Research # Line 6
Understanding the relations between nature, agriculture and society better, so as to manage rural areas in the tropics sustainably Establishing methods for the sustainable management of rural areas and ecosystems, which are under threat in many regions, means knowing about resources and how they have changed on the one hand, and the interactions between their various components, be they biological or social, on the other. Participatory management of territories is a good example. It involves a multitude of players and viewpoints that have to be reconciled, since if one or another party feels cheated, that party’s support is likely to falter at the first hurdle... In the case of water management or land allocation, the stakes can be vital and the various viewpoints extremely difficult to reconcile, as has been seen with attempts to manage protected areas and their fringes. In the field of water management, CIRAD supports managers and users of irrigation schemes and drinking water services. It has worked hand in hand with these players to develop analysis, simulation and management tools. Its participation in the 13th World Water Congress enabled it to present several projects being conducted jointly with its partners, on the collective management of a resource that is frequently a source of tension. In the same spirit, CIRAD has designed and developed a set of tools to enable players to express and share their points of view and facilitate a prospective approach to land allocation. This “adaptive modelling” approach has been tested in two different situations: in Réunion, where it fitted in with an institutional reform of territorial planning documents on regional, intercommunal and communal levels, and in Senegal, as part of an initial plan to manage Lake Guiers. In a very different field, the chemical composition of soil organic matter has been used in India to reconstitute the changes in former plant covers. The aim was to gain a better understanding of how mountain forests and meadows evolve. The results obtained have meant that forest preservation is no longer the only priority: it is also possible to take account of older meadows. Threatened rural areas and ecosystems, agricultural extension exerting considerable pressure on the environment that can even lead to conflict, etc., etc.; the challenge now is to develop a land planning method built on both agricultural production and the restoration of the ecological services rendered by ecosystems. Since 1999, several structures set up on CIRAD’s initiative have been enabling researchers or teams from a range of institutions to work together on these multidisciplinary issues. For instance, one such structure, the Grand Sud Cameroun research platform, which is one of the main components of CIRAD’s operations in Africa, involves several teams working on integrated management of family farms within the country’s agroforest ecosystems.These structures illustrate the spirit in which CIRAD conducts its research: research in partnership, for which the priorities are established with all the various partners, with a view to sharing both responsibility and benefits.