Knowledge systems and adaptive collaborative management of natural resources in southern Cameroon :decision analysis of agrobiodiversity for forest-agriculture innovations

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study aimed to analyze under which conditions the structure, organization andintegration of knowledge systems can provide the implementation of adaptivecollaborative management of natural resources under conditions of high biodiversity inthe humid forest zone of southern Cameroon. The study specifically did the following:characterized sustainable slash-and-burn agriculture innovations; examined the influencesof local perceptions of nature and forest knowledge management systems on adaptiveslash-and-burn agriculture practices; analyzed the influences of the social representationof land use patterns and their local indicators on agro-ecological sustainability;characterised the biophysical dimensions of local management of agriculturalbiodiversity knowledge systems; analyzed how local agricultural biodiversity knowledgeis used to adapt and to satisfy household consumption needs, market preferences, andsustainable livelihoods; examined the influences of local perceptions of climatevariability for the ability and adaptive capacity of people to use local knowledge to dealwith the effect of pests-diseases on crop yield, corrective management actions, andadaptive slash-and-burn agriculture management.The study was conducted in three blocks within the humid forest zone of southernCameroon along a gradient of natural resource use management intensification andpopulation density. Data were collected via structured and semi-structured interviews,multi-disciplinary landscape assessment and a review of secondary information. Chisquaretests were used to show how local knowledge influences - natural resourcemanagement at the forest-agriculture interface, while binary logistic regressions wereused to understand the influences of biophysical and socio-economic factors on farmers'decisions to domesticate tree species and to cultivate several crop cultivars.Fourteen research and development (R&D) themes were identified and found to beequally distributed among blocks but unequally distributed across technical, marketingand socio-organisational types of innovation. There was a gap between social demandand innovation offer. Innovations offered covered more technical issues, such as cropvariety development, indicating their agricultural focus rather than the integration offorest and agriculture issues. The local perceptions of nature and forest resources arebased on social representation of the vital space into components having a specificfunction for the social, physical and spiritual life of people. Needs of the human worlddetermine the role of local forest knowledge systems in the interpretation and responsesof the natural environment, and guide the trajectories of natural resource managementpractices. The management of agro-ecological sustainability is based on the localdefinition of well-being, social representation of space and on a multi-criteria approachcombining bio-indicators such as plants, earthworm activities, age of vegetation or forestcover, soil colour and quality but it is also positively influenced by land use history, theuse value of wild plant and crop species, the knowledge of crop qualities, the knowledgeof interactions between crops, and between crops and other wild plant species, the treesize of tree species used, the future use of a current land use, the estimated land use forown use and market access.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University