Capacity Building & Training

Image	Where, What	Story	More Information
	GLOBAL Uptake Outcome	Much institutional innovation occurs at national levels as ASB scientists work within NARS partners in developing national research strategies which combine environmental and development concerns. ASB insights influence the NARS' priorities for the countries we work in. For example, in Empraba, research priorities are set by a participatory planning process. ASB partner Judson Valentim served on this panel and introduced ASB results.	§ "Success Story Details" document § Story of Embrapa in Brazil § Story of INIA in Peru
	AMAZON Outcome	In Brazil, scientists from Embrapa have led the incorporation of environmental insights derived from their collaborative work with ASB into Embrapa's agricultural research agenda. The ASB matrix is a key tool that influences thinking of researchers and policymakers in the region, including awareness of new issues particularly environmental variables. It also prompted analysis at a landscape level, where previously research had tended to be of land use systems in isolation. Embrapa scientists, who spearhead ASB work in the Brazilian Amazon, are reorienting their research to explore new options and increasing their links with policymakers. In a dramatic shift in priorities, the Embrapa station in Acre now aspires to become the centre of excellence for sustainable natural forest management. This vision of future possibilities is shared by the political leadership of Acre, where "Governo da Floresta" now is displayed on state vehicles and public buildings. This motto signals that Acre's policies focus on sustainable use of forest resources. As scientists and policymakers work in partnership with farmers, there is hope that a new set of opportunities can be created for the forests to be the foundation of livelihoods for the people of Acre.	§ "Success Story Details" document § ASB Voices #3 - Virgulino da Costa Nascimento § Chapter in Slash-and-Burn book: "Resource Use and Human Welfare at the Forest Margins of the Western Brazilian Amazon" (J. Valentim, S. A. Vosti, 2005)
	GLOBAL Activity Outcome	Intensive training courses in natural resource survey and rapid biodiversity assessment developed by ASB scientists has been a success in 8 developing countries.	§ "Success Story Details" document § Contact Andy Gillison
	AMAZON Outcome	Empraba senior researcher, Jair Carvalho dos Santos, uses the ASB Matrix in his work in Acre, Brazil: "I consider the matrix as one of the best models for comparing productive systems. It is conceptually sound and helps focus on the environmental, social, and economic aspects of production in a quantitative way. In my work in Acre, this offers a tool for analyzing socio-economic aspects of various traditional and alternative systems." (September 4, 2003)	§ Email from Jair Carvalho dos Santos, 4 September 2003
	AMAZON Outcome	As Peru's national agricultural research institute, INIA, has gained a stronger understanding of the value of forests and reforestation through ASB's research, it has greatly expanded its programme of work on forest issues. ASB partners and their work have helped INIA see the relevance of forests / trees for agriculture. The people who worked with ASB were strong champions for this expansion, especially for the Amazon (e.g. Angel Salazar, Alberto Riesco, Julio Alegre). INIA's forest research sites have increased from just 6 a few years ago to 22 currently. In 2005, INIA will start work in even more places.	§ Contact Ymber Flores § Contact Angel Salazar, Julio Alegre, Alberto Riesco

GLOBAL & SOUTHEAST ASIA Output Potential Outcome	Translating ASB research findings into practical lecture notes for curricula around the world: A slide series and a set of lecture notes based on research results from ASB activities has been used in universities in Southeast Asia. ASB national consortia are translating the existing English notes into other languages of the tropics.	§ ASB Lecture Notes § Contact Meine van Noordwijk
AMAZON Outcome Impact	Newsweek quote: "Embrapa cattle expert Judson Valentim has taught a generation of ranchers in the Western Amazon Basin how to triple their herds without cutting down a single additional hectare of rainforest, but he does it on a shoestring.He does this by using artificial insemination to boost the productivity of the herds, rotating them to avoid overgrazing, and swapping traditional brachiaria grass, which turns into a bug-infested stubble in the tropics, with kudzu or tropical peanut, which thrives and keeps the soil moist. Spreading the word might rescue the Amazon's 20 million hectares (half the size of Denmark) of abandoned pastures. Yet official support for such technology ($154,000 a year) is a fraction of what Brasilia spends on policing the Amazon."	§ Newsweek International article " Brazil's growing power: the country is planting its once arid frontier and fast becoming an agro-business titan" by Mac Margolis (February 23, 2004) (full article at www.msnbc.msn.com/id/ 7369913/site/newsweek/
AMAZON Activity Potential Outcome	The Amazon Initiative is designed to support the setting of national research agendas in benchmark countries, as well as in other countries of the Amazon. This consortium of major research and development institutions has been formed to help prevent, reduce and reverse land degradation by promoting policies and technologies for sustainable land management in the region. It was strongly based on existing ASB collaboration in the region, as well as ASB research.	§ Amazon Initiative website § ASB Project Descriptions § ASB Video - Roberto Porro "ASB and the Amazon Initiative"
AMAZON Outcome	The method for measuring carbon sequestration in land use systems developed by ASB is being used by Embrapa in two projects, by researchers who had been trained in carbon measurement by ASB. Also, results obtained on shaded coffee were analyzed in the economic model.	§ ASB Video - Marilia Locatelli "Southern Scientist Capacity-Building" § Project: Chrononsequence characterizations for carbon fixation evaluation in land use systems § Project: Above Ground Carbon Stock Quantification in Conventional and alternative Land Use Systems in Amazon Region.
