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The Durrell Trust for Conservation Biology
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CV
PhD research entitled "Agroforestry extension and protected areas of Brazilian Amazon: lessons from on-going experiences" Supervisor: Dr Helen Newing Agroforestry is a land use system characterized by the combination of perennial tree species with annual plants and/or animals in the same unit of land. A wide array of systems falls under this label, several of them structurally complex and rich in native biodiversity, with great value for conservation. Due to its flexible species configuration and potentially high agrobiodiversity, agroforestry can contribute to both biodiversity conservation and farmers’ well-being. Agroforestry can compose biological corridors and buffer areas, reducing pressure on protected areas’ core zones; as well as strengthen farming systems adaptable to farmers’ priorities, and resilient to climatic and price fluctuations.
The present study is concerned with the agroforestry extension activities developed, since 2006, adjacent to Anavilhanas National Park and in Saracá-Taquera National Forest, which include experiences of agroforestry implementation followed by abandonment, its wide adoption associated with fruit jam making, and plant nurseries’ limited adoption.
Funding Rufford Small Grants Foundation
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These potential benefits have motivated efforts to introduce agroforestry practices among farmers in conservation projects. However, adoption rates are often low (or abandonment rates, high). There is insufficient understanding of the factors influencing adoption, especially regarding farmers’ livelihoods strategies and priorities, their perceptions of promoted practices, and also intervening institutions’ perspectives about agroforestry’s role in conservation and farmers’ well-being.
I will examine the extension process (diagnosis, planning and implementation phases) and the reasons for these very different outcomes as a start point to collaboratively build recommendations for future agroforestry extension work. By examining PA managers’, extensionists’ and farmers’ perspectives on agroforestry’s role in conservation, I also expect to contribute to the discussion of the relevance of agroforestry extension in the context of PA management strategies and to the understanding of the relation between these actors’ perspectives and the vast accumulated evidence available in the literature.