This chapter discusses leading problems linked to energy that the world is now confronting and to propose some ideas concerning possible solutions. Oil deserves special attention among all energy sources. Since the beginning of 1981, it has merely been continuing and enhancing the downward movement in consumption and prices caused by excessive rises, especially for light crudes such as those from Africa, and the slowing down of worldwide economic growth. Densely-populated oil-producing countries need to produce to live, to pay for their food and their equipment. If the economic growth of the industrialized countries were to be 4%, even if investment in the rational use of energy were pushed to the limit and the development of nonpetroleum energy sources were also pursued actively, it would be extremely difficult to prevent a sharp rise in prices. It is evident that it is absolutely necessary to pursue actively the development of coal, natural gas, and nuclear power if a physical shortage of energy is not to block economic growth.

World energy outlook

A key challenge of ecosystem management is determining how to manage multiple ecosystem services across landscapes. Enhancing important provisioning ecosystem services, such as food and timber, often leads to tradeoffs between regulating and cultural ecosystem services, such as nutrient cycling, flood protection, and tourism. We developed a framework for analyzing the provision of multiple ecosystem services across landscapes and present an empirical demonstration of ecosystem service bundles, sets of services that appear together repeatedly. Ecosystem service bundles were identified by analyzing the spatial patterns of 12 ecosystem services in a mixed-use landscape consisting of 137 municipalities in Quebec, Canada. We identified six types of ecosystem service bundles and were able to link these bundles to areas on the landscape characterized by distinct social–ecological dynamics. Our results show landscape-scale tradeoffs between provisioning and almost all regulating and cultural ecosystem services, and they show that a greater diversity of ecosystem services is positively correlated with the provision of regulating ecosystem services. Ecosystem service-bundle analysis can identify areas on a landscape where ecosystem management has produced exceptionally desirable or undesirable sets of ecosystem services.

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/107/11/5242.full.pdf

Ecosystem service bundles for analyzing tradeoffs in diverse landscapes

Ecosystem services can provide a wide range of benefits for human well-being, including provisioning, regulating and cultural services and benefitting both private and public interests in different sectors of society. Biophysical, economic and social factors all make it unlikely that multiple needs will be met simultaneously without deliberate efforts, yet while there is still much interest in developing win-win outcomes there is little understanding of what is required for them to be achieved. We analysed outcomes in a wide range of case studies where ecosystem services had been used for human well-being. Using systematic mapping of the literature from 2000 to 2013, we identified 1324 potentially relevant reports, 92 of which were selected for the review, creating a database of 231 actual or potential recorded trade-offs and synergies. The analysis of these case studies highlighted significant gaps in the literature, including: a limited geographic distribution of case studies, a focus on provisioning as opposed to non-provisioning services and a lack of studies exploring the link between ecosystem service trade-offs or synergies and the ultimate impact on human well-being. Trade-offs are recorded almost three times as often as synergies and the analysis indicates that there are three significant indicators that a trade-off will occur: at least one of the stakeholders having a private interest in the natural resources available, the involvement of provisioning ecosystem services and at least one of the stakeholders acting at the local scale. There is not, however, a generalisable context for a win-win, indicating that these trade-off indicators, although highlighting where a trade-off may occur do not indicate that it is inevitable. Taking account of why trade-offs occur (e.g. from failures in management or a lack of accounting for all stakeholders) is more likely to create win-win situations than planning for a win-win from the outset. Consequently, taking a trade-offs as opposed to a win-win approach, by having an awareness of and accounting for factors that predict a trade-off (private interest, provisioning versus other ES, local stakeholder) and the reasons why trade-offs are often the outcome, it may be possible to create the synergies we seek to achieve.

Creating win-wins from trade-offs? Ecosystem services for human well-being: A meta-analysis of ecosystem service trade-offs and synergies in the real world

Land-use change has a significant impact on the world's ecosystems. Changes in the extent and composition of forests, grasslands, wetlands and other ecosystems have large impacts on the provision of ecosystem services, biodiversity conservation and returns to landowners. While the change in private returns to landowners due to land-use change can often be measured, changes in the supply and value of ecosystem services and the provision of biodiversity conservation have been harder to quantify. In this paper we use a spatially explicit integrated modeling tool (InVEST) to quantify the changes in ecosystem services, habitat for biodiversity, and returns to landowners from land-use change in Minnesota from 1992 to 2001. We evaluate the impact of actual land-use change and a suite of alternative land-use change scenarios. We find a lack of concordance in the ranking of baseline and alternative land-use scenarios in terms of generation of private returns to landowners and net social benefits (private returns plus ecosystem service value). Returns to landowners are highest in a scenario with large-scale agricultural expansion. This scenario, however, gen- erated the lowest net social benefits across all scenarios considered because of large losses in stored carbon and negative impacts on water quality. Further, this scenario resulted in the largest decline in habitat quality for general terrestrial biodiversity and forest songbirds. Our results illustrate the importance of taking ecosystem services into account in land-use and

/pdf/the-impact-of-land-use-change-on-ecosystem-services-3s2hxicmwd.pdf

The Impact of Land-Use Change on Ecosystem Services, Biodiversity and Returns to Landowners: A Case Study in the State of Minnesota

Vulnerability and resilience constitute different but overlapping research themes embraced by sustainability science. As practiced within this science, the two research themes appear to coalesce around one of the foundational pivots of sustainability, the coupled human–environment system. They differ in regard to their attention to two other pivots, environmental services and the tradeoffs of these services with human outcomes. In this essay I briefly review the emergence of sustainability science and the three foundational pivots relevant to vulnerability and resilience. I outline the distinctions and similarities between the two research themes foremost as practiced within sustainability science and especially in regard to the attention given to the three pivots. I conclude with the observation that improvement in the capacity of vulnerability and resilience research to inform sustainability science may hinge on their linkages in addressing tradeoffs.

