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Local Knowledge of Coffee Productivity, Biodiversity and Ecosystem

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1. Figure 8 Diagram options Diagram options Click once on the Label Mode button circled in Figure 8 This will then show arrows that indicate causal relationships between nodes Click twice on the Label Mode button This gives you the statements written on the diagram in full You can make the statements more legible by using your mouse to drag the nodes across the screen to separate them out When working with complex diagrams it can be too confusing if all labels are pictured Turn the label mode off by clicking a third time on Label mode By clicking on the Zoom Out button you will be able to see all the nodes that have been generated by the diagram You can then click on Zoom In to restore the diagram to its original view Click first on Navigate and then a node in this case click on cafeto crecimiento cantidad this will generate the immediate causes and effects of that node The selected node will be highlighted in green and additional nodes will appear connected to it Carefully drag sideways all new nodes to reveal any further nodes underneath by pressing the left hand mouse button over the node and dragging the node away Red lines indicate that there is more then one line or arrow on top of one another If you select Show KB Diagrams from the Diagram drop down menu on the main toolbar top of the screen you can look at diagrams that have been organised previousl
2. suelo and nivel_de_humedad but this time select OR instead of AND from the Boolean options Then click on Search Now you will have 132 statements This is because you have selected all the statements that include either suelo or nivel_de_humedad Close the Search results dialog box by clicking on X In the Boolean search dialog box keep suelo in the Boolean Search String but this time select subobjects in addition to object under Search options Figure 10 Click on Search once more Search options szuperobjects fuzzy Figure 10 Search options dialog box You will now have 135 statements because besides the statements that include the term suelo you have also selected statements that relate to the subobjects of suelo The different types of soil as identified by farmers were barrial clay soil suelo_blanco white soil suelo acido acid soil and suelos_negros black soil Close all the dialog boxes by clicking on X This will return you to the main AKT5 screen Closing a Knowledge Base Close the knowledge base by going to the main toolbar and selecting Close Kb from the KB drop down menu Close AKTS by selecting Exit from AKTS from the File drop down menu 20 4 Exploring the knowledge base some highlights from local knowledge From practicing with A quick s
3. Farmers made general statements about birds Figure 13 but they also had more detailed knowledge of where specific birds were nesting amongst other creatures like squirrels and bees Figure 14 From observations made on farms coffee growers had behavioural knowledge about the majority of the birds and animals identified by them including feeding patterns and habitat preferences which also reflect interactions between fauna and flora species present in the landscape An important association was made between insect levels and bird population with farmers stating that an increase in insect numbers leads to more birds visiting the coffee farms Kb statement no 420 and specific trees were mentioned as attracting more insects and thus birds Kb statements no 134 176 and 272 Farmers further pointed to the role that birds themselves play in increasing tree diversity through bringing fruits and seeds from other coffee farms or from the forest and contributing to natural regeneration and the establishment of new tree species 28 coffee_plants crown density birds nesting all_trees birds nesting coffee plant coffee pla proteotina birds birds nesting location birds nesting hort_trees Figure 13 AKTS causal diagram representing general statements about bird nesting locations in coffee farms Nodes represent natural processes ovals or attributes of objects proce
4. Informe sobre la actividad cafetalera de Costa Rica pp 85 Lashermes P and Anthony F 2007 Coffee In Kole C ed Genome Mapping and Molecular Breeding in Plants Technical Crops Berlin Heidelberg Springer pp 109 118 M ndez V E Gliessman S R and Gilbert G S 2007 Tree biodiversity in farmer cooperatives of a shade coffee landscape in western El Salvador Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment 119 pp 145 159 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005 Ecosystems and Human Well being Synthesis Washington DC Island Press Moss C Frost F Obiri Darko B Jatango J A Dixon H and Sinclair F L 2001 Local knowledge and livelihoods Tools for soils research and dissemination in Ghana School of Agricultural and Forest Sciences University of Wales Bangor Osorio N 2002 The Global Coffee Crisis A Threat to Sustainable Development ICO London UK Pagella T F Chalathon C Preechapanya P Moss C and Sinclair F L 2002 Local knowledge about watershed functions in Northern Thailand A guide to using 45 the Agroecological Knowledge Toolkit AKT School of Agricultural and Forest Sciences University of Wales Bangor Sinclair F L and Joshi L 2000 Taking local knowledge about trees seriously In Lawrence A Ed Forestry forest users and research new ways of learning ETFRN Series No 1 European Tropical Forest Research Network Vienna pp 45 61 Sinclair
5. translation Computers with modern versions of the Windows operating system will also be able to show the diagrams in Spanish Now let s look at Topics by selecting Topic Hierarchies from the KB drop down menu on the toolbar on the main AKTS screen or from the Welcome Memo dialog box Topic hierarchies Topics are ways of organising information around a particular subject e g Coffee and soil or Habitat for birds In Topic hierarchies specific knowledge can be grouped together as topics and arranged under more general headings e g Coffee and soil Coffee and water and Water and soil all fall under the general topic hierarchy of Trees and water infiltration On the left you can see a list of the topic hierarchies in the knowledge base Highlight Commonly held knowledge On the right you will see a dialog box with a column called Topics in hierarchy containing a list of all the topics in this topic hierarchy Next to this column you will see Commonly held knowledge highlighted in the Topic box and immediately below all the Immed Subtopics Select View Tree and scroll down the page this will show you the full topic hierarchy with all its subtopics Click on Close to go back to the previous window Now select Common knowledge of organic farmers from the Topics in hierarchy list You will see that it now appears in th
6. Duazo Prunus persica Many Goa Cuernavaca Solanum bansi Many God Coldepavot Cupania glabra May Goa __ 34 Mielero Undefined Many Good Inga jinicuil Undefined maio consen wey coos Muy cosa amarillo Undefined Good Many Good way May Geo morado Undefined 1 Good Many Good Cedrela odorata Few Good Many Good Syzygium jambos Gliricidia sepium Bad less smaller Mango Mangifera indica fruits Many Good Manilkara zapota Bad less smaller Aguacatillo Persea schiedeana fruits Many Good Colubrina guatemalensis Dendropanax arboreus Guazuma ulmifolia Cuje caspirol Saurauia laevigata These trees were said to also be present at regions lower than the coffee zone These trees were said to also be present at regions higher than the coffee zone Notes Zapote Calocarpum pachecoana array n Myrica cerifera anono Annona squamosa sandillo undefined jicarero undefined izote pony undefined frijolillo undefined and trueno undefined were trees that lacked growth and abundance information 35 Trees were not generally classified by farmers according to their usual growing range All of the tree classifications represented as object hierarchies in the knowledge base were applicable for high medium and low areas For instance stiff leaf trees were all the species that had leaves wit
7. F L and Walker D H 1998 Acquiring qualitative knowledge about complex agroecosystems Part 1 Representation as natural language Agricultural systems 56 pp 341 363 Sinclair F L and Walker D H 1999 A utilitarian approach to the incorporation of local knowledge in agroforestry research and extension In L E Buck J P Lassoie and E C M Fernandes Eds Agroforestry in Sustainable Agricultural Systems Lewis Publishers New York pp 245 275 Waliszewski W S Mabote R and Sinclair F L 2003 Local ecological knowledge about rangeland agroecology in the highlands of Lesotho A guide to using the Agroecological knowledge Toolkit AKT School of Agricultural and Forest Sciences University of Wales Bangor Walker D H and Sinclair F L 1998 Acquiring qualitative knowledge about complex agroecosystems Part 2 Formal representation Agricultural systems 56 pp 365 386 46 Appendix 1 Tools for analysing the knowledge The Tools in 5 perform automated reasoning System tools come with the AKTS software whereas Other User Tools are developed with a specific knowledge base or collection of knowledge bases in mind in this case CAFNET knowledge bases The tools enable the user to analyse and compare knowledge in a much more powerful manner than would otherwise be possible using simple Boolean search operations Tools are used primarily for two distinct functions
8. an easy to cut stem when they fell and this was used as a barrier to avoid soil erosion and or just to increase soil organic matter Both banana and cuje trees were classified as fresh trees partly because of having roots that reduced soil erosion and contributed to soil having a good moisture content for coffee growing Caliente trees were generally perceived as bad shade trees for coffee because of their negative impacts on the crop causing a decrease in the health of coffee plants observed by farmers as the amount and colour of the leaves and the yield of the plants Timber quality was an additional attribute that was used to classify trees as caliente besides canopy type leaf and root texture and amount of roots Despite the negative impacts they often had on coffee productivity these trees were often found on coffee farms in low abundance The main reason for keeping caliente trees Figure 12 was for the provisioning services they could provide mostly in the form of timber and fuelwood caliente trees american sweetgum cola de pavo cordoncillo cypress durasnillo mano de leon pine trees pino blanco pino colorado roble cabo de hacha encino blanco encino negro white stopper Figure 12 Shows the caliente trees object hierarchy with its subobjects of cola de pavo white stopper and pine trees Cola de pavo was used by some farmers as a temporary shade tree in coffee plantations while cuje trees were in
