischland-Darß-Zingst region (Northern Germany) – Implications for local people’s sense of regional belonging. In: Stoll-Kleemann, Susanne (ed.) (2015): Local Perceptions and Preferences for Landscape and Land Use in the Fischland-Darß-Zingst Region, German Baltic Sea, Greifswalder Geographische Arbeiten 51: 1–40, Institut für Geographie und Geologie der Ernst-Moritz-Arndt Universität Greifswald.
URL: https://geo.uni-greifswald.de/fileadmin/uni-greifswald/fakultaet/mnf/geowissenschaften/Arbeitsbereiche_Geographie/Nachhaltigkeitswissenschaften/Seite_Mitarbeiter/Publikationen/Fritz-Vietta/GGA_51_-_Teil_1.pdf

Maza, M., Lara, J.L., Losada, I.J., Ondiviela, B., Trinogga, J., Bouma, T.J. (2015): Large-scale 3-D experiments of wave and current interaction with real vegetation. Part 2: Experimental analysis. Coastal Engineering, 106: 73–86.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coastaleng.2015.09.010

de la Vega-Leinert, A.C., Stoll-Kleemann, S. (2015): Identifying gaps between science, policy and societal perspectives on coastal land use: the case of managed realignment in Darß – Zingst region, Mecklenburg Western Pomerania, Eastern German Baltic coast. In: Stoll-Kleemann, Susanne (ed.) (2015): Local Perceptions and Preferences for Landscape and Land Use in the Fischland-Darß-Zingst Region, German Baltic Sea, Greifswalder Geographische Arbeiten 51: 41–67, Institut für Geographie und Geologie der Ernst-Moritz-Arndt Universität Greifswald.
URL: https://geo.uni-greifswald.de/fileadmin/uni-greifswald/fakultaet/mnf/geowissenschaften/Arbeitsbereiche_Geographie/Nachhaltigkeitswissenschaften/Seite_Mitarbeiter/Publikationen/de_la_Vega_Leinert/GGA_51.pdf

Baumgärtner, S., Strunz, S. (2014): The economic insurance value of ecosystem resilience. Ecological Economics, 101: 21–31.
URL: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1429269

Karrasch, L., Klenke, T., Woltjer, J. (2014): Linking the ecosystem services approach to social preferences and needs in integrated coastal land use management – A planning approach. Land Use Policy, 38: 522–532.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2013.12.010

Koch, S., Jurasinski, G., Koebsch, F., Koch, M., Glatzel, S. (2014): Spatial variability of annual estimates of methane emissions in a Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud. dominated restored coastal brackish fen. Wetlands, 34(3): 593–602.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-014-0528-z

Contact

Prof. Dr. Michael Kleyer
Landscape Ecology Group
Institute of Biology and Environmental Sciences
University of Oldenburg
D-26111 Oldenburg
michael.kleyer@uni-oldenburg.de
http://www.uni-oldenburg.de/en/biology/landeco

project website
project documentation at website of BMBF funding measure

Science portrait

A safe future for Germany’s coasts

Climate change will affect Germany’s coastal landscape – this much seems certain. But what can be done to protect humans and the landscape from the effects of climate change in the future? Scientists in the research project COMTESS are working out scenarios aimed at assisting the decision-makers in politics and government with the generational challenge of coastal protection.

The North Sea coast between Greetsiel and Emden is a picturesque landscape. Geese, ducks and many other bird species feed happily on the mudflats; sheep graze on the dikes, and farming is flourishing in the hinterland. Life in this part of Eastern Frisia is certainly good at present. But will the future look as rosy for this idyllic coastal landscape and its inhab¬itants? A research project allocated 3.3 million Euros in funding by the German Federal Ministry of Edu¬cation and Research seeks to find detailed scientific answers to this very question by the end of 2015, concentrating on two areas on the North Sea and Baltic coasts. The project, titled »Sustainable Coastal Land Management: Trade-offs in Ecosystem Services«, or COMTESS for short, is coordinated by Professor Michael Kleyer from the University of Oldenburg. Seven German universities are also involved, along with international scientists and partners from a number of nature conservation organisations.

The Eastern Friesland project area on the North Sea coast is one of the regions that could be particularly severely affected by a change in climate: the hin¬terland lies up to two metres below sea level. Already for many years it has been necessary to drain the farmland by pumping water from behind the dike into the sea in winter. This is expensive and consumes a lot of energy. Climate change could exacerbate this situation if, as predicted, the sea level rises, flooding becomes more frequent and more precipitation falls in winter. The dikes have provided sufficient protection until now, and although raising them higher would not present any technical difficulties, this would be a costly operation and would take a long time, as project coordinator Kleyer explains, citing Lower Saxony as an example: »Lower Saxony is responsible for 700 kilometres of dikes. If it wishes to raise the crown of the dikes by half a metre, it manages to do so at a rate of only seven kilometres a year, and must allow costs of up to 40 million Euros for this«, he explains. What is more, there is a risk that the heavier dikes could sink in some areas, causing the lighter land behind to raise up.

Thus it is questionable whether technical measures alone are the ultimate solution for absorbing the effects of climate change. The COMTESS scientists are therefore working to find alternatives. Kleyer describes their approach as follows: »We want to investigate how far climate change can intensify and the sea level rise before the existing land use along the coast is no longer productive. The question then arises as to how a sustainable alternative use might appear«. In his view the research team are breaking new scientific ground in that they are simulating climate change in terms of its effects not just on the climate and sea levels but on the whole landscape.

Future ideas for the region

To allow them to make an assessment of possible future developments, the scientists are basing their research on three scenarios for which they wish to simulate the effects of rises in sea level and climate change until the year 2100. The »Water Management« scenario provides for the construction of a water storage area surrounded by embankments, a so-called polder, in low-¬lying areas. This polder can absorb salt water when the dikes flood and also store excess fresh water from the hinterland during the winter months. The water could be used during dry periods in the summer to irrigate the fields and grasslands for example, while the reeds growing in the polder could be used for bioenergy.

»With this option, smaller, very low lying areas would have to be set aside as polders«, says Kleyer. In the second scenario »Carbon Sequestration«, the reeds growing within the polder would not be used for energy but would be left standing to remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it as peat. And in the third »Trend« scenario, the present dairy cattle farming and grassland management would continue unchanged. The COMTESS scientists still wish to model the effects of rising groundwater levels on agriculture, however, as these will lead to higher drainage costs. »The ecological and eco¬nomic sustainability of this type of land use could decrease significantly«, says Kleyer. The scientists also seek to calculate and assess the consequences of changes in ecosystem functions such as the water balance or soil conditions for the flora and fauna and for humans. Ecosystem services can be clearly illustrated taking reeds as an example: the tall-growing grasses reduce the risk of flooding by increasing evaporation. They also bring in revenue for the farmer, if used for energy. On the other hand, the reeded areas are no longer available to the farmer for growing cattle fodder or for grazing. »We wish to quantify and assess such ecosystem services ecologically and in socio-¬economic terms«, Kleyer explains.

The scientists are focusing on these issues in differ¬ent study groups working in two project areas, one on the North Sea coast between Greetsiel and Emden on the Krummhörn and one in the Baltic Sea region near Rostock on the Barther Bodden lagoon. In Eastern Friesland, coastal engineers from the Braunschweig University of Technology are investigating for example how far and how fast sea water can penetrate into the hinterland. The planned extension of the dike line seems likely to ensure that the dikes would remain safe even if the water level rose by a metre.

Salination becoming a problem

Many of the COMTESS sub ¬project groups are working on the basis of research conducted by Dr. Thomas Gräff from the University of Potsdam who has produced models of the water levels and salt content in the inland project areas. He is paying particular attention to the problem of sali¬nation. »The salination of the substratum will in¬crease with climate change, and will strongly affect use of the land behind the dikes«, the hydrologist explains. If as a result of climate change less rain falls in the summer in future and temperatures rise by between 2 and 4 degrees Celsius, as pre¬dicted, more surface water will evaporate. Salt water will then be drawn up onto the surface of the soil, especially during dry periods. In the project region this would not be a rare occurrence, since a third of the study area lies below sea level and has to be drained by artificial means. This has an effect on land use. Gräff outlines the consequences: »The land becomes more saline, the vegetation changes, the cattle farming on the grassland that has been practised until now could hardly continue«. The scientist has established that this is already the reality in some parts of the meadows on the Krummhörn where the salt has risen. »The water there is already so brackish in summer, that the cattle can no longer drink it.«

In another COMTESS sub-¬project, scientists from the Universities of Rostock and Oldenburg are investigating the consequences of the three base-line scenarios on carbon binding and on methane and nitrogen concentrations, both of which play a significant part in climate change. In the North Sea project area, soil scientist Professor Luise Giani from Oldenburg University is focusing her attention on reeds. The intention is to grow these in the future polder areas. Her investigations to date have established that reeds release large quantities of methane. »This is possibly due to the fact that the reed stocks that we analysed are still very young«, says Giani.

If the reed stocks were older, she assumes that the methane emissions would be lower. Giani wishes to investigate this more thoroughly in further experiments. With the grasslands it is the extensively used land remaining under water for a long time that releases methane in particular. »We have not yet established a connection with soil type, groundwater level and carbon content«, she says. It is conceivable, however, that there is a connection with labile carbon, or easily degradable carbon compounds. Further investigations should confirm this. »On the other hand, hardly any methane is released from intensively used grassland areas that are drained«, says Sarah Witte, who is studying for a doctorate at the University of Oldenburg Institute of Biology and Environmental Sciences.

In the COMTESS project, however, the intention is not just for the scientists to contribute their expertise: practical action is also required. In one sub-¬project, so-¬called stakeholders are developing their own scenario to reflect their view of how the project area landscape might look in the future. Leena Karrasch has been able to persuade fifteen experts and decision-makers from local authorities, groups and organisations in the fields of water management, agriculture, nature con¬servation, politics and tourism to participate in a regional planning group. »Behind all this is the attempt to arouse understanding of the need for sustainable land management«, explains the scientist from Oldenburg University, who is studying for a doctorate on the roles played by the actors in planning processes. »The stakeholder scenario and the three other COMTESS scenarios will be comprehensively assessed according to consistent criteria«.

Polders regarded with skepticism

Already a direction is emerging: »Essentially there is a preference for the »Trend« scenario, in other words for business as usual«, she says. This is above all because of the well constructed drainage systems, which the experts trust. »The users favour technical solutions, with the argument that they have always worked very well until now«, explains Karrasch. Possible polders are viewed with scepticism. »If land has to be given up for new flood areas, the area of land available for typical use is greatly reduced« – this is the fear of many users. Of course the stakeholders are also faced with a dilemma. »Many realize that climate change is a reality and will have consequences. For this reason they want the land to be used more sustainably, but they are reluctant to begin taking measures on their own doorstep«, says Karrasch.

Godehard Hennies, a member of the work group accompanying the COMTESS project, is eagerly awaiting the scientists’ results. Naturally the Man¬ager of the Regional Association of Water Authorities is in favour of reliable coastal protection since the Association represents the 24 main dike autho¬rities along the North Sea coast.

Together the associations maintain the dikes over a total distance of some 650 kilometres. »Coastal protection is a long¬term task«, says Hennies. For this reason he is also very interested to learn which coastal protection measures might make sense from the scientists’ perspective. There is still much that requires clarification, particularly with regard to the possible effects of climate change on the North Sea: how will wind conditions in the German Bight change? Can salt water advance into the agricultural land? What effects will this have? Are the dikes high enough? To allow a reaction to such questions before it is too late it is important for the COMTESS scientists to identify the different options for action.

Advice for the experts

Project Leader Kleyer sees it as another central task of COMTESS to offer well-¬informed advice. »Our scenarios are intended to provide advice to help the local experts and politicians with the decisions they have to make regarding coastal protection and the shaping of the landscape«, he says. Kleyer is aware that these scenarios, which could be applied to other similar coastal landscapes in North America and Korea, also present a major scientific challenge: it will be difficult for example to model the effects of the water balance on animal and plant species. Until now these have been based only on rough assumptions which do not reflect the reality. As Kleyer says: »This diversity cannot be described in mathematical equations«. There is also a great deal of feedback to take into account in the modelling of the water balance. »Models on precipitation, ground water levels and the absorption capacity of the soil all have an influence here; it is not easy to link all of these together systematically«, he says. But the landscape ecologist from Oldenburg and his COMTESS team are happy to tackle these hurdles in order to be able to offer sustainable solutions for the genera¬tional challenge of coastal protection.

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COMTESS

Introduction of the regional project COMTESS - Sustainable coastal land management: Trade-offs in ecosystem services

Adapting to climate change on the German North Sea coast

In the East Frisian Lowlands agricultural use of the land below sea level is only possible with water level regulation

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About the project - SuLaMa

Population growth, increasing poverty, lack of education and the possible effects of climate change exacerbate the already existing pressure on ecosystems in many regions of the world. The SuLaMa (Sustainable Land management in south-western Madagascar) project aimed to tackle this topic in one of the poorest and most climatically disadvantaged regions in south-western Madagascar – the Mahafaly Plateau.

The main objective of SuLaMa was a participatory development and implementation of alternative land-use management practices to protect the ecosystem and its biodiversity and to improve the livelihood of the local population in a sustainable manner.

SuLaMa aimed to explore sustainable alternatives to traditional land-use techniques in a region that is characterized by strong degradation. Unsustainable land-use techniques in the whole southern region of Madagascar have caused forest fragmentation, soil degradation, and loss of endemic animal and plant species, impairing livelihoods of local populations and leading to destruction of a unique ecosystem.

In consideration of global change and population growth, SuLaMa focused on approaches for sustainable land use that allow the locals to live on husbandry, agriculture and forest products but at the same time preserve the natural resources. Applying a participatory approach, SuLaMa recognized the interests of local stakeholders and respected their rites, customs and habits by involving them directly in the development of the sustainable land-use practices.

Based on transdisciplinary research and the intense collaboration with the regional partners and stakeholders, the project developed feasible and sustainable forms of land use as well as long-term structures for capacity building and knowledge transfer. In this process sociological as well as economic and scientific issues were combined. The project examined the links and interactions between current forms of land use and relevant ecosystem services and functions.

Funding period: January 2011 to December 2016
Funding: 6.6 million Euros
Leading research institution: University of Hamburg

Interview

with the project head Jörg Ganzhorn

Which were the most important scientific results in the field of sustainable land management?

SuLaMa identified yet unknown drivers of the excessive deforestation in the region and outlined a number of options on how to improve the livelihoods of people and to combine it with the conservation of native biodiversity. These options include plantations of fodder plants, propagation of wild yams, maintaining hedges to protect fields and serve as a habitat for endemic species. The results also provide guidelines for more efficient utilization of ground water.
SuLaMa also provided quantitative data that illustrate limitations of the area for utilization of natural resources (such as water, wood, bushmeat) and livestock production.

What were the lessons learnt from the SuLaMa project?

SuLaMa illustrated the urgent need to define goals and to design a plan for applied research, implementation, management, and monitoring in close collaboration with local stakeholders, particularly those who are the target of the intervention. They need to be given a voice that does reflect their needs and interests, and not political opportunism. One of the strengths of SuLaMa was the tight collaboration between the Malagasy and German researchers and PhD students who always worked in tandems with one member from each country.

In which way can the results of SuLaMa be transferred into other regions of the world or into practice?

The SuLaMa project area is subject to a globally unique climate variability. The main coping strategy of people is a high diversification of possible sources of income. The transfer seems most promising in terms of methodological approaches, such as tight interactions with people on the ground, role-playing games to assess coping strategies, and tandem collaborations of researchers.

Prof. Dr. Jörg Ganzhorn works at the University of Hamburg.

Publications

Nopper, J., Lauströer, B., Rödel, M.-O., Ganzhorn, J.U. (2016): A structurally enriched agricultural landscape maintains high reptile diversity in sub-arid south-western Madagascar. Journal of Applied Ecology, 54(2): 480–488.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12752

Goetter, J.F., Neudert, R. (2016): New rules are not rules: Privatization of pastoral commons and local attempts at curtailment in southwest Madagascar. International Journal of the Commons, 10(2): 617–641.
URL: https://doi.org/10.18352/ijc.743

Noromiarilanto, F., Brinkmann, K., Faramalala, M.H., Buerkert, A. (2016): Assessment of food self-sufficiency in smallholder farming systems of south-western Madagascar using survey and remote sensing data. Agricultural Systems, 149: 139–149.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2016.09.005

Feldt, T., Neudert, R., Fust, P., Schlecht, E. (2016): Reproductive and economic performance of local livestock in southwestern Madagascar: potentials and constraints of a highly extensive system. Agricultural Systems, 149: 54–64.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2016.08.007

Ranaivoson, T., Brinkmann, K., Rakouth, B., Buerkert, A. (2015): Distribution, biomass and local importance of tamarind trees in south-western Madagascar. Global Ecology and Conservation, 4: 14–25.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2015.05.004

Andriamparany, J.N., Brinkmann, K., Whiele, M., Jeannoda, V., Buerkert, A. (2015): Modelling the distribution of four Dioscorea species on the Mahafaly Plateau of south-western Madagascar using biotic and abiotic variables. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 212: 38–48.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2015.06.019

Rasoloariniaina, J.R., Ganzhorn, J.U., Raminosoa, N. (2015): Physicochemical and bacteriological water quality across different forms of land use on the Mahafaly Plateau, Madagascar. Water Quality, Exposure and Health, 7(2): 111–124.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12403-014-0129-3

Ganzhorn, J.U., Manjoazy, T., Päplow, O., Randrianriuanavelona, R., Razafimanahaka, J.H., Ronto, W.M., Vogts, E., Wätzold, F., Walker, R.C.J. (2015): Rights to trade for species conservation: exploring the issue of the radiated tortoise in Madagascar. Environmental Conservation, 42(4): 291–293.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892914000332

Hanisch, S., Lohrey, C., Buerkert, A. (2015): Dewfall and its ecological significance in semi-arid coastal south-western Madagascar. Journal of Arid Environments, 121: 24–31.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2015.05.007

Brinkmann, K., Fanambinantsoa, N., Ratovonamana, R.Y., Buerkert, A. (2014): Deforestation processes in south-western Madagascar over the past 40 years: what can we learn from settlement characteristics? Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 195: 231–243.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2014.06.008

Ratovonamana, Y.R., Rajeriarison, C., Edmond, R., Kiefer, I., Ganzhorn, J.U. (2013): Impact of livestock grazing on forest structure, plant species composition and biomass in southwestern Madagascar. Scripta Botanica Belgica, 50: 82–92.
URL: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283514004_Impact...

Contact

Dr. Susanne Kobbe
University of Hamburg
Biocenter Grindel
Animal Ecology and Conservation
Martin-Luther-King Platz 3
D-20146 Hamburg
Phone: +49 (0)40 / 42838-5648
Fax: +49 (0)40 / 42838-5980
Susanne.Kobbe@uni-hamburg.de

project website
project documentation at website of BMBF funding measure

Science portrait

Greater sustainability for Madagascar

The south-west of Madagascar is regarded as one of the poorest parts of the island. For the people who live here, survival is often difficult in this region plagued by drought. Now, however, experts from Germany and Madagascar are trying not only to improve the living conditions of the native population but also to ensure better protection of the island’s unique flora and fauna in the SuLaMa research project.

Madagaskar is the home of the lemurs. Around 100 species of these animals with the characteristic big eyes that belong to the order Primates live here. The lemurs are representative of many other endemic animal and plant species that occur only on this island off the eastern coast of Africa. »The number of endemic species in Madagascar is unique worldwide and from the point of biodiversity therefore of great interest to scientists«, says Jörg Ganzhorn. The zoology professor from the University of Hamburg is leading the research project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, »Participatory research to support sustainable land management on the Mahafaly Plateau in south- western Madagascar«, or SuLaMa for short. Six German universities, the two Madagascan universities Antananarivo and Toliara and five non-governmental organisations are involved in the project.

Forestry scientists, economists, agronomists and social and cultural scientists from Germany and Madagascar are working together to develop alternative land use strategies for several different ecological areas in the south-west of the island. Ganzhorn sees the bi-national project as taking an innovative approach, and describes its central aim as follows: »Through sustainable land management we want to find new ways of improving the living conditions of the local population without harming the ecosystem and the extraordinary biodiversity«. Conditions in the natural landscape of the 800,000 hectare Mahafaly Plateau make it difficult for people to live here: the region is the driest in the whole of Madagascar. It is therefore very hard to farm and raise cattle here. »The people practise subsistence farming, and are dependent upon what nature provides«, says Ganzhorn. There is virtually no economic development; the region is regarded as one of the poorest of the island. In order to survive, some people use natural resources extensively, resulting in degraded and eroded soils, fragmented forests and sedimented river valleys.

»This is harming the basis of the local people’s livelihood in the long term and destroying a unique ecosystem«, says Ganzhorn. One of SuLaMa ´s subprojects is therefore concentrating on the question of how new types of agricultural land use can make life easier for the people, and how natural resources can be used more effectively at the same time. Until now, for example, the people have not been in the habit of fertilizing the land or leaving crop remains lying on the fields in order to replenish the humus content of the soil. »So already just by small measures the people will be able to increase yields«, says Dr. Susanne Kobbe, a biologist at the University of Hamburg and the SuLaMa project coordinator.

Fertilizer trials on manioc fields

Scientists from the University of Kassel have therefore laid out trial fields in several villages on the Mahafaly Plateau where they are using cattle and goat dung and charcoal to fertilize manioc, or cassava. They wish to investigate how productivity and nutrient availability can be increased using varying dosages of different fertilizers. Local farmers are also participating in the trials, and discuss the results with the scientists at information events and workshops. »If the experiments bring visible positive results, those farmers who are open to innovation will also want to spread dung on their fields«, reports Dr. Katja Brinkmann, who is conducting research at the Department of Ecological Plant Cultivation and Agricultural System Research in the Tropics and Sub-Tropics (OPATS) of the University of Kassel. Joint field trials with local farmers are also taking place in two other villages, where drought-resistant cereal types such as sorghum wheat and millet are being grown along with different varieties of maize. The experiments are intended to demonstrate how productivity can be increased using dung from the people’s zebu herds.

The results are important because project leader Ganzhorn expects that this region of Madagascar will suffer the most severe effects of climate change, and especially an increase in dry periods. »If it rains even less here in the future, then the whole social system in the region will collapse«, he says, emphasising the importance of the research into alternative crop types. The German-Madagascan research team is also conducting trials in vegetable cultivation in the coastal region. These should help the inhabitants to increase yields of tomatoes, carrots, onions and aubergines from their gardens by methods such as small-scale irrigation systems. »We have handed out seeds to the farmers at information events and suggested different farming methods to them«, explains Brinkmann. The farmers can then decide for themselves which options work best for them: with or without fertilizer, with zebu dung or charcoal, with varying levels of irrigation or growing crops under trees for shade. »Results are not yet available, but our scientists are gathering and analysing the data at regular intervals«, says Brinkmann.

A culture with many taboos

Because this type of ecosystem-based, practical research approach is new for this region of Madagascar, the German scientists rely heavily on the assistance of local universities and partners such as WWF and on the close cooperation with the local population. »This is not meant to be an academic exercise; the aim is rather to develop solutions together with the inhabitants in order to help them to survive«, says Ganzhorn, and cites an example: if the harvests fail in the region due to long periods of drought, the people go into the forest and dig up yam roots as a food substitute. This type of emergency solution should belong in the past, which is why initiatives such as the small-scale irrigation systems are so important.

In order to be able to implement such measures the scientists have to win the trust of the native population. This is not so easy: interpreters are needed for the meetings and interviews with the people, and their culture is completely different. »There are many taboos in the villages which never cease to amaze us Europeans«, says Daniel Plugge from the University of Hamburg, who is investigating the ecosystems and their functions in another sub-project.

Why which taboos and rules exist is often unclear and just one of the many questions to which social scientists wish to find answers in a further SuLaMa sub-project. What is the people’s understanding of nature? How do they perceive nature? How can the cultural and spiritual importance of the ecosystem services be integrated into sustainable land use programmes? Questions such as these are the focus of the sub-project »Socioculture and Governance« coordinated by Dr. Nadine Fritz-Vietta, a social scientist conducting research at the University of Greifswald. »In Madagascar, alongside the formal regulations there is a system of informal rules, prescribed by the ancestors and spirits and observed by the people«, she says. This system is difficult for outsiders to comprehend, but absolutely must be taken into account in the implementation of land use measures. Thus for example people wishing to use a piece of land must first seek permission from the ancestors with gifts.

Spiritual aspects such as these also play an important role in the people’s moral concept of the eco-system services. One example are the mighty Tamarinds, which grow as characteristic trees in the villages and also in the open countryside. The trees not only give shade and bear fruits that can be made into lemonade and fruit syrup; they also have important socio-cultural value. »These are sacred trees, believed by the villagers to be inhabited by spirits and natural beings who must be treated with due respect«, explains Fritz-Vietta. Use may be made of the trees, provided that the natural beings agree to this.

Just as there are sacred trees, there are also sacred forests which the people may be forbidden to enter. »These forests have important cultural value«, says Daniel Plugge, who is investigating the usage, commercial exploitation and carbon storage capacities of the forests. He and his research team wish to find out for example, which tree species occur here, how they are distributed and how they are used by the local population. Besides the striking Tamarind and the monkey-bread trees one also finds for example the tree species Samata, a member of the Euphorbiaceae family. The leaves of this species can be fed to cattle when there is no grass left in the pastures. »This tree could be important because it could help to reduce the grazing pressure on the land«, says forestry scientist Plugge. The Katafray tree can also be used: its trunk provides good hard timber that can be used for furniture and house building, while the leaves relieve stomach ache. »The sacred forests have important cultural value.«

The scientists are also seeking to demonstrate that the diversity of reptile species for example can be preserved without jeopardising the livelihood of the local population on the basis of sustainable use of natural resources. This is of particular importance because a large national park has been established on the Plateau. The scientists therefore wish to investigate how important animal species such as the radiated tortoise react to different land use methods such as irrigation and cattle rearing, and how they cope with the increased penetration of humans into their environment through tourism, traffic and illegal tree felling.