/pdf/vulnerability-and-resilience-coalescing-or-paralleling-491nzj688d.pdf

Vulnerability and resilience: Coalescing or paralleling approaches for sustainability science?

Tradeoffs, synergies and traps among ecosystem services in the Lake Victoria basin of East Africa

With the global bioenergy boom, the planting of jatropha (Jatropha curcas) was widely promoted by the private sector and non-government organizations as one of the candidate tree species for bioenergy in Kenya. This was motivated by the belief that it grows easily with minimal management requirements. The present study attempts to determine whether management practices by smallholder farmers, which are heterogeneous, are optimal for jatropha yields in Kenya. A survey conducted in different agro-ecological zones showed that yields are very low under Kenyan farm conditions. Regardless of the age and management condition, 41 % of the farmers obtained no seed yield, while 79 % obtained up to 0.1 kg/tree. This is dismal in comparison with the figures (up to 2.0 kg/tree) reported from elsewhere for 1–5 year old trees grown under similar conditions. Examination of farmer management practices indicated that irrigation, manuring and weeding, in order to maximize yields, could be offset by misapplication of other components especially, selection of planting materials, timing of planting and choice of intercrops during the establishment phases. This indicates that the anticipated high yields have not been achieved partly because growers are still using unimproved germplasm, management practices are sub-optimal, and the biophysical boundaries of high jatropha yield are poorly defined. Thus at the current stage, jatropha should not be grown by smallholder farmers in Kenya because of low or dismal productivity. If jatropha is to play a role in the pro-poor bioenergy development, future projects need to identify management recommendations that optimize yields. This also needs to take into consideration the preferences and constraints of farm households on labor and land allocation to other farm and livelihood activities.

Productivity of Jatropha curcas under smallholder farm conditions in Kenya

Titles in the Working Paper Series aim to disseminate interim results on agroforestry research and practices and stimulate feedback from the scientific community. Other publication series from the World Agroforestry Centre include Technical Manuals, Occasional Papers and the Trees for Change series. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the World Agroforestry Centre. Articles appearing in this publication may be quoted or reproduced without charge, provided the source is acknowledged. No use of this publication may be made for resale or other commercial purposes. All images remain the sole property of their source and may not be used for any purpose without written permission from the source. The geographic designation employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of an opinion whatsoever on the part of the World Agroforestry Centre concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. ABSTRACT Many developing countries, Kenya included, want to diversify their domestic energy supply hence reduce dependence on highly volatile fossil fuel prices, enhance access to energy in rural areas, promote rural development and to reduce carbon emissions. This study was done to assess the potential for supply of biofuel feedstock for bioethanol and biodiesel production for domestic consumption and export. To achieve this, key feedstocks were identified and their environmental suitability, production and yields analyzed. Gross margin as a tool was used to make an economic analysis of the production of the feedstocks compared to that of the most prominent food and cash crops. A review of the national biofuel strategies, policies and regulations currently adopted in Kenya was also done. The study established that sweet sorghum and castor are the most environmentally suitable bioethanol and biodiesel feedstock respectively. In terms of gross margins, sweet sorghum has the highest gross margin at KSh 67,584 followed by sugarcane at KSh 37,746 and cassava at KSh 20,240 per hectare for bioethanol feedstocks. For biodiesel feedstocks, sunflower has the highest gross margin at KSh 2,921 per hectare. It is expected that this study will play a significant role in guiding the policy makers in making important decisions to drive the biofuels sector forward.

/pdf/potential-for-biofuel-feedstock-in-kenya-34p2q1sufc.pdf

Potential for biofuel feedstock in Kenya

Southwestern Uganda represents a fragile ecosystem of complex and interrelated ecology with extreme socio-cultural and biophysical diversity. The area has productive soils and receives bimodal rainfall promoting varied agricultural systems and land use practices. With population growth of 2.2% per annum, this ecosystem is exposed to environmental and socio-economic problems like land degradation, soil erosion, low-income, poor nutrition, fragmented farms and low agricultural output. To mitigate these environmental and socio-economic uncertainties, and continue exploiting these rich natural resources areas, ICRAF and FORRI developed intervention strategies ranging from integrated watershed management to tree germplasm production and distribution. These intervention strategies were supported by community resource mapping for integrating predefined-research areas into community knowledge of their own resources. Acquired geospatial data were analyzed to support community resource mapping and scientific analysis was used for assessment of impacts of land management practices, conservation and conflict resolution. Community-based resource managers and local policy makers were trained in geospatial tools and applications. A GIS node was established in Kabale district to support future spatial analysis and information management. This paper reviews how integrated natural resource intervention strategies and community resource mapping were complemented to realize sustainable development action planning in SW Uganda. It also reviews the benefits of community resource mapping in property rights and geospatial technology transfer. IN this paper, technical backstopping of community effort and capacity building are recommended for sustainable community resource mapping activities.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/j.1681-4835.2006.tb00165.x

Meshack Nyabenge

Papers

Tradeoffs, synergies and traps among ecosystem services in the Lake Victoria basin of East Africa

Productivity of Jatropha curcas under smallholder farm conditions in Kenya

Potential for biofuel feedstock in Kenya

Community Resource Mapping in Sustainable Natural Resource Management: A Case Study of SW Uganda

Tradeoffs among ecosystem services in the Lake Victoria Basin