TY - JOUR A1 - Landholm, David M. A1 - Pradhan, Prajal A1 - Wegmann, Peter A1 - Romero Sanchez, Miguel Antonio A1 - Suarez Salazar, Juan Carlos A1 - Kropp, Jürgen T1 - Reducing deforestation and improving livestock productivity: greenhouse gas mitigation potential of silvopastoral systems in Caqueta JF - Environmental research letters N2 - Colombia's agriculture, forestry and other land use sector accounts for nearly half of its total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The importance of smallholder deforestation is comparatively high in relation to its regional counterparts, and livestock agriculture represents the largest driver of primary forest depletion. Silvopastoral systems (SPSs) are presented as agroecological solutions that synergistically enhance livestock productivity, improve local farmers' livelihoods and hold the potential to reduce pressure on forest conversion. The department of Caquetá represents Colombia's most important deforestation hotspot. Targeting smallholder livestock farms through survey data, in this work we investigate the GHG mitigation potential of implementing SPSs for smallholder farms in this region. Specifically, we assess whether the carbon sequestration taking place in the soil and biomass of SPSs is sufficient to offset the per-hectare increase in livestock GHG emissions resulting from higher stocking rates. To address these questions we use data on livestock population characteristics and historic land cover changes reported from a survey covering 158 farms and model the carbon sequestration occurring in three different scenarios of progressively-increased SPS complexity using the CO2 fix model. We find that, even with moderate tree planting densities, the implementation of SPSs can reduce GHG emissions by 2.6 Mg CO2e ha−1 yr−1 in relation to current practices, while increasing agriculture productivity and contributing to the restoration of severely degraded landscapes. KW - deforestation KW - silvopastoral systems KW - greenhouse gas emissions KW - livestock KW - carbon sequestration Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab3db6 SN - 1748-9326 VL - 14 IS - 11 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Landholm, David M. A1 - Pradhan, Prajal A1 - Kropp, Jürgen T1 - Diverging forest land use dynamics induced by armed conflict across the tropics JF - Global environmental change : human and policy dimensions N2 - Armed conflicts trigger region-specific mechanisms that affect land use change. Deforestation is presented as one of the most common negative environmental impacts resulting from armed conflicts, with relevant consequences in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and loss of ecosystem services. However, the impact of armed conflict on forests is complex and may simultaneously lead to positive and negative environmental outcomes, i.e. forest regrowth and deforestation, in different regions even within a country. We investigate the impact that armed conflict exerted over forest dynamics at different spatial scales in Colombia and for the global tropics during the period 1992–2015. Through the analysis of its internally displaced population (departures) our results suggest that, albeit finding forest regrowth in some municipalities, the Colombian conflict predominantly exerted a negative impact on its forests. A further examination of georeferenced fighting locations in Colombia and across the globe shows that conflict areas were 8 and 4 times more likely to undergo deforestation, respectively, in the following years in relation to average deforestation rates. This study represents a municipality level, long-term spatial analysis of the diverging effects the Colombian conflict exerted over its forest dynamics over two distinct periods of increasing and decreasing conflict intensity. Moreover, it presents the first quantified estimate of conflict's negative impact on forest ecosystems across the globe. The relationship between armed conflict and land use change is of global relevance given the recent increase of armed conflicts across the world and the importance of a possible exacerbation of armed conflicts and migration as climate change impacts increase. KW - Armed conflict KW - Deforestation KW - Internally displaced persons KW - Migration KW - Land use change drivers KW - Colombian conflict Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2019.03.006 SN - 0959-3780 SN - 1872-9495 VL - 56 SP - 86 EP - 94 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Landholm, David M. A1 - Holsten, Anne A1 - Martellozzo, Federico A1 - Reusser, Dominik Edwin A1 - Kropp, Jürgen T1 - Climate change mitigation potential of community-based initiatives in Europe JF - Regional environmental change N2 - There is a growing recognition that a transition to a sustainable low-carbon society is urgently needed. This transition takes place at multiple and complementary scales, including bottom-up approaches such as community-based initiatives (CBIs). However, empirical research on CBIs has focused until now on anecdotal evidence and little work has been done to quantitatively assess their impact in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In this paper, we analyze 38 European initiatives across the food, energy, transport, and waste sectors to address the following questions: How can the GHG reduction potential of CBIs be quantified and analyzed in a systematic manner across different sectors? What is the GHG mitigation potential of CBIs and how does the reduction potential differ across domains? Through the comparison of the emission intensity arising from the goods and services the CBIs provide in relation to a business-as-usual scenario, we present the potential they have across different activities. This constitutes the foundational step to upscaling and further understanding their potential contribution to achieving climate change mitigation targets. Our findings indicate that energy generation through renewable sources, changes in personal transportation, and dietary change present by far the highest GHG mitigation activities analyzed, since they reduce the carbon footprint of CBI beneficiaries by 24%, 11%, and 7%, respectively. In contrast, the potential for some activities, such as locally grown organic food, is limited. The service provided by these initiatives only reduces the carbon footprint by 0.1%. Overall, although the proliferation of CBIs is very desirable from a climate change mitigation perspective it is necessary to stress that bottom-up initiatives present other important positive dimensions besides GHG mitigation. These initiatives also hold the potential of improving community resilience by strengthening local economies and enhancing social cohesion. KW - Greenhouse gas emissions KW - Sustainability transitions KW - Grassroots initiatives KW - Carbon footprint KW - Sustainable lifestyles KW - Low carbon economy Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-018-1428-1 SN - 1436-3798 SN - 1436-378X VL - 19 IS - 4 SP - 927 EP - 938 PB - Springer CY - Heidelberg ER -