Ostrom pointed to an authoritative study of 100 protected forests in 14 countries, which shows that the cooperation of local people is more important to preserving these commons than whether a national government, local officials or someone else actually oversees the forests. If the people who live there feel they benefit long-term from how the forests are managed, she notes, they make sure the rules are followed. “When local groups have the right to harvest non-timber resources, they are more likely to monitor and sanction those who break the rules.”
Nibbles: Pest management, Pest management, Small-scale farmers, Food fair, USDA stats
- Community management of pests is less efficient (in Spanish). Something to do with farmers not sharing information quickly enough.
- Birds help to control vineyard pests.
- Small-scale farmers can feed the world, as any fule kno.
- Smithsonian celebrates urban ag. Meh.
- Organic food festival Dec 16th, Ahmedabad, India. “The food items should necessarily involve use of indigenous varieties”.
- USDA stops counting sheep. And goats, catfish and hops, among others.
Punjab burning
Our pal Neil Palmer was in India recently to see how the farmers there deal with the debris after the rice harvest. The result is a stunning set of pictures. My question: is anybody doing anything to suggest that maybe some of that organic matter could be retained in the soil?
Nibbles: Tarwi, Pests, Planthoppers, Subsidies, Cereal breeding, EU legislation,
- A nice long video on Lupinus mutabilis: TARWI – Semillas del Futuro Vol.1. It has always, in my experience, been “del futuro”.
- BBC asks CABI chief scientist to pick his top 10 plant pests. What, no taro leaf blight?
- Nor planthoppers of Iran?
- Divert just four years’ worth of EU agricultural subsidies to pay off pretty much all of Greece’s public debt, and we could stave off a second global financial crisis while helping some of the world’s poorest people all at the same time. Not gonna happen.
- Videos from 15th EWAC-Eucarpia Cereals Section Conference. Luigi not featured. Yet.
- EU may decide on new seed laws tomorrow. Or not. Patrick unpacks it a bit.
Champion goat photo bound to go viral
I KNOW you wanted another photo of that prize-winning Pakistani goat.