Difficult underlying conditions

Social change is perceptible in the region. »The population is increasing, droughts are becoming more frequent and the people are feeling hemmed in by the national park«, says Fritz-Vietta. There is increasing economic pressure to use the land even more intensively. The political situation is also uncertain: the island state has been in political crisis ever since a non-elected government seized power in 2009. This halted the international aid, nd the contacts changed in many authorities. A further difficulty is that it is often unclear to whom land really belongs. »There is national and regional jurisprudence and then there is the Council of Elders, which shares out the land in the village«, says Ganzhorn. The uncertainty of ownership prevents the farmers from investing in their fields.

Great need for communication

The SuLaMa scientists are aware that all these factors will make it difficult to implement the management plan in which they will present their findings and recommendations in 2015. »If we succeed in involving the capabilities and potentials of the local population, however, I see good chances of realizing our recommendations«, says social scientist Fritz-Vietta. She anticipates this as a protracted process which will require a great deal of communication, but which could succeed. Encouragement for the scientists also comes from WWF Madagascar. »Thanks to the SuLaMa project we can set up a regional databank and create a platform where knowledge of the landscape and its use can be collected«, says WWF programme leader Domoina Rakotomalala. The strategies and models from the research project will assist the regional decision helpers and influence the regional development plan.

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Video

SuLaMa

Introduction of the regional project SuLaMa

Sustainable use of Samata Tree

Propagation of “samata” cuttings for long-term provision of supplementary livestock fodder

Role Play Games

Participatory simulation to foster stakeholder dialogue, conciliate resource conflicts and facilitate participatory land use planning.

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About the project - CC-LandStraD

Land surface in Germany is used intensively. Land fulfills many societal requirements including production of food, energy and wood, provision of area for settlement and transportation infrastructure and recreation. Global changes such as climate change and the globalization of economic systems will increase competition for the limited land resources that exist between the various societal demands in Germany and in many other regions of the world.

How to integrate aspects of preserving an intact environment, climate mitigation, and sustainable resource management into this complex realm of land use conflicts was the research focus of the joint project CC-LandStraD: “Interdependencies between Land use and Climate Change – Strategies for a sustainable land use management in Germany”.

Funding period: November 2010 to April 2016
Funding: 3.6 million Euros
Leading research institution: Institute of Rural Studies, Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute, Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forestry and Fisheries, Braunschweig

Interview

with the project head Peter Weingarten

Which were the most important scientific results in the field of sustainable land management?

One of our main questions was how land use can contribute to the mitigation of climate change. We found out that appropriate combinations of the “climate mitigation” and “nature and environmental conservation” scenarios can lead to viable synergies. For example, rewetting approximately one third of the organic soils currently used by the German agriculture can decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 5 million tons CO₂-equivalent per year, with mitigation costs of 100 to 200 Euro/t CO₂-equivalent.

In the forestry sector, the climate change mitigation performance is heavily dependent on the stability and productivity of the forests, which are being managed on the basis of long production periods. In the settlement and transportation sector it is similarly important to look both at climate change mitigation and climate adaptation measures because of the long-term planning and production periods. Our results show that the mitigation of climate change and adaption measures for settlement areas do not necessarily counteract each other. When a compact settlement uses potentials of inner development and is accompanied by a focused consideration of high quality green areas, a combination of climate change mitigation and adaption measures can be achieved; for example, when brownfield areas recycling is combined with unsealing, or when creation of “green” and “blue” structures (green and water areas) and air exchange corridors is strived for in urban densification.

What were the lessons learnt from the CC-LandStraD project?

The CC-LandStraD project focused on a cross-sectoral analysis of interdependencies between climate change and land use by looking at agriculture, forestry, settlement, and transportation. We involved stakeholders from all sectors over the project period of five years. This approach is demanding for both researchers and stakeholders since it requires time and resources and a well-managed participation process. At the same time, however, it is also a very fruitful process leading to balanced and sustainable land-use strategies.

In which way can the results of CC-LandStraD be transferred into other regions of the world or into practice?

a) Into other regions of the world

We have chosen Germany as our study site because it represents a great example of land-use dynamics of a developed high-tech country in a temperate climate zone. Since land-use processes are determined on different spatial scales influencing the practicability of measures, it was advisable to conduct case studies.

Our methodological approach based on an integrated modelling, analyses of scenarios, strategies and measures as well as on a participation of stakeholders can be transferred to other regions. However, the transfer requires creation of adequate models or adjustment of existing models for other countries and regions as well as a suitable data base. Fortunately, a modular design of the integrated modelling facilitates a flexible adjustment to other regions.

b) Into practice

To date, the received feedback on CC-LandStraD has been very positive. The transfer of results is eased by the intensive stakeholder engagement which was a substantial part of CC-LandStraD. Already during the project period we received cooperation requests by other projects and initiatives, as well as invitations to present project findings to different audiences, which both reflect the relevance of our project findings. These interests, e.g., by federal institutions, associations, and regional stakeholders (such as regional development organizations), showed the importance of the research done by CC-LandStraD. The involved stakeholders supported a co-production of knowledge within an intensive science-practice dialogue, cross-sectoral cooperation, multi-level consultations, broad dialogue and participatory assessment.

The CC-LandStraD findings can be fed into policy-making processes and decision processes on various levels and time lines. To name one example, findings of CC-LandStraD were mentioned in the climate change mitigation report of the German Scientific Advisory Boards of Agricultural Policy, Food and Consumer Health Protection and of Forest Policy of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (Wissenschaftlicher Beirat Agrarpolitik, Ernährung und gesundheitlicher Verbraucherschutz und Wissenschaftlicher Beirat Waldpolitik beim BMEL 2016).

Prof. Dr. Peter Weingarten works as the director of the Institute of Rural Studies, Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute.

Publications

Bösch, M., Elsasser, P., Rock, J., Rüter, S., Weimar, H., Dieter, M. (2017): Costs and carbon sequestration potential of alternative forest management measures in Germany. Forest Policy and Economics, 78: 88–97.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2017.01.005

Fick, J. et al. (2016): Wechselwirkungen zwischen Landnutzung und Klimawandel. Ausgewählte Ergebnisse des Forschungsvorhabens CC-LandStraD. Braunschweig: Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut.
URL: http://www.cc-landstrad.de/fileadmin/cc-landstrad/Downloads_DE/STA-Broschuere_final.pdf

Fick, J., Weingarten, P. (2016): Klimaschutz, Landnutzung, Landmanagement - Erkenntnisse aus dem Verbundforschungsprojekt CC-LandStraD. Landentwicklung Aktuell, pp. 38–40.
URL: https://www.blg-berlin.de/blgfiles/uploads/BLG_LA_2016.pdf

Hoymann, J., Goetzke, R. (2016): Simulation and Evaluation of Urban Growth for Germany including Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Measures. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 5(7): 101.
URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi5070101

Gutsch, M., Lasch-Born, P., Suckow, F., Reyer, C.P.0. (2016): Evaluating the productivity of four main tree species in Germany under climate change with static reduced models. Annals of Forest Science, 73(2): 401–410.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13595-015-0532-3

Raabe, M., Grabski-Kieron, U. (2016): Regelungs- und Steuerungsinstrumente der Landnutzung vor den Herausforderungen eines klimawandeloptimierten Landmanagements – Institutionelle Gestaltungsoptionen für ein nachhaltiges Landmanagement im Zeichen des Klimawandels. CC-LandStraD Arbeitsbericht Nr. 2, 468 S, Braunschweig.
URL: http://www.cc-landstrad.de/publikationen/workingpaper-und-berichte/

Gutsch, M., Lasch-Born, P., Suckow, F., Reyer, C.P.O. (2015): Modeling of Two Different Water Uptake Approaches for Mono- and Mixed-Species Forest Stands. Forests, 6(6): 2125–2147.
URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/f6062125

Meyerhoff, J., Oehlmann, M., Weller, P. (2015): The Influence of Design Dimensions on Stated Choices in an Environmental Context. Environmental and Resource Economics, 61(3): 385–407.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-014-9797-5

Röder, N., Henseler, M., Liebersbach, H., Kreins, P., Osterburg, B. (2015): Evaluation of land use based greenhouse gas abatement measures in Germany. Ecological Economics, 117: 193–202.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2015.06.007

Steinhäußer, R., Siebert, R., Steinführer, A., Hellmich, M. (2015): National and regional land-use conflicts in Germany from the perspective of stakeholders. Land Use Policy, 49: 183–194.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2015.08.009

Henseler, M., Dechow, R. (2014): Simulation of regional nitrous oxide emissions from German agricultural mineral soils: A linkage between an agro-economic model and an empirical emission model. Agricultural Systems, 124: 70–82.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2013.10.005

Contact

Dr. Johanna Fick, johanna.fick@thuenen.de

project website
project documentation at website of BMBF funding measure

Science portrait

Land use in transition

Land in Germany is already used intensively and now it shall also be used to cushion the impacts of climate change. Researchers want to demonstrate how this can be successful in an inter- and transdisciplinary project: They are working on a nationwide strategy for intelligent land management practices.

The differences could not be more evident: the Altmark in the east of Germany – sparsely populated, very little urbanisation or infrastructure and more than 60 percent of the land used for agriculture – in contrast to the Rhein-Sieg District and the Rheinisch-Bergisch District (Rhine) in the west with ten times the population density, considerably more urban areas and a lot less agricultural land. The various agricultural and forestry land uses in the two model regions are typical for many of the approximately 300 districts in Germany and yet they are still somehow unique and therefore interesting for scientific research. »In the two regions we want to examine how land use strategies can be implemented to adapt to climate change,« says Rosemarie Siebert, Ph.D. The sociologist is conducting research at the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) in Müncheberg in the state of Brandenburg. With the results from their subproject »Regional participation process«, Dr. Siebert, together with colleague Wibke Crewett, will make an important contribution to the overall project CC-LandStraD. The abbreviation CC-LandStraD stands for »Climate Change – Land Use Strategies in Germany«. The project aims to investigate the interactions between different land use forms and climate change with the goal of developing sustainable strategies for land use in Germany. These strategies are not only to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and thus contribute to climate protection, but also to meet societal needs. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research will fund the project, which includes 25 scientists from six different research establishments, with approximately 3.5 million Euros until 2015.

Strong competition for land areas

For Germany, the research approach to develop new, all encompassing land use strategies spanning various sectors is a rather ambitious venture, given the fact that land is already being used intensively. Land currently supplies food and timber, and is used for settlements, roads or industrial premises as well as for recreational areas. According to statistics from the Federal Statistics Office in 2009, 52 percent of Germany’s land is used for agriculture, whereas 30 percent is used for forests and about 14 percent is used for settlements, roads and recreation. Now land is required for another task, namely to cushion the impacts of climate change. Land should fix more carbon dioxide in plants and the soil, and farmers should cultivate maize and rapeseed and opt for short rotation coppices to replace fossil fuels such as oil and coal currently used for energy, as well as nuclear energy.

For Dr. Horst Goemann, who together with Dr. Johanna Fick, is one of the two scientific co-ordinators running the CC-LandStraD project from the Thünen Institute (Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forests and Fisheries) in Braunschweig, climate protection is a »new social requirement for sustainable land use«. Accomplishing this will not be that simple, because there has been strong competition for land here since the federal government started growing what were traditionally agricultural crops, such as maize or rapeseed, as energy crops as part of its energy turnaround. This has its consequences: in certain areas of Germany, for example, it is being heatedly debated whether the cultivation of maize for biogas plants is ruining the landscape and taking away agricultural land valuable for the cultivation of food crops. It is therefore important that »measures, such as new forms of land management or innovative technologies not only be economically viable, but also socially sustainable«, says Goemann.

Regional differences

To find out something about the level of acceptance among inhabitants, Siebert and Crewett conducted 40 interviews with local experts from agriculture, forestry, nature protection, and tourism in the two model regions as well as with experts from the urban planning and infrastructure sectors. Among other things they wanted to find out how people perceive climate change and land use change. There are noticeable differences: People in the Rhine region regard climate change more as an opportunity than a threat in contrast to the perceptions of people from the Altmark. »Some of the stakeholders there regarded climate change as positive, because it extended the vegetation period, thus increasing crop yields«, says Siebert.

In the Altmark region, where low water storage capacity results in lower soil quality, increasing aridity would have a much more negative effect. What unites both regions is the fact that changes in land use are registered very attentively. These include, for instance, more intensive land use for agriculture and forestry, the rise in land prices or increasing conflicts about whether food or energy crops should be cultivated on agricultural land. Meanwhile, as a result of various interviews and numerous workshops, the sociologists now know how farmers, forest owners or town and country planners intend to contribute to protecting the climate.

The project team CC-LandStraD is assessing just how realistically these ideas can be implemented. The goal is rather complex: »A measures catalogue will be developed from the demands, bringing together the interests of the users«, says Siebert. The ZALF-researcher realises that this will not be an easy task: »It will stir up a lot of emotions, but at least it shows that we are taking the local stakeholders and their demands seriously.«

Complex modelling

Indeed there are numerous research projects today that strive to achieve practice-related results. This project is quite remarkable for the amount of time being invested by the sociologists in interviews, workshops, and dialogues with many end users on a regional level and professional representatives on the federal level. The process is important however, because: »We are bringing such an abstract topic as climate change into everyday reality«, says Dr. Annett Steinführer, who is coordinating the subproject »National participation process« in the joint research project. »Because we have involved end users in the project from the very outset, it should also increase the chances that the results will be implemented locally in the end. This forms a good basis of trust between users and researchers«, says Steinführer. The strong social participation is therefore considered to be something of a trademark for the CC-LandStraD project.

»This is not only an important dialogue between science and practice, we will also gain important insights into coping with climate change on a regional level«, says Professor Dr. Peter Weingarten, speaker of the joint research project and head of the Thünen Institute of Rural Studies. The catalogue of measures from the regional participation process will form the basis for complex modelling. These tasks will keep the computers at the Thünen Institute, at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and at the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) busy for the next few years. The scenarios are supposed to show which measures are not only viable for climate protection and accepted by the respective group of users, but also socially desirable. Possible examples: What will the resulting changes for agriculture and forestry be, if Germany relies more on bio-energy to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions? What will the consequences in terms of greenhouse gas emissions be, if due to a rise in the international prices for maize, farmers decide to intensify cultivation? How will land for urban areas and infrastructure develop if Germany wants to achieve certain goals for the climate in the future?

The researchers of the joint project do not want to answer these and other questions purely theoretically, but to discuss them with regional and national partners in practice. A large amount of nationwide data is required to calculate the various scenarios, i. e., on soils, biomass, the climate, the water regime or on greenhouse gas emissions. These are also available, for example, in the form of statistics on agriculture, soil and land use maps, forest inventories or the national climate reports. To the disappointment of researchers, however, they are not always in a suitable form for analysis: They often have to be adapted to the interdisciplinary model approach or are not small-scale enough. Scientists want to be as precise as possible with their land forecasts, and Dr. Roland Goetzke from the BBSR supports this stipulation. With his colleagues in the subproject »Land use scenarios« he is simulating the development trends of land for settlement areas in Germany up to the year 2030. Goetzke already has some preliminary results: The trend that has been observed in the recent past showing large spatial differences of land for settlement areas will continue into the future.

It is mainly in the major West German cities and their suburbs that the increase in demand for settlement areas is proportionally higher than in rural areas. In many districts we are, however, experiencing another development: Here a clearly decreasing population density is being accompanied at the same time with a slight increase in land for settlements«, says Goetzke. This situation affects many East German districts and structurally weak districts in West Germany.

Land use in 2030

Together with partners, the BBSR scientists have modelled trends for the development of settlements on the district level, for which they have used data on the development of the price of land, population dynamics or economic indicators. This very rough yardstick is, however, still not sufficient. »We need more accurate statements«, says Goetzke. The simulation model LandUseScanner, which is based on a geographical information system, aims to make this possible. With this model the development of different land use classes can be calculated on a small spatial scale, such as, for example, residential areas or agricultural and forestry land uses. Thus it can be demonstrated how land use could change until 2030.

The model thereby distributes the demand for land use that has been allocated beforehand to the land most suitable for those purposes. Linking the land use models implemented by Goetzke with socioeconomic and biological-physical model approaches from other subprojects into a model group is a major challenge, according to CC-LandStraD coordinator Goemann. The model group allows regionally specific analyses to be conducted nationwide.

The goal is clear according to Goemann: »The project aims to give some scientific foundations to the emotional discourse in terms of what land use can achieve for climate protection«. In an ideal case, measures could be defined agreeable to all groups of users. The results of the joint research project should be used in policy-making, irrespective of whether this is at a national level, the federal state level or the municipality level or even internationally. »It is there«, says spokesman Weingarten, »that there is a great need for authoritative data on how climate change will influence land use and which costs will be associated with which measures for climate protection.«

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Video

CC-LandStraD

Introduction of the regional project CC-LandStraD

Landnutzung im Zeichen des Klimawandels - Unsere Dörfer und Städte (only german)

A video about how land use in times of climate change might influence life in villages and cities.

Landnutzung im Zeichen des Klimawandels - Unsere Felder und Wiesen (only german)

A video about how land use in times of climate change might influence fields and pastures.

Landnutzung im Zeichen des Klimawandels - Unsere Wälder (only german)

A video about how land use in times of climate change might influence forests.

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About the project - Carbiocial

The Carbiocial project investigated viable carbon-optimized land management strategies maintaining ecosystem services under changing climate and societal conditions in Southern Amazonia. Scientific results in this field support the goals set by the Brazilian National plans (e.g. ABC-program) and international treaties such as REDD and the Kyoto protocol.

Accordingly, the joint main goals of the interdisciplinary research cluster were 1) to perform region-specific analyses in order to improve and apply interdisciplinary sets of models of land-use impacts on carbon-stocks, water and GHG balances, 2) to develop and optimize land management strategies that minimize carbon losses and GHG emission and maximize carbon sequestration, 3) to assess trade-offs between technical and legal land management options and socio-economic impacts in terms of GHG reduction, profitability and ecological sustainability, and last but not least 4) to support the Brazilian partners in their efforts to implement the optimized techniques in practice, considering the soy bean value chain, the overall carbon balance and the capacities of legal enforcement.

All research and implementation activities included a direct involvement of stakeholders, whether as on-farm-partner or as interview partner. Building on the land-systems approach, a modelling framework has been developed. On different scale levels it combines land-use models with different types of environmental and agro-economic models. This computer-based decision support instrument includes simulation models to run region-specific impacts of different scenarios of land-use options and climate change on water-cycling, erosion, GHG, C-cycling, crop yields, and improved land management strategies on farm level. This is a highly valuable tool for regional planning authorities, farmer organizations and communities. As practical recommendations, popular-science “Policy Briefs” were developed and distributed to the stakeholders in the research region, Belém and Brasília.

Funding period: June 2011 to June 2016
Funding: 6.1 million Euros
Leading research institution: Institute of Geography, Landscape Ecology, University of Göttingen

Interview

with the project head Gerhard Gerold

Which were the most important scientific results in the field of sustainable land management?

We developed four main scenarios of land-use changes and land management until 2030 based on the LandSHIFT and MPMAS/MONICA modeling results. With these simulation results viable win-win strategies for GHG-optimized land-use systems were identified. Loss of rainforests was considerably lower in the ‘Legal Intensification’ scenario in contrast to the ‘Trend’ scenario (highest loss, pasture expansion) indicating that effective governance and protection of natural habitats play an important role in the efforts to reduce deforestation. With the Brazilian ABC Program (providing credit for integrated crop, livestock and forestry systems), the simulations suggest an increase in more deeply integrated crop-livestock-forestry and crop-forestry systems. However, both impact and cost-effectiveness of the ABC Program vary significantly. Tailoring financing conditions to smaller geographical units and improving local agricultural service could decrease the implementation costs of this program and increase its effectiveness. An effective implementation of the cattle moratorium and the property cadaster combined with efforts on intensification of existing farm areas are also of great importance when trying to curb deforestation and decrease GHG.

The optimization of crop management practices is necessary in order to achieve the assumed crop yield increase within the scenarios (Land use change (LUC) and Climate change (CC)). The MPMAS_MONICA coupled model system has a graphical user interface (GUI) and provides visualized information on simulated optimal land use, crop yields, per-hectare gross margins of different land-use activities and total profit of the farms.

Environmental impacts were assessed based on the output of the land-use models. Soil organic carbon (SOC) stock changes and direct GHG emissions from soils varied significantly between the scenarios and were mainly driven by the underlying soil type and the area of converted natural land. Emissions of N₂O and CH₄ from Brazilian soils were found to be low across the country. For the erosion risk and water balance (discharge) simulations on a macro-catchment level the scenarios with the highest transformation of forest cover to pasture and cropland had the strongest negative effects. Our simulation results proved that these effects can be avoided by flat terracing and no-tillage systems.

What were the lessons learnt from the Carbiocial project?

Development of high-resolution models for the whole region and the ability to simulate interplay of the different drivers of land-use change with inclusion of “story lines” in an explicit manner is a prerequisite to getting practical viable land-use management options for stakeholders. New scientific insights were gained from the field measurements that formed the foundation especially of the model-based analysis of the environmental impacts. Detailed mechanistic model applications in daily time steps were found to be too sophisticated for regional approaches. The same applied to soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks, which were hardly affected by a change in land-use system (although noticeable differences were observed between individual soil types). It became clear that a comprehensive analysis of processes taking place in the investigated land systems was only possible by combining different models.

And finally, we came to conclusion that the inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration needs a lot of time and effort to become effective.

In which way can the results of Carbiocial be transferred into other regions of the world or into practice?

The Carbiocial modelling framework is a first step towards knowledge integration that could be transferred to future research projects and other regions. An important prerequisite is a clear definition of interfaces for an exchange of information not only between models but also between the responsible scientists in order to adequately portray the interplay between societal and environmental aspects.
A graphical user interface (GUI) has been designed to support decisions of local land users. Using this interface, the users can apply MPMAS and MONICA to help improving their farm planning. After providing both location and size of the farm, for which they want to perform the simulations, the GUI displays results of the respective model computations. The LUC and CC scenario results provide a frame for regional planning authorities, while the “Policy Briefs” supply stakeholders on different scales (estate, region, municipalities and farmer organizations) with practical recommendations.

Prof. Dr. Gerhard Gerold works at the Institute of Geography, University of Göttingen.

Publications

Boy, J., Strey, S., Schönenberg, R., Weber-Santos, O., Nendel, C., Klingler, M., Schumann, C., Hartberger, K., Strey, R., Guggenberger, G. (2016): Seeing the forest not for the carbon: why concentrating on land-use-induced carbon stock changes of soils in Brazil can be climate-unfriendly. Regional Environmental Change, pp 13.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-016-1008-1

Carauta, M. (2016): Combating Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon: Options for National and Global Governance. International Journal of Agriculture and Environmental Research, 2(2): 268–284.
URL: http://ijaer.in/uploads/ijaer_02__16.pdf

Lamparter, G., Nobrega, R.L.B., Kovacs, K., Amorim, R.S., Gerold, G. (2016): Modelling hydrological impacts of agricultural expansion in two macro-catchments in Southern Amazonia, Brazil. Regional Environmental Change, pp. 1–13.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-016-1015-2

Meurer, K.H.E., Franko, U., Stange, C.F., Dalla Rosa, J., Madari, B., Jungkunst, H. (2016): Direct nitrous oxide (N₂O) fluxes from soils under different land use in Brazil—a critical review. Environmental Research Letters, 11(2).
URL: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/2/023001

Müller, H., Griffiths, P., Hostert, P. (2016): Long-term deforestation dynamics in the Brazilian Amazon—Uncovering historic frontier development along the Cuiabá–Santarém highway. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 44: 61–69.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2015.07.005

Strey, S., Boy, J., Strey, R., Weber-Santos, O., Guggenberger, G. (2016): Response of soil organic carbon to land-use change in central Brazil: a large-scale comparison of Ferralsols and Acrisols. Plant and Soil, 408(1): 327–342.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-016-2901-6

Schönenberg, R., Hartberger, K., Schumann, Ch., Benatti, J.H., Fischer, L. da C. (2015): What Comes after Deforestation Control? Learning from Three Attempts of Land-use Planning in Southern Amazonia? GAIA – Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society, 24(2): 119–127(9).
URL: https://doi.org/10.14512/gaia.24.2.10

Schumann, C., Hartberger, K., Klingler, M., Schönenberg, R. (2015): Sempre pra frente - histórias de vida na BR 163. Editora Olhares. São Paulo. 159 p.
URL: http://editoraolhares.tanlup.com/product/1051537/sempre-pra-frente-historias-de-vida-na-br-163

Gil, J., Siebold, M., Berger, T. (2015): Adoption and development of integrated crop-livestock-forestry systems in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 199: 394–406.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2014.10.008

Gollnow, F., Lakes, T. (2014): Policy change, land use, and agriculture: The case of soy production and cattle ranching in Brazil, 2001 - 2012. Applied Geography, 55: 203–211.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2014.09.003

Guzha, A., Nobrega, R., Kovacs, K., Rebola-Lichtenberg, J., Amorim, R., Gerold, G. (2014): Characterizing rainfall-runoff signatures from micro-catchments with contrasting land cover characteristics in southern Amazonia. Hydrological Processes, 29(4): 508–521.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.10161

Contact

Prof. i.R. Dr. Gerhard Gerold, ggerold@gwdg.de

project website
project documentation at website of BMBF funding measure

Science portrait

New strategies for Southern Amazonia

The forests in the Amazon region play a key role in absorbing the worldwide effects of climate change. The way in which the region’s farmers manage their land is therefore of critical importance. An international research team led by the University of Göttingen wants to help to ensure greater sustainability in land-use.