9. collections of knowledge Close all open dialog boxes and return to the main AKTS screen All knowledge in the knowledge base is represented by statements we call these the basic units of the knowledge base There are 4 different types of statement Attribute statements tell you about the properties attributes of something they are descriptive Causal statements give you information about cause and effect relationships Comparison statements compare the properties of two objects Link statements represent any connections between objects that cannot be represented using the other statement types Please be aware that AKTS automatically generates a natural language translation in stylised 13 English and that the same process will apply for conversion into the other languages that are represented as synonyms This will be explained in the relevant sections below Object hierarchies What we refer to as objects are words used to refer to material or conceptual things e g pests soil trees birds policy Object hierarchies are another way of organising knowledge by arranging specific objects under more general headings these also have to be object terms e g cola de pavo cuernavaca rboles cuje and guaychipilin are all types of tree classified as rboles con hojas suaves soft leaved trees by farmers Therefore cola de pavo cuernavaca cuje trees and guaychipilin are all subobjects of the object
10. the process of being grown as the main shade trees This caliente tree was primarily used because it was a fast growing tree and its branches could be utilised for building coffee nurseries Likewise tasiscovo otherwise known as white stopper or Perymenium grande was kept within coffee plantations even though it was said that it did not support coffee growth this tree was used for its wood in making fences and wooden posts Pine trees Pinus spp were also caliente trees that could be found on some farms grown for their valuable timber 25 Medium trees is given as a term for the trees that farmers did not classify as either fresh or caliente These trees were also used as shade trees but were neither strongly positive nor negative in their effects upon coffee productivity Palma Sabal mexicana and nispero otherwise known as loquat or Eryobotrya japonica can both be given as examples of this type of tree that was found in relative abundance on coffee plantations they were stated as not providing ideal conditions for coffee plants but neither where they causing negative effects They also had an impact on farmer livelihoods because they both provided a food source and palma leaves were used as building material 4 1 3 Summary There are many object hierarchies within the knowledge base that collect together knowledge about trees and their attributes and many of the classifications are opposites of another e g f
11. 1 to facilitate the development of knowledge bases and 2 knowledge base exploration especially when there is more than one knowledge base to be interrogated at the same time Table 8 Useful tools for CAFNET knowledge bases Name of Tool Description Tool Location knowledge_base_report Produces a report that summarises the main Kb content System tools Knowledge Evaluation formal terms table Tabulated output that shows all formal terms and their presence across all open Kbs System tools Comparative Analysis interactions amongst components Tabulated output that shows the number of interactions between object hierarchies or singular objects within the Kb statements Other User Tools cafnet tool file phenology analysis Comparative analysis tool that pulls up all common topics across Kbs and presents the topic search terms e g flowering pollinating with their associated objects attributes and values in a tabulated output Other User Tools cafnet tool file get components Kb Objects Synonyms Pulls up all selected objects and their Other User Tools cafnet tool file 47 synonyms get_objects Kb Objects Pulls up all selected objects with their subobjects and or superobjects depending on user specified search criteria Other User Tools cafnet_tool file hierarchic_objects_usage Compares objects across object hier
12. El Hato Watershed Greater explanation regarding the AKT5 methodology and the steps to creating a knowledge base can be found in the comprehensive user manual written by Dixon et al 2001 The principles of knowledge base creation have been explained by Sinclair and Walker 1998 and Walker and Sinclair 1998 how this approach applies within a natural resource management context is discussed by Sinclair and Walker 1999 and Sinclair and Joshi 2000 The software and manual can be downloaded from the AKT5 website at http akt bangor ac uk 1 2 Consulting knowledge bases Local knowledge can help researchers and development workers explain the rationale behind farmers actions and can contribute towards more effective decision making in developing appropriate strategies for particular development issues Knowledge bases can be consulted by e viewing sets of statements that fall under specific topics e using search facilities within AKT to find out the details of particular terms words e generating diagrams from statements and using these to investigate causal relationships and e using customised tools small computer programs that are incorporated into AKTS that interrogate and reason with the knowledge base 1 3 The Agro ecological Knowledge Toolkit AKT5 1 3 1 What is AKT5 AKTS is a methodology and software that enables the user to create a knowledge base about a chosen domain which is shaped by the topic of the knowledge
13. Local Knowledge of Coffee Productivity Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Coffee Plantations in El Hato Watershed Guatemala A GUIDE TO USING THE CAFNET GUATEMALA KNOWLEDGE BASE Ns vi M zu P A M Ve t Plate 1 Interviewing on a coffee farm in El Hato Watershed Photograph taken by Rudy del Cid August 2008 C Cerd n G Lamond E Martin T Pagella G Soto F L Sinclair School of Environment and Natural Resources Bangor University Gwynedd Wales UK LL57 2UW Centro Agron mico Tropical de Investigaci n y Ensefianza Turrialba Costa Rica Acknowledgements This work is funded as part of the European Commission s CAFNET project with its primary focus on connecting enhancing and sustaining environmental services and market values of coffee agroforestry in Central America East Africa and India CAFNET unpub 2007 The European Commission cannot accept responsibility for any information provided or views expressed The AKTS software was initially developed as an integral part of a suite of research projects funded by the UK Department for International Development DFID for the benefit of developing countries Forestry Research Programme R7431 R6322 R7264 Natural Resources Systems Programme R7516 Livestock Production Programme R7637 but DFID bear no responsibility for any information provided or views expressed Recently 5 development h
14. The knowledge farmers had of their own local area and other altitudinal ranges in terms of tree species abundance and growth is represented in Table 5 4 3 1 Climatic conditions and farming practices Altitude gradient was an important factor to take into consideration when talking about temporal aspects of coffee management within the El Hato Watershed because of the variation in climatic conditions and vegetation that different farming communities were living with farming practices were taking place across slightly different time spans Figure 15 Coffee management for the different areas in El Hato Watershed Guatemala w ea a EESIIESIEES Harvest st nd Panaleo_ 1 cut__ 279 cut Repepena i cut 2 cut _ Panaleo posa tn Panaleo Tree and coffee pruning Weeds control r PM Fertilisatio __ MENS Tr Frosts Rainy season Figure 15 Showing coffee management variation across three identified areas within the coffee zone of El Hato Watershed The low medium and high areas were identified by a coffee technician and then confirmed during on farm interviews when farmers gave details of their seasonal farming practices The altitude of the El Hato Watershed region was between approx 300 meters to above 2400 at the head of the protected area with the majority of coffee plantations situated between 900 and 1600 meters above sea l
15. all medium birds and snakes Upper Tall trees Large birds and squirrels 27 While different structural levels were said to provide habitat for different fauna farmers recognised that other spatial features across strata within coffee farms were also important for particular species with each feature providing a unique habitat An example of this would be the thickets that grew on the edge of coffee farms these were said to be used by species such as the paisana also locally known as fais n translates in English as pheasant Attributes of different trees were also observed to influence which species used them for example tasiscovo with its straight branches attracted squirrels Kb statement no 131 and mano de leon with its open crown was preferred by some birds because it meant they could fly from their nests easily Kb statement no 181 Farmers said that in general trees with dense crowns provided protection for birds against the elements and predators They emphasised however that each bird or animal would have its own requirements and preferences so dense crowned trees would not suit all Phenological attributes of trees such as timing of fruiting were considered major factors in attracting mammals and birds to coffee farms throughout the seasons Kb statements no 136 137 and 158 particularly if there was a high abundance of sweet fruits such as those of nispero amate and capulin trees Kb statement no 586
16. an click on the thumbnail to enlarge the picture to see it more clearly Understanding the Formal Term Details box Figure 4 Part of This dialog box shows if the formal term is a part of something else e g leaves are a part of trees Parts This shows if a formal term has parts that are represented in statements In the example given above there are statements about the part copas of cuje trees Definition Provides further information about the formal term Synonyms Lists the synonyms attached to a specific formal term During knowledge base development in Guatemala the standard practice has been to include the first synonym as the Spanish translation The second synonym is the scientific name Where possible all plants and animals have scientific names entered as their synonyms because of the differences possible in local terminology In the case of no English equivalent the Spanish term is used Now select Show use in hierarchies You will see that arboles_cuje appears in many object hierarchies Figure 5 Select OK WIN PROLOG f x cuje_trees is a member of the following object hierarchies todos los rboles rboles con pocas ra ces rboles_cuje rboles de hojas suaves rboles frescos rboles perenes rboles que pierden hojas rboles usados para Figure 5 Object hierarchy details of formal term 15 Click on Show use in statements The 12 statements tha
