@article{SpiesZuberiMaehlisetal.2022, author = {Spies, Michael and Zuberi, Mehwish and M{\"a}hlis, Madlen and Zakirova, Aksana and Alff, Henryk and Raab, Christoph}, title = {Towards a participatory systems approach to managing complex bioeconomy interventions in the agrarian sector}, series = {Sustainable Production and Consumption}, journal = {Sustainable Production and Consumption}, number = {31}, publisher = {Elsevier}, issn = {2352-5509}, doi = {10.1016/j.spc.2022.03.020}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:eb1-opus-4205}, pages = {557 -- 568}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Calls for a "sustainable bioeconomy" have recently begun to proliferate in academic and political circles as an answer to global challenges such as the rapidly increasing world population and changing environmental conditions due to climate change. To build economies that rely on various sources of biomass rather than on fossil-based resources, bioeconomy policies highlight a need to explore ways in which productivity in agriculture can be increased. While the focus on productivity growth has largely been inspired by technology optimism and modernisation thinking, the local knowledge of farmers and other rural stakeholders - as a means of contributing to socially and ecologically more sustainable bioeconomy pathways - has frequently been sidelined. This perspective article proposes and discusses a participatory approach to strategy formulation and evaluation in agricultural transformation and bioeconomy development that is based on the methodological toolbox MARISCO (Adaptive MAnagement of vulnerability and RISk at COnservation sites). By offering a means of developing a comprehensive knowledge map, bringing together both insights and perspectives from diverse local stakeholders, this approach enables a systemic evaluation of the social and ecological effects of intervention strategies on the ground. The article outlines the benefits - and challenges - of such a systemic and participatory approach and briefly sketches how the results can be utilised in more sustainable governance processes in the development of bioeconomy strategies. We conclude that our adapted MARISCO methodology offers a viable tool to make more visible the perspectives and knowledge of biomass producers for policymakers and to contribute to a much-needed discursive shift in bioeconomy debates towards more holistic and inclusive perspectives.}, language = {en} } @article{ZuberiRaabSpies2022, author = {Zuberi, Mehwish and Raab, Christoph and Spies, Michael}, title = {Landnutzungswandel im Baumwollg{\"u}rtel Pakistans : Gen-Baumwolle, Agrardiversifizierung und {\"o}kologische Herausforderungen im S{\"u}den des Punjab}, series = {Geographische Rundschau}, journal = {Geographische Rundschau}, number = {4}, publisher = {Westermann Bildungsmedien Verlag GmbH}, issn = {0016-7460}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:eb1-opus-5265}, pages = {20 -- 25}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Baumwolle ist die {\"o}konomisch wichtigste Nutzpflanze Pakistans, weshalb die Region S{\"u}dpunjab mit dem dort gelegenen Baumwollg{\"u}rtel eine zentrale Rolle f{\"u}r die Landwirtschaft des Landes darstellt. Berichte {\"u}ber einen drastischen R{\"u}ckgang der Baumwollproduktion in der Region haben in den letzten Jahren landesweit Besorgnis ausgel{\"o}st. Die derzeitige Baumwollkrise ist zumindest zum Teil auf die unkontrollierte, massive Verbreitung von gentechnisch ver{\"a}nderten Baumwollsorten, auch bekannt als Bt-Baumwolle, zur{\"u}ckzuf{\"u}hren. Im Distrikt Multan, dem Zentrum des S{\"u}dpunjab, haben viele Baumwollproduzenten auf alternative Anbaukulturen umgestellt. Die Diversifizierung als Anpassungsoption steht jedoch nicht allen zur Verf{\"u}gung und schließt insbesondere {\"a}rmere b{\"a}uerliche Haushalte aus.}, language = {de} } @article{RaabSpies2023, author = {Raab, Christoph and Spies, Michael}, title = {Characterising cropland fragmentation in post-Soviet Central Asia, using Landsat remote-sensing time series data}, series = {Applied Geography}, journal = {Applied Geography}, number = {156}, publisher = {Elsevier}, issn = {0143-6228}, doi = {10.1016/j.apgeog.2023.102968}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:eb1-opus-5362}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, agricultural reforms in Central Asia often translated into the fragmentation of large fields into smaller shares. Most remote-sensing-based land use classification approaches are categorical in nature, and thus they are unable to capture these changes. We have developed an approach to detecting the timing of land fragmentation based on textural information from a time series of Landsat images for four Central Asian countries (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan) between 1990 and 2019. Our results showed that detected fragmentation events correspond well with documented agrarian reform processes in the different countries, and validation yielded maximum overall accuracies between 67 and 73\%. In a case study of a former collective farm in Kyrgyzstan, we demonstrate how our method can accurately detect changes on the local scale. Texture time series data have great potential for analysing the trajectories of cropland fragmentation, in particular in regions where additional information on land use is limited.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{ZuberiSpiesAlffetal.2021, author = {Zuberi, Mehwish and Spies, Michael and Alff, Henryk and Raab, Christoph and Zakirova, Aksana}, title = {Participatory knowledge mapping as a basis of decision making for sustainable agrarian land use systems}, series = {Landscape 2021 Diversity for sustainable and resilient agriculture, Online conference, 20.-22.09.2021}, booktitle = {Landscape 2021 Diversity for sustainable and resilient agriculture, Online conference, 20.-22.09.2021}, editor = {Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Agrarlandschaftsforschung (ZALF),}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:eb1-opus-7716}, pages = {64}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Agricultural systems world-wide are facing an increasing level of uncertainty and risk in light of unprecedented climate and environmental change. The ecological challenges for agrarian sectors are further complicated by social factors such as growing world population and an expanding demand for biomass-based products. Formalized knowledge structures can benefit from approaches that consolidate informal local knowledge networks in understanding social and ecological change related causal chains (Teng{\"o} et al., 2013). This is especially relevant for the research-policy interface concerning sustainable agrarian system management. As part of the junior research group TRANSECT, which investigates the social-ecological effects and interdependencies of agrarian transformations in Central and South Asia, a framework for knowledge mapping on sustainable land use systems is under development. We aim to bring together knowledge from local land users and other relevant stakeholders to develop future policy scenarios related to bio-based economy in the agrarian sector and to critically assess their social and ecological consequences on the ground. Our proposed framework is inspired by previous experiences with the MARISCO method (Ibisch and Hobson, 2014; www.marisco.training), a methodology for the adaptive management of risk and vulnerability, developed at the Center for Econics and Ecosystem Management in the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development. This approach has been applied in various projects of natural resource management as a tool that allows the collection of complex and diffused knowledge from different sources, and to structure, evaluate, and prepare for the development of integrated solutions. The visual presentation of existing knowledge in the form of 'knowledge maps' that raise awareness of ignorance, and the systemic identification of knowledge gaps and risks are central features of MARISCO method (Ibisch and Hobson, 2014). While the original methodology provides an established and proven toolbox for evaluating the ecological dimension of complex socio-environmental challenges, our inspired methodology elaborates on the social dimension of environmental and societal threats as well as policy interventions, for which we find it crucial to put a stronger emphasis on equity. In contrast to the more ecosystem-focused MARISCO method, a central feature of our approach is a socially differentiated analysis that distinguishes between different social groups or strata when evaluating social (and ecosystem) services and the (social) impact of stresses or threats. We will introduce and elaborate on our proposed participatory and socially differentiated approach for knowledge mapping on sustainable land use systems with illustrative examples from experiences in Central Asia. As our current experience shows, a key challenge in designing and implementing such approaches is to take social-ecological complexity seriously while keeping the method manageable for regular workshop settings without overburdening participants.}, language = {en} }