Gigantic charred trees towering up into the sky, cleared forests, vast, monotonous fields – Gerhard Gerold, Professor of Geography at the University of Göttingen, has gathered many such impressions on his travels through the Amazon region in the heart of Brazil. But data on the breakdown of carbon compounds through deforestation and farming and the effects of this on climate cause him even greater concern than his personal observations. Reason enough to bring about change.

Gerold is the leader and spokesman for the joint project Carbiocial, aimed at investigating trends in soil carbon, biodiversity, and social processes in Southern Amazonia through interdisciplinary research. Gerold and his colleague Professor Karl M. Wantzen have developed the project jointly with Professor Eduardo Couto, head of the Institute of Soil Science and Precision Agriculture at the Federal University of Mato Grosso. The German Federal Ministry for Education and Research is supporting the project with 6.15 million Euros in funding so that German and Brazilian scientists under Gerold’s leadership can spend five years working out land management strategies for Southern Amazonia. Their mission is to develop new possibilities for land-use in the tropical rainforests and savannahs so that the land stores more carbon, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Although scientists have been investigating climate change for years, they still lack accurate models for calculating the effects of deforestation and increased land-use in the Amazonian region on world climate.

The negative trend of increased greenhouse gas emissions could be reversed if carbon could be stored in Brazil’s vast expanses of farmland through suitable agricultural technologies.The signs are good. Ten German universities, the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), the universities of Innsbruck and Tours, and several Brazilian universities and research institutes, including the national agricultural research corporation Embrapa, wish to work together to find solutions.

Analyses of satellite images show that up to a quarter of the rainforests in the Amazon region have been cleared in the last 30 years. The timber has been sold and the cleared areas burnt to the ground to make room for cattle or for crops of soya, maize, and cotton.

There are consequences: firstly biodiversity is threatened, and secondly climate change is intensified. Because forests storing carbon are shrinking in number, and because land in agricultural use releases carbon dioxide, Brazil is held responsible for one fifth of worldwide carbon emissions caused by tropical deforestation. This process is also driven by the international agricultural markets, where there is high demand for soya products, palm oil, and sugar cane for biofuels.

Soya plantations becoming widespread

Mato Grosso is one of the regions where the change of land-use is particularly apparent. Here the Carbiocial scientists are conducting research in two study areas near the towns of Sinop and Cuiabá. Agricultural development in Cuiabá began in the 1970s. Today cotton and soya crops dominate. In Sinop, the second project area, large-scale deforestation began around 15 years ago. Soya plantations are now widespread. In the third study area near the town of Novo Progresso in the southern part of Pará on the other hand, cattle farming dominates in pastures surrounded by tropical rainforest. Here too, deforestation has clearly accelerated in recent years however.

The main focus of the scientists’ interest is the local farmers, whose land holdings vary in size. In the south, near Cuiabá, they are generally between 2,000 and 15,000 hectares but often significantly smaller in the north, at 200 to 500 hectares. »Ideally the farmers should work their land in such a way as to protect the soil, so that important characteristics such as soil fertility and water quality are preserved«, says Gerold. The scientists want to test ways of achieving this in the field. As ecologist Wantzen points out, such methods could help the soil to store more carbon, improve soil quality and yields and reduce the pressure on the remaining areas of forest. »That would be a win-win situation for farmers and the climate«, he says. The scientists want to use scientific arguments to convince farmers of the benefits of carbon-friendly farming. And not only that: they also want to develop options which ensure a good income for the farmers, even if other more sustainable methods exist. As Gerold says: »Combining ecology and socio-economics sustainably, that is the challenge for the project.«

New soil protection methods

German-Brazilian teams are tackling this challenge in twelve sub-projects. In land management, for example, the scientists want to propose ways in which the farmers can better preserve or even improve the humus content of the soil and thus its carbon content. This calls for farming practices better suited to the soils of the tropical rainforests. »If the land is ploughed too deeply, more carbon dioxide escapes«, says project coordinator Dr. Stefan Hohnwald. In future farmers could dispense with ploughing so that the soil is not broken at all, or turned only minimally. Seed would then be sown directly without working the soil beforehand. These »no tilling« methods have already been used by many farmers in the old colonization regions of central Mato Grosso for a number of years. In one sub-project led by Kiel University in cooperation with local farmers, carbon-rich biomass is added to the soil to test ways of improving humus-impoverished soils.

The scientists are also experimenting with the choice of crop. The monotonous cultivation of soya and maize, interrupted only by a fallow period during the dry spell, is permanently impoverishing the soil. In cooperation with their Brazilian partners in the Carbioma project the scientists are therefore experimenting with five-year crop cycles where after the maize and soya crops, grass is sown to feed cattle followed by millet and nitrogen-fixing legumes. Obviously such changes in land-use are not easily accepted by the farmers, as they are still making good profits in the global market. But the first dark clouds are already looming. »Diseases are increasingly spreading through monocultures; nutrients in the soil are being depleted, and the effort required to sustain yields is increasing«, says Gerold. Political scientist Dr. Regine Schönenberg, who is investigating the underlying socioeconomic conditions in another sub-project, has established through interviews and workshops with the farmers that their options for changing land-use are few. »The strict environmental laws, market diktats, and lending conditions mean that many farmers feel that their scope for entrepreneurial initiative is very limited«, says Schönenberg. This is not their only problem: most of the farmers have no regular land title, and therefore do not officially own the land. »They have no documented right to work the land«, explains Schönenberg, who lectures and conducts research at the Free University of Berlin.

These problems are now exacerbated as the farmers are increasingly suffering the effects of climate change. Longer dry periods, a delayed rainy season, and greater variability in precipitation levels – such effects are already being reported by many farmers. The Carbiocial scientists want to simulate the consequences of climatic change for crop yields in further sub-projects.

Using models to calculate yields

One of the models used for this, the simulation model MONICA, was developed by geoecologist Dr. Claas Nendel at ZALF in Müncheberg. Using data on soil, sunlight, temperature, precipitation, and other parameters it describes the biochemical conversion of carbon, nitrogen, and water in agricultural ecosystems, and calculates plant growth and crop yields from these. »We can already run the model for maize and soya; we are still working on sunflowers, sugar cane, and cotton«, says Nendel. He must also consider how to adapt the model for the particular soil conditions in the south of the Amazon region. »Certain processes such as the transport or storage of nitrogen work differently in the tropics than in the mid latitudes«, says Nendel. Meanwhile Dr. Rüdiger Schaldach is working on another model for the Carbiocial project at the University of Kassel. The computer scientist wants to simulate the changing use of the Southern Amazonian landscape up to the year 2050. »We want to estimate regional trends as to how agricultural use might change under different socioeconomic conditions such as world trade«, says Schaldach. He is working with the land use model Landshift. This model too needs to be adapted to the realities of farming in Southern Amazonia so that the scenarios are accurate. »For example we have to integrate the farmers’ different crop rotations and colonization processes«, he explains.

Incorporating these regional specificities into the model is a real challenge. Together with a climate model, these two models should eventually be developed into a decision support model. This may sound complicated, but in practice it should yield mean ingful results and provide a good basis for scientists to predict the ecological and economic consequences of different land management strategies in the three regions. How are yields and profits affected if climate changes and farmers switch to a different crop rotation, for example? How does this affect the humus content of the soil? How many greenhouse gases are then released by the agricultural activity? »This should be as simple an instrument as possible, ideally in the form of a palm-top computer which farmers and environmental authorities can use on site«. This is how Gerold describes his vision, which should become a reality in the Amazon region and which could be applied throughout Latin America, with variations.

Farmers as multiplicators

For this to work out as intended, however, the scientists depend on the cooperation of the farmers. All is going well so far. In an experiment on one farm in Cuiabá, for example, the farmer is working eucalyptus bark, sugar cane molasses and wood chips into the soil of one field and the scientists are analysing how this improves the soil and enriches it with carbon and nitrogen. »If this produces positive results, this farmer could be a multiplicator for his colleagues,« says Hohnwald. The local farmers hope above all for new knowledge from the scientists: »Amazonia is very diverse, and the production of knowledge through initiatives such as the Carbiocial project gives us a better understanding of the local Amazonian region«, says Lincoln Queiroz, farmer and representative of a farming association in Novo Progresso.

Only by understanding local processes and their interactions with other parts of Amazonia and the planet, the farmers can work their land sustainably. The research project is still in its early stages. If it has been successful by the time it ends in summer 2016, some diplomacy will be required: »We don’t want to wag our fingers at the farmers and tell them what to grow and how to grow it. The aim is to show them alternative farming methods«, says Gerold. Here the farmers’ awareness of the national and international debate on climate protection is an advantage. »Farmers wish to prove that they can also farm in environmentally friendly ways«, says Gerold. »So perhaps the Carbiocial project has come just in time«.

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Video

Carbiocial

Introduction of the regional project Carbiocial - Carbon sequestration, biodiversity and social structures in Southern Amazonia

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About the project - INNOVATE

The core objective of the project was designing an innovative coupling of substance cycles evaluated on macro, meso and local scales, and embedded in societal structures. Due to a very extreme and long-lasting drought during the study period, the focus was on sustainable management of scarce natural resources. The project covered the São Francisco River Basin and focused on municipalities adjacent to the Itaparica Reservoir on its Pernambucan side. Empirical research was conducted, primarily covering small-scale fish, livestock and crop farming conditions. Main lessons derived from the research are potentially transferrable to other watersheds and semi-arid regions.

Funding period: January 2012 to December 2016
Funding: 5.1 million Euros plus Brazilian funds
Leading research institution: Environmental Assessment and Planning Research Group, Berlin Institute of Technology (Technische Universität Berlin)

Interview

with the project head Johann Köppel

Which were the most important scientific results in the field of sustainable land management?

Under the influence of the ongoing climate change, it will be increasingly difficult to meet all needs with the available water supply of large rivers such as São Francisco. As long as we need more and more irrigation water, drinking water, and water for other purposes, we will likely have to cut down the simultaneous use of hydropower. The INNOVATE team has therefore proposed to diversify the energy supply. Since generation of wind power is on the rise in Brasil, the conditions to do so are favorable. Regions with existing dams are particularly suitable for switching to solar and wind energy, because there is already an existing power supply system.

We attempted to make regulated rivers of the São Francisco catchment a bit more natural in their outflow and to find new opportunities for utilization of wind energy. Ultimately, at least the semi-arid areas of the São Francisco basin could be developed into an energy landscape, which is defined not only by irrigation farming and hydropower but increasingly also by wind and solar power. The models that were produced within the INNOVATE project and then put up for discussion show that such scenario is realistic.

A close attention was also paid to an investigation of the eutrophication phenomena (e.g. phosphorus binding) in the bays of large reservoirs. One of our recommendations was to prevent a mass development of plants (such as Elodea) that stimulate the toxic algal bloom by their extensive removal. Another recommendation was to minimize daily water fluctuations. In our models, we have shown when and where to install irrigation water pumps. The pumps should not be installed, for example, after rain events when nutrients and pesticides are washed down into the bays.

We have also analyzed consequences of dam constructions, which have, as with the São Francisco River, displaced several tens of thousands of people. Since the soils were sandy and nutrient-poor, the question was also how to improve the new and old agricultural land in and outside of the irrigation areas. Our research team has shown that the biological pest control applied instead of pesticides does not lead to yield losses (e.g. in coconut plantations), when herbaceous vegetation is allowed along the irrigation ditches that can be colonized by natural enemies of pests, such as amphibians and reptiles.

For the studied dry forest areas (“Caatinga”), which are under an enormous grazing pressure, we came up with suggestions on how to support a regeneration of the sparse forest with regional species and how to protect the biodiversity. We have also proposed ideas for further establishment of the Caatinga conservation areas and we have introduced strategies for goat and sheep farming (husbandry, fodder production or reuse of manure) in order to achieve improvements for the local livestock owners.

In the field of nature conservation, we have helped local organizations in the dry-forest areas, e.g. with a compilation of faunal and floral databases. For local farmers, we have also developed a program promoting the Umbuzeiro tree. This tree species is heavily used and valued for its fruits and underground tubers that help the trees to overcome drought periods. Due to the heavy utilization of this and other Caatinga species, especially during very long drought periods, tree seedlings are often damaged, which greatly restricts regeneration. This program can be implemented by agricultural organizations.

In which way can the results of INNOVATE be transferred into other regions of the world or into practice?

The era of large man-made dams is not over yet. According to one German study, there are about 3,700 large dams (with a capacity of at least 1 Megawatt) under construction or in development, particularly in the newly industrialized countries. The INNOVATE results are important and transferable to those regions, in which such building activities or water diversions are planned and which are located in dry areas where irrigation plays an important role. For instance, we have developed proposals showing the role of wind and solar energy in situations, in which a dam alone can no longer meet the demands for energy and water supply. We have also demonstrated ways to ensure good water quality through a good “irrigation water pump” management and to control large short-term fluctuations of water levels.

In parallel with our research project, a new 10-year plan for the river catchment was developed, so there were many opportunities for an exchange and dialogue. The question of how to restore a more natural flow regime of the river was opened in the local debate and further discussed in a regional river basin commission.

What were the lessons learned from the INNOVATE project?

When you run similar projects, you can only succeed when you find reliable governance structures in the partner countries. It does not help if good project ideas are lost simply because the local staff changes too often or because the institutions are being constantly reorganized. The consequence therefore can only be to strengthen education. Most of the knowledge gained in the INNOVATE project is with the young scientists working in the Brazilian institutes and businesses. This is what in the medium-term might count.

Prof. Dr. Johann Köppel works at the Berlin Institute of Technology, Technische Universität Berlin.

Publications

Gröner, F., Höhne, C., Kleiner, W., Kloas, W. (2017): Chronic diclofenac exposure affects gill integrity and pituitary gene expression and displays estrogenic activity in nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). Chemosphere, 166: 473–481.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2016.09.116

Schulz, C., Koch, R., Cierjacks, A., Kleinschmit, B. (2017): Land change and loss of landscape diversity at the Caatinga phytogeographical domain - Analysis of pattern-process relationships with MODIS land cover products (2001-2012). Journal of Arid Environments, 136: 54–74.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2016.10.004

Cierjacks, A., Pommeranz, M., Schulz, K., Almeida-Cortez, J. (2016): Is crop yield related to weed species diversity and biomass in coconut and banana fields of northeastern Brazil? Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 220: 175–183.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2016.01.006

Matta, E., Selge, F., Gunkel, G., Rossiter, K., Jourieh, A., Hinkelmann, R. (2016): Simulations of nutrient emissions from a net cage aquaculture in a Brazilian bay. Water Science and Technology, 73(10): 2430–2435.
URL: https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2016.092

Schulz, K., Voigt, K., Beusch, C., Almeida-Cortez, J.S., Kowarik, I., Walz, A., Cierjacks, A. (2016): Grazing deteriorates the soil carbon stocks of Caatinga forest ecosystems in Brazil. Forest Ecology and Management, 367: 62–70.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2016.02.011

Siegmund-Schultze, M., Köppel, J., Sobral, M.C. (2015): Balancing ecosystem services and societal demands in a highly managed watershed: setup and progress of a comprehensive research project. Revista Brasileira de Ciências Ambientais, N°36 (June 2015): 3–18.
URL: https://doi.org/10.5327/Z2176-947820151001

Siegmund-Schultze, M., Rodorff, V., Köppel, J., Sobral, M.C. (2015): Paternalism or participatory governance? Efforts and obstacles in implementing the Brazilian water policy in a large watershed. Land Use Policy, 48: 120–130.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2015.05.024

Keitel, J., Zak, D., Hupfer, M. (2015): Water level fluctuations in a tropical reservoir: the impact of sediment drying, aquatic macrophyte dieback, and oxygen availability on phosphorus mobilization. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 23(7): 6883–6894.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5915-3

Koch, H., Biewald, A., Liersch, S., Azevedo, J.R.G., Silva, G.N.S., Kölling, K., Fischer, P., Koch, R., Hattermann, F.F. (2015): Scenarios of climate and land-use change, water demand and water availability for the São Francisco River Basin. Revista Brasileira de Ciências Ambientais, N°36 (June 2015): 96–114.
URL: https://doi.org/10.5327/Z2176-947820151007

Hagel, H., Hoffmann, C., Doluschitz, R. (2014): Mathematical programming models to increase land and water use efficiency in semi-arid NE-Brazil. International Journal on Food System Dynamics, 5(4): 173–181.
URL: https://doi.org/10.18461/ijfsd.v5i4.542

Contact

Prof. Dr. Johann Köppel
Berlin Institute of Technology (Technische Universität Berlin)
Environmental Assessment and Planning Research Group
Erweiterungsbau, Secr. EB 5
Straße des 17. Juni 145
D-10623 Berlin
Germany
johann.koeppel@tu-berlin.de
http://www.umweltpruefung.tu-berlin.de/v_menue/fachgebiet_umweltpruefung_und_umweltplanung/parameter/en/

project website
project documentation at website of BMBF funding measure

Science portrait

Sustainable reservoir use

The embankment dam was built with the intention of improving the living conditions of the local people, but subsequently gave rise to many ecological problems. German and Brazilian scientists are now working together to reduce the negative effects of the dam through the research project INNOVATE.

Forest regions are preserved in Germany as so-called green lungs to make the air of the cities cleaner for the population. In North-east Brazil, German and Brazilian research scientists are relying on a green liver for water purification. They aim to use certain aquatic plants to purify the waters of the dammed São Francisco River of toxins from antibiotic residues and nutrients such as phosphates and nitrates so that it again becomes usable for anthropogenic purposes. The method is also intended to halt the increase in algal blooms and the eutrophication of the reservoir. And with good reason: the many nutrients in the water stimulate the growth of cyanobacteria, which produce liver toxins and other noxious substances and are suspected of causing diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease.

The principle of the green liver was developed by Dr. Stephan Pflugmacher Lima, Professor of Eco¬logical Impact Research and Ecotoxicology at the Berlin Institute of Technology (TU Berlin). The method sounds simple: impure water from the reservoir is drawn off into a sunken basin in which native aquatic plants grow. The plants absorb the toxins and nutrients and incorporate them into their cell structures. »After two days, 85 percent of cyanobacterial toxins have been removed and the clean water can then be ducted back onto the fields«, says Pflugmacher Lima, who has already implemented this principle successfully in China.

The green liver method is currently being put to the test in the research project INNOVATE, a joint German-Brazilian project sponsored with 5.1 million Euros in funding by the German Federal Ministry of Research and Education. Funding of the Brazilian researchers is provided by the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, along with scholarships from the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development. The research scientists are working together in 22 study groups until December 2016 to draw up proposals and recommendations for the sustainable use of the large water catchment area of around 630,000 square metres of the São Francisco, focusing mainly on the Itaparica Dam in the semi-arid state of Pernambuco in North-east Brazil. The scientists’ aim to develop detailed concepts to improve the quality of the reservoir water, reduce emissions of the greenhouse gas methane, prevent salinisation of the soil and above all enable the people living around the reservoirs to have greater involvement in regional development.

»We are seeking to develop models, solutions, action strategies and technologies which take account of climate change and which also promise a solid economic basis for the local population«, explains German project spokesman Professor Johann Köppel, Head of Environmental Assessment and Planning Research Group at TU Berlin.

Closing cycles, connecting material flows

It is Köppel’s view that a comprehensive solution to this complex task can only be found by taking an interdisciplinary approach. For this reason, more than 100 scientists from a total of 12 universities and research institutes in both countries are participating in the project – from areas such as water management, landscape economics, plant ecology and soil science. Köppel considers certain aspects of the project to be scientifically innovative: »We want to close the cycles in the management of the reservoir and thus connect the material flows in the water and on land in such a way that the pressures on the lake are reduced and at the same time the region’s natural potential is better exploited«. This means for example that if water from the São Francisco is used for agricultural irrigation and fish farms, it should be clean and hygienically safe afterwards.

The São Francisco was dammed to form the Itaparica Reservoir in 1988. The Brazilian government undertook this ambitious project, for which it relocated 40,000 people, with the intention not only of securing electricity supply to nearby towns but also of improving the living conditions of the local people and combating poverty. It has only been partly successful in this aim however. »The consequences of the dam for the local people and the landscape were not thought through properly«, says Köppel. The question of soil quality was overlooked, for example, and the enormous water losses through surface evaporation from the reservoir were underestimated. New homes with small-scale irrigation systems were built for the relo-cated people. But many of these dwellings were built on soils containing too much sand or too little clay, or with poor drainage, and consequently the fields were unproductive or quickly became salinised. Nor has any solution yet been found to the problem of the water quality of the São Francisco River and Itaparica Reservoir, which continues to deteriorate. The reservoir managers provide the rehomed farmers with free water for irrigation, and they use it in great quantities. »If the water is piped back into the reservoir afterwards, it is so contaminated that really it is no longer usable for drinking water«, says Köppel. Initiatives such as Pflugmacher Lima’s Green Liver should help this situation. However the ecotoxicologist’s aim is not just to purify the water; he is also seeking to close the cycle by utilising the plant material. »When the absorption capacity of the aquatic plants is reached, we want to convert them into bioethanol«, explains Pflugmacher Lima. Enquiries have already been received from Brazilian companies willing to try this.

Sediment on the fields

In two further INNOVATE sub-projects, study groups led by Professor Joachim Sauerborn, agricultural ecologist at the Hohenheim University in Stuttgart, and Professor Martin Kaupenjohann, soil scientist at TU Berlin, are working on another approach. The scientists and their teams are investigating agricultural productivity in the region. For example, one doctoral student is seeking to establish whether the agricultural ecosystems along the river reduce greenhouse gases and store carbon. »In an irrigation zone, terrestrial production is of key importance«, says Kaupenjohann. The TU scientist is seeking ways to improve soil quality in the region. His German-Brazilian team is investigating the use of biochar (likewise charcoal) in field trials on local farms, based on the model of the so-called terra preta do indio, an extremely fertile anthropogenic soil in Amazonia.

He explains their objective: »We want to improve the adsorption capacity of the soil so that it can store more water and nutrients in a form readily available to the plants«. The soil scientist also wishes to test whether sediment from the reservoir is suitable for use on agricultural fields, and whether such use could be economically viable. He also wants to try out new crop rotations: »In tropical ecosystems, it is often the case that permanent crops such as coconut palms and mango or banana plantations are grown in the same space as annual crops such as tomatoes and pumpkins«. The INNOVATE project now wishes to take a new direction: »We want to grow perennial and annual crops in rotation on the same land«. The intention is first to grow a longterm crop for 10 to 20 years. This makes the soil fertile, Kaupenjohann explains, as it enriches the humus content and increases carbon and nitrogen reserves; moreover, it prevents salinisation. After the harvest, the land is ploughed and annual crops are planted. »In this way we make more efficient use of the nitrogen and need less mineral fertilisers, which are very energyintensive to produce«, he says. The German scientists are currently testing out this approach on a fifteenyearold coconut plantation.

In another INNOVATE sub-project, a bi-national research team led on the German side by Dr. Fred Hattermann from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) is engaged in a study of local land use. Working alongside scientists from the Brazilian Federal University of Pernambuco in Recife, the team is investigating how land use in the São Francisco catchment area could change over the next few decades under changing climatic and market conditions. The aim is to find out for example where and how renewable resources might be grown if there are changes in temperature, the amount of precipitation or the carbon dioxide content of the air, or if global demand for products such as bioethanol from sugar cane increases. To allow them to analyse these connections, the scientists are creating a computer model of the trial region and feeding in for example regionalised scenario data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). They have already established that in the northern part of the project area, precipitation has decreased over the past 60 years. In the same period the temperature across the whole catchment area has risen by between 0.5 and 1 degree Celsius. This trend is likely to continue in the future. PIK scientist Hattermann describes the consequences:»The pressure on the available water resources is increasing, and the question of water availability is likely to become more and more pressing in the future«. The research group is investigating the flow of the São Francisco, the most important river in the dry North-east of Brazil, to establish how much water will be available for agricultural land in the future. »We are examining water levels, the distribution of toxins and nutrients in the reservoir and also methane production«, Hattermann explains. This research is still in its early stages. However, the INNOVATE scientists have already established that there could be major changes in water availability in the trial region in the future.

Authorities changing their way of thinking

The research carried out by the German scientists in cooperation with the Brazilian universities forms the central basis of the INNOVATE project. »However, the transfer of this knowledge into practice is also very important«, emphasises Brazilian project spokesperson Professor Maria do Carmo Sobral from the Federal University of Pernambuco in Recife. The project must not be merely an academic exercise; rather the scientists should make common cause with politicians, government representatives and interest groups in the region. »We hold joint workshops to work out scientifically based solutions for the region«, she explains. A major plus point here is the input from Germany. As Sobral says: «People from other countries contribute their own ideas and research approaches. This intercultural exchange alters the authorities’ way of thinking.« In her view, however, the project will also benefit the whole German Brazilian scientific cooperation. »Some of the scientists will certainly continue the bi-national cooperation in further projects.«

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Video

INNOVATE

Introduction of the regional project INNOVATE

Constellation analysis

Constellation analysis is a tool used to clarify perceptions of different stakeholders on land management problems.

Biological pest control

The technology aims at biological pest control through reducing the use of common agrochemicals.

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About the project - LEGATO

In order to advance long-term sustainable development of intensive land use systems against risks arising from multiple aspects of global change, LEGATO quantified the dependence of ecosystem functions (ESF) and the services (ESS) they generate in agricultural systems in South East Asia. The focus was on local and regional land-use intensity (including the socio-cultural and economic background) and biodiversity, and the potential impacts of future climate and land-use change. Following the framework of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA), the researchers defined supporting services as ESF and dealt with selected characteristic elements of the three service strands defined by the MEA: a) Provisioning: nutrient cycling & crop production (including consequences for the hydrosphere); b) Regulating: biocontrol & pollination; c) Cultural services: cultural identity & aesthetics.