17. archies and shows which hierarchies they appear in Other User Tools cafnet_tool file hierarchical_actions_and_processes Shows the actions and processes associated with the objects within a selected object hierarchy Other User Tools cafnet_tool file 48 Appendix 2 Glossary Table 9 Key terminology and concepts using AKTS AKTS term Description Action A type of formal term used to refer to a human activity usually for the purpose of managing crops or livestock e g weeding or planting AKTS Agroecological Knowledge Toolkit a methodology and software for creating knowledge bases Attribute A type of formal term used to describe an object process or action Attributes generally measurable e g height colour frequency rate gradient temperature Boolean Search A keyword search mechanism for retrieving statements containing particular key words Any combination of words may be used in conjunction with AND and OR Causal statement A statement about the causal relationships between two objects processes or actions Comparison A type of formal term used in comparison statements Comparison statement A type of statement that compares the properties of two objects Conditions The conditions that need to be in place for a specific statement to be true Control structures When working with tools program segments wit
18. ary 5 References Appendix 1 Tools for analysing the knowledge Appendix 2 Glossary Appendix 3 Full ecosystem services table Appendix 4 Trees and their impacts on soil and water ii iii iii iii ONA O ONA j j O N tS List of Figures Figure 1 Phenology of tree and plant species topic hierarchy Figure 2 Dense crown trees object hierarchy Figure 3 Tools menu Figure 4 Formal terms detail box Figure 5 Object hierarchy details of formal term Figure 6 Hojas diagram Figure 7 Statement details dialog box Figure 8 Diagram options Figure 9 Boolean search dialog box Figure 10 Search options dialog box Figure 11 Fresh trees object hierarchy Figure 12 Caliente trees object hierarchy Figure 13 Causal diagram of bird nesting locations Figure 14 Causal diagram of interactions between specific species Figure 15 Coffee management across a year in different areas of El Hato Watershed Figure 16 Topic hierarchy of Trees and water infiltration Figure 17 Causal diagram of interactions between trees water and coffee Table 1 Table 2 Table 3 Table 4 Table 5 Table 6 Table 7 Table 8 Table 9 List of Tables Location and climatic zones of the sources from cafnet guatemala Kb Size of coffee farms and associated statements from cafnet guatemala Kb Ecosystem services table Habitat strata within coffee farms Differences in tree species accordi
19. as primarily been supported by CAFNET project funding and has undergone many changes in addition specific tools have been designed and developed for the project knowledge bases by James Doores Tim Pagella Genevieve Lamond and Fergus Sinclair CAFNET Guatemala local knowledge research has been carried out with the support of the Tropical Agriculture Research and Higher Education Centre CATIE in Costa Rica and Bangor University in Wales UK Support from the CAFNET local partners Guatemalan Coffee Association ANACAFE ADIPSA farmers organization Asociaci n de Desaroolo Integral Progresista de San Agustin Acasaguastl n and Defensores de la Naturaleza Foundation was essential during the research period A special mention to Rudy del Cid for his support and valuable company during the fieldwork phase This guide uses an approach that was pioneered in Ghana Moss et al 2001 to introduce first time users of AKTS to existing knowledge bases and it was subsequently used in Thailand Pagella et al 2002 and Lesotho Waliszewski et al 2003 The template for this document was used by kind permission of the authors of these previous documents The software itself has been developed over many years primarily by Knowledge Engineer James Doores in collaboration with Edinburgh University in Scotland UK Table of Contents Acknowledgements Table of Contents List of Figures List of Tables List of Plates 1 Local knowledge of coffee producti
20. ast growing trees and slow growing trees small leaf trees and large leaf trees dense crown trees and sparse crown trees Farmers were classifying trees according to observable differences and the agro ecological interactions as a result of such attributes Through understanding these classification systems it is possible to see which trees are capable of providing particular ecosystem services and how farmers use them in the farming landscape Tools Useful AKTS tools e Cafnet tool hierarchic objects usage Can be used to see the object hierarchies that particular trees appear in e Knowledge evaluation tool object hierarchies found in AKTS5 Tools System Tools Knowledge Evaluation Can be used to see the number of statements attached to each object hierarchy It is vital to note that the number of statements does not indicate the level of utility that those statements might represent there might be few statements of great utility in comparison to many statements of less useful knowledge 26 4 2 Interactions between flora and fauna in coffee farms Farmers described all the various taxa and species they identified as being from the coffee zone rather than the cloud forest areas Forest species were said not to visit the coffee farms both because they were adapted to the cooler climate at higher altitude and due to the greater inhabitation by people in the cultivated areas Aside from forest speci
21. ation as it exists within the knowledge base Across the El Hato watershed farmers managed the trees within their coffee plantations in different ways Farmers in low areas kept a higher number of shade trees and the level of pruning was less than in upper areas particularly in the case of Inga spp Low level pruning was carried out to keep soil moisture at a level conducive for coffee growing during the dry season high level pruning would let too much sunlight penetrate the canopy and dry the soil Figure 17 Farms in higher areas were pruning their shade trees more severely in order to decrease the likelihood of fungal diseases occurring Plate 5 area Photograph taken by Carlos Cerd n August 2008 37 At a farm scale farmers did not plant trees in a particular way to exploit their ability to draw water up from deep in the ground or help rain water infiltrate the soil However they were very careful in the case of trees around natural springs and streams and often left the trees alone that naturally grew in those locations Farmers had detailed knowledge of the specific species that were useful for protecting water sources represented in Table 6 Farmers knew that if they wanted to enhance water provisioning services they should keep shade trees within coffee plantations and reduce the severity of pruning the shade trees They were very clear in their thinking that cutting down trees in order to establish any kin
22. base the research area and the people chosen to be interviewed In this case people who manage and work in coffee plantations were interviewed in order to collect local knowledge of coffee productivity biodiversity and ecosystem services in coffee plantations in El Hato Watershed A knowledge base is built up by collating knowledge about a chosen topic from a variety of sources usually farmers scientists extension workers and scientific literature So far AKTS has been used primarily as an analytical research tool to explore the extent and nature of agro ecological knowledge at a wide range of localities This has led to profound changes in the way that research and extension are planned in areas of Africa Kenya Tanzania Ghana and Cameroon Asia Nepal Thailand Sri Lanka and Indonesia and Latin America Colombia Costa Rica and Nicaragua as well as forming the basis for successful participatory crop improvement and the development of decision support tools for the production of extension materials tailored to farmer circumstances When local knowledge is explicitly stored within a knowledge base it can then be consulted by natural resource scientists policy makers and development workers in a variety of ways to help them meet their own objectives 1 3 2 What is knowledge To define knowledge is to enter a philosophical minefield nevertheless an explicit definition is required in this context For the purposes of AKT5 knowledg
23. ces mainly because the natural growth of the species was observed to be in humid places Furthermore yaje Acacia acanthophylla was a fresh tree but was only considered a fine tree for protecting water sources and caulote Guazuma ulmifolia which does not fit into either of the fresh or caliente classifications was also considered a fine tree for protecting water sources In the case of the trees that were not seen to be protecting water peach Prunus persica and cola de pavo Cuprania glabra were both considered in this way the latter being a caliente tree and the former being a species that did not fit into either caliente or fresh categories Table 6 A sample of tree attributes in relation to water provisioning services Good means that the tree was said to decrease soil erosion maintain soil moisture and protect water sources The opposite is true for bad Trees with fine value meant that the impact was classed as negative but either because of their abundance or for another tree attribute their impact was not so bad overall Tree species Fresh or Impact on Impact Impact on water Caliente soil erosion soil moisture sources Piper adumcum Good Good Inga oerstediana Fresh Good Good Good Inga vera Fresh Good Good Good Inga laurina Fresh Good Good Good Inga edulis Fresh Goo
24. ces a tree could provide and whether those aspects outweighed any negative impacts on coffee plants or alternatively whether a trees positive impact on coffee outweighed the need for additional services from it It was generally regarded as better for farmers to have species that provided few services but did not impact negatively on the coffee plants Usually if farms were big enough there were separate areas designated for timber trees forests and coffee plants to avoid competition that would adversely impact upon coffee productivity 4 5 1 Discussion of Table 7 The main damage that trees were seen as causing to coffee plants were related to soil aspects competition for nutrients or water decrements in soil quality fertility structure moisture Sun light availability was also mentioned especially with trees that had large dense crowns Positive impacts were mainly related with organic matter deposition which was improving the soil condition for coffee plants Some trees that had negative effects on coffee plants could also be found within plantations The presence of these trees was explained either due to necessary goods they were providing the farmer or just because elimination of them could be complicated felling trees could cause more damage than keeping them in the landscape Trees with negative effects on coffee were at the same time providing important resources for farmers The most common trade off between coffee productivi
