2.2 The local environment - natural resources, protected areas and carrying capacity for human populations

This section briefly illustrates the management status of some natural resources of great importance for human populations. Ideally, sound management incorporates both preservation and sustainable use, i.e., the maintenance of viable ecosystems capable of sustaining biodiversity and providing resources for future generations, coupled with uses of such resources to satisfy today's needs (IUCN et al.,1991).

Water
Settlement patterns
Soil
Forests
Wildlife
Protected areas
Carrying capacity for human populations

Water

The current world supply of renewable fresh water per capita is only 60 percent of what it was in 1970 (Engelman and LeRoy, 1993). Water is becoming scarce due to growing populations, increasing demands for agricultural and industrial use and inefficient water management. At the local level, specific causes may include man-made changes in watersheds (e.g., dams, irrigation systems), changes in vegetation coverage (deforestation, erosion), increased pumping of underground water (lowering the water table), and waste in water distribution systems (including losses due to leakage).

Decreased availability of water is coupled to worsening of water quality. Excessive exploitation of surface and underground water for irrigation purposes may lead to salinization (i.e., abnormal concentration of mineral salts in the topsoil) and water logging due to poor drainage. Increased use of surface water by human and livestock populations increases the risk of biological contamination of streams, ponds and lakes (with consequences for human health). Uncontrolled industrial and agricultural use may cause chemical pollution of both underground and surface water (with potentially severe consequences on human health, fisheries and aquatic animals and plants).

A set of indicators for assessing water availability, water quality, and functioning of water supplies and distribution systems at the local level is provided in Table 2.4. This information could be useful in working with communities that are making decisions about the importance of water management initiatives, as well as in evaluating the relevant results.

Community-based initiatives for improving local water management may include:

• protection of water sources (e.g., building a cement cover and outflow pipes for a spring so that animals and people do not contaminate the source);
• construction of rain-water harvesting systems (e.g., a system of pipes or channels to capture water from the roof of a house and store it in a cistern);
• improvement and maintenance of water distribution systems (e.g., providing ideas about the technology of a water system, labor for its construction, and arranging for the training of local mechanics to maintain the system):
• monitoring of the quality of water for human consumption;
• building appropriate human sanitation facilities (e.g., latrines, toilets);
• afforestation, building bunds, and contour plowing for increased soil moisture and groundwater recharge.

Another important natural resource linked with water is wetlands, e.g., swamps, sloughs and shorelines. Many useful items are extracted from wetlands, e.g., food (fruits, meat, fish), building materials (trees, reeds), water (for irrigation, drinking, washing), traditional medicines, etc. In addition, wetlands are important locations for cultivation and dry-season grazing. For instance, the moist dambo lands along the upper valleys of streams in Malawi are able to produce two crops per year compared to the single growing season on the surrounding eroded and semi-arid hillsides. Wetlands, and the plants and animals which are adapted to such regions, are under tremendous pressure from expanding populations. Drainage for agriculture is estimated to have resulted in the loss of 26 percent of wetlands worldwide (OECD/IUCN, 1996).

Soil

Between 1945 and 1990, over one-tenth of the world's vegetated land (approximately 1.2 billion hectares) has suffered at least moderate soil degradation as a result of human activity. Cultivation has reduced the world's pre-agricultural supply of organic carbon by about 15 percent: about 60 billion tons of soil carbon have risen from the soil to the atmosphere as climate-warming carbon dioxide (Engelman and LeRoy, 1995). In recent times, the most widespread soil degradation has occurred in Asia (450 million hectares) and Africa (320 million hectares), mostly because of extending agricultural frontiers, overgrazing and deforestation.

At the local level, processes of soil degradation may include:

• decrease in depth of the humus stratum (the unconsolidated mineral and organic material on the immediate surface of the earth, which serves as a natural medium for the growth of plants);
• decrease of soil fertility and productivity (fewer varieties of plants will grow and their yields are lower);
• increase of the surface exposed to erosion phenomena (i.e., total wash-out of the humus stratum); and
• desertification (the extension or development of barren lands in areas previously covered by vegetation).

Indicators for assessing soil degradation at the local level and for evaluating the implementation of important remedial actions are presented in Table 2.5.

Soil conservation and recovery action is usually undertaken in the framework of extensive public-works programs. Actually, conservation measures usually require a surplus of land or labor, which cannot generally be afforded by small-farmer household economies. Even so, if sound income-generating incentives are provided, relevant initiatives can be implemented at the local level with limited investments. Community-based initiatives for soil conservation and recovery may include:

• building slow formation terraces on slopes;
• gully and land-slide control (e.g., by contour farming, small-scale afforestation, planting soil-binding grasses in high-risk areas, etc.);
• improvement of cultivation practices (e.g., planting wind-breaking hedges, introducing nitrogen-fixing crops);
• promotion of biological and/or proper chemical manuring;
• introduction of crop-rotation;
• improvement of irrigation and drainage systems;
• introduction of stable livestock-rearing technologies.

