Forests and Agrobiodiversity –

Chicken and egg? Ramanatha Rao

Healthy ecosystems & flourishing biodiversity Critical for the long-term sustainability of agricultureCrops & livestock Valuable part of the Earth’s genetic resourcesAgriculture depends on a number of natural processes (‘environmental services’), such as • Water supply• Cycling of nutrients in soils• Pollination• Natural means of pest control • Carbon sequestration• Wild crop relatives for specific traits

Introduction

Introduction (contd.)

Environmental services are provided by many types of plants & animals Ranging from trees to soil bacteria & native beesMostly coming from forestsIf these plants & animals, which constitute forests are lost Environmental services they provide may well disappear with themSingle species is lost its associated environmental service may well be replaced by other speciesBut, with serious losses, The optimal providers of services will almost certainly be affected.ConsequentlyThe productivity of agricultural land begins to suffer

Biodiversity at large The term “biological diversity”, or short

“biodiversity”

the diversity of life on earth, ranging from genetic diversity and diversity of species to the diversity of ecosystems.

The Convention on Biodiversity comprises three elements

Conservation of biological diversity

Sustainable use of biological diversity

Equitable distribution of benefits arising from its use

Agriculture What precisely is meant by ‘‘agriculture”?

Cultivation my be defined as Sowing or planting, tending, & harvesting of

useful domesticated or wild plants, which may or may not involve tilling the soil”

Domestication is defined as Genetic, physiological, &/or morphological

alteration of wild plants that results from deliberate or inadvertent cultural selection & leads to the plants’ dependence on humans for their long-term survival

Agriculture is defined as Growing of domesticated crops by methods of

cultivation that usually but not always involve systematic tillage of the soil

Agriculture (contd.)

Distinction between cultivation & agriculture is important

Differentiates between systems of • Crop production practised by farmers • Wild-plant production practised by foragers

Cultivation/proto-agriculture • Hunter-gatherers gathered wild plants • Often increased productivity of selected taxa

by Controlled burning Vegetation clearance and weeding Harvesting, storing, sowing, and planting

seeds Tilling, draining, and irrigating the soil

Protoagriculture is not agriculture because Rarely included fully domesticated crops This distinction is not just semantic Ethnographic, historical & limited archaeological evidence indicates it as a

• Minor activity in hunting-fishing-gathering systems of subsistence

Mostly practised in situ (i.e. within forests)As many forager groups engaged in small-scale cultivation In specific & more accessible filed plots Led to plant domestication led to development of agriculture

Agriculture (contd.)

Almost all domesticated plants arose from wild progenitors Early domesticates: barley, different types of wheat, , lentil, pea & faba bean

• Wild progenitors occurred in forests

• Continue to occur in forests

• Are important for agricultural development

Is the major direct connection• In addition to the dependence of agriculture on environment services

Agriculture (contd.)

Agricultural biological diversity orAgrobiodiversity includes All components of biological diversity of relevance to food & agriculture All components of biological diversity that contribute to sustaining the key functions of agroecosystemsThus, agrobiodiversity has 2 levels1. Genetic resources for food and agriculture

• Cultivated & domesticated species • Crop wild relatives • Managed stocks of wild animals and plants

Agrobiodiversity

2. Components of that provide ecological services• Beneficial organisms that control pests• Soil organisms that process nutrients for crop plants• Pollinators• Plants that contribute to controlling erosion or stabilizing the water balance

Agrobiodiversity resulted through Thousands of years of selection & breeding by farmersAlong with Appropriate production systems & methods

Agrobiodiversity (contd.)

Work in several disciplines

•Ecology

•Palaeontology

•Forestry

•History

•Archaeology

•Anthropology

•Ethics

Question the separation of people from nature

Variety of genes, species, and ecosystems

found in today’s forests resulted from

A combination of cyclical ecological and climatic processes and past human actions

Forest biodiversity

Evidence is accumulating Very few of today’s forests can be considered • ‘Pristine,’ Virgin,’ or even ‘PrimaryThus conserving biological diversity requires Appreciation of both human and natural influences

FBD (contd.)

It was concluded that:

Humans have been a dominant force in the evolution of today’s forests

As technology becomes more sophisticated

Their impact on forests increases until forests are degraded to the long-term detriment of the overexploiting society

Overexploitation is followed by a culture change that may reduce human pressure

Some forests may return to a highly productive & diverse, but altered condition

Others may be permanently altered to much less productive & diverse conditions

FBD (contd.

Hence the approach to conserving forests & their biodiversity would be

Through a variety of management approaches ranging from

Strict protection Through Intensive use With a careful

consideration of the distribution of costs and benefits of each

FBD (contd.)