25. ctices and indicates some of the short and long term trade offs that were evident on many of the coffee plantations in EL Hato Watershed Abundance of particular tree species was not simply reliant on the number of services a tree could provide it was dependant on weightings of services according to individual farmers 4 1 Local classification of trees and their attributes The coffee farmers in EL Hato Watershed had a complex classification system of trees according to physical attributes and the impacts the trees were observed to have when intercropped within coffee plantations Many trees were utilised for a specific purpose by farmers i e food timber fuelwood shading coffee but were also observed to impact on the environment in various ways that were secondary to the primary purpose 4 1 1 Discussion of ecosystem services table Table 3 shows the ecosystem services that were directly attributed to a sample of the most and least common trees found in the research sites The most common trees were largely considered to have a more positive effect on ecosystem service provision than the least common but it is important to mention here that not all services should be regarded as having the same weighting for coffee farmers discussed in more detail in section 4 4 A full list can be found in Appendix 3 21 Table 3 Ecosystem services table showing a sample of the most common and the least common shade trees with their as
26. d Good Good Inga jinicuil Fresh Good Good Good Quercus peduncularis Good Good Quercus sapotifolia Good Good Liquidambar styraciflua Good Good Good Syzygium spp Fine Good Good Pinus maximinoi Good Good Good Pinus oocarpa Good Good Good Manilkora zapota Fine Good Good Acacia acanthophylla Fresh Good Good Fine Guazuma ulmifolia 3 Good Fine Citrus sinensis Fine Fine Bad Citrus reticulata Fine Fine Bad Yucca elephantipes Good Bad Bad Vernonia patens Caliente Fine Fine Bad Zanthoxylum caribaum Bad Fine Bad Perymenium grande Caliente Fine Bad Bad Prunus persica Bad Bad Bad Ricinus communis Bad Bad Bad Colubrina guatemalensis Caliente Bad Bad Bad Cupania glabra Caliente Bad Bad Bad See Appendix 4 for a full table that shows all the trees that farmers mentioned in relation to soil and water 39 4 4 2 Summary Farmers showed a good understanding of which trees were useful in terms of decreasing soil erosion and maintaining soil moisture and deeper groundwater But the reasons for keeping particular trees on coffee plantations was not always for these purposes a tree would often have to prove itself useful in additional ways to be kept there for example providing a food source Where there was an important water source however farmers were more careful and did not tend to disturb the natural species composition around these areas incase it led to a diminishing water supply Within coffee p
27. d by 5 from the formal language to a natural language computer stylised translation Navigate A command used when working with diagrams that adds to a diagram all the causal nodes immediately associated with a user selected node Node Causal and link statements can be represented on a diagram by two nodes connected by a link A node is the diagrammatic representation of one half of a causal or link statement and appears as a rectangular or circular box There are four types of node 1 objects ii processes ili actions and iv attributes of either objects processes or actions Object A type of formal term used to refer to a material or conceptual thing e g pests shade trees or coffee plantation Object hierarchy A way of organising knowledge about specific objects under more generic terms e g avocado trees and bananas are all types of fruit tree Primitives Small program segments within 5 employed for running a tool Process A type of formal term used to refer to a change or a flux in the natural world e g decomposition erosion Prolog WinProlog An artificial intelligence programming language used for developing AKTS software Source The origin of the information contained within a statement There are two types of sources interview sources and reference sources Subobject of an object An object that appears below another object in an objec
28. d of San Agustin Acasaguastlan Municipality El Progreso Department Guatemala The El Hato Watershed is one of many watersheds that feed into the River Montagua and it covers a percentage of the land area of the Sierra de Las Minas Biosphere Reserve This reserve is the second largest protected area in Guatemala and is noted for its high species diversity with 2000 species having been recorded including endemic species which number at least 70 IARNA et al 2006 The range in altitude from 250 to 2 600 m asl from the River Montagua at the bottom of the valley to the Sierra de Las Minas also means there is a great number of micro environments with associated species Ellis and Taylor 2007 The proximity of this particular watershed to Sierra de Las Minas the range of climatic zones present in the area and the lack of coffee producer organisation for both conventional and organic farmers within the EI Hato Watershed were factors contributing to its selection Coffee in this area was mainly planted under the shade of Inga spp a leguminous native tree species Additionally some other native and exotic trees would often form part of the shade canopy in order for the farmers to obtain fruits timber or firewood In some parts of the watershed cardamom Eletaria cardamomum was also intercropped with coffee Plate 2 Coffee under Inga spp trees in El Carmen community within El Hato Watershed Photograph taken by Carlos Cerd n Augus
29. d of crops would reduce water provisioning services Undergrowth was not encouraged in coffee plantations for water provisioning or soil stability ouilete Solanum nigrescens and chipilin Crotalaria longirostrata were the two main weeds kept within plantations but they were kept because of their edible properties and not for any reason related to soil or water services rainfall level sun erg roots eaf litter intercepting ainfall all trees crown soil 7 water _ soil permeability infiltrating moisture lewel rate soil lowering coffee plants maturing coffee plants fruit amount rat raindrop size leaf litter amount all trees height Figure 17 Causal diagram representing farmers knowledge of trees water and impacts on coffee Nodes represent natural processes ovals or attributes of objects processes or actions boxes with straight edges Arrows connecting nodes denote the direction of causal influence 4 4 1 Discussion of Table 6 Many of the trees that were classified as fresh were thought to be good for water whereas caliente trees translated as hot trees were strongly related to low protection of water However as indicated in Table 6 such attributes could not be applied to all caliente trees or all fresh trees 38 For instance cordoncillo Piper adumcum was classed as a caliente tree but some farmers perceived it as a good tree for protecting water sour
30. e Topic box with Commonly held knowledge specified as the Supertopic above it and High organic farmers specified as one of the Immed Subtopics below it Close this dialog box to return to the Topic Hierarchies box Now highlight in turn each topic hierarchy listed under Topic Hierarchies Answer the following question Question What topics are shown to be in the topic hierarchy Phenology of tree and plant species Click on Close on both dialog boxes to return to the Welcome Memo and Close again to arrive at the main AKTS screen Sources Sources tell you the origin of a statement All statements have a source which can be of 2 types an interview with a person e g a farmer or a literature reference e g a 12 journal article In the case of the Guatemalan knowledge base all the sources are people directly working with coffee Go to the tool bar on the main AKTS screen top left and select Sources from the KB drop down menu On the left is a list of all the sources interviewed for the knowledge base Let us look at one of them Highlight the name Alberto Albizures 2008a and click on Details A dialog box appears giving you the name of the person interviewed the interviewer s and date of interview You are also given the gender occupation age and a location which is their community of residence Furthermore the coffee plantation size of
31. e composition and diversity of tree species planted with coffee small producers were likely to retain more shade trees within coffee plantations to supplement their income and for subsistence purposes While most of the coffee farms were located in communities at a high altitudinal range in the watershed coffee was also being produced on plantations that experienced a warmer and drier climate due to altitude and or micro climatic conditions Informants were selected accordingly in order to obtain local agro ecological knowledge from farmers who were producing coffee under various climatic conditions Differences in composition of tree species and management of coffee were deemed likely While the majority of the coffee farms in the watershed were conventional i e made use of chemical fertilisers there were also some organic coffee farms The absence of chemical inputs and consequent possible differences in management made stratification along these lines seem reasonable 2 3 3 Compilation of the knowledge base Interviews with key informants were held on coffee plantations where possible and lasted no more than an hour unless the informant was keen to continue The interviews were informal and semi structured using non leading questions in order to elicit informants knowledge rather than influence answers manzana is equal to 0 69 hectares Notes were taken and digital recording devices were used where permission was granted thi
32. e are explained in this publication because the software is used for both creating and accessing knowledge bases The User Manual Dixon et al 2001 provides a more comprehensive guide to the software and how to create your own knowledge base 3 2 A quick sightseeing tour around 5 This quick tour around AKTS with the cafnet_guatemala knowledge base is designed to help familiarise you with the AKTS software and the ways in which you can manipulate a knowledge base Getting Started 1 Install and then load the 5 program onto your computer by clicking on the appropriate icon from the Start menu 2 Always start AKTS and then load a knowledge base never start by clicking on Kb file to open 3 Open the cafnet_guatemala by selecting KB from the tool bar at the top of the page clicking on Open Kb then selecting the cafnet_guatemala from its saved location and clicking on Open 10 Welcome Dialog Box Read the Welcome Memo dialog box to get an idea of what the knowledge base is about Select Further Details to find out where when and how the knowledge base was made Click on Pictures Diagrams read the text at the top and then view each picture by clicking on it When you have finished with each picture diagram click on the X in the top right corner to close the dialog box The diagrams provide background information about the livelihoods of the farmers who participated in the resea
33. e is the outcome of the interpretation of data whereas data is recorded observations that may be either qualitative or quantitative Knowledge in this context could be called interpreted observations that are often shared within and across farming communities Knowledge is distinct from understanding which is a result of the interpretation of knowledge or data and is specific to the interpreter These definitions are more fully discussed in Sinclair and Walker 1999 1 3 3 What is a knowledge base A knowledge base is a store of knowledge that consists of a collection of statements and locally defined taxonomic relationships created using AKTS software Each statement is tagged referenced with its source of knowledge this could be a singular person a number of people if it came from a group interview or a literature reference The knowledge is organised according to a number of principles e topics arrange knowledge around specific subject areas e g flowering of tree and plant species Topic hierarchies gather similar topics under an umbrella title e g pollination of tree and plant species flowering of tree and plant species and fruiting of tree and plant species all fall under the broader topic of phenology of tree and plant species Figure 1 and e object hierarchies organise knowledge about specific objects under umbrella terms e g american sweetgum avocado trees with its own subobjec
