Livelihoods

  In the hillsides of Trinidad’s Northern Range, smallholder subsistence farming systems dominate the landscape. Pushed to this frontier by escalating pressure on low-lying agriculture lands from more urban development and a rising population, farmers continue to rely on short-term crops on the steep slopes there.

   Three years ago EDF, fishermen, and critical partners like Noroeste Sustentable (NO

    Agri-environment schemes (AESs) in England typically address environmental management at the farm-and field-scales, but there is increasing evidence that incorporating the landscape-scale would increase scheme effectiveness.

 Natural resource managers are seeking tools to help them address current and future effects of climate change.

Over the last 10 years, there has been a significant increase in private and public sector interest to explore payments for ecosystem services (PES), in order to assign value to ecosystem services, and thus promote better land use practices. We recently investigated how PES schemes are faring in meeting the goals of safeguarding ecosystem services, while also benefiting local livelihoods.

  Earlier this week, the regency government of West Papua’s Raja Ampat archipelago took the bold step of declaring its entire 46,000 square-kilometer (almost 18,000 square-mile) marine domain a