LEGATO developed valuations of ESS through monetary and non-monetary methods. The most meaningful monetary costs to be calculated were (potential) damage costs (e.g. due to production losses, influences of reduced water quality), management/repair costs, and avoidance cost (precautionary measures) as these manifest themselves in real markets. The non-monetary costs were crucial for cultural services. LEGATO tested and improved already existing indicators for ESF/ESS and their values - building upon but going beyond existing indicator sets such as those of the CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity) and the SEBI (Streamlining European Biodiversity Indicators).

As a core output, LEGATO developed guidelines for optimizing ESF/ESS given the local socio-cultural conditions, and their stabilization under the future climate and land-use change, which particularly affect South and Southeast Asia. The project also analyzed the potential of ecological engineering to follow the guidelines, and tested their implementation and transferability across regions.

Funding period: March 2011 to December 2016
Funding: 7.5 million Euros
Leading research institution: Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ

Interview

with the project head Josef Settele

Which were the most important scientific results in the field of sustainable land management?

Landscape approaches offer a wealth of opportunities for sustainable land use by combining crop production, recreation, tourism and the protection of cultural heritage.
Communication has to move into new directions, where soap operas and Citizen Science are promising approaches.

What were the lessons learnt from the LEGATO project?

Creation of a common understanding of basic principles of each other’s perceptions and resulting approaches was a major challenge. Communication of scientific concepts and terms required a high level of investments and skills. The concept of co-design and co-production was relatively new and mostly unknown for both stakeholders and scientists and required a long phase of adjustment to open up the minds in such a direction.

Research has to consider inputs from stakeholders and scientists – and in different circumstances their relevance is very different:

Science: The so far undervalued or even ignored role of silicon as a potentially limiting nutrient especially in Vietnam. This aspect would have never been discovered if the research concept would have been exclusively based on stakeholders’ wishes and priorities.
Stakeholder Work: The close interactions of farmers and other stakeholders, outreach professionals (TV channels) and scientists, which yielded the amazing set of 20 soap operas. This aspect never would have materialized if the LEGATO concept would have been exclusively based on scientists’ wishes and priorities.

Investing in both of these elements would not have been possible without a flexible adjustment of priorities in the course of the project.

In which way can the results of LEGATO be transferred into other regions of the world or into practice?

Major outputs are the recommendations on how to sustainably use different approaches, many summarized/branded within the term “Ecological Engineering”, to make use of nature’s services rather than suppressing them. Awareness rising in relation to the abuse of insecticides was a core component, as well as options to combine crop production with aesthetics, cultural services, and eco-tourism. Pilot studies on citizen science have shown how the public can be engaged. Education entertainment (soap operas) has been developed as an important outlet of information.
Key findings and aspects that could be picked up by future projects include a) the landscape approach for the management of agricultural areas - in irrigated rice regions and beyond; b) further development of new communication channels (TV shows, Citizen Science, Ecological Engineering); and c) an even wider geographical coverage (in our case over the entire South-East Asian region).
LEGATO is a showcase example on sustainable land management as it was from the beginning designed to cover a high number of regions and highlighted a set of regional and/or local options for improvement.
Working with a reasonable number of regions (7 regions in 2 countries) was an essential precondition for investigating transferability of our results, which would be hard to imagine if research was done in one area or region only, without “replications”.

Prof. Dr. Josef Settele works at the Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ.

Publications

Castonguay, A.C., Burkhard, B., Müller, F., Horgan, F.G., Settele, J. (2016): Resilience and adaptability of rice terrace social-ecological systems: A case study of a local community’s perception in Banaue, Philippines. Ecology & Society, 21(2): 15.
URL: https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-08348-210215

Marxen, A., Klotzbücher, T., Jahn, R., Kaiser, K., Nguyen, V.S., Schmidt, A., Schädler, M., Vetterlein, D. (2016): Interaction between silicon cycling and straw decomposition in a silicon deficient rice production system. Plant and Soil, 398(1): 153–163.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-015-2645-8

Schmidt, A., John, K., Arida, G., Auge, H., Brandl, R., Horgan, F.G., Hotes, S., Marquez, L., Radermacher, N., Settele, J., Wolters, V., Schädler, M. (2015): Effects of Residue Management on Decomposition in Irrigated Rice Fields Are Not Related to Changes in the Decomposer Community. PLoS ONE 10: e0134402.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0134402

Settele, J., Spangenberg, J.H., Heong, K.L., Burkhard, B., Bustamante, J.V., Cabbigat, J., Chien, H.V., Escalada, M., Grescho, V., Hai, L.H., Harpke, A., Horgan, F.G., Hotes, S., Jahn, R., Kühn, I., Marquez, L., Schädler, M., Tekken, V., Vetterlein, D., Villareal, S., Westphal, C., Wiemers, M. (2015): Agricultural landscapes and ecosystem services in South-East Asia—the LEGATO-Project. Basic and Applied Ecology, 16(8): 661–664.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2015.10.003

Spangenberg, J.H., Douguet, J.-M., Settele, J., Heong, K.L. (2015): Escaping the Lock-In of Continuous Insecticide Spraying in Rice. Developing an integrated ecological and socio-political DPSIR analysis. Ecological Modelling, 295: 188–195.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2014.05.010

Spangenberg, J.H., Görg, C., Settele, J. (2015): Stakeholder involvement in ESS research and governance: between conceptual ambition and practical experiences – risks, challenges and tested tools. Ecosystem Services, 16: 201–211.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2015.10.006

Tilliger, B., Rodríguez-Labajos, B., Bustamante, J.V., Settele, J. (2015): Disentangling Values in the Interrelations between Cultural Ecosystem Services and Landscape Conservation — A Case Study of the Ifugao Rice Terraces in the Philippines. Land, 4(3): 888–913.
URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/land4030888

Westphal, C., Vidal, S., Horgan, F.G., Gurr, G.M., Escalada, M., Ho Van Chien, Tscharntke, T., Heong, K.L., Settele, J. (2015): Promoting multiple ecosystem services with flower strips and participatory approaches in rice production landscapes. Basic and Applied Ecology, 16(8): 681–689.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2015.10.004

Burkhard, B., Müller, A., Müller, F., Grescho, V., Anh, Q., Arida, G., Bustamante, J.V. (Jappan), Van Chien, H., Heong, K.L., Escalada, M., Marquez, L., Thanh Truong, D., Villareal, S. (Bong), Settele, J. (2015): Land cover-based ecosystem service assessment of irrigated rice cropping systems in Southeast Asia —An explorative study. Ecosystem Services, 14: 76–87.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2015.05.005

Förster, J., Barkmann, J., Fricke, R., Hotes, S., Kleyer, M., Kobbe, S., Kübler, D., Rumbaur, C., Siegmund-Schultze, M., Seppelt, R., Settele, J., Spangenberg, J. H., Tekken, V., Vaclavik, T., Wittmer, H. (2015): Assessing ecosystem services for informing land-use decisions: a problem-oriented approach. Ecology & Society, 20(3): 31.
URL: https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-07804-200331

Klotzbücher, T., Marxen, A., Vetterlein, D., Schneiker, J., Türke, M., Nguyen van Sinh, Nguyen Hung Manh, Ho van Chien, Marquez, L., Villareal, S., Bustamante, J.V., Jahn, R. (2015): Plant-available silicon in paddy soils as a key factor for sustainable rice production in Southeast Asia. Basic and Applied Ecology, 16(8): 665–673.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2014.08.002

Klotzbücher, T., Leuther, F., Marxen, A., Vetterlein, D., Horgan, F.G., Jahn, R. (2015): Forms and fluxes of potential plant-available silicon in irrigated lowland rice production (Laguna, the Philippines). Plant and Soil, 393(1): 177–191.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-015-2480-y

Görg, C., Spangenberg, J.H., Tekken, V., Burkhard, B. Thanh Truong, D., Escalada,M, Heong, K.L., Arida,G., Bustamante, J.V., Van Chien, H., Klotzbuecher, T., Marquez, L., Marxen, A., Hung Nguyen, M., Nguyen Van, S., Villareal, S., J. Settele (2014): Engaging local knowledge within biodiversity research: experiences from large inter- and transdisciplinary projects. Transdisciplinary Environmental Science, Special Issue in Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 39(4): 323–341.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1179/0308018814Z.00000000095

Contact

Prof. Dr. Josef Settele, Josef.Settele@ufz.de (www.legato-project.net)

project website
project documentation at website of BMBF funding measure

Science portrait

New approaches in rice cultivation

Half of the world’s population lives on rice. However, rice is not cultivated ecologically and sustainably everywhere: it is normally grown with the application of mineral fertilizers and often sprayed to control weeds, pests and diseases. In Vietnam and the Philippines, Asian and German scientists are now searching for more sustainable ways to manage rice ecosystems.

The Brown Planthopper (BPH) reaches a length of only a few millimetres. But the damage caused by this and other species of plant- and leafhoppers in Asian rice fields is immense. But what can be done to control these pests? Entomologist Professor Stefan Vidal from Göttingen University is investigating how natural enemies contribute to the control of planthopper abundance.

Vidal is conducting his research in Philippine rice landscapes. Here, as in all rice environments, so-called parasitoids are a core group of natural enemies, which include tiny mymarid wasps with a size of just 2 millimetres and which are specialized on rice planthoppers as hosts. They lay their eggs inside the planthopper eggs, which, themselves, are attached to the tissue of the rice stems. When the parasitoid larvae hatch they will feed on the hopper eggs. Vidal’s hypothesis is that higher numbers of these wasps will result in fewer planthoppers damaging the rice plants.

Sustainable rice cultivation

Vidal is researching within the project LEGATO, which stands for »Land use intensity and Ecological enGineering – Assessment Tools for risks and Opportunities in irrigated rice-based production systems«. The project will have received a total of 7.5 million Euros in funding from the Federal German Ministry of Education and Research by February 2016. The main aim of the project, coordinated by agricultural ecologist PD Dr. Josef Settele from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), is to find answers to how the rice ecosystems in Southeast Asia can be managed and developed sustainably.

This is a matter of some importance: »Rice is a staple food crop: half of the world‘s population lives on it«, says Settele. The LEGATO scientists are conducting their research across seven study regions on Luzon Island in the Philippines and in North and South Vietnam. The team of experts brought together by Settele from 22 research institutions in seven countries seeks to analyse how rice cultivation influences the surrounding landscape and ecological as well as human community and vice versa. They are focusing on ecological engineering, i. e. »the shaping and monitoring of ecosystems with the aim of increasing the productivity of rice cultivation while maintaining or even improving sustainability«, as stated by Dr. Kong Luen Heong of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI, Philippines).

Mymarid wasps kill planthoppers

As part of this research Heong is also investigating how humans can improve the habitat for the natural enemies of the rice planthoppers. One ecological engineering approach that the LEGATO scientists are pursuing is to analyse how flowering plants on the bunds between the rice fields and within vegetation surrounding rice areas attract insects. These insects include the mymarid wasps (which kill the planthoppers but potentially also help to pollinate plants) and wild bees, which are generally important pollinators. The latter are the subject of a further working group led by Dr. Catrin Westphal from Göttingen University. The agricultural ecologist is investigating the diversity of bee species in the study areas. »Bees are an important functional group which can indicate the intensity of agricultural land use, like pesticide application, in the rice production systems«, she says. The occurrence of wild bees decreases with increasing intensity of rice cultivation. On the other hand diverse and flower-rich habitats have a positive effect on bee numbers. Initial studies suggest that the bees thrive best in extensively farmed areas with mixed crops offering diverse and complexly structured habitats: »The highest numbers of bee species occur where banana plants, palms and shrubs are found in very close proximity to blossom-rich undergrowth«. The nectar gatherers are important, not only as indicators of an intact landscape but also because they provide a vital service for the local farmers. »The bees pollinate tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini. Without them it would not be possible to grow vegetables,« says Westphal.

The weed-rich embankments between the rice fields also attract bees and wasps. Botanist Sabine Großmann is making a detailed study of the plants in and alongside the rice fields as part of LEGATO. She hypothesises that species-rich vegetation helps to keep hopper numbers down. »The bees need weeds and shrubs because they breed in the hollow stems«, says Großmann, a PhD student at UFZ. If these structures are not present, conditions are difficult for the wasps. The rice fields in the Philippines and Vietnam are very diverse; the diversity of structures and the intensity of land use vary greatly from one region to another. This is apparent for example from the farmers’ use of insecticides to control hoppers and other pests.

»In the mountains of the Philippines, where people grow rice for their own consumption, there is no money for pesticides«, says Großmann. In the plains of Vietnam on the other hand, where rice is cultivated over much larger areas and which is to be sold, people are quicker to resort to the use of toxic sprays. However, they frequently choose the wrong time of year to do so: »In earlier times farmers in Vietnam’s Tien Gang Province used to spray. Then all the insects died off, but the hoppers were the quickest to recover afterwards«, says Dr. Ho Van Chien of the Southern Regional Plant Protection Centre (Long Dinh, Tien Giang, Vietnam). »But in the meantime the lesson has been learned and through Ecological Engineering we do not apply insecticides any longer and consequently maintain biodiversity and its biocontrol services«.

This affects the hopper populations less severely than other species, as some individual specimens always survive. The result: »Large populations of the hoppers quickly develop and cause even greater damage to the rice«, says Heong. One of the aims of the project is therefore to show the farmers that it is possible to dispense with pesticides and instead to tackle rice pests by natural means. Project coordinator Settele sees communication as an important priority for the LEGATO project. »Our main concern is to make use of the knowledge of the rice farmers in Vietnam and the Philippines and to make them communicate among and between each other«, he says. The two nations are united by the effects of globalization. »Young people no longer want to work in the rice fields. Many are moving away because the work is very laborious and they hope to be able to earn more in the towns«, says Professor Monina Escalada of the Visayas State University (VSU, Philippines), who is studying socio-cultural conditions within LEGATO.

Old traditions are being lost

Tourists are gradually discovering the picturesque rice terraces on Luzon Island. This brings money into the region, but it is contributing to an increase of the average cost of living for the local population. Overall, recent socio-economic developments and trends are the reason that rice growing is no longer sufficient as prior source of income. Most farmer families diversify their income base by non-agricultural activities. The specified knowledge of the older farmers will be lost, if there is no-one left to take over their work. »Social structures have been developed on the basis of rice production under very difficult circumstances. Recently, with changing lifestyle preferences of the younger people, and a significant shortage of qualified manpower in the rice terraces, the transmission of knowledge and traditions is intermitted or eventually being lost«, explains Vera Tekken from Greifswald University. For this reason strategies are needed to safeguard the farmers’ income from rice growing and to stabilize yields.

In order to build up a relationship of trust, Escalada and Tekken are interviewing the rice farmers, asking them for specific problems related to rice production, under inclusion of socio-cultural and social aspects. This not only takes up a considerable amount of time but also requires sensitivity. »Many farmers are disconcerted by the fact that Europeans want to give them advice on how to deal with their own crops«, Tekken explains. She is convinced that the effort is worthwhile: »We don’t want the farmers to turn to pesticides at the first opportunity to somehow deal with increasing problems and yield losses caused by pests, but rather for them to really consider ecological engineering as a useful tool.«

Uncertain future

Jimmy Cabbigat is one of the rice farmers in the Philippines. Cabbigat is aware of the importance of the LEGATO project: »Our forefathers laid out the rice terraces in order to survive. Now we have to consider how we can preserve the terraces for the future.« So the project aims to show the farmers practical options for maintaining rice cultivation in the uplands and taking best advantage of the terraces. For this reason Settele and the main project economist Dr. Joachim H. Spangenberg want to bring the farmers together with agricultural advisors, planners and those driving tourism. The rice farmers on the plains on the other hand are already working their land in a more commercial way, and with them the LEGATO scientists wish to discuss above all how to reduce their use of pesticides and fertilizers. »We want to prove that the rice farmers do not have to use expensive pesticides in order to make profits«, says Spangenberg. It is crucial that the whole village implements these findings. »One farmer on his own can achieve little, if he alone stops using pesticides, while the others continue to spray their crops. Then the hoppers will simply move onto his land«, states IRRI entomologist Dr. Finbarr Horgan. But before their findings can be implemented, the scientists have to answer many fundamental questions for which very little data exists as yet, such as: How does the landscape affect the dynamics of the rice farming and the organisms that live there? What are the effects of climate and land-use change on the ecosystems and the services that they provide?

One of the substances which has been little studied until now and for which many connections remain unclear is silicon. Rice is known to be one of the few plant species which can absorb quite large quantities of silicon and store it as silicon dioxide. For rice silicon can be a limiting factor. »If the soil is fertilized with silicon, yields are increased«, reports UFZ scientist Professor Doris Vetterlein. The rice plants are also less susceptible to attacks by pests and better able to withstand dry periods, and their stems are more robust with a more erect leaf canopy. It is presumed that this improves light absorption by the plants so that their photosynthetic rate is higher. »In addition to all this, silicon plays an important role in fixing carbon in the soil«, says Vetterlein.

For this reason greater attention is now focusing on the element in the debate on climate change. Vetterlein is working with Professor of Soil Science Reinhold Jahn from Halle-Wittenberg University, Associate Professor Nguyen Van Sinh from the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology and other colleagues to conduct fundamental research into silicon in the LEGATO study areas. The team wants to find out how much silicon is present in the soil, how it is absorbed by the rice plants and what happens to the silicon after harvesting when the rice plants are burned or left to rot in the fields. »If silicon should indeed prove to be a limiting factor, then the farmers would have to try to preserve as much of it in the system as possible«, concludes Jahn. Of course the local farmers are very interested in the findings of the LEGATO scientists. But there is also a transfer of knowledge in the opposite direction. Settele favours the research approach known as co-design in which the rice farmers are encouraged to contribute their own ideas. They complained for example that the so-called Golden Apple Snail is devouring the young rice plants. So LEGATO scientists Dr. Manfred Türke and Professor Wolfgang Weisser from the University of Technology in Munich are now investigating this problem. »Without the input of the local farmers we would not have been looking into this in more detail«, says Settele.

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LEGATO

Introduction of the regional project LEGATO - Land-use intensity and ecological engineering rice based production systems

LEGATO rethinking rice

Video about LEGATO and rice ecosystem services

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About the project - SASCHA

The Russian province of Tyumen in Western Siberia is important for food production, climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation. The massive peatlands and humus-rich steppe soils of the region are carbon sinks of global significance. The region has been the scene of recent land-use change, including massive land abandonment following the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991. More recently, these trends have been reversed, with recent recultivation and cropland intensification. Climate change could lead to an increasing drought risk and lead to a northward shifts in agriculture. New expansion of cropland into mires and recultivation might lead to a release of greenhouse gases on a globally significant scale, with an important, but poorly understood potential for feedback mechanisms. Further ecosystem goods and services, such as water quality or soil fertility, might also be affected. Social systems will also be impacted by the fundamental changes in land use and rural infrastructure.

There are few concepts and strategies in Western Siberia to steer and mitigate the fundamental land-use change and its implications for wildlife and society. SASCHA aimed to provide basic knowledge, practical management tools and adaptation strategies to cope with recent and future land-use and climate change. The SASCHA consortium has collected data on biodiversity and ecosystem services, has quantified and modeled ecological processes such as green-house gas fluxes, and has assessed the impact of different land-use intensities on ecosystem goods and services. Remote-sensing tools allowing land users to monitor land-use change were developed. Based on an evaluation of various scenarios, strategies for future sustainable land use were communicated to main stakeholders in farming and landscape planning. Farm trials realized in collaboration with local farmers aimed at the development of farming techniques that increase resilience to climate change and make intensification processes less detrimental to biodiversity and ecosystem services. A wide array of local, regional and international stakeholders was identified and approached for collaboration. The socio-economic component of the project ensured realistic assessments and efficient targeting of the right audiences.

Funding period: November 2011 to December 2016
Funding: 3.8 million Euros
Leading research institution: University of Münster

Interview

with the project head Norbert Hölzel

Which were the most important scientific results in the field of sustainable land management?

Based on our research we could demonstrate that old grasslands and abandoned arable land are of major significance for biodiversity preservation and carbon sequestration. Despite low management intensity, cropland turned out to be of minor significance for biodiversity preservation. Furthermore, we found out that in the past cropland abandonment took place preferably in areas with low soil quality. Thus, raising yields on existing cropland should be prioritized over the re-cultivation of abandoned arable land. Such intensification must be done in a sustainable way using low tillage methods that are beneficial for the preservation of soil fertility and carbon stocks. In addition, low tillage practices proved to enhance soil water potential, which is critical for yields considering the effects of future climate change in this semi-humid region. Soil nutrient status and carbon sequestration can be further enhanced through regular crop rotations and the usage of fertilizer including the so far underutilized manure. For the preservation of biodiversity a continuation of grassland management by grazing and hay making for livestock keeping is mandatory, which may even have global impact through substituting imports from countries with environmentally harmful meat production, such as Brazil.

What were the lessons learnt from the SASCHA project?

The development of agriculture in Russia is currently driven by national and regional policies rather than globally increasing demands for arable land or the effects of climate change. Projects on sustainable land management can therefore only be successful, if they advocate decisions on very high federal levels, acknowledging the existing top-down decision-making.
The most important change to our original funding application was an increase in capacity building in both involved countries. We quickly realized that this component of the project needed to be increased, and frequently invited Russian students and partners to Germany, while German PhD students spent extended periods with Russian partners on site. This proved to be an effective way to bring across opinions and approaches of both partners. Besides language barriers, the major ‘stumble stones’ were the different cultures of research partners within the German consortium and between the two countries involved.

In future calls, bilateral collaboration and preparation of co-funding agreements between countries already during the application period should be encouraged. A preparation phase of perhaps one year prior to the start of the main project for the preparation of logistics, organization of permits, compilation of existing data and set up of infrastructure would increase project effectiveness and success chances.

In which way can the results of SASCHA be transferred into other regions of the world or into practice?

The exchange of German and Russian graduate and PhD students and senior researchers leads to cultural understanding and increased capacity on both sides, thereby allowing spread and multiplication of the project spirit and results after its end. The transferability of strategies for reconciliation of biodiversity conservation and agricultural development to other areas of the same biome (forest steppe/steppe) is high, as shown by us in the neighboring Kazakhstan.

The SASCHA project is a showcase example on sustainable land management, as it integrated the knowledge of Russian and German researchers and stakeholders from very different areas of sustainability research, created a theoretical basis for increasing sustainability on sound scientific grounds, and developed measures to apply the created knowledge in practice. However, a transferability analysis suggests that transferability to regions other than the Russian and Kazakh temperate grassland/forest biome is limited by biophysical characters (e.g. climate), political systems, cultural understanding and different economic abilities to support sustainability.

Prof. Dr. Norbert Hölzel works at the Institut of Landscape Ecology at University Münster.

Publications

Fleischer, E., Khashimov, I., Hölzel, N., Klemm, O. (2016): Carbon exchange fluxes over peatlands in Western Siberia: Possible feedback between land-use change and climate change. Science of the Total Environment, 545–546: 424–433.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.12.073

Griewald, Y. (2016): Institutional economics of grain marketing in Russia: Insights from the Tyumen region. Journal of Rural Studies, 47: 21–30.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2016.07.010

Mathar, W., Kämpf, I., Kleinebecker, T., Kuzmin, I., Tolstikov, A., Tupitsin, S., Hölzel, N. (2016): Floristic diversity of meadow steppes in the Western Siberian Plain: Effects of abiotic site conditions, management and landscape structure. Biodiversity and Conservation, 25(12): 2361–2379.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-015-1023-4

Kämpf, I., Mathar, W., Kuzmin, I., Hölzel, N., Kiehl, K. (2016): Post-Soviet recovery of grassland vegetation on abandoned fields in the forest steppe zone of Western Siberia. Biodiversity and Conservation, 25(12): 2563–2580.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-016-1078-x

Kämpf, I., Hölzel, N., Störrle, M., Broll, G., Kiehl, K. (2016): Potential of temperate agricultural soils for carbon sequestration: A meta-analysis of land-use effects. Science of the Total Environment, 566–567: 428–435.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.05.067

Kühling, I., Broll, G., Trautz, D. (2016): Spatio-temporal analysis of agricultural land-use intensity across the Western Siberian grain belt. Science of the Total Environment, 544: 271–280.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.11.129

Schmalz, B., Kruse, M., Kiesel, J., Müller, F., Fohrer, N. (2016): Water-related ecosystem services in Western Siberian lowland basins – Analysing and mapping spatial and seasonal effects on regulating services based on ecohydrological modelling results. Ecological Indicators, 71: 55–65.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2016.06.050

Störrle, M., Hagedorn, L., Yurtaev, A., Brauckmann, H.J., Broll, G. (2016): Soil structure of arable and non-arable land in the Western Siberian Grain Belt in Russia—Application of the soil fingerprint code for topsoil characterization. Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science, 179(4): 510–519.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/jpln.201500450

Wertebach, T.M., Knorr, K.H., Lordieck, M., Tretiakov, N., Blodau, C., Hölzel, N., Kleinebecker, T. (2016): Relationships between vegetation succession, pore water chemistry and CH4 and CO2 production in a transitional mire of Western Siberia (Tyumen Oblast). Wetlands, 36(5): 863–874.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-016-0798-8

Degefie, D.T., Fleischer, E., Klemm, O., Soromotin, A.V., Soromotina, O.V., Tolstikov, A.V., Abramov, N.V. (2014): Climate Extremes in South Western Siberia: Past and Future. Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment, 28(8): 2161–2173.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00477-014-0872-9

Kamp, J. (2014): Weighing up the reuse of Soviet croplands. Nature, 505(7484): 483.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/505483d

Contact

Prof. Dr. Norbert Hölzel
AG Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research
Institut of Landscape Ecology
Heisenbergstr. 2
D- 48149 Münster, Germany
Telefon: +49(0)251-83 33 994
Fax: +49(0)251-83 38 338
norbert.hoelzel@uni-muenster.de

project website
project documentation at website of BMBF funding measure

Science portrait

New strategies for the forest steppe

The wetlands, forests and steppes of Western Siberia are among the most important carbon sinks in the world. As the need for arable land in the region increases there is a risk that the carbon will be released. This could accelerate climate change. Scientists from Germany and Russia now want to provide facts in order to shape changes in land use sustainably.