34. eibilo Ceibaaesculifoia Many Good Many Tasiscovo Perymenium grande Many Good May Pinoblancof Pinus maximinoi Many May God Cordoncillo Piperadumcum Good May God Palma Sabal mexicana May Good May Cabodehacha Trichilia americana Many Good Many Ciprest Cupressus lusitanica Many Goo Few God Guaychipilin Diphysaamericana Many Good Few God Cue May Go Fw God Capulin comestible Muntingia calabura Few God Encinoblanco Quercus peduncularis Many Good Few God Capulint Tremamicrantha Many God Fw God Zapot n Swietenia humilis Many God Few God Naranjilla Zanthoxylum caribaum Many Good Few God Am _ ue Aguacate Persea americana Many Good Few fruits co m sew w Chaperno minimiflorus Few Good Many Good Encino negro Quercus sapotifolia Few Good Many God J Matasano Casimiroa edulis Many Goa J o __ Cedro de monta at Cedrela tonduzii Many Goa o Gmvilea Grevillea robusta Many God __ Cinconegro Lantanacamara Many God __ Balsamo Liquidambar styraciflua Many Goa J o
35. eive less sunlight than a plantation located on flat land The different climatic conditions apparent in the research area needed to be taken into account when looking at local agro ecological knowledge because of the impact this was having on coffee management and possibly different species of plant and animal species found on farms Farmers said that during the dry season the weather was hottest in low areas and to keep the coffee plants in a healthy condition more shade and more organic matter was required in these areas to maintain moisture content of the soil Shading of coffee was deemed to be less advantageous in high areas because of the level of cloud apparent in these places but shade trees were still valued particularly at specific times of the year For example at the end of the rainy season shade trees were stated as helping to reduce the damage that coffee plants could suffer from frosts in the high areas Figure 15 shows how the rainy season was said to be spread across the months slightly differently in each area and indicates how these differences were influencing coffee management practices The rainy season was finishing later in the high areas and because of this farmers were harvesting their coffee up to two months later than in the lower areas 4 3 2 Climatic conditions and tree species variation In addition to temporal variation of management practices there were differences in abundance and presence of tree species
36. es there were many animals farmers used this term to mean mammals and birds that foraged and nested in coffee farms in the research area But informants highlighted a decrease in certain mammal populations due to hunting namely tepezcuintles Cuniculus paca deer tacuasines Didelphis marsupialis mapaches Procyon lotor armadillos Dasypus novemcinctus and rabbits Oryctolagus spp excessive hunting of tepezcuintles had led to them being classed as endangered Trees and understory plants within coffee farms were understood to attract particular species of animals birds and insects to live and or feed there they were observed to take advantage of the various vegetative layers that coffee farms were composed of Depending on farming practices such habitat strata were observed to provide many nesting and feeding opportunities as well as protection against predators Plate 4 Although not discussed in terms of its role in maintaining and increasing biodiversity farmers identified the preferred habitat for a number of species as being at a specific stratum Table 4 ka _ E Kj Plate 4 A bird nest at ground level in a coffee farm in Las Parcelas community Photograph taken by Emma Martin July 2007 Table 4 Habitat strata within coffee farms Stratum Habitat features Associated fauna Ground Soil stones weeds leaf litter caves Small birds rodents bats and snakes Middle Coffee plants and thickets Sm
37. ether it impacted negatively or positively on a farmer s livelihood As their major source of cash income coffee was the main concern of farmers and trees that had the potential to negatively affect coffee productivity were the least desired shade trees 4 1 2 Shade tree classifications Many trees were classified according to the shade quality they had the potential to provide for coffee there were fresh trees arboles frescos and caliente trees arboles calientes largely specified by farmers as having good and bad shade tree attributes Fresh and caliente trees were positioned at the opposite ends of a spectrum and there were trees that did not fit into either classification system because of their more neutral impacts on coffee Canopy type leaf and root texture and amount of roots were all attributes that determined which trees were termed as fresh or caliente There was a mixture of all these trees across coffee plantations depending on farmers livelihood needs and whether particular tree attributes outweighed others in relation to these needs Fresh trees were the highly desirable shade trees being perceived as providing ideal microclimate conditions for coffee growing The most common species described by coffee farmers were cuje Inga vera cuje caspirol Inga laurina cuje cushin Inga oerstediana cuje grande Inga edulis and cuje paterna Inga jinicuil These species were clas
38. evel This coffee friendly altitudinal range 31 was found in an area of less than 15 kilometres meaning that farmers could easily compare what was happening on their coffee farms to distinct neighbouring farms In a similar way to Holdridge 1967 coffee farmers made distinctions between agroecological zones shown in Figure 15 and generally classified the surrounding area into four types low areas where coffee did not grow low areas conducive to growing coffee high areas conducive to growing coffee and high areas where coffee did not grow However these identified zones should not be regarded as exclusive because overlapping the high and low areas where coffee was able to grow some farmers recognised a medium area The farmers description of coffee growing zones was closely related to altitude but there were more complex layers influencing why a farm would be regarded as being in a high medium or low area The location within the watershed and topography factors could be seen as influencing the weather patterns and these combined with altitude were creating the various climatic conditions that farmers were working under to produce coffee A few examples can be given to show how topography can heavily influence a coffee plantation e If there is a mountain directly in front of a plantation then the amount of daylight hours will be reduced e Ifa plantation is on steeply sloped land it will rec
39. fferent sized farms As can be noted the majority of interviews took place in High communities and with small farmers who had between 0 5 manzanas dedicated to coffee There are a total of 654 statements in the Kb with 576 of these demonstrating causal relationships A high number of causal statements would indicate a fairly high level of explanatory knowledge that was able to be articulated by the coffee farmers Out of the 654 statements there are 136 conditions attached to statements this means that there are particular conditions that need to be in place for the statement to be applicable and these should be considered carefully when analysing the knowledge base Location Climatic zone according No of No of associated to management practices informants statements El Carmen High 6 203 La High 7 226 Hierbabuena Las Parcelas High 6 156 Las Delicias Medium high 1 3 Los Balsamos Medium high 1 70 El Terraplen Medium 2 48 Los Albores Low 3 143 EI Cimiento Low 3 91 Table 1 Location and climatic zones of the sources from guatemala Kb Table 2 Size of coffee farms and associated statements from cafnet guatemala Kb Size of coffee farm No of informants No of associated statements cafetal 0 5 manzanas 20 441 Above5 10 manzanas 6 253 Above 10 manzanas 3 110 Within the Kb there are number of object hierarchies and topic hierarchies that have been created to enable the user to search chunks of knowledge much
40. field this will change the current formal terms to their first position synonyms Once you have done this select Continue and wait for the tool to run for large knowledge bases this can take a few minutes Where there is no synonym available in position 1 the term will keep its original name in the main Kb language When the tool has finished running a Tool output is produced which tells you it has successfully carried out transposing the terms Click on Close to close the window and then click on X to close the list of tools and return to the main AKTS screen To return to the original format i e the English script you would need to use the tool 4 This is achieved by utilisation of the synonym function of AKTS program This allows substitution of all the main language formal terms for a listed synonym Switching formal term synonym positions requires the use of an AKTS system tool 11 restore_original_terms Kb which is found in the same list of tools as transpose formal terms and synonyms Kb Position When viewing the statements and diagrams after converting the knowledge base into Spanish script you will see that some words remain in English These are reserved words that have restricted meaning within the AKT5 system Topics topic hierarchies and sources cannot be switched using this tool and will remain in the main Kb language It is only formal terms and statements which can be viewed in the Spanish
41. h a hard texture requiring a lengthy decomposition time in order to produce organic matter that was enriching for the soil Some of these trees exclusively grew in the high areas for example cedro de montafia otherwise known as mountain cedar or Cedrela tonduzii some only in high and medium areas for example pino blanco Pinus maximinoi and others grew in all the three areas such as jocote Spondias mombin There were also some species that were said to grow in greater abundance in two of the areas and with less presence in the third two of these tree species were guarumbo Cecropia obstusifolia and nispero Eryobotria japonica they were both common in the high and medium areas but far less would be found growing in low areas Table 5 Farmers understood that altitude was not the only factor influencing tree species composition across different areas they also recognised that land use and vegetation type was a factor that encouraged the presence of specific species Some tree species were stated as not being able to grow in primary forest but could grow in coffee plantations For instance amate Ficus glabrata capulin comestible Muntingia calabura and cola de pavo Cupania glabra were not able to grow in the forest areas but were able to naturally regenerate within coffee plantations particularly if herbicides were not applied to control weeds Alternatively zapot n Swietenia humilis was mentioned as a species that was not ab