GLOBAL Activity Outcome	Ongoing process documentation and evaluation of ASB's development and implementation of the iNRM paradigm improves organizational efficiency within the programme and captures strategic insights relevant to other programmes. Organizational successes and difficulties are receiving specific attention from new international partners with expertise in study of social learning processes.	§ Paper on Challenges of Integration § ASB Governance Document § CGIAR meta-analysis hosted by World Bank (full report and thematic and working group papers) http://www.worldbank.org/oed/cigar/index.html § Natural Resources Management Research in the CGIAR: A Meta-Evaluation by Christopher B. Barrett
AMAZON Outcome	The State Polytechnic in Acre uses ASB material in developing its curriculum.	Contact Judson Valentim
AMAZON Outcome	The Federal Rural University in Para uses ASB lecture notes in its graduate curriculum on agroforestry. This is the only PhD programme on agroforestry in Brazil.	Contact Marilia Locatelli
GLOBAL Activity Outcome	ASB experience shows that South-South exchange is among the most effective means to achieve breakthroughs in understanding for researchers, policymakers, community leaders. Three south-south exchange possibilities that are being developed are for the RUPES work, tree domestication work, and restoration of degraded land.	§ Proposal for Cameroon - Madagascar exchange § ASB Video - Meine van Noordwijk "Sharing Lessons from RUPES" § ASB Video - Rafael Posada "South-South Exchange through ASB" § Concept note on South-South exchange
GLOBAL Outcome	ASB is characterized by long-term working relationships among partners, including through their involvement in ASB's thematic working groups.	§ "Success Story Details" document § ASB Video - Marilia Locatelli "Southern Scientist Capacity-Building" § Working Group reports
SOUTHEAST ASIA Outcome	The Ministry of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives of Thailand awarded a gold plaque of honour to David Thomas, a long-standing ASB scientist who heads the ICRAF office in Thailand. He was commended for his assistance to the Royal Forest Department.	Contact David Thomas
GLOBAL Activity Output Potential Outcome	ASB's participatory methods and negotiation support tools have influenced partners' work in the ASB countries. Action research at specific sites have identified and tested workable mechanisms for efficient and effective participation of multiple groups of stakeholders that have differing (often conflicting) interests in environmental and development outcomes.	Working Paper on NRM in the CGIAR by Christopher Barrett
SOUTHEAST ASIA Potential Outcome	ASB partners are providing negotiation support activities for improved governance and natural resource management in Indonesia. Led by ICRAF, they will carry out intensive and integrated work on land tenure, strengthening capacity for watershed groups, and the identification of INRM technical innovations that improve farmer, community, and local government-based natural resource management in Lampung and East Kalimantan through improved agroforestry germplasm and production systems. They will disseminate the NSS products to a wide variety of targets audiences and building capacity to utilize the products in areas beyond the initial benchmark sites.	ASB Project Descriptions
GLOBAL Outcome	World Bank report (May 2003): "ASB has been applauded . for innovative field research, strong science, and for going furthest within the CGIAR toward implementing effectively a holistic, ecoregional approach founded on in-depth local research linked methodologically across long-term benchmark sites around the world to permit effective scaling up to global level. The intellectual value of this work has derived from the synthesis afforded by careful methodological coordination across sites on different continents, and close working relationships with ARIs and NARS" (p. 15).	Thematic Working Paper on Natural Resources Management Research in CGIAR by Christopher B. Barrett, part of the World Bank OED study CGIAR at 31: A Meta Evaluation of the CGIAR at http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/oed/oeddoclib.nsf/ DocUNIDViewForJavaSearch/ B9AD800E708F7CB785256D5600505D43/$file/cigar_wp_barrett.pdf
