Brazilian landscapes have undergone centuries of unwise use of biodiversity, water and other natural resources, causing severe environmental degradation and widespread social impacts across the country. Environmental degradation of most Brazilian landscapes has been aggravated by the ongoing expansion of agro-industry, livestock and mining with serious repercussions on the functioning of ecosystems. First, anthropogenic biodiversity loss due to the extinction of species and their ecological interactions threaten key ecosystem services, such as pollination, seed dispersal and nutrient cycling. Second soil degradation, including compaction, laterization, nutrient depletion and loss of organic matter imposes severe socioeconomic impacts on agriculture and inc and and reduction the availability and quality of water resources accentuated, for example, by the proliferation of hydroelectric dams, agricultural reservoirs, and the effects of deforestation on water security. Third, from a social standpoint, the anthropogenic degradation of landscapes and natural resources has a significant impact on indigenous peoples and small farmers whose ways of life are intimately linked to biologically diversified and functional ecosystems. This is particularly noticeable in the Nordeste region, which includes the most deprived semi-arid region of Brazil and highly threatened remains of the Atlantic Forest (the Pernambuco Endemism Center), where the development of the agricultural and energy sectors combined with climate change pose serious threats to biodiversity, water resources, and the wellbeing of populations. The impacts of climate changes and human activities on biodiversity, soils and water resources are numerous, complex, and distributed differently according to temporal and spatial scales. It remains very challenging to understand, assess and predict the interplay between eco-evolutionary and socioeconomic processes that shape the socio-ecological coviability of these territories, i.e., the multiple ways by which the functional and persistent interaction between humans and non-humans is viable (Barrière et al., 2019a). Understanding socio-ecological coviability from an interdisciplinary perspective and considering specific regulations and constraints is however crucial for the efficient governance of the territories with coviability strategies that effectively reconcile nature, societies, and economies.

Agroécologie, Artificial Intelligence

Soja

The IPBES conference in Paris in April-May 2019 raised the urgency to protect biodiversity and to understand the services it provides to human well-being. The influence of biodiversity on the multi-functionality of agro-ecosystems and their resistance to vulnerability and environmental hazards (e.g., drought and pests) has received little attention worldwide and remains totally unknown in the lower Mekong basin. In this context, ECOTERM project aims to generate major breakthroughs in the qualification and quantification of ecosystem services provided by biodiversity hotspots, which result from termite activity (i.e., the so-called termite mounds), in paddy-fields in Laos and Cambodia. The aims of the project are to: (1) Qualify and quantify the ecological functions impacted by termite mounds, in terms of soil and water dynamic, C sequestration, nutrient cycling and plant resistance to environmental hazards and yield. (2) Assess the use of termite mounds by farmers and the ecosystem services derived from their presences, in terms of incomes, food security and access to health. (3) Contribute to the emergence of sustainable agricultural practices considering the environmental, social, cultural and economic impacts of termite mounds.

Agrobiodiversité, Termites, Mekong

Andes, Climate change, ....

In Cambodia, the cost associated with land degradation is estimated at $700 million per year, threatening the country’s food and economic security. As part of a transdisciplinary approach, the Réa-Sol project proposes to co-construct WITH and FOR farmers, associations and scientists soil degradation risk indicators. These indicators will be established on the basis of scientific analyzes of the environment and discussions with farmers through participatory approaches and the use of digital applications. The Réa-Sol project will identify local empirical knowledge and sustainable and innovative farming practices associated with soil rehabilitation, its resilience to climate change, and the food and economic security of the most vulnerable populations. To meet this objective, this project is built around a collaboration between ITC and RUA researchers from the Ministries of Education (MoEYS) and Agriculture (MAFF), and their French partners from IRD, as well as collaborations with Cambodian (CADT, RUPP) and French (NGO AGRISUD International, and a French company, LISODE) partners.

Fertilité des sols, Agriculture

In response to the global demand for food and raw materials, mountainous areas of the humid tropics are undergoing rapid and extensive land-use (LU) change which frequently induce problems of soil loss from cultivated areas, increased sediment delivery to downstream rivers and, concomitantly, surface water pollution. DiBuam will focus on mobilization and spread faecal pathogenic bacteria (FPB) because of their relevance to public health in remote rural regions of developing countries. Headwater wetlands (HW) are focal points of water pathways and constitute filters for FPB. Yet, during extreme rainfall they may switch from acting as traps to sources of FPB. In this context, DiBuam proposes a stakeholder-based approach to preserve or restore ecosystem services of HW, which are very little studied and for which adequate management policies are missing. The central idea of DinBuam is to assess whether HW can be used as sentinels of sustainable land and water use and contamination by FPB. The project encompasses 6 interconnected work packages: (1) Coordination, management, communication, awareness & dissemination; (2) HW socio environmental profiling & mapping; (3) environmental processes analysis; (4) multi-scale modelling; (5) citizen science and low-cost sensors; (6) stakeholder-based participative approach. The main expected outcome of DinBuam is to propose a systemic approach that will effectively assist with the sustainable management of both HW and of land upstream from HW, through soil-friendly agricultural production strategies. These strategies will be co-constructed by a team of stakeholders involving: village farmers, the Ministry of Forestry and Agriculture of Laos (DALaM), NEPL National Park Management Unit and non-governmental organisation (WCS-Laos), an infectious disease laboratory (LOMWRU), 5 French joint research units (GET, iEES-Paris, LSCE, CESSMA and CESBIO) and three start-ups (GLobEO, e-biom, MounoyDEV).

Sustainable land use

The main objective of LANDWIND is the prediction of the impact of wind erosion on soil fertility and therefore on potential land degradation in the Western Sahel (Senegal) over the coming decades. Objectives: LANDWIND will focus on the impact of land use and land management on wind erosion, and will account for climate change using existing input data.

eroding

Agroécologie

Nematodes, Argan tree