42. hade trees intercropped with coffee The services a coffee plantation was able to provide depended on decisions revolving around the amount of trees the diversity of trees and also the time and way in which trees would be kept within the farm as a temporal tree permanent tree or a tree with high level pruning 44 5 References CAFNET unpub 2007 Annex 1 Description of the Action European Commission Grant Application Form Programme on Environment in Developing Countries CEPAL Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Organization 2002 Centroam rica El impacto de la ca da de los precios del caf Series Estudios y Perspectivas No 9 pp 61 Dixon H J Doores J W Joshi L and Sinclair F L 2001 Agroecological Knowledge Toolkit for Windows Methodological guidelines computer software and manual for AKTS School of Agricultural and Forest Sciences University of Wales Bangor Ellis C and Taylor T 2007 Entre pinos y cactus San Agust n Acasaguastl n un perfil ADIPSA Guatemala Holdridge L R 1967 Life zone ecology Tropical Science Center San Jos Costa Rica IARNA URL and IIA 2006 Perfil Ambiental de Guatemala Tendencias y reflexiones sobre la gesti n ambiental Instituto de Agricultura Recursos Naturales y Ambiente Universidad Rafael Land var Asociaci n Instituto de Incidencia Ambiental ICAFE Coffee Costa Rican Institute 2005
43. he services that people could easily perceive were biodiversity conservation water provision maintenance of soil and weather regulation Natural forest was considered the ideal land use in terms of environment and maintaining a healthy ecosystem while coffee agroforestry plantations were second ranked particularly if they were intercropped with a considerable amount of shade trees Farmers stated that not all coffee plantations were providing the same amount of ecosystem services the main differences being the amount of trees location and size of farms Last in rank for ecosystem service provision were beans maize and tomatoes plantations This was primarily due to the fact these crops were not intercropped as they had low tolerance for shade Even when coffee was the main cash crop maize and beans were frequently grown on separate plots for self consumption During the research period tomato plantations were increasingly being established and people could compare the effect of these plantations with coffee in relation to ecosystem services Farmers mentioned that crop plantation establishment led to a double problem first because forestry areas were cleared to establish them and secondly because these crops were not providing ecosystem services other than for farmers livelihoods Plantations were said to often cause erosion and degradation of soil as well as having high water requirements in areas where little was available and o
44. hin AKT5 which control when and upon what knowledge primitives are used Data A set of observations which may be quantitative or qualitative Derivation The origin of the information given by a source e g observed hearsay unknown Diagram A way of graphically representing causal and link statements Formal language The restricted syntax grammar by which knowledge is entered into AKT5 Formal term Terms words that constitue a formal language statement that do not belong to the reserved AKTS grammar Knowledge The outcome independent of the interpreter of the interpretation of data or information Knowledge base Kb An articulated and defined set of knowledge stored on a computer which can be accessed and processed systematically Link a A type of formal term used in a link statement b On a diagram the connection between two nodes represented by an arrow Link statement A type of statement used to represent knowledge 49 that cannot be represented by any other type of statement Local knowledge Knowledge based on locally derived understanding formed by experience and observation Memo A facility within AKTS which provides the Kb creator with space to add any additional explanatory information about a knowledge base formal term statement bit map diagram topic Natural language statement A statement which has been automatically translate
45. ia acanthophylla all had roots that were said to combat soil erosion but not one of them was providing edible fruits for farmers diets 41 Table 7 A sample of trees their varying impacts on coffee productivity and the main reasons given by farmers for keeping them on farms Tree species Impact on coffee Reasons to keep in farm Inga spp Provide organic matter Protect coffee against sun rainfall and Shade coffee firewood easy frosts to prune and manage Soil maintenance Musa spp Provide organic matter Sii Soil maintenance Yucca elephantipes Soil maintenance Decrease soil moisture Decrease soil fertility Eryobotria japonica Soil maintenance Shade coffee fruits Chamaedorea spp Soil maintenance Sprouting eatable Sabal mexicana Soil maintenance Keep soil moisture Provide organic matter Acacia Soil maintenance acanthophylla Keep soil moisture Shade coffee Provide organic matter Persea americana Soil maintenance Keep soil moisture Provide organic matter More foliage than coffee requires Persea schiedeana Soil maintenance Keep soil moisture Provide organic matter More foliage than coffee requires Grevillea robusta Soil maintenance Keep soil moisture Shade coffee regular firewood Provide organic matter More soil moisture than coffee requires Birds eat fruits Guazuma ulmifolia Provide organ
46. iagram Then select the relevant statement in this case no 57 and click on Details From doing this you will see a dialog box that contains the natural language statement at the top and the formal language equivalent at the bottom Figure 7 Statement Details cafnet_guatemala E x Statement 57 Knowledge Base cafnet_quatemala Source Sources Derivation Arturo Albizures La Hierbabuena 2007 a perceived i Derivation Natural Language mispero hojas manteniendo calor causes cafeto hojas temp a S gt IF Formal Terms 1 dm mq OE Formal Language Statement Syntax Check Translate Auto grammar help Figure 7 Statement details dialog box Now click on Formal terms select nispero and then click on Details this will give you an explanation of the selected formal term Close all the dialog boxes to return to the diagram Statements are typed into the knowledge base as formal language statements using a formal grammar like a code specific to AKTS The AKTS program translates the formal language statements into stylised natural language equivalents Because of this computer generated translation some statements in the knowledge base do not sound like natural English 17 Show Paths Print indo WH i k Statements K Ff ects E Ffects S elect Diagram
47. ic matter if org i Regular firewood medicinal More foliage than coffee requires Cedrela odorata New species used within the area people has Timber Cedrela tonduzii not experience Liquidambar Soil maintenance Regular firewood regular styraciflua Competitive effect with coffee timber medicinal Erythrina berteroana Soil maintenance Keep soil moisture Shade coffee edible flower Provide organic matter Manilkora zapota Keep soil moisture Fruits timber firewood Perymenium grande Competitive effect with coffee Fences Casimiroa edulis Keep soil moisture Fruits More foliage than coffee requires Keep soil moisture Regular firewood sis Competitive effect with coffee Regular timber just branches Competitive effect with coffee Diphysa americana Soil maintenance Keep soil moisture Provide organic matter Fence edible flower avoid erosion Edible leaves used for building With high abundance Shade coffee fruits medicinal Shade coffee fruits With medium abundance With low abundance Good timber but few also it is difficult to manage 42 4 5 2 Coffee agroforestry in comparison to other land uses Farmers and the wider population from the research communities considered forest as the land use which provided the most ecosystem services especially if they were located in the higher areas and near to the rivers T
48. ightseeing tour it should now be possible to explore the knowledge base more thoroughly Some of the initial findings from the local knowledge research have been introduced below to help develop your skills in navigating around the knowledge base as well as add a bit more context to the research findings Tools that can aid your exploration of the knowledge are given where relevant at the end of each section some of these are explained in Appendix 1 Section 4 1 explores coffee farmers classification of trees in the research area of El Hato Watershed and links the attributes of trees with ecosystem services according to how farmers utilised and understood the trees they had on their coffee plantations Section 4 2 looks at interactions between faunal and floral species within coffee farms and the value of vertical complexity within coffee agroforesty systems as well as across strata Section 4 3 takes into consideration species differentiation across the coffee growing landscape and farming practices that were related not only to altitude but also to microclimatic conditions that were influenced by a range of factors according to farmers Section 4 4 summarises farmers knowledge about tree species impacts on soil stability and water sources the information was pulled out from the knowledge base and enhanced by tables developed outside of AKTS Section 4 5 shows the relationship between coffee productivity and agroforestry pra
49. ivelihoods and it is the second most valuable export commodity after petroleum Lashermes and Anthony 2007 Osorio 2002 The importance of coffee both as a cash crop and as a possible buffer crop around protected areas has been highlighted by the CAFNET project and the local knowledge research that has so far been carried out aims to lead to a better understanding of farming practices carried out by the coffee farmers who are an integral part of the system Ecosystem service provision can be considered an important indicator of sustainable land use practices and for example whereas most of the research on biodiversity in coffee systems has concentrated on documenting tree species richness and abundance by surveys and data collection M ndez et al 2006 the objective of this work was to document the knowledge held by those involved directly with coffee production This was in order to understand locally held perceptions of both floral and faunal diversity and agro ecological interactions within coffee systems For the local knowledge component of the CAFNET project the main objectives were 1 to document local agro ecological knowledge of coffee farmers on the diversity of species found within coffee plantations and the interactions between species in terms of productivity and sustainability and 2 to identify any key gaps in the knowledge held by coffee farmers or scientists and to pull out any contrasting or comparative knowledge bet
