USEFUL TREES FOR THE LAKE TANGANYIKA BASIN TOOLKIT

Transcription

1 USEFUL TREES FOR THE LAKE TANGANYIKA BASIN TOOLKIT A TREE SPECIES SELECTION AND MANAGEMENT TOOLKIT FOR SUSTAINABLE AGROFORESTRY INTERVENTIONS IN THE CATCHMENTS OF LAKE TANGANYIKA USER GUIDE World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). PO Box , Nairobi, Kenya

2 Introduction The Useful Trees for the Tanganyika Basin Toolkit is designed to support decisions about selecting and managing appropriate tree species for agroforestry interventions in the catchment demonstrations sites of DRC, Tanzania and Zambia to control sedimentation and land degradation whilst improving livelihoods. It was developed as part of the technical backstopping role of the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), operating within the framework of the Lake Tanganyika Regional Integrated Management Programme (LTRIMP), a trans-boundary initiative to improve catchment management in the Lake Tanganyika basin. What is the Useful Trees for the Lake Tanganyika Basin Toolkit? The Useful Trees for the Lake Tanganyika Basin Tools aims to help extension workers, natural resource managers and users within the different catchment areas select suitable trees for planting or managing regeneration by matching community needs and site conditions with specific trees (native and exotic) that provide a wide range of key products and environmental services. The toolkit is a dynamic instrument. With only basic excel software skills it can be easily edited and expanded by any user in order to customise the tool to specific localities conditions and match local priorities and locally available information. It does not prescribe tree species but attempts to provide the information and simple reasoning means to facilitate decisions about planting or retaining trees to meet environmental goals and the multiple needs of farmers. The tree species appearing in the tool are those that most local resource users have firsthand experience and knowledge about their performance and provision of products or services. The exotic tree species included are mainly naturalized fruit tree species as well as introduced forest species in the area through reforestation programs. It does not mean that other exotic species should not be recommended, but great attention should be placed on their potentially invasive character and their inability to tolerate adverse climatic and biophysical conditions such as drought, pests and diseases, and soil infertility among others. 2

3 How was this toolkit created? The Useful Trees for the Lake Tanganyika Basin Tool was created by compiling the results of participatory research with available scientific information about native trees species in an accessible and easy format to help make decisions about planting the right trees at the right place for the right people. Based on the concept of the recently developed Useful trees for Africa 1, this tool complements the information obtained from coarse scale natural vegetation maps with ground truthing research about native tree species acquired from local knowledge studies and design workshops conducted in the three Lake Tanganyika catchment demonstration sites (DRC, Zambia and Tanzania). The sources of local ecological knowledge represented in the tool are listed in section ii) of the references. In addition, three field studies were conducted to test the tool with a total of 130 farmers across the three countries between February and June This allowed the tool to be refined with additional species of local importance and information cross-checked and corrected where errors were identified. Other information about trees was compiled from tree databases and technical and scientific references listed in section ii) of the references. What can the Useful Trees for the Lake Tanganyika Basin Tools help you do? Quickly visualize native tree species based on specific products, services, attributes, ecological requirement and management options Establish preliminary tree species lists to develop a menu of tree planting options for different landscape niches that farmers can choose from Provide material for discussion and participatory exercises such as ranking or scoring tree species to support decision making about tree planting and nursery management Quickly and easily access detailed information online and offline about tree management and reproduction of native species Customise available information about trees by easily editing or expanding the list of trees and associated details. The tool can also help to systematically collect and record additional information

4 Guidelines on using the Useful Trees for the Lake Tanganyika Basin Tools Open the Useful_trees_4_LT_tool file in Microsoft Excel workbook : You will find three sheets: 1. utilities 2. bio_physical_profile 3. database links 1. utilities filter tool The first tool, the utilities filter tool is the interactive side of the toolkit where the user can use the filtering function to visualize tree species based on a single or a combination of multiple products, services or attributes. The tool contains tabulated information related to a list of trees about: their scientific and vernacular names their origin (Native or Exotic) the products (such as firewood, fodder, timber, medicine, fruits) services (fertility, shade, erosion control and soil conservation, reclamation of degraded land, riverbank stabilization, ornamental) some key attributes (live-fence, fast growth, resistance to fire or termites, presence of thorns, ability to coppice) The tree species scientific name is found in the first column, followed by the local vernacular name. The information about each tree can be found on the corresponding row. The list of products, services and key attributes appears on the top row each assigned to an individual column. The letter X indicates that the tree can be used for providing that particular product or service or that it has that particular attribute. The Bold X indicates primary or very important uses for that particular species. 4