Basic objective of agriculture is to produce goods that are useful to humans

Food & other essential goodsExploiting what is ‘naturally’ available in

forests and woodlands, supplements/complements the efforts by agriculture

Natural products (many from forests) are the only source of medicine for 75-90% of people in developing countries

Poor’s dependency on forests and trees has been estimated as one out of four of the world’s poor depend directly or indirectly on forests for their livelihood

For items that would normally be produced through agriculture

Forests and agrobiodiversity

Some figures illustrating people and poor’s dependency on forests & trees

Forests Agrobiodiversity (contd.)

Figures Sources

1.6. billion people in the world rely heavily on forest resources for their livelihoods, of which: 60 million indigenous people living in the rainforests of Latin America, Southeast Asia and West Africa depend heavily on forests. 350 million people living in, or next to, dense forests rely on them for subsistence or income. 1.2 billion people in developing countries use trees on farms to generate food and cash.

More than 2 billion people rely on biomass fuels (mainly fuelwood) for cooking and heating Forestry provides more than 10 million real jobs in developing countries; to which one should add between 30 and 50 million informal jobs in the wood industry

World Bank, 2001b UNDP, UNDESA and World Energy Council 2000 Poschen 2002ILO 2002

Forests and forest trees are the sources of Variety of foods Supplement and complement that obtained

from agriculture Fuels Wide range of medicines and products

contributing to health and hygieneThus, forests fulfil functions that are

normally attributed to agriculture However, forest foods seldom are the staple They add • Add variety to diets• Improve palatability, and• Provide essential vitamins, minerals,

protein & calories

Forests & Agrobiodiversity (contd.)

Forests & Agrobiodiversity (contd.)Forest foods Help meet dietary shortfalls during particular seasons/years Also valued during the peak period, when time available for preparation of food Source of foods during emergency periods

•Floods•Famines•Droughts and •WarsOften these differ from resources exploited in other periodsFor example, in famine periods Roots, tubers, rhizomes and nuts are important They are characteristically energy rich But often require lengthy processing

Forests & Agrobiodiversity (contd.)Medicinal useTends to overlap with that of forest foodsItems added to foods serve both to • Improve palatability and • Health tonic or prophylacticStrong links between medicinal use and cultural valuesOff-farm forest/woodland is exploited for•Inputs that cannot be produced on-farmor •That can be more efficiently obtained from off-farm resources

Forests & Agrobiodiversity (contd.)

This dependence on forest for agricultural uses increases During lean years, i.e. when crop yields are poor When other sources of income are not availableIn future people forest-relationship may change dramatically Increasing exposure to market forces Access to new markets Access to new technology That bring about internal differentiation within communities

Forests & Agrobiodiversity (contd.)

Some examples of FGR Agrobiodiversity

• Cardamom (Amomum villosum), second biggest agricultural export from Lao PDR about 70% comes from the wild, 30% from cultivated

• Bamboo gardens in Ban Lak25, LaoPDR: Three species Oxytenanthera parvifolia, Cephalostachyum virgatum & Bambusa nana

• Tree crop development and commercialization of fruit trees (e.g. Uapaca kirkiana, Strychnos cocculoides & Parinari curatellifolia) from the miombo woodlands in southern Africa

• Wild relatives of mango such as Mangifera odorata, M. foetida & M. pajang are being evaluated as “crops” in Malaysia, Thailand etc.

Forests & Agrobiodiversity (contd.)

Left: Wild rice species Oryza rufipogon from Malaysian forests

Right: Modern rice variety from China

Although wild species are low yielding, they contain genes that can significantlyincrease the yield of modern rice varieties & provide much needed enrichment of the domestic gene pool

Some examples of FGR Crop Wild Relatives Crop Improvement

Forests & Agrobiodiversity (contd.)

Some examples (contd.)

Top left: Wild tomato species L. hirsutum with small, inedible fruit that does not turn red upon ripening Top right: Fruit from modern cultivar into which increased red pigment has been transferred from L. hirsutum

Bottomleft: L. pimpinellifolium with small berries Bottom right: Fruit from modern cultivar Bottom centre: Fruit from a line into which increased fruit size has been transferred from L. pimpinellifolium

Forests & Agrobiodiversity (contd.)

Some examples (contd.)Trait Source

Leaf rust Aegilops umbellulata; Triticum timopheev; Thinopyrum;T. turgidum; Ag. Elongatum; Ag. Elongatum;T. tauschii

Stem rust T. turgidum; Triticum monococcum, Triticum timopheevii

Stripe rust Triticum dicoccoides

Powdery mildew

Aegilops speltoides; Haynaldia villosa; T. monococcum

Wheat streak mosaic virus

Ag. elongatum

Karnal bunt T. turgidum

Hessian fly T. tauschii, Aegilops ventricosa

Nematode T. tauschii

Grain protein T. turgidum

High protein T. dicoccoides

Concluding Remarks

Forest biodiversity is very important to food security & sustainable livelihoods

Part of agrobiodiversity, in the form of wild relatives of crops, occurs in the forests

The dependence of rural communities on both cultivated and wild genetic resources highlights the importance of management strategies that address on-farm production in tandem with in situ collection of related wild species in natural habitats

Mangifera foetida