50. je paterna gliricidia pacaya yaje zapot n Figure 11 Shows the fresh trees object hierarchy with its subobjects of bananas and cuje trees Cuje trees and banana trees were the most common shade trees within coffee plantations and this was because they both had many desirable characteristics they were stated to be relatively easy to manage in terms of reproducing planting growing and pruning Organic matter obtained from cuje trees leaves was considered useful in different ways they were said to increase the fertility of the soil reduce the amount of weeds and therefore decrease labour requirements Furthermore the shading of coffee plants by cuje trees were thought to be beneficial due to humidity regulation protection against rainfall sun and fog Effective management of shade was observed to be a major factor of influence upon two important drivers of coffee productivity the severity of fungal diseases and the yield of coffee fruits Even though cuje trees were not considered as providing the best firewood the use of it for this purpose was still evident and people considered it a beneficial species because of this Likewise banana species were observed to have a very high impact on farmer 24 livelihoods because their fruits were widely and heavily consumed Although organic matter obtained from banana leaves was not considered as good as that from cuje tree leaves banana leaves were said to have the advantage of
51. just to show how it compares with the shade trees it is intercropped with in terms of ecosystem service provision Many species of Inga have edible fruits but they were not considered a food source because the fruits were not part of the farmers diets 56 Appendix 4 Trees and their impacts on soil and water Table 11 Full list of the trees present in the cafnet_guatemala knowledge base that farmers gave information about with regards to impacts on soil and water Tree species Fresh or caliente Impact on soil erosion Impact on soil moisture Impact on water sources Ficus glabrata Fresh Good Good Good Trichilia americana Caliente Bad Good Good Trema micrantha Fresh Bad Good Good Saurauia laevigata Bad Good Good Cupressus lusitanica Caliente Good Good Good Piper adumcum Caliente Bad Bad Good Inga oerstediana Fresh Good Good Good Inga vera Fresh Good Good Good Inga laurina Fresh Good Good Good Inga edulis Fresh Good Good Good Inga jinicuil Fresh Good Good Good Quercus peduncularis Caliente Bad Good Good Quercus sapotifolia Caliente Bad Good Good Liquidambar styraciflua Caliente Good Good Good Syzygium jambos Fine Good Good Pinus maximinoi Caliente Good Good Good Pinus oocarpa Caliente Good Good Good Manilkora zapota Fine Good Good Swietenia humilis Bad Good Good Acacia acanthophylla Fresh Good Good Fine Guazuma ulmifolia No Good Fine Bixa
52. lantations it was not just the tree species that was important for maintaining soil moisture pruning at different levels for different times of the year according to where the farm was situated was also important Tools Useful AKTS tools e Comparative analysis tool topic hierarchy assignment found in AKTS5 Tools System Tools Comparative Analysis Shows the number of statements attached to each topic hierarchy in the knowledge base e Cafnet tool interactions amongst components The user can select which object hierarchies and or singular objects from a formal term list to include in the tool output e g for column selection select all trees plus subobjects then for row selection select soil water rainfall and rainy season Shows how many times objects appear in the same statements 40 4 5 Coffee productivity and its relationship with agroforestry practices Trade offs among ecosystem services and coffee productivity was well understood by farmers This understanding was strongly linked with the abundance of trees within coffee plantations Table 7 Not all the goods and services that farmers could obtain from trees were valued in the same way as referred to in 4 1 for instance timber was perceived as more useful than trees attracting pollinator species The abundance of particular tree species could be seen to rely on decisions made by farmers decisions that were influenced by the servi
53. le to grow within coffee plantations instead being found near streams 4 3 3 Summary In looking at coffee farming practices it is important not to apply blanket generalisations to a region but to recognise the different conditions farmers might be facing in terms of climate and species management As can be seen coffee farmers in the research area recognised that there were slightly different timings for particular seasons and farming activities depending on the location of the farm Not only was altitude a consideration but topography and vegetation also played a role in creating microclimatic conditions that varied between communities 36 4 4 Coffee plantation composition soil stability and water provision Water regulation services were often associated with trees on farms and were frequently mentioned by the farmers Such services consisted of processes such as reducing soil erosion maintaining soil moisture content and humidity and protecting water sources Knowledge about these aspects is gathered together under a topic hierarchy called Trees and water infiltration in the knowledge base Figure 16 with 117 statements attached to it that demonstrate the various interactions between coffee plants soil trees and water as articulated by coffee farmers Trees and water infiltration Coffee and soil Coffee and water Trees and soil Trees and water Water and soil Figure 16 Topic hierarchy of Trees and water infiltr
54. ng to agro ecological zones Tree attributes in relation to water provisioning services A sample of trees and their varying impacts on coffee productivity Useful tools for CAFNET knowledge bases Key terminology and concepts using Table 10 Full ecosystem services table Table 11 Full table of tree attributes in relation to water provisioning services List of Plates Plate 1 Interviewing on a coffee farm Plate 2 Coffee under Inga spp trees Plate 3 Observations on a coffee farm Plate 4 A bird nest at ground level in a coffee farm Plate 5 Severe pruning of Inga spp Plate 6 Coffee and tomato plantations Title pg 27 37 43 iii 1 Local knowledge of coffee productivity biodiversity and ecosystem services in coffee plantations in El Hato Watershed Guatemala A GUIDE TO USING THE CAFNET GUATEMALA KNOWLEDGE BASE 1 1 What is the purpose of this guide This publication is intended to guide users through a knowledge base Kb created in El Hato Watershed of San Agust n Acasaguastl n Municipality El Progreso Department Guatemala It has been designed to assist new users in exploring the local knowledge base that has been developed for the CAFNET project in El Hato Watershed Guatemala The knowledge base has been developed by a number of researchers and contains agro ecological knowledge primarily about coffee productivity species diversity and water provisioning services within coffee plantations in
55. nus maximinoi Gliricidia sepium Pinus oocarpa Perymenium grande 53 Acacia acanthophylla Less common species Inga oerstediana Inga laurina Banano habanero amarillo Banano habanero morado Banano majunche Banano manzanito Ficus glabrata Muntingia calabura Guazuma ulmifolia Ceiba aesculifolia Lonchocarpus minimiflorus Trema micrantha Cedrela odirata Cedrela tonduzii 54 Saurauia laevigata Lantana camara Colubrina guatemalensis Grevillea robusta Diphysa americana Spondias monbin Citrus paradisi Mangifera indica Citrus reticulata Dendropanax arboreus Syzygium jambos Casimiroa edulis Mielero Undefinied Zanthoxylum caribaum Erythrina berteroana Vernonia patens 55 Manilkora zapota 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 humilis Solanum bansii 0 0 0 0 0 0 Key 0 indicates a neutral effect on the service indicated indicates a positive effect on the service indicated indicates a negative effect on the service indicated The role and classification of coffee according to farmers was not as a tree it was placed in this table
56. ode asiscovo raices calentando Object cafeto raices nt cantidad i Zoom Out suelo abajo d contenido acid nispero hoja manteniendo calor cafeto hojas temperatura cafeto hojas color Attribute sol alcanzando cantidad cafeto J crecimiento lt lt cantidad cafeto fructificaci n cantidad cafeto hojas Process cafeto fruit madurando tasa cafeto 3 susceptibilidad ftizon mielero hoja manteniendo calor irr gt Add ateo despojandose nutrientes atm sfericos alcanzando cantidad cafeto Delete cafeto hoja cafeto raices Node Link absorci n d cantidad _ ae suelo nutriente lino TU as Srbolez_oalientfo crecimiento Hide posici n n hojas pinos hojas Node Li contenido de 3 contenido de r Care Ei hojas Show Hide contenido de suelo fertilidad Label cedros hojas contenido de Select Diagram a si trueno hojas contenido de 1 Figure 6 Hojas diagram 16 If you want to find out more about what is being said by a node e g hojas de nispero que mantiendo el calor you can click on the Statements button circled in Figure 6 on the right to get a list of all the statements represented in the d
57. opic attribute List of existing terms in Kb m of the specified type transposed Save Number of terms SES Details Search options 4 tf object Boolean options subobjects nutrientes Select superobjects nutrientes atmbsfer fuzzy October octubre ES minimum mumber of statement sources Boolean Search String suelo and nivel de humedad 4 La Figure 9 Boolean search dialog box When ready click on Search 31 statements will appear These are the only statements in the knowledge base which include both suelo and nivel_de_humedad Boolean search options There are a variety of Search options you can choose from Figure 9 You can select to include subobjects superobjects and fuzzy in the search Fuzzy makes sure search terms that have prepositions in statements are included e g into_soil You can also filter statements according to the number of sources attached to the statements For example if you only want to pull up statements with at least three sources attached to them you enter 3 into the box next to minimum number of statement sources 19 Close the Search results dialog box by clicking on X In the Boolean search dialog box select Clear under Boolean options to delete the search string Select the same terms again
58. orellana Good Fine Bad 57 Persea americana Good Good Bad Persea schiedeana Fine Good Bad Banana Undefinied Fresh Good Good Bad Guineo Undefinied Fresh Good Good Bad Banana majunche Fresh Good Good Bad Banano manzanito Fresh Good Good Bad Banano habanero amarillo Fresh Good Good Bad Banano habanero morado Fresh Good Good Bad Elettaria cardamomum Fresh Good Fine Bad Solanum bansii Fresh Bad Good Bad Grevillea robusta Fresh Good Good Bad Diphysa americana Fresh Good Good Bad Gliricidia sepium Fresh Good Good Bad Chamaedora tepejilote Fresh Good Good Bad Erythrina berteroana Fresh Good Good Bad Muntingia calabura Bad Good Bad Cedrela odorata Bad Good Bad Cedrela tonduzii Bad Good Bad Ceiba aesculifolia Bad Good Bad Lonchocarpus minimiflorus Bad Good Bad Lantana camara Bad Good Bad Citrus sinensis Fine Fine Bad Citrus reticulata Fine Fine Bad Yucca elephantipes Good Bad Bad Vernonia patens Caliente Fine Fine Bad 58 Zanthoxylum caribaum Bad Fine Bad Perymenium grande Caliente Fine Bad Bad Prunus persica Bad Bad Bad Cecropia obstusifolia Bad Good Bad Psidium guajava Bad Good Bad Ricinus communis Bad Bad Bad Spondias monbin Bad Good Bad Citrus aurantifolia Bad Good Bad Citrus paradisi Bad Good Bad Citrus limonia Bad Good Bad Mangifera indica Bad Good Bad Casimi