Black-tailed Godwit, Yellow Wagtail, Corncrake – species such as these send ornithologists into raptures. In Germany these birds are seen increasingly rarely as wet meadows and pastures are drained, fertilized and converted into arable land. In the Russian province of Tyumen, deep in Western Siberia on the border with Kazakhstan, the meadow birds’ habitats are still intact in many places so their numbers are significantly higher. »The birds are as common there as they were in Germany in the 1950s« reports Professor Norbert Hölzel with delight. There are good reasons for this: after the Soviet Union made tremendous efforts to plough up millions of hectares of the steppe to grow wheat in the 1950s, many grasslands were then left fallow after the political and economic collapse of the 1990s. Today rare waders thrive there. But the biodiversity is under threat: »If in the future the meadows and pastures are turned back into arable land and agricultural use intensifies, this will have negative effects on the bird fauna«, says Hölzel, who works as an ecosystems researcher at the Institute of Landscape Ecology at the University of Münster.

As the leader of the German-Russian research project SASCHA, the 49-year-old knows all about the Siberian hinterland. The project scientists are working until 2016 to gather basic data and prepare monitoring instruments to help them develop strategies so that regional land users can better adapt to the effects of changes in the land-use and climate change.

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research is supporting the project with funding of 3.8 million Euros. Besides the scientists from the universities of Münster, Osnabrück, and Kiel, other participants on the German side are the Humboldt University in Berlin, the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences, and the remote sensing company EFTAS, and on the Russian side the Tyumen State University and the Tyumen State Agricultural Academy.

Hölzel’s fears for the diversity of bird species are not without foundation. »There is a growing need for arable land to grow cereal crops for food and for bioenergy«, he reports. Cultivation mainly of wheat, but also of rapeseed, sunflowers, and potatoes will increase significantly in Western Siberia. The trend in land use is driven by climate change. »Because of the increasing aridity of the steppe regions in Kazakhstan and Southern Siberia, cereal cultivation will shift further north into the forest steppe zone and the pre-taiga«, says Dr Johannes Kamp, a landscape ecologist from Münster University, who is coordinating the project. Such a shift carries risks because the wetlands, forests, and steppes of Western Siberia are some of the world’s most important carbon sinks. The wetlands alone cover 600,000 km² and store a quarter of all carbon stored in terrestrial ecosystems. »If these carbon stocks were released, they would contribute massively to global warming«, Kamp explains.

For Hölzel’s research teams, however, eight subprojects are not just about investigating the consequences of land-use change for the climate. The researchers also want to find out how this change affects biodiversity, soil fertility, and the water table. To allow them to model these consequences, the researchers are diligently gathering basic data which were not available previously. Zoologists and botanists for example are counting how many butterflies, grasshoppers, birds, and plants occur in the three study areas, which together total an area of 1,200 km². »This was a blank spot in biodiversity research until now«, says Hölzel. The scientists have also derived a land-use classification for the area. They wish to show how land use has changed following the collapse of the Soviet Union through comparisons with earlier maps. From this basis they then intend to develop spatial models showing how farming could change and crop yields develop in the future.

Accurate climate data from the steppe

The scientists are also treading new ground in their quest to establish the amount of greenhouse gases emitted from the grasslands. »There are measurements for the coniferous forests of the taiga and for the tundras of the sub-polar regions, but no one knows precisely how much carbon dioxide and methane are released into the atmosphere across the forest steppe region with its carbon-rich black soils and degraded peatlands east of the Urals«, says Hölzel. The findings of the SASCHA project are therefore of great interest to climatologists; until now they have had to rely on estimates in their climate models for Southern Siberia. The central task of the bi-national project is also to work out scenarios to show how farming in this region could look in the future. The requirements are clear: agricultural use should be sustainable. In other words, it should protect soil, water, and biodiversity while also ensuring an income for those employed in agriculture. The most important thing here is for the farmers to secure their guarantee of successful cereal cultivation: the fertile black soil. »The humus-rich black soil is the capital that allowed the farmers to profiteer here for many years«, says Hölzel. But meanwhile the soils have been degraded in many areas by their use for intensive monoculture. One of the SASCHA sub-projects is therefore aimed at investigating in particular how to stop the depletion of the humus layer in order to restore soil fertility.

Slurry as organic fertilizer

Soil scientist Professor Gabriele Broll, who conducts research at the Geographical Institute of the University of Osnabrück, wants to set up a regional material flow management system. The idea is to take nutrients that are produced in the form of manure and slurry from the cattle, pig, or poultry farms and to use these on arable fields as organic fertiliser. »This will increase the organic matter and thus the biological activity in the soil«, says Broll. Plenty of animal matter will be available for this purpose in the future: »The agricultural enterprises are substantially expanding animal husbandry«, says the scientist. Awareness of such use of livestock waste is still lacking on some of the farms. In many areas, excrement from poultry farms for example is piled up in heaps on open fields, and lakes of slurry are not uncommon. Nutrients then seep down into the ground as nitrates and pose a risk to groundwater. Broll therefore wishes to change the farmers’ attitudes towards dealing with livestock waste through training courses and workshops. »The agricultural enterprises must handle the animal products as sustainably as possible by using them as organic fertilizer«, she explains. To avoid large quantities of excrement being left lying on nearby fields, transport facilities must be set up and waste utilised in ways that cause less harm to the environment. »Our aim is ultimately to come up with recommendations as to where and how the nutrients occurring in farming can be used most efficiently«, she says. But the SASCHA scientists do not just want to make recommendations on the management of nutrients and organic carbon. »We also want to show that grassland does not always have to be ploughed up to expand arable farming«, Hölzel stresses. Yields from the land already under cultivation could certainly be further improved. For example: farmers in the Tyumen region harvest on average 20 double centners of wheat per hectare, while yields in Germany are three to four times higher.

»By sowing rows closer together, using methods that conserve the soil better and fertilizing more extensively, yields can be further increased«, he says. The experts now have to provide scientific evidence that expanding into ecologically precious grassland also makes little sense from an economic point of view. »The aim is to be able to assess and plot the areas in which agricultural use of the land makes economical sense, taking account of biodiversity, water quality and quantity, and carbon storage«, says Hölzel. He believes that this model could also be successfully transferred to other continental steppe regions in China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan.

The German-Russian research project has come at just the right time for the farmers in the Tyumen region. Hölzel reports from his discussions with locals that soil degradation is becoming a serious problem for many of them. The agricultural enter-prises also feel the first effects of climate change as the dryness of the region increases. Insa Kühling from the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences is working with local agricultural businesses in a further SASCHA sub-project to investigate how different farming methods affect soil water content and fertility. »On many farms the land is still ploughed, while in other parts of the study area the soil is not tilled but only scarified«, she says. Neither method is ideal, as erosion and other problems can still occur. The agricultural scientist therefore wants to experiment by sowing seed directly onto the soil. With this method the seed is drilled into the stubble of the previous crop without tilling the land to any depth.

Kühling also wants to try changing the seed used to grow wheat, barley, and oat crops. Until now the farmers have retained part of the harvest from previous years for resowing. This does not produce optimum results however: »Germination rates are not particularly high«, explains the scientist, who is studying for her doctorate. The extensive field trials should show whether yields can be increased through the use of certified seed and modern technology. This form of sustainable intensification would remove the need to plough up more land. Kühling also wants to develop an instrument to provide the managers of the agricultural enterprises with figures from which they can work out how sustainable their production is and how well they preserve soil fertility.

Experiments with soya

Professor Dieter Trautz, also from the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences, is working on an alternative way for farmers to react to climate change. The agricultural scientist experiments with soya. The plants have certain advantages: »Soy-beans are an important protein source. Some varieties are less thermophile and could grow well in the Tyumen region«, Trautz affirms. He believes that soya could be marketed very well as animal fodder or tofu. In a pilot scheme at the university and through field trials his team is currently investigating how soya can be integrated into a crop cycle in rotation with rapeseed, maize, and wheat. »Soya is a legume, so it fixes nitrogen. This actually makes it very attractive for farming«, he says. In the experiments Trautz examines how well the soya plants withstand competition from weeds and how they can be protected against sudden drops in temperature in the spring, particularly during the susceptible early growth stages. If the experiments go well, prospects for beginning soya cultivation are favourable, because Trautz knows he has the backing of the region’s politicians.

Government wants to impose organic farming

The general political situation could also be advantageous to the scientists’ proposals for a change of land use. In August 2012 Russia joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The Tyumen region now wants to lead the way in organic farming. »The Governor and Parliament see the future of agriculture in organic farming«, says Nataliya Stupak, who analyses the underlying institutional and political conditions affecting land use in the Tyumen Oblast in a sub-project. This would make the region unique in Russia. Organic farming could be implemented here, with the regional government introducing funding programmes comparable to the European Union’s agri-environmental programmes. »In this way the Oblast could subsidise farming in the future and thereby satisfy WTO requirements«, says the agricultural economist. This would be likely to benefit plant and animal species, and would help meadow birds such as the Black-tailed Godwit.

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SASCHA

Introduction of the regional project SASCHA - Sustainable land management and adaptation strategies to climate change for West Siberia

Forschungsprojekt Sascha
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Sustainable Land Management in West-Siberia

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About the project - SURUMER

Within the last decade, the world production of natural rubber has increased by around one-third (or three million tons). Currently, more than one third of the global natural rubber production of 12 million tons is consumed by China. The major rubber producing areas located in the tropics of southern China (Xishuangbanna Prefecture), Viet Nam, Laos, and Cambodia (> 90%) are experiencing a tremendous expansion in recent years.

The expansion of rubber plantations is predominantly realized by sacrificing natural forests belonging to the “Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot”, one of the world’s high diversity areas. This rapid process triggers shifts in a variety of direct and indirect effects on ecosystem functions and services as well as socio-economic implications on various spatial and temporal scales. The complex and interrelated factors thereof require qualitative and quantitative analyses of ecosystem functions and services for the development of new and sustainable land-use concepts.

The overall objective of the SURUMER joint project is to develop an integrative, applicable and stakeholder-validated concept for sustainable rubber cultivation. The outcomes of the project refer not only to the study region in Yunnan. Rather, they provide a blueprint for a wider application in rubber cultivation areas across the Mekong region. The concept is based on multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary approaches to identify trade-offs and synergies between ecosystem functions and services on the one hand and socio-economic goals and constraints on the other.

Funding period: December 2011 to June 2017
Funding: 4.6 million Euros
Leading research institution: University of Hohenheim

Interview

with the project head Georg Cadisch

Which were the most important scientific results in the field of sustainable land management?

The area of rubber cultivation in the Mekong region increased dramatically, especially since the turn of the millennium. On the one hand, the expansion of rubber, coupled with high world-market prices, improved farmers´ livelihoods and the economic wealth in the region. On the other hand, the majority of rubber plantations is currently cultivated as a monoculture, leading to a large-scale replacement of diverse forest and crop land mosaics. This development goes along with the loss of plant diversity and an associated degradation of habitat quality for the indigenous fauna. Rubber plantations host around 30‒50% less species of vertebrates and invertebrates compared to natural forests, and the number of wild bee species is reduced by more than 15% compared to traditional agricultural land. This land-use change further affects other ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration and soil fertility. The current practice of rubber cultivation implies an intense use of herbicides which promotes losses of fertile soils due to marginal soil cover and consequent erosion. Additionally, reduced infiltration rates and an associated increased surface run-off induce higher flooding risks downstream and threaten water quality. The latter is of great concern since surface water is a major source of drinking water not only for the local rural population but for the entire region. Furthermore, the erosion-triggered introduction of fine sediments into riverbeds lowers the habitat quality for water-dependent fauna, such as fish.

The past high market prices and the associated demand for rubber also led to an expansion of rubber plantations to unsuitable, marginal sites, such as to high altitudes. Our analyses show that ecological conditions at high altitudes hamper the profitability of rubber cultivation, and 30% of the plantations above 800 m a.s.l. don’t reach the break-even point even under good market conditions.

The results of our project show that alternative rubber cultivation concepts should focus particularly on improved water quality and better land-use planning to maintain the economic and ecological balance of the region.

What were the lessons learnt from the SURUMER project?

It is crucial to find common entry points with the stakeholders, figure out the problems they are facing and thereby raise their interest for the topic. These entry points differ, depending on the stakeholders’ point of view. For the local farmer, the quality of drinking water, derived directly from the surface waters and impacted by the different land management systems is of major concern. For stakeholders on a regional level, concepts for land-use planning that satisfy both environmental and economic needs are crucial.
Agricultural systems based on cash crops change rapidly depending on the world market and local framework conditions. This fact needs to be considered in any analytical assessment.
The scenarios, which we set up 3 years ago, expected an expansion of rubber plantations by 2% per annum. However, recent figures show that this assumption is not up-to-date anymore, due to fluctuating rubber prices and an associated shift towards other crops, such as banana.
Based on a transdisciplinary process, alternative concepts for rubber cultivation have to be conceptualized together with the stakeholders. Scientific analyses which show the results and trade-offs of land-use scenarios are then validated by the stakeholders in order to adapt the definition of entry points which are of importance to the stakeholders.
These interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary processes require a high degree of commitment by all stakeholders - including scientists. Different scientific disciplines need to define their objectives according to the overall project aim and actively interlink their approaches with other disciplines. This involves a high work load, but also creates new synergies. Especially young scientists, who otherwise focus mainly on their own discipline, are provided the chance to engage in an interdisciplinary dialogue. Unfortunately, the effort necessary for the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary work often tends to be underestimated by the scientific community and by funding agencies.

In which way can the results of SURUMER be transferred into other regions of the world or into practice?

Essential for a successful implementation of alternative and more sustainable rubber management practices is the understanding and consideration of stakeholder interests. This comprises local constraints such as labor shortages as well as economic viability. Therefore, we implemented demonstration trials with indigenous and endangered tropical tree species which can be intercropped into existing rubber plantations. These enriched plantations are thereby providing a refuge for such endangered plant species. Addressing water quality, we developed a reduced-herbicide scheme which fulfills the need for weed control while still safeguarding free access to the trees for tapping. The resulting improved water infiltration and respective reduction of erosion contribute to the maintenance of downstream surface water quality. These measures are currently being reinforced with help of the local community by protecting stream banks and head waters by vegetated buffer strips and water protection zones. These concepts also found their way into the recent WOCAT-Book titled “Making sense of research for sustainable land management”, which integrates the practical findings of the SULAMA program.
Taking into account the regional 5-year planning periods of the government, we assessed benefits of additional measures (restricting rubber plantations to elevations below 900 m a.s.l. and below 23° slope) combined with the above mentioned improved weed management and the buffer strips. Computer simulations suggest that these combined measures could increase overall ecosystem services by 3.4%. Even in landscapes with less than 12% of rubber cover, the measures increased the indicator for the ecosystem services ‘water quality’ and ‘sustainable agriculture’ by over 20%.
In a series of six stakeholder workshops organized in collaboration with local administrations and other decision-makers on a prefecture level, in one training workshop and a number of focus-group discussions addressing farmers and village heads, we discussed the current situation, exchanged results and discussed pathways to future more sustainable rubber cultivation. The process (together with our scenario findings) has been well received by the regional stakeholders at our recent final stakeholder workshop and might be an interesting starting point for the design of the next 5-year planning strategy of the government.
Even though these measures have been locally developed and implemented, they are generally applicable to other regions in South East Asia as many of the measures represent easily applicable and economically interesting alternatives.

Prof. Dr. Georg Cadisch works as the director of the Agronomy in the Tropics and Subtropics (490e) at the University of Hohenheim.

Publications

Blagodatskiy, S., Xu, J., Cadisch, G. (2016): Carbon balance of rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) plantations: a review of uncertainties at plot, landscape and production level. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 221: 8–19.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2016.01.025

Langenberger, G., Cadisch, G., Martin, K., Min, S., Waibel, H. (2016): Rubber intercropping: a viable concept for the 21st century? Agroforestry Systems, pp. 1–20.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-016-9961-8

Yang, X., Blagodatskiy, S., Lippe, M., Liu, F., Hammond, J., Xu, J., Cadisch, G. (2016): Land-use change impact on time-averaged carbon balances: rubber expansion and reforestation in a biosphere reserve, South-West China. Forest Ecology and Management, 372: 149–163.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2016.04.009

Meng, L., Yang, X., Martin, K., Gan, J., Liu, Y., Gong, W. (2016): Movement patterns of selected insect groups between natural forest, open land and rubber plantation in a tropical landscape (southern Yunnan, SW China). Journal of Insect Conservation, 20(3): 363–371.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-016-9869-7

Liu, H., Blagodatsky, S., Giese, M., Liu, F., Xu, J., Cadisch, G. (2016): Impact of herbicide application on soil erosion and induced carbon loss in a rubber plantation of Southwest China. CATENA, 145: 180–192.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2016.06.007

Siew, T. F., Aenis, T., Spangenberg, J. H., Nauditt, A., Döll, P., Frank, S.K., Ribbe, L., Rodriguez-Labajos, B., Rumbaur, C., Settele, J., Wang, J. (2016): Transdisciplinary research in support of land and water management in China and Southeast Asia: evaluation of four research projects. Sustainability Science, 11(5): 813–829.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-016-0378-0

Ahlheim, M., Börger, T., Frör, O. (2015): Replacing rubber plantations by rain forest in Southwest China–who would gain and how much? Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 187: 3.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-014-4088-8

Golbon, R., Ogutu, J. O., Cotter, M., Sauerborn, J. (2015): Rubber yield prediction by meteorological conditions using mixed models and multi-model inference techniques. International Journal of Biometeorology, 59(12): 1747–1759.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-015-0983-0

Häuser, I., Martin, K., Germer, J., et al. (2015): Environmental and socio-economic impacts of rubber cultivation in the Mekong region: challenges for sustainable land use. CAB Reviews, 10(27): 1–11.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1079/PAVSNNR201510027

Häuser, I., Thellmann, K., Cotter, M., Sauerborn, J. (2015): Ecosystem services and biodiversity of rubber plantations - a systematic review. CAB Reviews, 10(37): 1–6.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1079/PAVSNNR201510037

He, P., Martin, K. (2015): Effects of rubber cultivation on biodiversity in the Mekong Region. CAB Reviews, 10(44): 1–7.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1079/PAVSNNR201510044

Contact

project website
project documentation at website of BMBF funding measure

Science portrait

Ways towards more sustainable rubber cultivation

Natural rubber is an important primary product in the global economy. However, the growing of rubber tree monocultures also has negative effects on important rocesses in the ecological balance. German and Chinese scientists are now working together in a joint project to develop solutions which will allow farmers to grow rubber in an ecologically and economically sustainable way.

Latex mattresses, rubber gloves, tap washers – natural rubber can be found in many useful everyday objects. By far the biggest quantity of this natural resource – around three-quarters of world production – is needed by the tyre and automobile industry. Demand for rubber has grown enormously with the economic upturn in Asia. One- third of the rubber produced worldwide is now consumed by China – more than the consumption by the EU member states, USA and Japan combined. Natural rubber is obtained from latex, the sap of the rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis). Although the tree is native to Amazonia, today around 91 percent of all rubber originates from the tropical regions of Asia. More than half of this comes from the so-called Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), comprising the countries bordering the Mekong River (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the Chinese province of Yunnan).

Rubber is grown almost exclusively in monoculture plantations in these countries, with farreaching consequences. These are evident for example in the southern part of the Chinese province of Yunnan, in Xishuangbanna, the second largest rubber growing region in China. Originally covered by tropical rainforest, the landscape here is today dominated by rubber plantations. Primary rainforest is now found only in a few remaining areas of nature reserves. Driven by the high income potential, countless small-scale farmers in the region have switched from their traditional, subsistence-oriented farming to rubber production. This has consequences not only for the forest regions and their species diversity but also for the natural balance of ecological processes.

Questions and objectives

How does the rubber boom affect the environment and the living conditions of the local population, and what are the possibilities for minimising the negative effects? These questions are being investigated in the joint German-Chinese project SURUMER (acronym for Sustainable Rubber Cultivation in the Mekong Region) in southern Yunnan, led by the University of Hohenheim in partnership with other national and international institutions. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is providing funding of 4.6 million Euros for this major project, and scientists from 19 universities and research institutes in both countries are participating in the consortium headed on the German side by Professor Georg Cadisch from the University of Hohenheim.

»The objective of the project is to investigate the effects of rubber plantations on the natural ecosystem processes and to develop scenarios for a sustainable, ecologically and economically viable land use system for rubber cultivation«, the tropical research scientist explains. »The freely available natural services and functions of the ecosystem are threatened by intensive rubber cultivation«.

Ecological analysis of the system

Chinese and German scientists are working together in nine SURUMER sub-projects to investigate specific aspects. One sub-project is concerned with the carbon turnover in intensively cultivated rubber tree plantations of different ages compared to a natural forest ecosystem. The scientists are analysing the soil and plant carbon stocks, the gaseous discharges from the systems and the losses through soil erosion. Another focal point is the hydrological cycle. The scientists are investigating the importance of water release through evaporation from rubber plantations for the local water balance and the effects of rubber cultivation on the quality and quantity of water resources.

The University of Stuttgart Water Research Centre, the Tongji University in Shanghai and the Tsinghua University in Beijing are jointly developing a water management system. This should allow the authorities responsible for the Naban River Watershed National Nature Reserve (NRWNNR) in southern Yunnan to assess the effects of possible measures and scenarios on ecosystem services such as clean drinking water.

In order to determine the present state of the water body and to create the models to be used, the scientists are gathering and evaluating large volumes of data. They are taking water samples and investigating how water quality is affected by the present land use. Because many of the rubber plantations are established on hillsides and lack ground cover vegetation, the humus topsoil is eroded by heavy rains. Sediment, pesticides and nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates are then washed into the nearby Naban River and its tributaries.

»This can have adverse effects on water quality and the spawning conditions for fish«, says Manuel Krauss, a research assistant at the Water Research Centre. To counter these effects the farmers could reduce their use of pesticides and could also use plants as undergrowth in the rubber plantations to reduce the risk of erosion. »It would also be possible to establish buffer strips of shrubs and small trees along the streamside in order to reduce the quantities of fertilisers and pesticides entering the river«, Krauß suggests.

The expansion of the rubber plantations at the expense of natural forests and traditional land use systems also presents a major threat to the diversity of natural animal and plant species. This is all the more serious in the southern Yunnan region because it is part of the so-called Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot and thus one of the most important areas for species diversity worldwide. Protected areas such as the Naban River Watershed National Nature Reserve have been established to preserve this species richness. Around 2,000 species of vascular plants and nearly 400 species of vertebrates have been recorded in this region alone.

»Rubber monocultures exhibit extreme poverty of mammal, bird and insect species compared to natural forests. For this reason they are also known as ›green deserts‹«, says ecologist Dr. Konrad Martin from the University of Hohenheim. To allow a more accurate assessment of the importance of various natural and agricultural habitats for species diversity in a landscape dominated by rubber plantations, Martin and his research team and partners from the Chinese Academy of Sciences are investigating the wild bee fauna in the region. This insect group has been chosen with good reason: wild bees are the most important pollinators of wild and cultivated plants in tropical Asia. »The forests are an important habitat for the wild bees; they depend on them«, Martin explains. If the rainforests are sacrificed to make way for the rubber plantations, many species would vanish. This would also have negative consequences for humans. »Most agricultural fruit and vegetable species are pollinated by insects«, says Martin. If the wild bees disappear from the landscape they will be not be available for crop pollination. The farmers in the region also gather honey from various wild bee species.

Socio-economic effects

By taking the decision to swap their traditional, subsistence-oriented agriculture for rubber production, the small-scale farmers in the region have so far been successful. The changeover has proven an effective way of escaping poverty. »The profits to be made from rubber cultivation are significantly higher than those from traditional agriculture«, says agricultural economist Professor Hermann Waibel from the Leibniz University Hanover, who is working with Chinese agricultural economists in another SURUMER sub-project to gather socio-economic data from 600 families in around 40 villages in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture. The scientists wish to conduct an economic analysis to investigate the financial risks associated with rubber cultivation for the family households. »Rubber is used almost exclusively for industrial purposes, so its demand depends heavily on the dynamics of the world economy. This means that there are often large fluctuations in rubber prices, which can sometimes fall through the floor as happened in the world economic crisis of 2008«, says Dr. Gerhard Langenberger, coordinator of the SURUMERproject on the German side.

The small-scale producers’ total dependency on a single product exposes them to further risks. By deciding to grow rubber they are committing themselves for decades to come, and are thus unable to react flexibly to economic and ecological crises caused for example by crop disease, pests, unfavourable weather or changes in climate. Yet evidently many farmers think only of short-term financial gain before all else. Waibel’s interim results confirm this. »In Xishuangbanna, significantly fewer people than we first supposed live below the absolute poverty line of 1.25 US dollars per head per day defined by the United Nations«, says Waibel. The Chinese-German research team also wishes to find out whether the farmers set aside reserves from their rubber profits to tide them over when money is tight. »In times of crisis the farmers tend to prefer to sell their assets rather than forego personal consumption«, Waibel reports, referring to findings from other Asian countries where rubber cultivation is also expanding. This could even lead them to a relapse into poverty.

Development of alternatives

One possibility for reducing the economic risks of rubber monoculture in the scientists’ opinion is crop diversification, in other words expansion of the crop range to include species that could bring in additional income for the farmers. This idea is being investigated in a further SURUMER sub-project. »In the study region, nearly 500 wild plant species are used as medicinal or food plants«, says project coordinator Langenberger. The challenge is to identify species which are on the one hand, shade tolerant and able to thrive as undergrowth in the plantations, and on the other hand, acceptable to the farmers in terms of market value and the effort required to manage them.