GLOBAL Potential Outcome	Outreach activities to extend results to new sites are taking place, for example to Madagascar in July and October 2004. A wealth of potentially useful knowledge already exists and, together with problem identification at new sites, there can be comparative discussion of these lessons and insights from the long-established ASB benchmark sites. Other South-South learning is in progress in the Amazon (including with Colombia), Mount Elgon ( Uganda) and the island of Borneo.	§ Draft proposal with Cornell University § Trip reports from Mohamed Bakarr and Tom Tomich
W & C AFRICA Output	Related to ASB's work on tree domestication, Cameroon partners have supported the significant spread of on-farm nurseries throughout the country and region. Specifically, the ICRAF team has been supporting rehabilitation of degraded forest and ecosystems in the war ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by sharing their experience with participatory tree domestication. They have already trained more than 60 representatives of community based organizations and partner NGOs in the domestication of local fruits and medicinal tree species in Equateur and Badundu provinces.	§ Stats from TVE proposal § "Success Story Details" document § Highlights from Cameroon § Video Zac Tchoundjeu § Contact Ebenezar Asaah § ICRAF story by Catherine Momha, "Tree domestication to rehabilitate forest ecosystems in the DRC"
SOUTHEAST ASIA Impact	In Indonesia, ASB researchers are working to strengthen forest tree germplasm security for NGOs and smallholders in Indonesia through nursery development. Nursery work is also happening in the Philippines through the efforts of ASB partners.	§ ASB Project Descriptions § Work by Jim Roshetko and team § Video Romulo Aggangan
AMAZON Outcome	ASB has contributed to women's empowerment through its support of AMUCAU (Asociación de Mujeres Campesinas de Ucayali Women's empowerment in Peru), including training, enterprise formation and policy formulation. Former AMUCAU President Elena Trigoso-Grandes says, "Before, I didn't even know how to organize a meeting. When I spoke [in front of a group], I trembled.Today, through AMUCAU, I am participating at the national level to help develop a forestry strategy for Peru." (ASB Voices, 2002)	§ ASB Project Descriptions § ASB Voices #4 - Elena Trigoso-Grandes § Tinker Foundation project report: "Empowerment of small scale farmers in the Peruvian Amazon through organization and entrepreneurship"
AMAZON Outcome	Related to its support of AMUCAU, ASB partners in Peru have led intensive training of a formal farmers' network in the production and sale of certified seed and seedlings (PROSEMA, Asociación de Productores de Semilla y Madera de Alta Calidad de la Cuenca del Aguaytía). Two limited companies have been formed under the guidance of ICRAF. This is linked to government reforestation efforts in Peru. This project aims at generating a model for smallholder enterprise development in the Peruvian Amazon.	§ ASB Project Descriptions § Tinker Foundation project report
GLOBAL Output Potential Outcome	ASB's training workshop in scenario formulation and use, as well as its follow-on country workshops, help create capacity among ASB partners to formulate and use scenarios with a range of stakeholders. Building this capacity among developing country partners within ASB adds a forward-looking dimension to ASB priority-setting that, until now, has been ad hoc and relatively weak.	§ Concept note on scenarios work § "Success Story Details" document § Follow-up proposals for in-country scenarios workshops
AMAZON Outcome Potential Impact	Forest margins research in Peru has benefited from the ASB consortium and vice versa. The implementation of agricultural varieties has increased based on interaction created by ASB activities. National research partners and universities have started to include agroforestry within their workplans and curricula. Training in tree domestication and genetic resource management has motivated INIA, INRENA and others to institutionalize these projects, thereby scaling up and scaling out these activities in Peru.	ASB Peru Synthesis Report
GLOBAL Outcome	"As a University of California, Davis graduate student I have found the outputs generated by the ASB Programme extremely useful. In addition to reviewing the ASB lecture notes and the extensive number of professional publications, I regularly consulted the ASB matrix developed by the Working Group on Economic and Social Indicators to guide my research approach in the southern uplands of Belize. The matrix has provided an accessible and clear framework in which to evaluate socio-economic issues related to existing slash-and-burn land use and the adoption of shade grown cacao among smallholders in the region. I envision drawing further on research completed by the ASB programme to evaluate the policy and institutional environments that affect the adoption of land use systems.The comprehensive and interdisciplinary nature of the programme has been invaluable from my perspective in international agricultural development."	Travis Marcotte (personal communication, May 2002, forwarded by Steve Vosti)