Before introducing new soil conservation technologies, it may be crucial to determine whether the local culture is familiar with techniques and means to control erosion and maintain fertility of the soil. Reviving and strengthening peasant know-how in this area is often the best way of dealing with problems related to soil management at the local level.

Case Example 2.9: Surviving the winds of change - Karen people live in harmony with World Heritage One of the few remaining refuges where the forest-dwelling Karen people have been able to maintain their traditional lifestyle is inside the Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary in Thailand. Within the sanctuary, there are six villages which are home to a population of 1,100 Karen people. Government officials from the Royal Forest Department, some conservationists and some academics have been in favor of the removal of the villages in order to preserve the forest ecosystem. The relationship between the Karen people and most outsiders has been marked by mutual mistrust and misunderstanding. The debate over the resettlement of the Karen from Thung Yai intensified when Thung Yai was declared a World Heritage Site. The threat to the Karen's continued survival in Thung Yai has been championed by a loose coalition of grassroots and conservation groups. This coalition advocated the Karen's rights to remain in the Sanctuary, which they have occupied for centuries. Meanwhile, various efforts have been undertaken to document and better understand the impact of the Karen's cultural and subsistence practices on their environment, as well as to provide environmental education and basic extension services in Karen villages. Anthropologists and agricultural researchers found out that the Karen people have an agricultural management system defined by rules ensuring that their cultivation practices do not deplete the soil. For example, a Karen family never plants more than three plots of land and they select their rice and vegetable plots only after bamboo shoots emerge in order to avoid disrupting the natural forest cycles. The Karen also employ a system of multi-cropping rice with various other crops to balance the nutrients in the soil, plant several rice varieties to protect the crops from pests and diseases, and apply natural fertilizers. This documentation of the Karen's environmentally sound agriculture counteracted the Thai government officials' perception that the Karen belong to the category of destructive slash-and-burn agriculturists. Partly as a result of advocates' efforts in documenting the cultural and agricultural practices of the Karen, the Karen people have been allowed to remain in Thung Yai. Uncertainty is still high, however, as to the Karen's permanent status in the Sanctuary, as land and forest policies tend to change with successive governments. From: Hulse and Thongmak, 1996

Forests

Before the agricultural revolution, forests were the most prevalent biome on Earth (approximately one-third of the total). Currently, only 9.4 percent of the planet's surface is covered by forests. Over the centuries, due to the growing demands for large-scale timber production and agricultural land, forests have been replaced by secondary woodlands, savannah, pasture areas and cultivation. Timbering for local uses and fuel wood has also contributed to deforestation, especially around settlements.

Today, deforestation continues, despite widespread awareness of the many environmental benefits provided by forests, such as:

• protection of watershed and regulation of water flow;
• prevention of soil-erosion;
• contribution to the balance of the carbon cycle; and
• giving back moisture to the atmosphere.

Forests also provide important economic benefits to local communities, such as game, wild fruits, mushrooms, timber, fuel wood and other vegetal products (e.g., latex, dyes, waxes, medicinal plants, etc.), (see Box 2.7 below). Sustainable exploitation of the forests is a basic component of local subsistence strategies, especially in the tropics, where a significant proportion of dietary proteins and micro-nutrients is obtained through hunting, fishing and gathering. In addition, forests supply well over 90 percent of the total energy used for domestic purposes in poorer nations.

Large-scale reforestation and afforestation are strategies at the national level for improving forests. Frequently, however, these plans clash with the short-term interests and immediate needs of local communities. An important alternative is the community forestry approach (Lee Peluso et al., 1994). In this community-based strategy, local people are actively involved in planning and managing activities that, on the one hand, protect the forest as a whole and, on the other, assure them access to fuel, food and other forest items necessary for livelihood and income-generating activities (a fairly typical example of primary environmental care).

Forestry management can be an opportunity for community development. Since a forest is better protected as a whole than in isolated patches, forestry activities offer the rationale for organizing (e.g., in a local users' association) to distribute the benefits that come from the forest (e.g., fodder or water) in an equitable way.

The objective of community forestry is to promote sustainable use of forest areas by the local population. Conservation of the forest base thus represents a means of:

• ensuring availability of fuel, building materials, and other goods (e.g., forest foods, traditional medicines, etc.);
• providing the environmental stability necessary for food production (e.g., maintaining the water table, preventing erosion, etc.); and
• generating income and employment.

To achieve the above objectives, agro-forestry technologies have been developed, often on the basis of local knowledge. These include:

• semi-cultivation of timber and other valuable species;
• management of animal and vegetal species important to the local diet;
• improvement in the efficiency of cooking-stoves;
• selective cutting of trees for timber and fuel wood;
• pest and fire control; and
• development of ecological tourism.

Indicators for assessing the forest situation at the local level and the results of community-based agro-forestry activities are presented in Table 2.6.