Suitable species can be found in particular among the wild plants of the forests. »The scientists have already identified certain highly promising candidates such as local varieties of asparagus and Herb Paris«, Langenberger continues. An alternative rubber cultivation system with higher species diversity could also reduce the negative effects of monoculture cultivation: suitable undergrowth can counter soil erosion, stabilise the hydrological cycle and provide flowers for wild bees.

Expectations and future prospects

The scientists aim to present the results of their research in November 2016. Their local project partners are also hoping for innovative solutions: »I anticipate good results, so that we can practise sustainable rubber cultivation and better protect biodiversity«, says Liu Feng, senior manager of the Naban River Watershed National Nature Reserve. Rubber may bring considerable profit to the region, but it also causes enormous harm to the environment. »Everyone in the region is aware that the present agricultural practices are not sustainable, and also that they carry great risks for the farmers«, Langenberger confirms. The objective of the research project is to shape rubber cultivation as sustainably as possible. The foundations for this are provided primarily by the cooperation with partners from renowned Chinese universities and research institutes. »The participating scientists have much experience in this area, and all contribute important specific knowledge to this intercultural and interdisciplinary work group«, acknowledges Langenberger. »This is a scientific cooperation on equal terms«.

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SURUMER

Introduction of the regional project SURUMER

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About the project - The Future Okavango

The interdisciplinary research project "The Future Okavango - Scientific support for sustainable land and resource management in the Okavango basin" (TFO) has generated scientific knowledge for decision makers to support an integrated transboundary management for the Okavango region for sustainable and equitable utilization of its ecosystem services. The ecosystems of the region under investigation, a system of woodland savannas, floodplains and extended wetlands integrating parts of Angola, Namibia and Botswana, are of global importance for climate and biological diversity. Simultaneously, they are threatened by the impact of rapid climate change, population growth and anthropogenic over-utilization of natural resources.

Fundamental ecosystem processes and functions were investigated and a wide spectrum of novel knowledge based on cutting-edge scientific methods and close interaction with stakeholders in the basin was compiled. As one outcome of the project, a condensed and integrated description of the status quo of the Okavango Basin and the four core sites which were studied in greater detail is now available. Key findings obtained in the course of the project and recommendations derived thereof were compiled by the interdisciplinary research team related to five main topics: “climate and climate change”, “water use, availability and management”, “conservation and management of natural resources”, “agriculture and food security” and “society and governance”. In addition, projections for the future illustrating alternative pathways that current land-use dynamics, population trends and management plans might follow were developed. They are a central tool to help decision makers to better understand the consequences of their current decision making.

To disseminate the results, a synthesis of the project has been presented to stakeholders at different levels in all countries involved, radio interviews were released and newspaper articles were promoted. This enables decision makers to use the knowledge towards protecting ecosystems and resources while also improving the wellbeing of the populations of the whole Okavango Basin.

Funding period: September 2010 to March 2016
Funding: 7.5 million Euros
Leading research institution: University of Hamburg

Interview

with the project head Norbert Jürgens

Which were the most important scientific results in the field of sustainable land management?

The most important result is the observation that the land and resource management of the Okavango catchment as an integrated large social-ecological system is not sustainable. The present high speed of transformation of still largely intact landscapes into cultivated landscapes is accompanied by drastically increased resource exploitation. This will result in massive overexploitation of key resources within the next few decades. The lack of essential resources carries high risks for the region. Therefore, adaptive measures need to be introduced at large scale and the discussion and identification of feasible, efficient and acceptable measures should start now.

The expansion and agro-industrial intensification of agriculture requires a non-sustainable overexploitation of the water resources. This is accompanied by rapid clearing and fire-based degradation of the Miombo woodlands and a decline of fauna and flora. We see three main processes of transformation and degradation:
First, poverty-driven smallholder subsistence agriculture rapidly converts natural woodlands into agricultural fields.
Second, intensification of the production of firewood, timber, charcoal, thatch, bushmeat and honey has significant impacts. The transformation towards trade and marketization (commodification) of woodland products causes transformation (of forests), degradation (e. g. timber resources), and depletion (e. g. of larger wildlife) of resources.
Third, investment-driven implementation of agro-industrial schemes leads to agro-industrialisation, which is rapidly increasing both in size and number, mostly in areas of high value for smallholder agriculture, tourism, and conservation.

What were the lessons learnt from The Future Okavango project?

We found out that knowledge exchange and education are prerequisites for a successful transition. Furthermore, we found significant potential for improving the governance of the system. Woodland conservation and sustainable forest management are important adaptations to the climate change, and woodlands should be regarded as a limited resource that offers high-income opportunities. In general, we believe that protective measures on the local scale should have a strong emphasis on outreach to engage communities, and we prefer advocacy over regulation. Responsible policy makers are faced with the challenge of identifying value-based decisions and frame conditions by which ecosystems may be safeguarded and which, at the same time, account for socially sustainable processes of valuation and environmental action. Education, training, awareness, creation, grants, and the improvement of governmental extension services are other aspects that require policy attention and funding to incentivize and facilitate innovations and reduce dependency on relatively unproductive subsistence agriculture. Equally important is a focus on establishing inter-scalar, international and inter-sectoral communication processes to avoid potential conflicts.

In which way can the results of The Future Okavango be transferred into other regions of the world or into practice?

The transformation processes that we have analyzed and described can be denoted as syndromes of human impact on river basins and are therefore certainly transferrable to other river basins globally. The same applies to the societal and political response options that we have outlined.

Prof. Dr. Norbert Jürgens works at the University of Hamburg, Biocentre Klein Flottbek and Botanical Garden, Biodiversity, Evolution and Ecology of Plants.

Publications

Revermann, R., Finckh, M., Stellmes, M., Strohbach, B., Frantz, D., Oldeland, J. (2016): Linking Land Surface Phenology and Vegetation-Plot Databases to Model Terrestrial Plant α-Diversity of the Okavango Basin. Remote Sensing, 8(5): 370.
URL: https://doi.org/doi:10.3390/rs8050370

Weinzierl, T., Wehberg, J., Böhner, J., Conrad, O. (2016): Spatial Assessment of Land Degradation Risk for the Okavango River Catchment, Southern Africa. Land Degradation & Development, 27(2): 281–294.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.2426

Pröpper, M., Gröngröft, A., Finckh, M., Stirn, S., De Cauwer, V., Lages, F., Masamba, W., Murray-Hudson, M., Schmidt, L., Strohbach, B., Jürgens, N. (2015): The Future Okavango - Findings, Scenarios and Recommendations for Action, Research Project Final Synthesis Report 2010–2015, 190 pages.
URL: http://www.future-okavango.org/downloads/TFO_Report_engl_compiled_small_version.pdf

Haiyambo, D.H., Chimwamurombe, P.M., Reinhold-Hurek, B. (2015): Isolation and screening of rhizosphere bacteria from grasses in East Kavango region of Namibia for plant growth promoting characteristics. Current Microbiology, 71(5): 566 –571.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-015-0886-7

Murray-Hudson, M., Wolski, P., Cassidy, L., Brown, M. T., Thito, K., Kashe, K., Mosimanyana, E. (2015): Remote Sensing-derived hydroperiod as a predictor of floodplain vegetation composition. Wetlands Ecology and Management, 23(4): 603–616.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-014-9340-z

Röder, A., Pröpper, M., Stellmes, M., Schneibel, A., Hill, J. (2015): Assessing urban growth and rural land use transformations in a cross-border situation in Northern Namibia and Southern Angola. Land Use Policy, 42: 340–354.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2014.08.008

Metzger, J. C., Landschreiber, L., Gröngröft, A., Eschenbach, A. (2014): Soil evaporation under different types of land use in southern African savanna ecosystems. Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science, 177(3): 468–475.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/jpln.201300257

Pröpper, M., Haupts F. (2014): The culturality of ecosystem services. Emphasizing process and transformation. Ecological Economics, 108: 28–35.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2014.09.023

Schnegg, M., Rieprich R., and Pröpper M. (2014): Culture, Nature, and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services in Northern Namibia. Ecology and Society, 19(4): 26.
URL: https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-06896-190426

Oldeland, J., Erb, C., Finckh, M., Jürgens, N. [Eds.] (2013): Special Volume: Environmental Assessments in the Okavango Region. Biodiversity & Ecology, 5.
URL: http://www.biodiversity-plants.de/biodivers_ecol/vol5.php

Contact

Prof. Dr. Norbert Jürgens
University of Hamburg
Biocentre Klein Flottbek
Ohnhorststr. 18
D- 22609 Hamburg, Germany
Phone: +49 40 42816 260
Fax: +49 40 42816 261
norbert.juergens@t-online.de

project website
project documentation at website of BMBF funding measure

Science portrait

THE FUTURE OKAVANGO

The Okavango ranks among the longest rivers in southern Africa and its volumes of water are imperative for the existence of many people. Overexploitation and privatisation are however threatening this fragile ecosystem. German researchers are in the process of trying to prevent this from happening. They are implementing their expertise locally by providing models for alternative uses.

The Okavango is in no hurry: In several tributaries it slowly crosses the mountains running through the middle of Angola, marking the border to Namibia for over 400 kilometres, before its volumes of water seep and evaporate after 1,600 kilometres into the swamps of the Okavango Delta in the northwest of Botswana – an area known to be the world’s largest inland delta. For approximately one million people the water catchment area of the Okavango is the most important life support system. For centuries they have been living off what nature has had to offer: they catch fish, grow crops, collect fibrous materials, firewood and building materials and use medicinal plants – all in harmony with nature. 500 bird species, 128 species of mammals as well as 150 species of reptiles and amphibians have so far been recorded by researchers for the river delta alone in Botswana. For a long time nature here was in a stable equilibrium, but recently it has been disturbed. »Nature is being irreversibly threatened by overexploitation and privatisation«, says Norbert Jürgens. The Professor of Biodiversity from the University of Hamburg is the spokesman of the research group »The Future Okavango« (TFO).

This network of six universities and two research establishments from Germany as well as three African partner countries (Angola, Botswana and Namibia) are investigating the use and exploitation of natural resources in the Okavango region in ten sub-projects. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research is funding the project until 2015 with 7.5 million Euros as part of the grant programme ›Sustainable Land Management‹.

Global problems are feared

To get an idea of just how fragile the Okavango ecosystem is, you only have to take a look at the upper reaches of the river in Angola where 37 years of civil war brought chaos and devastation, causing inhabitants to flee from the region. These refugees are now returning to their old homeland and as a result the total population in this region could increase to two million over the next 40 years, estimates Jürgens. This would have alarming impacts: Savannahs and grasslands would be used much more intensively and forests of ecological significance would be cleared and converted for agriculture. Moreover, there would also be negative global impacts: habitats such as savannah forests for example are known to sequester a substantial amount of the world’s carbon reserves.

Jürgens wants to create ecological awareness about these issues and interactions through this research project based on scientific expertise. »The goal is to provide instruments and scenarios for how people in the region representing different interests could sustainably use and preserve a multitude of natural resources«, he says.

Basic information is still lacking

Realising this goal for an area that covers some 430,000 square kilometres is no easy venture. Scientific data for the catchment area of the Okavango is still missing, particularly for Angola and therefore researchers still need to collect basic information – on agriculture for example. Soil scientists such as Dr. Alexander Gröngröft from the University of Hamburg are sometimes faced with unusual problems: »The amount of phosphorus is so small on most of the agricultural investigation sites that it cannot be detected using our conventional methods of analysis«, he comments. Such data is imperative however, since phosphorus interactions are essential as nutrients for agricultural crops. How can this vegetation grow with such a limited amount of nutrients? How does the nutrient cycle work when there are hardly any nutrients available? How can we intervene with the cycle to make the soil more fertile? These are just some of the questions that Gröngröft would like to find the answers to by implementing specific measurements and models together with his co-operation partners.

Most of the local inhabitants living along the Okavango depend on agricultural yields. ›Subsistence farming‹ is the term that is normally used to refer to those families growing crops on their fields (usually millet, corn or beans) predominantly for their own use. It is not exactly huge quantities that the farmers are able to reap from these poor-quality soils. Gröngröft is aware of the fact that on average families in Namibia would harvest approx. 95 to 100 kilograms of millet per hectare annually, without the application of fertilizers or pesticides.

»This cannot be compared to European conditions, where on the same area of land an average of 7,000 kilograms of wheat would be harvested«, he says. Many farmers are so unhappy with the situation that if the land is so unproductive or the harvest insufficient, they simply clear the next area of forest to increase the area of land available for growing crops so that they are able to feed their families. This high rate of land consumption is simply not sustainable. In order to improve harvests, the TFO scientists have started running some model tests with a local NGO and farmers in the region of Kavango in Namibia on the border to Angola.

Conservation Agriculture is the approach being adopted, with which they are hoping to harvest more corn or millet than previously on sandy and nutrient-poor soils. With this approach tests are being carried out whereby the seeds that would have otherwise been distributed over the entire surface, are sown individually in small pre-drilled holes, which are then fertilized with cow dung and covered with compost. »Whether or not this method of cultivation is successful, depends on just how committed the farmers are. « Preliminary results have shown clearly higher yields. However what has been successful in this region does not necessarily mean that it will be equally successful elsewhere i.e. in Botswana or Angola: »Whether this method of cultivation will be successful also depends very much on the commitment of the farmers themselves«, says Dr. Michael Pröpper. The anthropologist from the University of Hamburg is using case studies to investigate how the inhabitants of three selected municipalities use the natural resources along the Okavango. Technological changes in agriculture cannot easily be applied because the dissemination of information down to the level of the farmers is very slow: »Knowledge transfer from the authorities to subsistence farmers hardly ever takes place, as training initiatives for farmers only dispose of resources and personnel that are limited«, says Pröpper. One of the first insights from the project is the fact that new consumer desires from farmers are born as new markets develop. These new desires among local inhabitants who have lived off subsistence farming for most of their lives require an increased amount of capital that is mainly covered by exploiting more natural resources from the region. What is more: an increase in consumption results in an increase in the generation of waste.

Targeted by the agro-multinationals

Agro-multinationals are much better informed than the local inhabitants and have already targeted the fertile river valleys of the Okavango. »These companies grow Jatropha plants as biofuels so that they can cultivate them over extensive areas at favourable global fuel prices«, explains Jürgens. This could drastically change the agricultural land uses in the region, when in the future land is mainly used to grow fuel crops for the global market instead of for growing food crops for the domestic market. In spite of the potential change of land use to grow fuel crops, an intensification of agricultural systems can admittedly have its advantages for local inhabitants in rural areas: »It can lead to higher productivity and therefore increase the availability of food«, says economist Dr. Thomas Falk from the University of Marburg. It is important that the interests of local inhabitants are taken into account and that both their land and water rights are properly recognized.

Furthermore, companies should be required to pay for the costs of using the services of nature. This would induce incentives for a more sustainable use of natural resources. In order to be able to compare different land-use forms, the scientists are developing bio-economic computer models. »In this way we are able to see which conflicting goals arise among land users for food production and environmental protection like for example soil quality«, states Dr. Stephanie Domptail, agro-economist from the University of Gießen. The monetary value for ecosystem services like for example the consumption of water by food producers can by all means be worked out.

Water dependency

The inhabitants living along the banks of the Okavango River are dependent on its water. Scientists still know very little however about the hydrological conditions of the river: What is the water quality like? Where is it stored? How does water dissipate? What is the influence of land use on water? The geographer Dr. Jörg Helmschrot from the University of Jena wants to find the answers to these questions together with his German and African colleagues as part of a TFO sub-project. »We want to model those processes that look at how water dissipation changes, if land uses change in the neighbouring countries and climate change takes place«, he says. For example: Researchers want to develop scenarios as to what would happen if there was an increase in water consumption in Namibia and if extensive irrigation systems or dams were built over extensive areas for the production of energy in Angola or Botswana.
In order for the controversy over water not to become a full-scale conflict as in some other areas around the world, the three neighbouring countries have already taken some precautions. In 1994 they established the Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission (OKACOM) with the aim of preventing conflicts over water use in the region. Ebenizário Chonguica, the president of this Commission is hoping for important insights from the TFO project in terms of sustainable land management: »Our information about the Okavango catchment area is still limited. We therefore still need more scientific information in order to be able to develop a management plan for the area and to advise policy-makers.«

TFO spokesman Jürgens, who has been conducting research in Africa for many years, is aware of the expectations that the African project partners have about the project. »The ecological significance and the economic value of the Okavango are immense for the three countries«, he says. The ecologist hopes to be able to draw some conclusions from the research project that can be applied to the whole continent with respect to a sustainable land management concept: »The project is of a case-study nature because it illustrates the typical problems of Africa: population explosion, limited education, artificially-drawn borders from the colonial period, unfavourable predictions for climate change.«

The results from the TFO project are to be implemented at the local level over the next few years. »We will provide important information to ministries, authorities, NGO’s, and land users«, says Jürgens. The scientific data act as helpful guidelines for decision-makers. In this way for example model-based scenarios can help to make decisions about those areas along the Okavango that should be used or protected in such a way so as to avoid the clearance of forests or the exploitation of water resources to the point of irreversible damage to the ecosystem. Jürgens: »If we can succeed in this way then both nature and people will benefit.«

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Video

The Future Okavango

Introduction of the regional project TFO - Scientific support for sustainable land and resource management in the Okavango basin

Sharing The Future Okavango research results

A film to share research results with local stakeholders in Angola, Botswana and Namibia.

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About the project - LUCCi

Land and water resources in South East Asia are under pressure due to population growth, economic development and changing climatic conditions. Vietnam with its long coastline belongs to the countries most vulnerable to climate-change related hydro-meteorological extremes and sea level rise. In the central provinces of Quang Nam and Da Nang, frequent drought events, floods and salt water intrusion are strongly affecting socioeconomic development, particularly agricultural production, urban water supply, infrastructure and the tourism sector. The “Land Use and Climate Change Interactions – LUCCi” research project aimed at providing a scientific basis to develop strategies for sustainable land and water use for the Vu Gia Thu Bon (VGTB) River Basin, which covers the provinces of Quang Nam and Da Nang. Interdisciplinary research concepts were applied to develop a variety of scenarios addressing the expected regional socio‐economic development, regional planning, climate change predictions and potential hydro-climatic risks, GHG emission estimates as well as consequent changes in land cover and water resources availability. Stakeholders dealing with water management, agricultural land use, urban planning, hydropower, forestry and biodiversity from all planning levels (including the national and the provincial, district and even commune levels) were involved in all phases to discuss information and research demand, data availability and planning deficits in the region.

With the aim to incorporate the LUCCi project findings to the provincial and national planning processes, we elaborated stakeholder-friendly information products such as figures, video-clips, brochures and posters for the involved institutions. These are all available at the VGTB Information Center in Da Nang. We established this center to support the cross-sectoral communication and planning process by offering comprehensive information services including capacity building, a River Basin Information System for the VGTB, and consulting services to the stakeholders and researchers.

Funding period: July 2010 to March 2016
Funding: 4.0 million Euros
Leading research institution: TH Köln - University of Applied Sciences, Institute for Technology and Resources Management in the Tropics and Subtropics (ITT)

Interview

with the project head Lars Ribbe

Which were the most important scientific results in the field of sustainable land management?

The relevance of the LUCCi project results is demonstrated in many different sectors. These include, in particular, the water sector, agriculture sector, and the ecosystem or land-use sector. The major challenges of the water sector in the VuGia-ThuBon River Basin include droughts, low flow situations related to salt water intrusion, floods and storms. Given the very intensive hydropower development of the region, all these challenges fundamentally affect the reservoir management applied in the basin.

With our project results we contributed to an improved understanding of the hydrological system and we developed solutions to identified problems. To give an example, we modeled the hydrological system including reservoir operation, low flows and salt water intrusion. Consequently, we were able to make concrete suggestions on where to build weirs or how to change the channel network in order to cope with the issue of salt water intruding from the sea. In terms of flood risk management we applied a flood risk model showing which areas are in danger of being flooded, both under current and future land-use development plans. In terms of reservoir development we also looked into the trade-offs between operating reservoirs for energy production, flood and drought protection, or water supply for agriculture.

Further, we developed a concept for coping with the most pressing issues of the agriculture sector in the region, such as water-use inefficiency and greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural production systems. The dominating crop in the region is rice, which is a crop related to methane emissions. To cope with these gas emissions we suggested using the ‘alternate wetting and drying’ technology. We also demonstrated how water-use efficiency could be improved under this management method.

Regarding ecosystems, we studied upland forest systems and biodiversity and suggested establishment of protected areas or creation of corridors for wildlife and biodiversity in the upper part of the basin. Further, we looked at actual carbon stocks and carbon dynamics of land-use changes and of the forest systems. In the coastal area we explored options for ecosystem-based adaptation using coastal wetlands or mangrove systems as a protection against climate extremes, especially against storms.

What were the lessons learnt from the LUCCi project?

When we started the project, we expected that the initial step, that is compiling data, getting to know the system, and creating a system understanding, would take us about a year. In fact, it took much longer and we needed significantly more time to attain the existing data. Sometimes even very basic data on land use, climate system, or water resources were really difficult to obtain. The data were either not available in the right format, not available at all, and in other cases they were expensive to obtain. Consequently, the very basic work preceding more advanced research took much longer than expected. From this we can conclude that the initial step requires a lot of effort in developing countries. This was one of the reasons why we decided to establish the River Basin Information Center, so that at least the next project would have a better start than we had.

Another lesson learned is that doing the basic research, acquiring the fundamental data, setting up, calibrating and validating models, developing system understanding, suggesting measures for implementation, and finally supporting implementation and training stakeholders, all that even in a five-year project is too ambitious unless we think about another format. I know five years sounds like a long time but this kind of measure can only be effective if implementing agencies with the same objective accompany the research from the very beginning and start the implementation process early enough to allow a linkage between research and practice. These agencies need to have their own resources and goals which are being fulfilled. To expect from a research team to lead the implementation is too ambitious.

Additionally, the dialogue between research and those who use the knowledge should be established in a more formal way. Currently, we do not have these interfaces in place. We try to establish them by inviting all the stakeholders but ultimately I do not think it should be a responsibility of the research community to provide such interface. Perhaps it is also not a sole responsibility of policy institutions but somehow we need to find a mechanism to support this long lasting interface as it is really a pity when after a three of five-year project the interfaces come to an end. What we need are long-term partnerships between the research community on one hand and the implementing agencies on the other hand.

In which way can the results of LUCCi be transferred into other regions of the world or into practice?

In terms of applicability, the most relevant studied relationships are those between land use and climate change. Since we had a very intensive dialogue with stakeholders from the very beginning of our project we have reason to believe that our results are of high relevance for them. Of course, we cannot guarantee that the results will be used or taken up by all the different stakeholders. This is why we try to support this dialogue by establishing the River Basin Information Center (RBIC) at the Vietnam Academy of Water Resources in Da Nang. The information center compiles the available knowledge and data generated in our project and provides a web-based database, which serves as a tool for stakeholders and contains not only the original research data but also various maps, figures, and graphics, displaying e.g. different scenarios or different land-use options. This center is now administered by one of our Vietnamese partners. Just recently we had a meeting with stakeholders who could potentially use this database and they confirmed their strong interest in this kind of project result.

Some of our results were already applied in practice. To name one example, in our model of salt water intrusion we identified certain points in the system that are extremely suitable for building weirs in order to stop salt water coming from the ocean further inwards. The structural measure proposed by one of our PhD students was actually taken up and nowadays you find a weir at the position where the student suggested it.

Prof. Dr. Lars Ribbe works at the TH Köln - University of Applied Sciences, ITT.

Publications

Laux, P., Nguyen, P.N.B., Cullmann, J., Van, T.P., Kunstmann, H. (2017): How many RCM ensemble members provide confidence in the impact of land-use land cover change? International Journal of Climatology, 37(4): 2080–2100.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.4836

Firoz, A. B. M., Nauditt, A., Fink, M., Ribbe, L.: Quantifying human impacts on hydrological drought using a combined modelling approach in a tropical river basin in Central Vietnam, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., in review, 2017.
URL: https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2017-86

Nauditt, A., Ribbe, L. (Eds.) (2016): Land Use and Climate Change Interactions in Central Vietnam (LUCCi). Springer, Book series: Water Resources Development and Management, ISBN 978-981-10-2623-2.
URL: http://www.springer.com/de/book/9789811026232#aboutBook

Nehren, U., Hoang, H.D.T., M.A. Marfai. C. Raedig, Alfonso de Nehren, S., Sartohadi, J., Castro, C. (2016): Ecosystem services of coastal dune systems for hazard mitigation: Case studies from Vietnam, Indonesia, and Chile. In: Renaud, F.G., Sudmeier-Rieux, K., Estrella, M., and Nehren, U.: Ecosystem-based Disaster Risk Reduction and Adaptation in Practice. Springer, Series: Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research 42, ISBN 978-3-319-43633-3.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43633-3

Raedig, C., Ho Dac Thai, H., Nguyen Duc, T., Nehren, U. (2015): Development of indicator sets for monitoring and better managing coastal ecosystems: a case study of Vietnamese mangrove and dune areas. Proceedings: Annual Meeting of the Society for Tropical Ecology 'Resilience of tropical ecosystems: future challenges and opportunities', Zürich.
URL: not available

Viet, T.Q., Stolpe, H., Ribbe, L., Nauditt, A. (2015): Impact of sea level rise on saltwater intrusion in the Vu Gia Thu Bon estuary, Central Vietnam. Accepted in Coastal Processes.
URL: not available

Pietrzyk, M. (2014): Master Thesis: Elaboration of a River Basin Information Concept to Support the Vu Gia – Thu Bon Information Center, MSc Thesis ITT, 2014.
URL: not available

Viet, T.Q. (2014): PhD Thesis: Estimating the impact of climate change induced saltwater intrusion on agriculture in estuaries-the case of the Vu Gia Thu Bon river basin, Central Vietnam, University of Bochum/Cologne University of Applied Sciences, ITT.
URL: not available

Fink, M., Fischer, C., Führer, N., Firoz, A.M.B., Viet, T. Q., Laux, P., Flügel, W.A. (2013): Distributive hydrological modeling of a monsoon dominated river system in central Vietnam. International Congress on Modelling and Simulation (20th): 1826–1832.
URL: https://www.mssanz.org.au/modsim2013/H12/fink.pdf

Pratihast, A.K., Herold, M., Avitabile, V., de Bruin, S., Bartholomeus, H., Souza Jr., C.M., Ribbe, L. (2013): Mobile Devices for Community-Based REDD+ Monitoring: A Case Study for Central Vietnam. Sensors, 13(1): 21–38.
URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/s130100021

Souvignet, M., Laux, P., Freer, J., Cloke, H. Dang Quang Thinh, Tran Thuc, Cullmann, J., Nauditt, A., Flügel, W.-A., Kunstmann, H., Ribbe, L. (2013): Recent climatic trends and linkages to river discharge in Central Vietnam. Hydrological Processes, 28(4): 1587–1601.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.9693

Contact

Project coordinator in Germany:

Lars Ribbe/Alexandra Nauditt
TH Köln, ITT
Betzdorfer Str. 2
D- 50679 Köln, Germany
Tel: +49 221 8275 2696
Alexandra.nauditt@th-koeln.de

Project coordinator in Vietnam:

Nguyen Tung Phong
Vietnam Academy for Water Resources – VAWR
No 171 Tay Son - Dong Da - Ha Noi, Vietnam
Tel. + 84 4 35 634 071
Phongicd@vawr.org.vn

project website
project documentation at website of BMBF funding measure

Science portrait

Pioneers in Central Vietnam

Vietnam is considered to be one of the Asian tiger economies due to the fact that its economy has been booming non-stop for years. However, this economic boom has brought about certain disadvantages for the landscape and for nature. For this reason German and Vietnamese researchers have decided to develop strategies for sustainable land and water uses in Central Vietnam. These are urgently required, because there is a strong resources pressure on the region and it might additionally suffer from the impacts of climate change.

