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Session B7<br><br>Management for sustainable use — Conservation farming: evaluating the overall benefits of landuse options for people and the environment
Abstract
Many terrestrial landscapes are managed as farming systems but there is an increasing
need for these systems to fulfil functions that are not directly related to agriculture.
Agricultural production must be balanced against the need to maintain healthy
ecosystems that can provide a variety of goods and services necessary for human
wellbeing. Achieving this balance poses a significant challenge to modern societies
and requires the integration of ecological, economic, and social issues. There
are many exciting and ground-breaking projects underway to address this problem
and the papers in this session present some of the advances that have been made
in recent years.
The context for the session is provided by two overview papers. The first paper
discusses the complexity of dealing with ecological, economic and social factors
in farm landscapes, based on the experience of a three year study of conservation
farming in South Africa. The second paper provides insights from a large multi-dimensional
study of ecosystem services in Australia.
The overview is followed by a series of case studies, which focus on different
landscapes and different approaches to the measurement and evaluation of economic,
social, and ecological factors related to integrated land use. The case studies
are derived from projects in India, New Zealand and South Africa. Finally, integration
of different needs will only occur if information from multidisciplinary sources
is processed and presented in a meaningful way so that it can influence decision-making
and land use policy. Examples of integration and analysis are dealt with in the
last two papers from this session, one dealing with the outcomes of the study
of conservation farming in South Africa and the second dealing with conflicts
between wildlife conservation and cattle farming in Kenya.
need for these systems to fulfil functions that are not directly related to agriculture.
Agricultural production must be balanced against the need to maintain healthy
ecosystems that can provide a variety of goods and services necessary for human
wellbeing. Achieving this balance poses a significant challenge to modern societies
and requires the integration of ecological, economic, and social issues. There
are many exciting and ground-breaking projects underway to address this problem
and the papers in this session present some of the advances that have been made
in recent years.
The context for the session is provided by two overview papers. The first paper
discusses the complexity of dealing with ecological, economic and social factors
in farm landscapes, based on the experience of a three year study of conservation
farming in South Africa. The second paper provides insights from a large multi-dimensional
study of ecosystem services in Australia.
The overview is followed by a series of case studies, which focus on different
landscapes and different approaches to the measurement and evaluation of economic,
social, and ecological factors related to integrated land use. The case studies
are derived from projects in India, New Zealand and South Africa. Finally, integration
of different needs will only occur if information from multidisciplinary sources
is processed and presented in a meaningful way so that it can influence decision-making
and land use policy. Examples of integration and analysis are dealt with in the
last two papers from this session, one dealing with the outcomes of the study
of conservation farming in South Africa and the second dealing with conflicts
between wildlife conservation and cattle farming in Kenya.