5 A. Select trees based on particular products, services or attributes: The software allows you to use a simple filter system so that you visualize only the list of tree species that provide the selected product, service and/or attribute. You can filter tree species based on one or more of the utilities targeted (products, services and attributes) by clicking on the arrows of the desired column and selecting X from the filter options on the drop down menu, as shown in the figures below. Open the filter box by clicking on the arrow box in the bottom of each column. Activate a filter: 5

6 Only the trees which have that particular utility or attribute will appear listed. Activate more than one filter, repeat the procedure of opening the filter box of the desired column and selecting only X option The list will become more narrow and specialised as it combines multiple products, services or attributes. Note that if the options of a filter are all X or all blanks ; the drop down filter menu will not display the blank or X check box filter options. See the example below. Remove a filter: 6

7 Make sure to cancel all unwanted active filters before performing new searches otherwise it will be misleading and will not display the right target tree list. B. Establish lists of trees based on different search criteria In order to organize and record the results of your searches, you can easily copy and paste a filtered list of species. You can simply select the first two columns of the filtered output and copy it onto a new sheet remembering to note which filters had been used. This will allow you to generate, record and compare different tree options for different niches or priorities. For example one list could be fast growing, timber and bee forage species (3 filters) or thorny, livefence species (2 filters) but many different lists can be produced depending on the desired combination of tree products, services or attributes. 7

8 C. Edit the tool to customize it to local conditions The tool can be easily edited to match the conditions in the different sites of each demonstration catchment. There may be differences in the occurrence and/or main uses of certain trees between the different sites of the demonstration. You can delete, add, or edit the information found in the tool as described below. Delete a tree species that is not present in your area by deleting the entire row (to do so: first select the desired row by positioning the cursor on the relevant row number on the far left (the cursor will change to a horizontal arrow) right click to open the drop down box, select and click on DELETE. Insert a new tree species that is present in your area by inserting a new row (to do so, first locate where the tree should appear in alphabetic order, then select the row above which the new species should appear. By positioning the cursor on the relevant row number (the cursor will change to a horizontal arrow) right click to open the drop down box, select and click on INSERT. You may insert the relevant information about the tree from locally available knowledge and search for references on the PROTA or Agroforestry database links. Insert additional product, service or attribute category by inserting a new column (to do so, first locate where you want the column to appear, then select the column that will be on the right of the new column should appear, by positioning the cursor on the relevant column letter (the cursor will change to a vertical arrow) right click to open the drop down menu box, select and click on INSERT. Change the information concerning a particular tree Place the cursor on the desired cell and: delete the X if it is not a use/attribute for this species in your area enter an X if it is a use/attribute for this species in your area transform a plain text X into bold text, or transform a bold X into plain text to reflect whether it is or not of primary use in the community 8

9 Note that it may be useful to save the excel workbook under a new name before you make modifications so that you can keep a copy of the original version for reference. 2. bio_physical_profile tool The second sheet bio_physical_profile contains tabulated information important to determine which species may be best for different spatial and temporal niches. These include: general biophysical information such as growth requirements (altitude, rainfall, temperature, soil types) general attributes such as growth rate, management practices (coppicing, pollarding, lopping), leafing phenology, invasiveness reproduction characteristics (reproduction types, seed dispersal mode, germination rate, basic seed handling information) This part of the tool allows you to check important facts about management and reproduction of trees present in the tool. Information can also be edited and expanded as shown in the previous section to reflect local conditions or capture additional information. Note that where information was unavailable, it was expressed in the table as unknown. 3. database access The third sheet provides direct web links to the species information sheets in the PROTA Database and in the Agroforestry data base when available. By clicking on the link you can directly access more detailed online information about the tree species found in the tool so you can confirm or expand knowledge about desired or selected species. 9

10 Some limitations of the tool The lists of tree species is non exhaustive and limited to trees discussed with farmers and extension workers in the demonstration sites of DRC, Tanzania and Zambia Information on tree utilities is similarly non exhaustive but only captures the main products and services most relevant to the Lake Tanganyika catchment conditions and is limited to what was described in the references consulted. Information on species occurrence, dominant uses and growth conditions may also vary within the different catchments themselves as a result of local socio-cultural and biophysical differences. Most trees are listed at the species level without differentiating between subspecies or varieties. Some taxonomic information may be erroneous due to the lack of robust taxonomic identification and vernacular correspondence. Some species scientific name could not be verified and these were not included in the table but only listed at the bottom of the utilities worksheet. Recommendations The Useful Trees for the Lake Tanganyika Basin Tool is a dynamic instrument that can be easily edited, expanded and customized to your own needs. The limitations mentioned above can therefore be addressed as more trees are included in the list and the associated information is verified and updated through the continuous collection of local knowledge held by professionals and resource users. The useful Trees for Africa ICRAF tool as well as locally available vegetation maps can be used to complement the tree species found in the tool. 10