Blood-sucking leaches, annoying mosquitoes, high temperatures and largely inaccessible areas – research in the montane forests of Central Vietnam is a sweltering undertaking and not everybody’s cup of tea and yet the PhD graduate biologist Claudia Rädig loves her job. She is a scientist from the Cologne University of Applied Sciences and won’t let anything stop her from ploughing her way through montane and mangrove forests to identify different tree species.

»The mountainous regions of Vietnam belong to some of the most species-rich regions of the world and yet data is still lacking for the region«, says the scientist. Where are certain tree species found? What is the height and diameter of the trees? How often do individual tree species occur? Dr. Rädig intends to close this knowledge with her investigations along with scientists from the Hue University for land and forestry as well as local rangers in the project region of approx. 12,000 square kilometers (an area 14 times the size of Berlin).

Claudia Rädig is not the only German researcher currently working on the narrow Central Vietnamese land strip that wants to unravel the secrets of nature here. »Land Use and Climate Change interactions in central Vietnam« (in short LUCCi) is the research project, for which a German-Vietnamese team of researchers has formed a cooperation in the catchment area of the two rivers Vu Gia and Thu Bon. The scientists come from a wide range of disciplines, ranging from agro-forestry, climate research, hydrology and water management to social and political sciences.

They have until June 2015 to come up with some strategies as to how Central Vietnam can prepare itself in terms of land, forest and water management against the potential impacts of climate change. The Federal Ministry of Research is funding them with four million Euros in the form of a five-year project.

The project is headed by Lars Ribbe, Professor for Integrated Land and Water Resources Management at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences Institute for Technology and Resources Management in the Tropics and Subtropic, ITT. His goal: »We want to develop strategies for the sustainable use of water and land resources for the region that balance social, economic and ecological requirements« he says.

The research results are urgently required in Vietnam because unlike in Germany, where climate change still seems so far away and so abstract for many people, the dangers are very imminent for this Southeast Asian country. Vietnam ranks among those countries of the world that could suffer enormously from the impacts of global warming according to projections by the Vietnamese Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE).

It is thought that the annual average temperature will rise by approx. 1.5 degrees by the year 2020, the amount of precipitation during the monsoon will increase by up to 19 per cent by 2070, and during the dry season the ministry expects a clear increase in droughts. Danger also looms from the sea: according to the statistics from MONRE, the sea level could rise by 40 centimeters by the year 2050. But in order to compute scientific models and scenarios and consequently develop strategies, first and foremost it is scientific groundwork that is required.

Basic data, like that for example which Claudia Rädig is laboriously collecting on trees, is either missing for this region or does not comply with the standards that the international researcher community is used to working with. While the south and north of Vietnam have been relatively well investigated, the middle of the country has not yet been in the spotlight of global science. In this respect, the researchers working in the LUCCi project are regarded as pioneers in this area.

Climate change is noticeable

One of the scientists in the LUCCi team is the climatologist Patrick Laux. He is a graduate PhD scientist from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology who conducts research on climate change. Together with his colleagues he has analyzed data among other things from climate events between the years 1980 and 2009 in the investigation area. His findings: precipitation has increased over the entire period, in particular along the coast. »This trend is particularly noticeable during the winter months«, says Laux, who associates it with an intensification of the rainy season in Central Vietnam. With respect to overall temperature changes, an increase can also be observed that the climate researcher interprets to be another impact of climate change. »There is no scientific certainty however because the database for the station is still insufficient«, says Laux. It is hoped that the results from the Steinbuch Centre for Computing (SCC) in Karlsruhe that is running high-resolution regional climate simulations will clarify matters.

The researcher for forest ecosystems Valerio Avitabile working as a post-doc in the chair for remote sensing at the University of Jena spends time regularly in the catchment area of the Vu Gia-Thu Bon. There he is responsible for closely investigating the development and distribution of forests – not least because forests have some very important functions: they store carbon, reduce precipitation and not lastly provide habitat for numerous rare plant and animal species.

For the results of his investigations the researcher has compiled maps showing agricultural and forestry land uses. According to these, the proportion of forest in the middle regions has increased – at least according to the official statistics. The real reason is that »acacia and rubber tree plantations intended for export to China have increased tremendously«, says the forest management expert. The statistics are very deceiving because these cultivated forests are of very little ecological value: their biodiversity and their ability to store carbon are considerably lower than natural forests. Natural rain forests are threatened because local communities require new land for settlements or for agriculture and the government also requires new land for translocations.Agricultural practices are unsustainable. »The land is used for five or six years before the soil is depleted and the land becomes fallow«, says Avitabile. The forests that grow thereafter are by no means as species-rich as a natural primary forest.

Dams create problems

The forest management expert is now modeling how certain factors will influence forest use in the future and how that could have an effect on biomass and the storage of carbon in trees and soils. »The future of the forests depends on several parameters«, Avitabile explains. For example, how the global demand for acacia and rubber trees will develop: if demand rises, farmers will establish even more plantations. The amount of forest that is cleared also depends on other factors such as how quickly the population expands in the region, the extent of land consumption and the government’s economic and energy policies.

Vietnam is banking on satisfying the steep increase in energy requirements with hydropower. A major consequence of this is that politicians are promoting the construction of hydropower reservoirs, wherever possible at higher elevations. Altogether the national government has planned nine dams in the Vu Gia Thu Bon catchment area, five of which have already been constructed. Their construction is disputed however because the dams change the water regime in the entire region. »Water stored in hydropower reservoirs during the dry season reduces the flow in the downstream lowlands and thus water availability for irrigation.«, says Alexandra Nauditt, who coordinates the LUCCi project at ITT. Even the rainy season from September until December is cause for concern for the local inhabitants: »The hydropower reservoirs with a maximum capacity of 330 million cubic meters are used solely for energy production and do not act as a retention zone for flood protection or provide water for irrigation in the dry season«, she says.

In the coastal areas there is an additional problem: in recent years farmers have been complaining about considerable harvest losses, because from March to August there has not been sufficient precipitation water from the courses of the river into the delta for irrigating the rice paddies. Due to the fact that the river water stored in the reservoirs cannot reach the delta, the salt water from the sea is pushed inland and gets into the rice irrigation channels. »It is mainly the second harvest in September that the farmers are forced to give up«, reports Nauditt. For this reason many farmers have left affected districts such as Dien Ban and moved to the cities.

Many of the current problems in Central Vietnam stem from the rapid development that the region and the entire country are being subjected to. This tiger economy has been booming for years but city populations also continue to rise. As a result, the requirements for energy, living space, infrastructure and agriculture also increase. This kind of situation can be quite exciting from a scientific perspective for the head of the LUCCi-project Lars Ribbe. »For us researchers such dynamic systems are a great challenge, because the conditions are constantly changing«, says Ribbe. Moreover, it is so practice-orientated: »Our goal is to conduct research that is very practice-orientated and not to measure our success by how many publications we produce, but rather by the extent to which our Vietnamese partners have actually implemented our recommendations and strategies«, he says.

Bridging the gap is not that easy

The fact that the project brings together researchers from the most diverse disciplines from Vietnam and Germany as well as numerous local participants from Central Vietnam such as authorities and enterprises to discuss sustainable land use issues is also one of the unique aspects of the project for Ribbe. »It is not always that easy to find a common language«, he says, especially when scientists from so many different disciplines are sat around a table. »Terms such as climate change and soil can have completely different connotations for scientists depending on which field they come from«, says Ribbe.

The professor sees the project in a positive light: »We have had a good experience with the local decision makers and partners and were provided with the essential information for our work«, he says. Nguyen Dinh Hai, vice-president of the Irrigation Management Company (IMC) that controls the infrastructure of the irrigation and the pumping stations in the catchment area of the two rivers, confirms just how important it is to have a good international cooperation: »Due to the LUCCi-project a lot of knowledge is flowing into our region that we can directly transfer to the management of water courses«, says Hai. Researchers have been focusing on the influence of fluctuating climate patterns on water and agriculture. This is one aspect, says the vice-president that has not really been taken into account yet in Central Vietnam.

Policy recommendations

The results from the German-Vietnamese cooperation are to flow into scientific recommendations for policy. For example, how local authorities could tackle the issue of salt water intrusion. »We want to be able to say, where exactly salinization is occurring in the region and where weirs could be implemented to prevent further salt water intrusion«, says Ribbe. Further, with respect to land use for example, Ribbe and his researcher colleagues want to make predictions based on model calculations about the negative impacts that for instance acacia tree or palm oil plantations could have on the soil and water regime. »If we can understand the interactions that are taking place here in Central Vietnam, then the methods that we develop can also be used in other areas of the world«, says Ribbe. In this respect a significant contribution could be made to sustainable land use.

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LUCCi

Introduction of the regional project LUCCi - Land-use and climate change interactions in the Vu Gia Thu Bon River Basin, Vietnam

LUCCi summary

Project overview of Land Use and Climate Change Interactions in Central Vietnam

Salinity monitoring

Nils Führer at Ruhr University Bochum talks about salinity monitoring.

Flow discharge

Nguyen Thuy Linh, student at Cologne University of applied sciences, talks about flow discharge measurements.

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About the project - SuMaRiO

The Tarim River Basin in the nort-west of China is a large and unique arid region of extreme vulnerability. The climate is continental with large temperature amplitude, annually and daily. It is, globally, the most remote area from the oceans; hence rainfall is extremely rare and low and does not exceed 50 mm per year. Thus, all kinds of economic activities, especially agriculture and urban life, as well as the natural ecosystems depend on the river water as a major water source. The Tarim River, which is the largest river of the Tarim Basin, is fed by snowmelt and glacier melt in the mountains. The water discharge into the Tarim River has been increasing over the last decade. However, global climate-change prognoses forecast a shrinking water supply in this century. Due to strong extension of irrigated agriculture in oases along rivers since the 1950s, river flows have strongly decreased leading to a degradation of floodplain vegetation, while agricultural soils have become unusable due to salinization. There is a clear trade-off between generating income from irrigation agriculture, mainly cotton production, and the cost of ecosystem functions (ESF) and ecosystem services (ESS) provided by the natural ecosystems.

We developed a large-scale hydrological model (MIKE HYDRO) for sustainable water management along the Tarim River. In this model, the study area was divided into four sub-regions: Alar-Xinqiman (A), Xinqiman-Yingbaza (B), Yingbaza-Qiala (C), and Qiala-Taitema Lake (D). Our results show that considerable savings in irrigation water can be achieved by a land-use change. More than 100 mm of water required per year for irrigation could be saved by reducing the agricultural area in sections A and B. In both sections, the water deficit for irrigation could be reduced by 25%. The reduction of the agricultural area in the upper reaches could have considerable advantages for all parts of the catchment area. The results of the MIKE HYDRO simulations can be used for decision making for sustainable water and land management in the Tarim Basin.

The ecosystem services are presented in a Decision Support System (DSS) using indicators. These indicators are used to assess the planned management measures. The impact on the ESS indicators can be calculated for each proposed measure. Based on the entered objectives, a degree of attainment/benefit value is obtained. By the weighted aggregation of the benefit values, a score is given to each measure so that the measures can be compared with each other. For this aggregation, the weights of the stakeholders, which were defined at stakeholder workshops, are used. Chinese scientists show a great interest in the DSS and consider it a very useful tool for analyzing the impact of land and water management measures on ecosystem services in the Tarim catchment area.

Funding period: March 2011 to February 2016
Funding: 7.5 million Euros
Leading research institution: Technical University of Munich (TUM)

Interview

with the project head Markus Disse

Which were the most important scientific results in the field of sustainable land management?

We modeled discharges of the Tarim River tributaries Hotan, Yarkant and Aksu. An increase in discharge of the Aksu River in the near future (2030s) and a decrease in discharge in the far future (2050s) are to be expected.
We found a negative impact on plant growth during the early stages of plant development under drip irrigation under plastic mulch with drip lines for four plant rows, whereas irrigation with a drip line for two plant rows showed a better root-zone wetting.
Results from the hydrologic model showed that the source of irrigation water is the decisive aspect of the process of salinization and soil degradation. The groundwater recharge volume is directly linked to the intensity of the yearly floods of the Tarim River.

The reduction of farmland areas in the upper reaches or the Tarim River would provide a significant benefit to the middle and lower reaches in terms of water availability. Increasing the farmland area in the lower reaches would increase water deficit and should be avoided. By reducing the total available water in the soil to 40%, cotton yields decreased by 6% compared to the yields of a total available soil water of 70%.
Results of a groundwater model suggest a need to preserve the current practice of groundwater recharge through the natural flooding of the Tarim floodplain in order to revitalize the Tugai forests.
A decrease in groundwater levels can result in a distinct decrease in productivity of Euphrates Poplar (Populus euphratica) trees not only at sites with large distances to the groundwater, but also at sites that are relatively close to the groundwater.
Due to rising labor prices and other production costs, cotton is expected to be the least profitable crop in the years to come.
Locally adapted, typical indigenous species should be given a priority in urban greening.
For successful implementation of volumetric water pricing and subsidization, an improved cooperation of water authorities (water pricing policy) and agricultural authorities (subsidies) is required.
An integrated approach that combines mechanisms for controlling water use with technical consulting, enhancement of environmental awareness, and subsidized water-saving irrigation technologies, is preferable over mere focus on regulations.
The SuMaRiO decision support system (DSS) was designed to support stakeholders in assessing possible consequences of their actions in the Tarim Basin.

What were the lessons learnt from the SuMaRio project?

The main difficulty was the lack of an official document of approval for the SuMaRiO project issued by the Ministry of Science and Technology in Beijing. This scientific approval is the door opener to official institutions in Xinjiang. It is required to interview officers in governmental bureaus and institutions. Furthermore, it makes field work much easier in terms of getting approvals from local bureaus, and eases applications for invitation letters needed for visa.

Obtaining data was problematic in some areas (river discharge data, water management data). The lack of maps (up-to-date soil maps and geological maps) and other geoinformation led to utilization of remote sensing data such as Landsat-8 and SRTM90m. For successful validation of river discharge in the river oases, irrigation abstraction data was needed. Some data was available for single years in the middle part of the Aksu catchment, and some data for the Hotan and Yarkant catchments was provided thanks to the collaboration with Prof. Zhao Chengyi.

Issuing permissions for field work by the Chinese administration was a lengthy process that, before each field campaign, necessitated several days of waiting in Urumqi before the field work at the study sites along the Tarim River could start.

At the Arghan and Yingbazar study sites, devices installed in the field were rendered unusable due to theft, vandalism or unexpectedly high levels of flooding, which, together with delayed installation of devices in the field, also prevented recording complete data sets for the vegetation period in some years.

Due to the lasting social unrest in our study area, it was not always easy to conduct the field work and to organize joint meetings with local stakeholders from different fields. For example, stakeholder workshops that were originally intended to take place in Aksu had to be organized on short notice in Urumqi due to the tense socio-political situation in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

In which way can the results of SuMaRio be transferred into other regions of the world or into practice?

The Decision Support System (DSS) is an indicator-based tool designed to train young Chinese students and stakeholders to assess possible consequences of their actions. Under climate scenarios assumptions for 2013, 2030 and 2050, the consequent inflow into the Tarim, and socio-economic scenario assumptions, impacts of planned possible management measures can be calculated in a quantitative and semi-quantitative way and can be evaluated with the help of sustainable ESS indicators. All indicators were elaborated in SuMaRiO workshops and were classified as relevant.

A first step to be done in the DSS input section is defining the planning years in which the management measures are to be implemented. Furthermore, users can set a time span, for which results of the DSS should be calculated. In a second step, users can choose between four different climates. Based on these climate scenarios the potential inflows into the Tarim River are calculated with hydrological models. In the following step, possible developments of socio-economic indicators can be entered for the planning years. After this, management measures for the Tarim Basin can be planned (e.g. 5-year plan management measures, measures recommended by SuMaRiO). For each planned management measure corresponding indicators for the sub-regions of the Tarim Basin have to be specified for the planning year. Additionally, users can also define land use for each management option. For this purpose, users are provided with a grid-based land-use map. In a final step of the input section, objectives and weights can be entered. Here, the DSS provides a list of the ESS indicators for each sub-region on which the evaluation of the management measures is based. Furthermore, objectives are set for each ESS indicator in the sub-regions. The users are provided with recommendations on which objective would be desirable for each indicator.
This DSS tool and its methodology can easily be transferred into other regions of the world.

Prof. Dr. Markus Disse works as the Chair of Hydrology and River Basin Management at the Technical University of Munich.

Publications

Disse, M. (2016): Sustainable land and water management of River Oases along the Tarim River, Proc. IAHS, 373: 25–29.
URL: https://doi.org/10.5194/piahs-373-25-2016

Thomas, F.M., Jeschke, M., Zhang, X., Lang, P. (2016): Stand structure and productivity of Populus euphratica along a gradient of groundwater distances at the Tarim River (NW China). Journal of Plant Ecology, rtw078.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1093/jpe/rtw078

Keilholz, P., Disse, M., Halik, Ü. (2015): Effects of Land Use and Climate Change on Groundwater and Ecosystems at the Middle Reaches of the Tarim River Using the MIKE SHE Integrated Hydrological Model. Water, 7: 3040–3056.
URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/w7063040

Rumbaur, C., Thevs, N., Disse, M., Ahlheim, M., Brieden, A.. Cyffka, B.. Duethmann, D., Feike, T., Frör, O., Gärtner, P., Halik, Ü., Hill, J., Hinnenthal, M., Keilholz, P., Kleinschmit, B., Krysanova, V., Kuba, M., Mader, S., Menz, C., Othmanli, H., Pelz, S., Schroeder, M., Siew, T.F., Stender, V., Stahr, K., Thomas, F.M., Welp, M., Wortmann, M., Zhao, X., Chen, X., Jiang, T., Luo, J., Yimit, H., Yu, R., Zhang, X., Zhao, C. (2015): Sustainable management of river oases along the Tarim River (SuMaRiO) in Northwest China under conditions of climate change. Earth System Dynamics, 6(1): 83–107.
URL: https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-6-83-2015

Yang, Y., Disse, M., Yu, R., Yu, G., Sun, L., Huttner, P., Rumbaur, C. (2015): Large-Scale Hydrological Modeling and Decision-Making for Agricultural Water Consumption and Allocation in the Main Stem Tarim River, China. Water 2015, 7(6): 2821–2839.
URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/w7062821

Ahlheim, M., Frör, O., Luo, J., Pelz, S., Jiang, T., Yiliminuer (2015): The Social Value of Environmental Improvements in the Tarim Basin - toward a Comprehensive Assessment in a Heterogeneous Setting. Environment and Natural Resources Research, 5(2): 49-65.
URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/enrr.v5n2p49

Duethmann, D., Bolch, T., Farinotti, D., Kriegel, D., Vorogushyn, S., Merz, B., Pieczonka, T., Tong, J., Buda, S., Güntner, A. (2015): Attribution of streamflow trends in snow and glacier melt-dominated catchments of the Tarim River, Central Asia. Water Resources Research, 51(6): 4727–4750.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/2014WR016716

Feike, T., Mamitimin, Y., Li, L., Doluschitz, R. (2015): Development of agricultural land and water use and its driving forces along the Aksu and Tarim River, P.R. China. Environmental Earth Sciences, Band: 73, Heft: 2, Seite(n): 517-531, ISSN/ISBN: 1866–6280.
URL: not available

Krysanova, V., Wortmann, M., Bolch, T., Merz, B., Düthmann, D., Walter, J., Huang, Sh., Tong, J., Buda, S., Kundzewicz, Z. (2015): Analysis of current trends in climate parameters, river discharge and glaciers in the Aksu River basin (Central Asia). Hydrological Sciences Journal, 60(4): 566–590.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2014.925559

Thevs, N., Peng, H., Rozi, A., Zerbe, S., Abdusalih, N. (2015): Water allocation and water consumption of irrigated agriculture and natural vegetation in the Aksu-Tarim river basin, Xinjiang, China. Journal of Arid Environments, 112A: 87–97.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2014.05.028

Zhao, X., Othmanli, H., Schiller, T., Zhao, C., Sheng, Y., Zia, S., Müller, J., Stahr, K., (2015): Water Use Efficiency in Saline Soils under Cotton Cultivation in the Tarim River Basin. Water 2015, 7(6): 3103–3122.
URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/w7063103

Duethmann, D., Peters, J.,Blume, T., Vorogushyn, S., Güntner, A. (2014): The value of satellite-derived snow cover images for calibrating a hydrological model in snow-dominated catchments in Central Asia. Water Resources Research, 50(3): 2002–2021.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/2013WR014382.

Siew, T.F., Döll, P., Yimit, H. (2014): Experiences with a transdisciplinary research approach for integrating ecosystem services into water management in Northwest China. In: Bhaduri, A., Bogardi, J.J., Leentvar, J., Marx, S. (eds.). The Global Water in the Anthropocene. Springer Water, pp. 303–319.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07548-8

Cyffka, B., Rumbaur, C., Kuba, M., Disse, M. (2013): Sustainable Management of River Oases along the Tarim River (P.R. China) and the Ecosystem Services Approach. Geography, Environment & Sustainability, 4: 77–90.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.24057/2071-9388-2013-6-4-77-90

Contact

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Markus Disse (Full Professor)
Technical University of Munich (TUM)
Faculty of Civil, Geo and Environmental Engineering
Chair of Hydrology and River Basin Management
Arcisstraße 21
D- 80333 München, Germany
Tel + 49.89.289.23916
Fax +49.89.289.23221
markus.disse@tum.de http://www.hydrologie.bgu.tum.de

project website
project documentation at website of BMBF funding measure

Science portrait

A management plan for the Tarim

The Tarim Basin is China’s most important cotton growing region. The cotton farms depend on the water carried there by the River Tarim. Artificial irrigation is causing ecological problems in the region however. A German-Chinese research team is now working to develop a sustainable use concept for the oasis landscape.

The Tarim Basin in the extreme north west of China is a very special landscape: no other region in the world lies as far from an ocean. Enclosed by the foothills of the mighty Tian Shan, Hindu Kush and Kunlun Shan mountains, this extremely arid region has an annual precipitation of only 50 millimetres per square metre. It is only in the early summer that rainfall in the mountains increases, the snows thaw and the glaciers melt, causing torrents of water to come flooding into the valley so that life flourishes along the 1400 kilometre long river – particularly in the form of cotton farms, which have spread out over the oases along the river and which take water from it for their crops. »Without artificial irrigation the cotton farmers could grow nothing here«, says Professor Markus Disse, a hydrologist from the Universität der Bundeswehr München. But as a result, the floodplain ecosystem is deprived of the water removed from the river for cotton. Disse has therefore set himself the objective of balancing the demands of the people and the environment in terms of water volume and quality, and thereby achieving the sustainable management of water and land resources.

Disse seeks to implement this in the project »Sustainable management of River Oases along the Tarim River«, or SuMaRiO for short. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research is giving 7.5 million Euros in funding for the joint German-Chinese project. Scientists from ten German universities and research institutions and eight Chinese universities and scientific institutions are working together on the project. Their aim is to set up a sustainable oasis management system for the Tarim Basin which meets the demands of land and water users fairly in these times of climatic change and social upheaval.

The objective of the SuMaRiO project is ambitious, because many lay claim to the meagre volume of water available in the Xinjiang region. They include the ten million people living in the oases along the Tarim, who rely on the river for drinking water, the cotton farmers, local industry, and the animal and plant species of the floodplains. In this respect the cotton is both a blessing and a curse for the region. 40 percent of China’s cotton production is harvested in the fields along the river, representing around 15 percent of world production. This brings a degree of prosperity to the region, and feeds the employees of the big state-owned and military farms and the small farmers. However, this agriculture is also causing major ecological problems because the cotton requires a lot of water. The farmers obtain this by diverting water from the Tarim along artificial canals, particularly in the summer months.

