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Rapid Agrobiodiversity Appraisal (RABA)
in the Context of Environmental Service Rewards
The agroforests that are compatible with an intermediate stage of land-use intensification and are now recognized to
have a function in landscape-level conservation, may be under threat of gradual loss of the 'wild' element for greater
productivity or conversion to monocultural production systems.
Environmental degradation linked to this type of intensification may occur because insufficient benefits flow to the
guardians of the land for their efforts in maintaining ecosystems and harbouring agrobiodiversity. The attributes of
intensively managed production areas, both in terms of inputs and human involvement, be they privately or
communally owned, complicate the linkage between maintaining production and ecological functions. Different
approaches such as fencing conservation areas or integrating conservation and development have been tested in
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efforts to persuade or force people to guard biodiversity, but little success has been achieved . These failures suggest
the need for a different approach to conserve biodiversity. One such approach being considered is the use of market
mechanisms and rewarding managers of productive landscapes that can harbour agrobiodiversity for the
environmental services their landscapes provide.
4 One example of an Integrated Conservation and Development Project (ICDP) in Kerinci Seblat National Park is the case of Organic Spice. People in
the buffer zone area of Kerinci have been cultivating cinnamon for many years. However, the low level of trust between institutions and community,
as well as weak monitoring have inhibited the organic spice programme from developing as a sustainable livelihood.
INTRODUCTION