KNOWLEDGE DEVELOPMENT FOR

AGROECOLOGY MOVEMENT: FROM

SCIENCE TO POLICY

DAMAYANTI BUCHORI DEPARTMENT OF PLANT PROTECTION,

FACULTY OF AGRICULTURE BOGOR AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY

IPB, INDONESIA

Multistakeholders Consultation on Agroecology in Asia and the Pacific 24-26 November 2015, Bangkok, Thailand

THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE

• Challenges in today’s life: Multifunctionality of land (Mosaics),

• Science and Technology played an important role – has helped find

answers to problems of life e.g food

– Science helps us gained knowledge

AND YET

WHY?

“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science

gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”

(ISAAC ASIMOV)

WHAT IS GOING ON WITH HUMANS AND HUMANITY?

On again off again ecological amnesia

• Pragmatisam in Life Choices

• Life is about filling your checklists

Theme 5: Agroecological transition, initiatives and policies to scale up

Agroecology

• Knowledge Development – From Science :What does the Science say? – To Policy: What is the role of science in policy? What

role should it play? How do we treat uncertainties in policy?

– Is evidence based policy a good thing? – How much can you rely on the science to develop

policies?

• Agroecology and the Changes of Paradigm: – From patch to Landscape – From Monodisciplines to Transdisciplinary

WHAT DOES THE DATA SAYS?

Science in Agroecology

Coffee and

Cacao

BENEFIT OF SHADE, Tscharntek, 2011

• Shade trees in agroforestry enhance functional biodiversity, carbon sequestration, soil fertility, drought resistance as well as weed and biologicalpest control.

• However, shade is needed for young cacao trees only and is less important in older cacao plantations. This changing response to shade regime with cacao plantation age oftenresults in a transient role for shade and associated biodiversity in agroforestry.

Agriculture intensification

Pesticide application

(Wanger et al. 2010)

Shade reduction

(Tscharntke et al. 2011)

• Species richness of trees, fungi, invertebrates, and vertebrates did not decrease with yield.

Moderate shade, adequate labor, and input level can be combined with a complex habitat structure to provide high biodiversity as well as high yields.

Theoretical and empirical research reveals that ecological systems persist and generate ecosystem services as a result of complex interacting components.

(Pseudacteon)

(Hypothenemus)

(Azteca)

UNDERSTANDING COMPLEXITY REQUIRES A DIFFERENT SET OF THINKING

UNIT OF RESEARCH

Individual Population Community Landscape

If the data IS CLEAR

Then why?

BECAUSE THERE is ALWAYS UNCERTAINTY IN SCIENCE

AND SOMETIMES PEOPLE BANK IN ON THIS

Science aims to Explain and Understand

• Science as a collective institution aims to produce more and more accurate natural explanations of how the natural world works, what its components are, and how the world got to be the way it is now.

• Classically, science's main goal has been building knowledge and understanding, regardless of its potential applications — for example, investigating the chemical reactions that an organic compound undergoes in order to learn about its structure.

AN Example: • Keynote by Marcello Tabarelli: hyperfragmented

landscapes has limited conservation value,- a question from the audience: what if someone uses your result to make a decision that it is not worthwhile to have small patches of forests under hyperfragmented landscapes?

• This is a very important question to us all. • Is the absence of evidence = the evidence of

absence? • Scientific result and judgement on the implications of

the findings can have a significant impact on the trajectory of our lives

Science:is based on evidence

• Provoking questions:

– How much more science do we need to proof that biodiversity is important?

• What about the limitations of humans to understand and unravel the complexity of life?

• If all scientific evidence points to the importance of conservation, sustainable development, etc: will it actually be implemented on the ground?

Something is Terribly Wrong: Decoupling of science from societal and

socio economic processes?

What is The Ultimate Goal of Science?

• Uses and Misues of Science

• Science and Technology has change the course of lives

• Now, we are moving toward: – Science – based economy

– Science – based wars

– Science – based powers

• Where science is used as a tool for a new way to control – WTO (SPS Agreement, GAP, Pest Free Area)

Always Remember:

SCIENCE IS THE BELIEVE IN THE IGNORANCE OF THE EXPERTS

(Richard Feynman)

SO what happened?

• Science should lead to humility—has it? • Misconception: Science is a collection of facts. Correction:

Science is both a body of knowledge and the process for building that knowledge.

• Science is both a body of knowledge and a process. • Science is ongoing. Science is continually refining and

expanding our knowledge of the universe, and as it does, it leads to new questions for future investigation. Science will never be "finished."

• Science is a global human endeavor. People all over the world participate in the process of science.

Science is a Social Activity

• Science is now undertaken with the explicit goal of solving a problems or developing a technology, and along the path to that goal, new knowledge and explanations are constructed.

• In today’s market economy, science is very much determined by supply an demand, where science is explicitly expected to be produced by scientists and societies are the consumers

•

MISPERCEPTION Scientific Thinking is A Mechanical

Thinking

The power which knowledge brings can be used for both good and evil

-- If knowledge has met with power, the key now is to develop that they are joined by wisdom

– However, the rapid advanced of knowledge makes a better use of science more difficult

“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science

gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”

(ISAAC ASIMOV)

Science and Policy

Jacques Monod in “Work and Necessity” argues that science has to be based on

morals. Therefore scientific development also has morality in it

From Science to Policy: Interphase

• What does it mean: – The level of significance (probability of being wrong)

– Is the absence of evidence the same as evidence of absence?

• What is Evidence-based Policies? Implication?

• How ready are we to move toward evidence-based policies?

• Someone mentioned something about valuation the other day: which I agree: – In the end: it is about the hearts and the minds

Brown, Handbury, 1986. The Wisdom of Science its relevance to culture Religion

The most sensitive, the most fragile part of the total ecology of science is the understanding on the part of of the scientist themselves of the nature of the scientific enterprise

Science and Community

• Science is a community endeavor. It relies on a system of checks and balances, which helps ensure that science moves in the direction of greater accuracy and understanding. This system is facilitated by diversity within the scientific community, which offers a broad range of perspectives on scientific ideas

Moral Responsibility • In ethics, moral responsibility is primarily the

responsibility related to actions and their consequences in social relation

• It concerns the harm cause to an individual, a group or the entire society by the actions or inactions of another individual group entire society

• Science should be an integral part of cultural development as opposed to agent of change

To achieve wisdom and moral responsibility is an ongoing struggles between

romantiscm dan rationalisme

Ultimately, it’s about

• Education and “humbleness”

• The courage to believe in what is not seen by the eyes, not heard by the ears, but could be felt with an open heart

• For those who always argue in the name of development and economy: To make the journey into the abyss, and believe that we shall not perish because of the big jump

GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP • Building local capacity and empowerment

• Strengthening local institutions

• It’s about changing the hearts and minds of people

• And building critical mass of people together, globally

AGROECOLOGY MOVEMENT

• Not only advocacy for rights of farmers

• But also science for society

• Movement of science back to its origin: to seek for truth and honesty

– Science began as a branch of philosophy, and for a long time the two pursuits were closely intertwined. Science has since then grown up and moved out of the family home, and its successes have put its parent in the shade (Southwell, 2013)