Cotton cultivation has increased dramatically in recent years, and the effects on the middle reaches and especially the lower reaches of the river are plain to see. »The hydrological and ecological system is disrupted nearly everywhere«, asserts Professor Bernd Cyffka, a geographer at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. The scientist, head of the Neuburg Floodplain Institute on the Danube, is investigating the ecosystem services provided by the riparian forests along the Tarim in the SuMaRiO project. He says that the problems are obvious: in the past 30 years so much water has already been removed from the upper and middle reaches to irrigate the cotton and wheat fields after the snows melt that a 380 -kilometre stretch of the lower reaches receives hardly any water at all. Sometimes this section of the river has lain dry for years. »All the water is used up over the summer for cotton growing«, says the ecologist. The irrigated agricultural land also oversalinates the water.

Protection for the Euphrates poplar

Because man-made dykes separate the river from the natural riparian forests, there is a shortage of water for the animals and plant species there that rely on regular flooding, such as the Euphrates poplar. The habitat along the River Tarim is extremely important for this tree species, as 60 to 70 percent of the world’s Euphrates poplars grow here. In order to better protect the rare poplars and intact floodplains and to renature the disturbed sections of the river, Cyffka is drawing up a management plan. This will show which measures should be implemented in which areas of the riparian forests in order to breathe more life back into the forests. The plan will serve as a basis for making proposals to the local authorities as to how they might distribute the water among the oases. »Vigorous riparian forests are important as so called ecosystem service providers«, says the ecologist. »They provide shade for people and domestic animals in the desert regions, they supply oxygen, they lower temperatures a little and they offer protection from the many sand and dust storms.« This last ecosystem service is a particularly important one for China because without this »green belt« of riparian forests it would cost the country a lot to keep the roads clear of sand for example. Cyffka is now measuring soil humidity on test sites in the lower and middle reaches while his colleagues record groundwater levels, and he is mapping the forestry to find out whether the Euphrates poplars are receiving an adequate water supply. Wind measurements are also being taken and special devices used to trap drifting sand so that the scientists can also quantify the ecosystem service of sand protection.

Data from 250 enterprises

A change towards a more sustainable water distribution would have consequences above all for the agriculture in the Tarim Basin. For this reason a group of researchers led by Dr. Reiner Doluschitz, Professor of Agroinformatics and Business Management at the University of Hohenheim, is gathering business data from the farms. So far he has surveyed around 250 enterprises, mostly smaller family businesses but also production units of the state farms that the central government in Beijing has established since the 1950s to encourage settlement in the region. Doluschitz wants to know what crops the farmers are growing, how high their yields are, what their outlays are and much more besides. »These figures are important because we want to find out how the farms adjust their cultivation and production methods when external factors change«, says the agricultural scientist. For example if less water is made available to the farmers for their crops in future, Doluschitz’s team of experts can predict the effects that this will have on individual businesses using mathematical models. And if the price of water increases, for example, or the world cotton market changes, or there is a shift in demand towards particular types of fruit and vegetable, the Hohenheim model should indicate how agricultural business management will develop. As Doluschitz says: »The objective is to develop a farm model for the whole region which simulates the effects of different market and political scenarios on the agriculture here.«

Ecologist Dr. Niels Thevs from the University of Greifswald is also working closely with the farmers in another SuMaRiO subproject. He is investigating which other crops the local farmers can grow to break their economic dependence on cotton. Thevs is considering two plant species which occur naturally along the Tarim: firstly reeds, which are also widespread in Germany wherever soil moisture levels are high enough. And secondly, a plant with pinkish-white flowers in the Dogbane family with the scientific name Apocynum pictum. »This plant is perfectly adapted to the changing water conditions in the floodplains«, says Thevs.

The plants grow up to a metre in height, and a tea can be made from their leaves which lowers blood pressure. Fibres can be extracted from the stems to manufacture textiles. While the ecological characteristics of reeds are already very well known, little is known about Apocynum pictum as yet. Thevs is therefore conducting fundamental research: in what types of soil does the species grow? How much moisture does it need? How well does it tolerate salt? How is the plant distributed along the river? But this is only one of the tasks that Thevs has set himself. Above all the German scientist is seeking to offer an alternative source of income to those farmers in the middle and lower reaches of the Tarim who are particularly affected by the volume of water removed from the upper reaches. »Private cotton farmers have no certainty that there will be enough river water for their fields in May or June, when the water shortage is at its worst before the thawing of the snow in the mountains«, says Thevs. So time and time again, the farmers lose their whole crops.

Apocynum pictum – and the closely related species Apocynum venetum – could offer an alternative, because unlike cotton these plant species rely on ground water rather than surface water so they are better able to withstand dry years. Thevs is also drawing up a nutrient balance assessment for the herbaceous perennial. The hypothesis is that harvesting of the leaves removes more nutrients than gathering of the dried stems no longer needed by the plant in winter. »This would suggest that use of the plant for tea puts it at greater risk than using it for the manufacture of textiles«, he says. Another argument in favour of use of the stems is that the small farmers have very little income in the autumn. »This could be an important source of extra money for the families«, says Thevs.

Software for local authorities

The scientific knowledge gained from the sub-projects, which include for example many regional climate studies and extensive hydrological analyses of the River Tarim, is intended to lead to the development of a decision support system. The project objective is for the SuMaRiO scientists to present this in 2016 as the end product of their investigations. The software based system supported by 78 indicators is intended to provide the local authorities with sustainability analyses for land and water management. »For example if cotton production in the Tarim catchment area further expands, the system can show the effects of this on water, soil, climate and natural vegetation«, explains project coordinator Dr. Christian Rumbaur from the Universität der Bundeswehr München.

Or to give another example: how will land use in the Tarim catchment area change if the regional climate changes over the next few decades? The German-Chinese research team’s integrated approach of bringing sustainable thinking into land and water use and fostering ecosystem services is something quite new for the provincial government and local authorities working with the SuMaRiO scientists. »Of course there is always a risk that the decision support system will not be implemented«, says project leader Disse. But he does not believe this will be the case: »The politicians and authorities are now recognizing the positive services that an intact ecosystem provides. They are fully aware of the fact that the natural system in the Tarim Basin is extremely fragile.«

Great political interest

The scientists are well served by the fact that the Chinese central government also has a political interest in developing the region in the longer term: firstly, because the Xinjiang region is thought to hold the biggest oil and gas reserves in China, and secondly, because the region is home to the Uyghur minority, which makes up half of its population. »There are social tensions. It is an important responsibility of the politicians to break these down in the future«, says Disse. To further encourage acceptance of the decision support system, the SuMaRiO scientists also hope to involve authorities such as the local Department of Water Resources at an early stage by holding workshops. »The aim is to train the management staff so that they can use the software themselves«, says Rumbaur. And perhaps even more importantly: »The officials need to learn how to enter new data independently in order to keep the system up to date«. Only in this way can the support tool continue to be used after the project ends in 2016.

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SuMaRiO

Introduction of the regional project SuMaRiO - Sustainable Management of River Oases along the Tarim River/China

Policy Recommendations

Sustainable management of river oases along the Tarim River

Urumqi Charta - Stakeholder recommendations to combat desertification

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About the project - KULUNDA

The interdisciplinary project KULUNDA blended knowledge of the German universities, non-university research institutions, and medium size enterprises. The main goals of the KULUNDA project were 1) to mitigate degradation and desertification processes by stabilizing and enhancing carbon sequestration in soils, 2) to increase crop yields through development and implementation of sustainable land management approaches and measures for rehabilitation of grassland ecosystems, and 3) to contribute to the rural and regional development.

The main achievements of the project are newly developed methods and technologies (adapted Soviet and modern Canadian systems) for further economically and ecologically sustainable, climate-optimized land use. The development of these new technologies was based mainly on field trials in three agricultural enterprises (with different soil and climate conditions) and an intensive collaboration with Russian farmers and other stakeholder.

The main conclusions of the project:
1) The adapted cultivation systems are more profitable due to higher gross margins.
2) Extensive farming achieves higher water-use efficiency (especially under no-till), stronger assimilation and highest yields. Minimized soil treatment leads to higher aggregate stability, which then leads to a lower risk of wind erosion, increased soil organic carbon storage and soil fertility as well as usable soil water content (usable field capacity).

The project results contribute not only to the soil and climate protection or a climate-adapted land use but also to a successful, i.e. sustainable, regional development as the regional and federal policy programs call for it.

Adapting to the new technologies requires training, however, young and potentially qualified staff do not return to the rural areas. In addition, due to unfinished land-rights reforms and uncertain credits and harvest insurance, farms are restricted in investing in new machinery. Nevertheless, early adopters are already using these new methods and technologies.

Funding period: October 2011 to September 2016
Funding: 3.2 million Euros
Leading research institution: Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg

Interview

with the project head Manfred Frühauf

Which were the most important scientific results in the field of sustainable land management?

We were able to prove that the type and intensity of agricultural land use in the Altai region over the past 60 years has caused a serious damage to the soil, resulting in further adverse ecosystem and agronomic consequences. These have, above all, effects on yields, arable land and grasslands, and, ultimately, on the economy and regional development. The KULUNDA scientists have succeeded in explaining the site-dependent interactions between the intensity of agricultural cultivation, alterations of soil physical properties, and climatic conditions. In particular, soil-physical parameters and their interactions with soil moisture and yield dynamics have been described in detail based on field research, which focused on analyzing cultivation intensity and crop rotations under various climatic and soil conditions with regard to their ecological and economic consequences. One of the results was that through intensive land use the natural soil pattern and thereby soil aggregates (which play an important role in storing soil organic carbon) can be destroyed. This leads to a reduction of soil carbon by its oxidation and release in the form of a greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. As the soil becomes a stronger source of this greenhouse gas and thus promotes anthropogenic climate change, it also contributes to increased wind erosion due to decline in soil humus, and reduced water storage capacity and soil fertility. Until now, little has been known about these relationships in conversion areas with dominant dry farming, even in the context of socioeconomic effects.

In terms of the project results it is also worth mentioning that we have collaborated with a broad network of Russian researchers and regional stakeholders. Based on this close collaboration, an ongoing discussion between the Russian colleagues and the stakeholders, their presentation during field days and educational events, we were able to quickly implement our results and achieve their transfer into practice in the model enterprises, and later, using these as “lighthouse projects”, in the entire Altai region. This has helped to provide a decision-making support for sustainable land use and regional development including the challenges of climate change to the farmers, as well as those stakeholders from policy and administration, who are responsible for strategic development concepts for the Altai region (until 2015).

In the KULUNDA project we have also analyzed the economic conditions and implications of both new and old cultivation methods - how much they cost and which methods can be economically favorable for the farmers. At the same time, we have also analyzed (tax) factors, manifestations and consequences of the heavy rural depopulation and we have focused on ways to curb these processes, especially in young people, and make life in rural areas more attractive for them.

The success of the KULUNDA project was also largely supported by a concurrently running project called DAAD that is being conducted by geographers from Halle and the Altai State University in Barnaul since several years ago. In this project, the local students are taught in German language scientific methods of environmental analysis. Through this project we were able to contribute to education of young researchers, who not only did their doctoral research studies but then used their skills and gained knowledge to work in the KULUNDA subprojects. This appears to be an important aspect in terms of providing good training to young people and supporting their sustainable, long-term work in and for the region.

In which way can the results of KULUNDA be transferred into other regions of the world or into practice?

The results can be easily transferred to other regions with similar landscape and land-use conditions. The KULUNDA steppe is the one and only, albeit, with regards to the natural conditions, a characteristic example of the tempered grasslands of the world’s most important granary and agricultural area. The KULUNDA steppe is also part of the “Neuland-region”of the former Soviet Union. In the 1950s and 1960s, this is where the world’s most significant and most extensive land-use change from the steppes into agricultural, predominantly arable landscapes took place. Based on our results, we were able to offer model solutions, not only for this “Neuland-region” of the southwestern Siberia, but also for even larger conversion areas in Kazakhstan or Southern Russia, that can positively influence economy, agricultural productivity, soils and climate protection. Our results have already been presented at numerous national professional training events, e.g. in Ufa, Orenburg or Mongolei. At the same time, the results can also contribute to a further qualification of global land-use and climate models, as shown by the project findings of our partners from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research.

We also have to mention, that we were able to generate our research results together with the German medium-sized company Amazone-Werke by introducing innovative field trials in three different steppe landscapes of KULUNDA, based on cooperation experiences from Canadian conversion areas. Our three partner enterprises in the region, referred to as “lighthouse projects” of climate-optimized land use, have a great influence on other farms, even beyond the Altai Region.

We have also established contacts between Russian, German, US-American and Canadian farmers and scientists. Among other reasons, those were particularly inspiring because the US-Americans already have a lot of experience with adaptation strategies related to the Dust-Bowl event in the 1930s, and the German and Canadian farmers already have experience in the field of conservation agriculture. We are optimistic and believe that these contacts will be maintained independently of our project in the future.

What were the lessons learnt from the KULUNDA project?

It was important for us that, in addition to the Russian scientists, we also integrated land users and other decision makers from the regional administration and policy in the project. We already had previous projects in the region and were therefore able to build on these relationships and contacts with scientists, land users, and policy and administration representatives and start the project right after the approval. This spared us possible start-up difficulties. Based on these relationships, the new German partners in the project group were able to quickly establish contacts with their (discipline-specific) Russian project partners. Without this, the project period would not have been as optimally and successfully used.

Collaboration with training institutions was also of crucial importance for the knowledge transfer to the region. With these institutions, the knowledge transfer and dissemination of project results on different levels was significantly favored and sustained.

In summary, we have to praise the extremely good inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration in the KULUNDA project that has been essential for the project success. We believe we succeeded mainly because all German and Russian collaborators perceived this project as a unique opportunity, and used it accordingly. We also believe that these experiences will provide long-term benefits to all participants and hope that they will continue in even more advanced form of cooperation between all stakeholders in the future.

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Manfred Frühauf works at the Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Faculty of Natural Sciences III, Institute for Geosciences and Geography.

Publications

Bischoff, N., Mikutta, R., Shibistova,O., Puzanov, A., Reichert, E., Silanteva, M., Grebennikova, A., Schaarschmidt, F., Heinicke, S., Guggenberger, G. (2016): Land-use change under different climatic conditions: Consequences for organic matter and microbial communities in Siberian steppe soils. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 235: 253–264.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2016.10.022

Grunwald, L.C., Belyaev, V.I., Hamann, M., Illiger, P., Stephan, E., Bischoff, N., Rudev, N.V., Kozhanov, N.A. Schmidt, G., Manfred Frühauf, M., Meinel, T. (2016): Modern Cropping Systems and Technologies for Soil Conservation in Siberian Agriculture in Mueller et al. (eds) Novel Methods for Monitoring and Managing Land and Water Resources in Siberia, Springer Water, Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London ISBN 978-3-319-24407-5; (chapter 31) pp. 681–718.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24409-9

Meyfroidt, P., Schierhorn, F., Prishchepov, A. V., Müller, D., Kuemmerle, T. (2016): Drivers, constraints and trade-offs associated with recultivating abandoned cropland in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Global Environmental Change, 37: 1–15.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2016.01.003

Kraemer, R., Prishchepov, A. V., Müller, D., Kuemmerle, T., Radeloff, V. C., Dara, A., Terekhov, A., Frühauf, M. (2015): Long-term agricultural land-cover change and potential for cropland expansion in the former Virgin Lands area of Kazakhstan. Environmental Research Letters, 10(5): 054012.
ULR: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/5/054012

Frühauf, M., Meinel, T. (2014): Ökosystemkonversion in den temperierten Grasländern Südwestsibieriens: Steuerfaktoren, Etappen und Geoökologische Konsequenzen. Geoöko, Bd. XXXV, 2014/1-2: 5–38.
URL: http://paradigmaps.geo.uni-halle.de/kulunda/sites/default/files/Fr%C3%BChauf_Geo%C3%B6ko_35_1%2B2.pdf

Schierhorn, F. Müller, D., Prishchepov, A.V. , Faramarzi, M., Balmann, A. (2014): The potential of Russia to increase its wheat production through cropland expansion and intensification. Global Food Security, 3: 133–141.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2014.10.007

Contact

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Manfred Frühauf
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
Institut für Geowissenschaften und Geographie
Von-Seckendorff-Platz 4
D- 06120 Halle (Saale), Germany
Telefon: +49(0)345/55-26040
Fax: +49(0)345/55-27175
manfred.fruehauf@geo.uni-halle.de

project website
project documentation at website of BMBF funding measure

Science portrait

New life for the steppe

The Kulunda Steppe in the Soviet Union was once highly valued for arable farming. With the collapse of the multinational state in the 1990s, large areas of the land fell into disuse. This situation has to be changed. A joint German-Russian research project seeks to ensure that land-use change develops as sustainably as possible.

The Kulunda Steppe in the Altai region of south- west Siberia was once regarded as one of the granaries from which the Soviet Union hoped to provide enough food for its population. In the so-called Virgin Lands Campaign of the 1950s and 60s, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had vast amount of steppe and grassland area converted into farmland, predominately for cereal cultivation. After the collapse of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the 1990s, large areas of this farmland were left fallow. 20 years after the transition, the region is still undergoing changes. »After the independence of the Ukraine and Kazakhstan«, says Professor of Geography Manfred Frühauf from Halle-Wittenberg University, »Russia has had to rely on its cereal producing regions to ensure the food supply. The Kulunda Steppe is therefore of a particular importance«. The government of the Altai region has therefore pledged to double cereal production in this agricultural area by 2025.

The effects of this land-use change are being investigated by the joint German-Russian researchproject KULUNDA in eleven sub-projects. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research provides a total of 3.2 million Euros funding for the project, up to year 2016. Geo-ecologist Frühauf is the project leader and speaker for the German-Russian research consortium of 16 universities, non-university research institutions and enterprises. The scientists’ fundamental objectives are to develop land-use strategies which stop or at least minimize soil degradation processes and which also stabilise and increase crop yields at the same time. In addition, the project aims to support sustainable land use, rural and regional development to better withstand climate change challenges.

To achieve this, the scientists are analysing soil and vegetation degradation in the Kulunda Steppe attempting to minimize the deficiencies of global models to assess the carbon balance and thus the greenhouse effect on these arable steppes. In addition, they attempt to analyse the economic and social effects of the land use.

The scientists are concentrating on finding the best ways of shaping agricultural land use for future viability and restoring the disturbed ecosystems to optimum functionality at the same time. Particular focus is on the region’s fertile black soil: this type of soil with its thick humic horizon once provided the basis for the flourishing cereal cultivation in the temperate grasslands of the Altai region. But the decades of arable land farming using the methods poorly suited to the local conditions led to the serious soil damage – so not only yields were declining but the soils were also becoming more vulnerable to degradation.

No new dust bowl

Because the State farms cultivated the land too intensively and too monotonously over too great an area, surface water and winds eroded the soils. In many places their humus content decreased by up to 50 percent. This greatly diminished the soil’s capacity to store water, carbon dioxide and nutrients. The scientists have pledged to prevent the West Siberian plains from turning into a second »global dust bowl«, as it was seen in the US Midwest in the first half of the 20th century. The great plains were struck by devastating dust storms in the 1930s after the farmers turned a vast amount of the prairies to cereal cultivation, thereby exposing the soil to serious erosion.

Consequently hundreds of thousands of people were forced to abandon their homes and farmsteads and move away. In the Kulunda Steppe, says a geoecologist of Halle-Wittenberg University Dr. Gerd Schmidt, we want to investigate the effects of land-use and climate change on the black and chestnut-brown soils prevalent in the region. »We want to investigate how to build the humus content of the soil up again by means of suitable land-use processes«, says Schmidt. This would have many positive effects: higher levels of organic matter improve the soil’s capacity to store water, this safeguards and increases yields, stabilizes the soil and makes it less susceptible to erosion. In addition, this has benefits for the climate: large-scale enrichment of the soil with organic matter makes a significant contribution to carbon storage and thus helps to protect the climate. »This is a win-win effect in many respects«, says Schmidt. So his research focus is to investigate how sustainable land-use processes adapted to local conditions can help to improve soil characteristics in the climatic conditions of South Siberia.

The scientist from Halle sees possibilities for reducing the farmers’ dependence on the meagre precipitation in the semi-arid region through better soil management, which can be achieved above all by the use of different methods how to prepare/cultivate the land. In particular, the farmers should be urged to use the no tillage (direct sowing) or mulch sowing methods. These would allow organic matter to accumulate in the soil, Schmidt explains.

Direct sowing pays

Meanwhile Dr. Tobias Meinel tests the possibility of implementation of the scientific approaches of the German-Russian research team on the trial sites. The objective of his experiments is to find methods that will benefit the environment, the climate and the local farmers. To quote one example: the less the land has to be worked before sowing, the lower the diesel consumption of the farmers’ tractors. »The areas are vast, so this saves the farmers quite a bit of money«, says Meinel, who handles business in Kazakhstan and Russia for a German agricultural machinery manufacturer. His first results are now showing that direct sowing in particular could not only benefit the environment but could also be profitable for the agricultural enterprises: »With wheat cultivation alternated with rapeseed, peas or linseed for example, the mix seems to work and to pay in economic terms«. The method is successful because the plant stubble from the previous year is still standing and the surface of the soil is broken only where the new seed is sown. This has beneficial effects for the soil microclimate, as Meinel explains. »The soil is better able to store water and the old stubble protects the seed well from drying out or being blown away«. But such precise methods of working the land also require precise fertilizer distribution and modern machinery, and this comes at a price. Meinel is aware of this, but does not see cost as an insurmountable obstacle: »It perhaps poses financial problems for the smaller enterprises but not for the larger ones, which often comprise farm areas of 20,000 hectares or more«, says Meinel, and he gives a sample calculation: if an enterprise saves 20 percent a year on seed and up to 50 percent on diesel through direct sowing, a sower for example will have paid for itself after six years.

Of course it is not always easy for the locals employed in agriculture to get used to the new technologies. Meinel urges an open-minded approach: »They mastered the old technology; now they must not be afraid of innovation«. To overcome the farmers’ distrust to the new machinery and to the scientific methods, the Kulunda scientists are holding so-called field days for demonstration purposes.

»Sometimes we have representatives from 300 agricultural enterprises at these field days. They come to see how we are working the land, what new varieties of cereals we are planting and how the crops are growing in the fields«, says Frühauf. These events are important from a psychological point of view. »They create confidence among the farmers and give us hope that they will implement our findings«, says Frühauf. The initiative is also intended to resolve another central problem: »The communication of information in the region has been very poor until now«, explains Kulunda project coordinator Dr. Milada Kasarjyan. The field days can help to improve the knowledge transfer.

Professor of Geography Dr. Sebastian Lentz, who is leading a sub-project to gather sociological data, also sees the need for confidence-building measures of this kind. »Over the years the people of the Kulunda region have worked out their own way of dealing with the soil, the climate and the machinery«, explains the Director of the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography in Leipzig. This value system is now coming up against other values that the scientists are bringing into play. »The objective is no longer simply to achieve a particular amount of yields from the land but also to make a contribution to climate protection worldwide«, says Lentz. This is a new way of thinking for the local people. Lentz’s team is seeking to investigate how this change will affect those working in agriculture. The geographer explains the aim of his sub-project using the example of a tractor driver: »In the past, he was a master of his machine; he was able to repair it, and had a high standing in the village«. Because many farms are now changing over to more sophisticated machines, the tractor drivers are no longer able to repair them. Today this is a job for specialists who have to be flown in. »The tractor driver has lost his social status«, says Lentz. In the sub-project his research team wishes to identify such areas of conflict and work out ways of compensating for the loss of prestige of certain social groups by giving them new duties in order to increase acceptance of the new methods and technologies in the region.

Project intended to halt rural exodus

There is great interest in the eleven sub-projects from the Russian side. »The Altai region encompasses 7.11 million hectares of agricultural land, so the question of increasing yields is very relevant«, emphasises Dr. Andrej Bondarovich, a geoscientist from Altai State University who is collaborating on the Kulunda project. New technologies could improve the economic situation and help for example to prevent people from migrating away from the rural areas of the Altai. Moreover, as the leader of the KULUNDA project Russian coordination team Professor Vladimir Belyaev explains, the results of the research could allow measures to be developed to stop soil erosion. »The project gives us possibilities for developing progressive technologies in order to increase cereal production and to adapt it to local conditions«, says Belyaev. This will help to ensure the sustainable development of the Kulunda region.

To ensure that good use is made of the scientific expertise in everyday life, the Kulunda team have called in an external German-Russian advisory committee consisting of six top experts in the fields of politics, government and agriculture, three from each side. »They offer us good advice in the form of annual statements, and also give us a lot of support«, says Frühauf. The advisory committee can help for example to solve the challenge of getting regional representatives from economics, government, politics and science together for a round table discussion. »We want to bring these stakeholders together because we hope this will generate new ideas«, says Kasarjyan. This is how the idea cames to set up regional advisory centres for the farmers.

Green light for the farmers

Frühauf is also aware of the difficulties. »We know there are risks because the agricultural market and the regional politics are difficult to predict«, he says. Nevertheless, the prevailing conditions are generally stable: regional support is currently very high and the cooperation with the Russian partners is proving to be highly successful. As Frühauf says: »If our concept works out, then the project can be a green light for the farms’ further self-development.« This could be of a great future benefit to the region, and also to other temperate grassland regions undergoing change to which the results could be transferred.

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Video

KULUNDA

Introduction of the regional project KULUNDA - "How to prevent the next “Global Dust Bowl”?

Forschungsprojekt KULUNDA
(only german)

Sustainable land management in South-West-Siberia

KULUNDA project in West Siberia

Bericht zum Forschungsprojekt KULUNDA (only german)

A report on a German-Russian initiative against climate change

Minimum Tillage and No-Till in western Siberia

A video about agriculture characterized by large-scale intensive farming based on monocultures.

Global scientific synthesis

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More than 50 million Euros for twelve sub-projects

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