Rapid Agrobiodiversity Appraisal (RABA) - Are you looking for one ...

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Rapid Agrobiodiversity Appraisal (RABA)
in the Context of Environmental Service Rewards
While global concern over the loss of forest and global biodiversity is still increasing and the Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD) is expressing aspirations rather than reality, there are essentially two ways to achieve 'conservation'
plus 'economic development'. The first approach is based on a spatial segregation of functions and is focused on
'protected areas' plus 'intensive agriculture' as ways to achieve both goals on separate parts of the land. The second
approach is based on 'integration' of functions and maintaining substantial biodiversity within productive landscapes.
A combination of the two approaches is most likely to achieve the joint goals, but includes 'integrated' systems where
the 'conservation' and 'economic development' goals compete for the attention of the land manager (farmer or
landscape manager). Specific incentives for 'conservation' may be needed to keep the land managers' attention on
'conservation' aspects (and may well do so efficiently) – if only society knew how to do this. Rapid Agrobiodiversity
Appraisal (RABA) is an approach to make such reward systems operational, by appraising the location-specific
biodiversity of a given agricultural landscape from the local and global perspective. However, the question remains:
Can the two perspectives be bridged?
Rapid Agrobiodiversity Appraisal is not a technical biodiversity appraisal. A standardized way to appraise 'diversity' is a
contradictio in terminis - it is likely to miss out on unique dimensions. It is understood that diversity of place means that
every locality is 'unique' in its own way and there is thus no universal 'how to' method that prescribes a rigid appraisal.
Rather, this narrative is a suggested approach to use when it is necessary to collect information rapidly about the
potential of an agricultural landscape to conserve biodiversity as well as being productive. The method is intended to
be an iterative, stepwise approach, suggesting that the user can update new information and modify the approach to
suit different localities. If a first screening suggests that there is little opportunity for successful negotiations of
'rewards for biodiversity conservation', the process can stop there. If the first indication is positive, a more detailed
assessment can clarify the strength of the case or reveal the pitfalls that have to be avoided.
The RABA approach was developed in the context of the RUPES (Rewarding Upland Poor for Environmental Services
they provide) programme, led by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) with a consortium of international and
national partners (see http://www.worldagroforestry.org/Sea/networks/RUPES/). We are grateful for the interest
shown by the Roles of Agriculture Project managed by the Agricultural and Development Economics Division,
Economic and Social Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and financial
support from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of the Government of Japan for the Roles of
Agriculture Project (GCP/INT/916/JPN) that allowed the further development of the RABA approach as 'a tool to
capture the understanding and knowledge of stakeholders on the benefits of agrobiodiversity'.
RABA is set up to be the equivalent of the Rapid Hydrological Appraisal (RHA) and the Rapid Carbon Stock Appraisal
(RaCSA). For the RHA and RaCSA, a USD 10 000 budget and 6 months time limit were set. For RABA, we hope and expect
that the same targets will be feasible, but further comparisons are needed before we can settle on these targets.
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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