BRAZIL Output	(ASB material is used in) short courses on sustainable forest management for people working in forests in Acre State, Brazil.	Contact Marcus Vinicio Neves D´Oliveira
SOUTHEAST ASIA Activity Outcome Impact	In ongoing work in the Mae Chaem watershed in Northern Thailand, scientists are working with communities to develop and validate methods that the communities themselves then use to monitor their watershed function and environment.. Early experiences with monitoring suggest that they can greatly strengthen these communities' positions in negotiations to resolve environmental problems with neighbouring communities and with the Thai Royal Forest Department. Connections with local environmental knowledge also improve scientists' understanding of environmental problems and widen the range of local livelihood options and appropriate interventions considered by researchers. One Mae Chaem community involved in watershed monitoring was given the Forest Reserve and Nature Conservation Award from the "Suan Pa Sirikit Project" which is Queen Sirikit's initiative program on forest conservation.	§ "Success Story Details" document § ASB Project Descriptions § ASB Policybrief #7 § ASB Voices #6 - Somkit Kirikumsap § TVE Video § News article from ICRAF: "Convergence and Divergence: Conflicts and Confluence in Watershed Management and Environmental Governance in Northern Thailand"
SOUTHEAST ASIA Activity Outcome	Villagers in the Kongkha sub-catchment of the Mae Chaem watershed are supported by ICRAF to use simple GIS maps they have helped localize with their own local place names and land use categories, to discuss their land use patterns and practices and other issues they currently face in managing their village and sub-catchment landscapes.	§ TVE Video for Hands On about ASB's Mae Chaem watershed work § ASB Policybrief #7
GLOBAL Outcome	ASB supports young researchers, especially from developing countries, to become the next generation of development and research leaders across the tropics. This includes joint work with interns, research associates, junior professional officers, postdoctoral fellows, universities, etc.	§ Concept note on building capacity of southern scientists § Story of Sandra Velarde § ASB Video - Marilia Locatelli "Southern Scientist Capacity-Building"
W & C AFRICA Outcome	As part of the Cameroon IRAD / ASB Project (1999-2004), extensive training was conducted. 3 junior scientists were trained to a Masters in Natural Resource Management and in modeling. 1 junior scientist was trained to the PhD level. 422 farmers underwent short training courses on NRM and on landscape sustainability indicators. 15 national scientists were trained on carbon stock research methodology. 4 scientists were trained on the development of future scenarios.	Contact Jean Tonye
W & C AFRICA Outcome Impact	"For us here in Africa, ASB is one the best projects we have had in the last 10 years, as far as farmers' impact, institutional building, inter-institutional collaboration and as far as bridging the biodiversity conservation and increasing the agricultural productivity are concerned. It should be noted that the scaling-up methodology was taught to young African scientists by the ASB Project and it is now very well applied by many African NARES." Jean Tonye, Director, Farming Systems, IRAD ( Cameroon's national agricultural research agency), National Facilitator, ASB.	§ Quote from Jean Tonye. ASB National Facilitator, IRAD (national research organization), Cameroon. Central Africa § ASB Video - Jean Tonye "ASB Presents a Basket of Options"
W & CAFRICA Outcome	The IRAD / ASB team in Cameroon won a National Research Prize in 2002 for best research programme or project in a given year. Jean Tonye, Director, Farming Systems, IRAD, National Facilitator, ASB: "This means that the ASB work has made a real impact in Cameroon, mainly in the domain of integrating agricultural production and environmental protection issues."	Jean Tonye (personal communication, October 16, 2003)