TY - JOUR A1 - Spies, Michael A1 - Schick, Axel A1 - Karomatov, Sharofiddin A1 - Bakokhoja, Bobozoda A1 - Zikriyokhon, Khaidarov A1 - Jobirov, Shonazar A1 - Bloch, Ralf A1 - Ibisch, Pierre L. T1 - Adapting a Participatory and Ecosystem-Based Assessment Impacted by the Pandemic: Lessons Learned With Farmers in Tajikistan JF - Frontiers in sustainable Food Systems N2 - The paper presents a systemic and participatory assessment approach and scrutinizes how methodological changes necessitated during the Covid-19 pandemic implicated the process and its outcomes. The approach was applied in rural Tajikistan to evaluate changes effected by a development project that promoted the enhancement of biodiversity and ecosystem services in agrarian landscapes. The central building block of the assessment consisted of participatory workshops in 2018 and 2020 with farmers and other stakeholders to develop a systemic knowledge map and to evaluate the promoted strategies based on local expertise. The methodological basis was MARISCO (adaptive MAnagement of vulnerability and RISk at COnservation sites), a holistic and participatory approach to ecosystem-based assessment and management that requires well-trained facilitators. While the activities in 2018 could be implemented as planned, major changes in the work plan were necessary in 2020 due to severe travel restrictions and social distancing rules. Conducting virtual workshops was not possible, as it would have excluded key stakeholders from the process. Instead of conducting a comprehensive assessment workshop guided by two German MARISCO facilitators as originally planned, a series of short and small workshops could be realized. These workshops were facilitated by Tajik scientists after receiving virtual training from their German colleagues. Although it was possible to bring the assessment to a satisfactory conclusion, the methodological changes revealed significant drawbacks. Radical simplifications of the methods were necessary that led to reduced depth of the assessment and missed learning opportunities for participants. Limited experience in workshop guidance by the new facilitators posed challenges to the participatory process and the quality of its outcomes. While the adapted method created training effects that would otherwise have been missed, it also put additional pressure on the capacities of local partners. Our experience during the pandemic offers valuable lessons learned for future applications of systemic-participatory approaches. Whereas, a complete shift to remote applications is problematic, there is a need to put greater emphasis on capacitating local partners. Methodological trade-offs are necessary for partially remote working processes, but principles of participation and systemic thinking should not be compromised. KW - Eco-system-based sustainable development KW - MARISCO KW - Participatory methods KW - Biodiversity and ecosystem service assessment KW - Sustainable agriculture KW - Tajikistan Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:eb1-opus-2263 SN - 2571-581X IS - 5 PB - Frontiers ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Koch, Olef A1 - Ibisch, Pierre L. A1 - Bloch, Ralf T1 - Climate change and shifting land-use: Consequences for smallholder agroforestry systems and rural livelihoods in the southwest Ethiopian Highlands JF - Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems N2 - Applying a Regional Integrated Vulnerability Assessment (RIVAS), this study aims to identify the local farming system characteristics of 54 smallholder agroforestry farms in Kafa Zone (Ethiopia), their climate change vulnerability, and how they are affected by current land-use changes. The study combines semi-structured interviews with a biophysical characterization of farm systems. The results show that the assessed farming systems’ multifunctionality is essential to rural livelihoods while sustaining crop and tree diversity. While dry season crop diversity drives household’s sufficiency and capacity to respond to crop failure, medium-low sufficiency of production in more than a third of the assessed systems, as well as soil degradation in cereal fields lessen adaptive capacity. For their contribution to climate resilience, diverse and perennial cropping regimes should be supported and maintained. KW - agroecology; resilience; biosphere reserve; agrobiodiversity; cropping systems; Ensete ventricosum Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:eb1-opus-4340 VL - 46 IS - 5 SP - 672 EP - 711 PB - Taylor & Francis ER -