11 References i) Sources of local ecological knowledge ICRAF (2010) Report of the Lake Tanganyika Project Tanzania National Site Characterisation and Catchment Management Design Workshop held in Kasulu, Tanzania (11th 15th October 2010) ICRAF (2010) Report of the Lake Tanganyika Project Zambia National Site Characterisation and Catchment Management Design Workshop held in Mbala, Zambia (15th 20th November 2010) ICRAF (2010) Report of the Lake Tanganyika Project DRC National Site Characterisation and Catchment Management Design Workshop held in Uvira, DRC (4th 9th December 2010) ICRAF (2011) Report of the Lake Tanganyika Project Zambia Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation Workshop held in Mbala, Zambia (25th 28th October 2011) ICRAF (2011) Report of the Lake Tanganyika Project Zambia Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation Workshop held in Kigoma, Tanzania (14th 18th November 2011) ICRAF (2012) Report of the Lake Tanganyika Project DRC Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation Workshop held in Uvira, DRC (23th 27th January 2012) Okot, D (2010) Local and Scientific perceptions of climate and land cover changes in the lake Tanganyika Basin, Tanzania, MSc Dissertation, SENRGY, Bangor University, UK Oloo, F., Nang ole, E. and Mpanda, M. (2011) Field Work Report: Mapping, Market analysis and assessment of treebased interventions in Kibondo and Kasulu districts, Tanzania for the Lake Tanganyika Regional Integrated Management Project. World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) Owusu K., A. (2010) Local and Scientific knowledge of trends, drivers and impact of land cover changes: Luanza catchement of lake Tanganyika, Zambia MSc Dissertation, SENRGY, Bangor University, UK Sida, T. (2010) Developing specifications to negotiate ecosystem service trade-offs surrounding tree use in Lake Tanganyika watershed: Application of a spatially explicit multi-criteria GIS toolbox: Polyscape, MSc Dissertation, SENRGY, Bangor University, UK Smith, E. (2011) Local ecological knowledge associated with land use change and agroforestry interventions in the Uvira catchment DRC ICRAF, Nairobi, Kenya Ziantoni, V. (2010) Exploring Ecosystem Services using local ecological knowledge in the Mpulungu district, Zambia. MSc Dissertation, SENRGY, Bangor University, UK 11

12 ii) Scientific References Campbell, B. (1996) The Miombo in Transition: Woodlands and Welfare in Africa. Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). Bruce Campbell (Ed). Bogor, Indonesia Chilufya, H & Tengnaes, B. (1996) Agroforestry extension manual for Northern Zambia. Technical Handbook - Regional Soil Conservation Unit, RSCU. Kenya. no.11. Chilufya, H & Tengnaes, B. (1996) Agroforestry extension manual for Northern Zambia. Technical Handbook - Regional Soil Conservation Unit, RSCU. Kenya. no.11. Dharani, N. (2002) Field guide to common trees and shrubs of East Africa. Struik Publishers, Capetown, South Africa. Hines, D. A., Eckman, K. (1993) Indigenous multipurpose trees of Tanzania: Uses and economic benefits for people. Working Paper FAO/Misc/93/9. FAO, Rome. Kindt R., Osino D., Orwa C., Nzisa A., van Breugel P., Graudal L., Lillesø J.-P.B., Kehlenbeck K., Dietz J., Nyabenge M., Jamnadass R. and Neufeld H. (2011). Useful tree species for Africa: interactive vegetation maps and species composition tables based on the Vegetation Map of Africa. World Agroforestry Centre, Nairobi, Kenya JSTOR Plant Science: Orwa C, Mutua A, Kindt R, Jamnadass R, Anthony S (2009) Agroforestree database: a tree reference and selection guide. Version 4.0. ICRAF World Agroforestry Centre, Nairobi, Kenya Maundu P.M. & Tengnas T. (2005). Useful trees and shrubs for Kenya. World Agroforestry Centre. Mbuya L., Msanga H., Ruffo C., Birnie A. & Tengnas B. (1994). Useful trees and shrubs for Tanzania. Identification, propagation and management for agricultural and pastoral communities. Regional Soil Conservation Unit, Nairobi. Plant Resources of Tropical Africa (PROTA) Plantzafrica: Schmelzer, GH., Gurib-Fakim, A. (2008) Medicinal plants. Plant Resources of Tropical Africa (PROTA Program). Volume 11. Storrs, A. E. G. & Storrs, J. and Zambia. Forest Dept. (1979) Know your trees : some of the common trees found in Zambia, Regional Soil Conservation Unit, Nairobi Tengnas B. (1994) Agroforestry extension manual for Kenya. Nairobi: International Centre for Research in Agroforestry. 12