59. p and pacaya Chamaedora tepejilote were very common within coffee plantations Although pacaya is shown to have a lower positive value than Inga spp in Table 3 a difference of five it was regarded by farmers as an important food source and did not compete heavily with coffee Pacaya s primary service as a food source had the ability to override the lack of additional services indicating that only looking at the number of services provided by trees can be misleading when considering factors influencing species abundance The number of services provided by shade trees needs to be understood in relation to the local weighting of such services In terms of animal species the diversity of which can have a vital impact on pest control banana fruits as much as cuje tree fruits were highly sought after by mammals and birds as a food resource Farmers also said that the flowers of cuje trees attracted hummingbirds and bees that were regarded as useful pollination species Due to its growth rate bananas were frequently used as an initial shade species while cuje trees were being established within coffee plantations In more established plantations it was common to find cuje trees mixed with banana species although the former were generally more abundant than the latter The abundance of different tree species in coffee plantations was largely influenced by the tree species interaction with coffee productivity and wh
60. quicker than would otherwise be possible How to do this will be explored in the following section There are 38 object hierarchies that classify tree and animal species according to the agro ecological interactions that farmers attributed to them e g animals that damage coffee The object hierarchies show the importance of particular attributes of trees for them to be maintained in a farming landscape with possible short and long term trade offs evident for instance there might be a tree that attracts many animal species but has a negative impact on coffee productivity There are 40 topics arranged into five topic hierarchies that organise the farmers knowledge under useful headings that can be searched easily by the user The five topic hierarchies are entitled Commonly held knowledge broken down into sections according to farm size and climatic zone Habitat provision for mammals birds and insects Phenology of tree and plant species times of flowering fruiting and pollination Trees and biodiversity interactions between trees and animal species and Trees and water infiltration complex tree soil and water interactions Plate 3 Observations on a coffee farm Photograph taken by Rudy de Cid August 2008 3 How to consult the knowledge base 3 1 Using the guide It is suggested that the user start with A quick sightseeing tour around AKTS to familiarise themselves with the different func
61. r causing pollution especially with tomato growing which requires many chemical inputs With a basic understanding that less trees leads to less services people tried to explain the local situation Plate 6 LIE ky Plate 6 Left side newly established coffee plantation bordering the forest Right side tomatoes growing without tree cover Photographs taken by Rudy del Cid August 2008 4 5 3 Summary Because coffee was the main source of income in the research communities farmers were carrying out management practices and taking decisions on a productivity basis with the ultimate aim of increasing quality and yield of coffee Decisions were also taken after considering labour requirements in relation to the net benefit obtained from an increase in coffee yield Although some of these decisions were not heavily affecting the provision of ecosystem services as it could be simply selecting one coffee variety over another there were many decisions and resultant practices that had the ability to greatly enhance or decrease coffee plantations ability to provide ecosystem services 43 Shade canopy composition selection and management were the main factors through which farmers were able to influence coffee plantations impacts on the environment and farmers generally considered that the impact of ecosystem services was directly linked with the size of coffee farm larger farms tended to be more intensive with less s
62. rboles con hojas suaves Arboles con hojas suaves is then the superobject of cola de pavo cuernavaca rboles cuje and guaychipilin Object hierarchies are similar in structure to topic hierarchies From the tool bar on the main AKTS screen select Object Hierarchies from the KB drop down menu On the left you will see a list of the object hierarchies in the knowledge base From this list select rboles con hojas suaves On the right a dialog box will appear and you will see a column containing a list of all the Objects in Hierarchy To the right of this you will see rboles con hojas suaves highlighted as the Object and immediately below are the Immediate SubObjects Click on View Tree and you will be shown the full object hierarchy with all its subobjects Click on Close to go back to the previous window Now select arboles_cuje cuje trees from the Objects in Hierarchy list You will see that this term appears in the Object box with rboles con hojas suaves specified as the SuperObject above it and cuje cuje caspirol cuje cushin cuje grande and cuje paterna specified as the Immediate SubObjects below it Close all dialog boxes Formal Terms Formal terms are the key components of statements They are essentially singular words or words strung together Objects as described above are one type of formal term Other types of formal term include ac
63. rch Click on the X in the top right corner to return to the Welcome Memo screen Switching the language of the knowledge base English Spanish Spanish English In some knowledge bases including this one it is possible to switch from English script to a largely Spanish script To access this function go to the Tool drop down menu on the main toolbar in the top left hand corner of the page Select transpose_formal_terms_and_synonyms Kb Position from the General drop down menu which can be found under System Tools Figure 3 Current knowledge base cafnet_guatemala File KB Diagram Tools Help Tools for this KB Load Tool File General checkForLoops Kb Make a Tool Other User Tools Comparative Analysis diagram report Kb Close Tool File Control Structures Knowledge Analysis edit knowledge base source Primitives Knowledge Evaluation merge_External_Statements Knowledge Exploration merge_formal_terms Tool List Query restore original Formal terms Kb TT switch_synonyms Kb Position1 Position2 Select Tool Output Mode Fonts transpose Formal terms and synonyms Kb Position Figure 3 Tools menu A new dialog box will appear click on Run select Description to see an explanation of the tool Another dialog box is produced the name of the knowledge base will appear in the KB field and the Position field will be blank Type in 1 in the Position
64. roa edulis Fine Good Bad Mielero Undefined Bad Good Bad Eriobotrya japonica Good Fine Bad Sabal mexicana Good Good Bad Dendropanax arboreus Caliente Bad Bad Bad Spathodea campanulata Caliente Fine Bad Bad Colubrina guatemalensis Caliente Bad Bad Bad Cupania glabra Caliente Bad Bad Bad Achiote Bixa orellana and cardamom Elettaria cardamomum were shrubs intercropped with coffee and were not classified as trees but they were also mentioned by farmers in relation to soil and water Key Good means that the tree was said to decrease soil erosion maintain soil moisture and protect water sources The opposite is true for bad Trees with fine value meant that the impact was classed as negative but either because of their abundance or for another tree attribute their impact was not so bad overall 59
65. s then enabled the researchers to go through the interviews thoroughly afterwards and break them down into unitary statements to enter into the AKT5 knowledge bases This led to a process of iterative evaluation throughout knowledge base creation with repeat interviews taking place where necessary to clarify or add value to what had already been said by informants Many of the interviews were conducted in El Hato Watershed during July August 2007 and then followed up in August 2008 Creating a knowledge base enables the local context of the knowledge to be attached to the sources and the statements that are entered from interviews with those sources this is done by a memo function Source details that are required in AKTS are the name of the informant location of the interview and gender In the Guatemalan case other information included size of coffee farm occupation age and climatic zone of the area Further context was recorded in source and statement memos 2 4 The knowledge base The cafnet_guatemala Kb was built up from interviews with one female and twenty eight male informants The age of informants was categorised into below 35 young 35 60 middle and above 60 old the dominant age range was 35 60 with seventeen interviews followed by above 60 with nine interviews and below 35 with three interviews Tables 1 and 2 below summarise the information gathered from different locations and di
66. sified by farmers as cuje trees Figure 11 and were considered to be highly positive in terms of both provisioning and regulating services within coffee farms with seven in Table 3 Bananas Musa spp were also fresh trees and were often grown on coffee plantations acting as an important food source providing shade for coffee and helping to control soil erosion The main species of banana mentioned by farmers were banana banano majunche banano manzanito guineo guineo habanero amarillo and guineo habanero 23 morado Figure 11 There was shown to be a good understanding of the ecosystem services provided by banana species with many positive impacts described by farmers Although the majority of trees that fitted into this category were used as shade trees not all fresh trees were used for shade in coffee plantations An exception was amate Ficus glabrata because its crown was deemed too dense and it was thought that coffee plants grown under this tree would be subject to more humidity than required Amate was only found on coffee plantations if it had grown due to natural regeneration or it had been there before the coffee plantations had been established in this case it could be more damaging to remove the tree than leave it banana banano majunche banano manzanito quineo guineo habanero amarillo guineo habanero morado capulin cuernavaca cuje trees cuje cuje caspirol cuje cushin cuje grande cu
67. sociated provisioning services and regulating services as described by coffee farmers in E Hato Watershed Provisioning services Regulating services Presence within Tree species Nutrient Soil Food Firewood na Water Climate Soil ey farm Medicinal i f pest Pollination cycling formation source timber regulation regulation stability regulation Coffea arabica 0 4 4 0 0 0 u n Ei Inga spp 0 0 0 A 2 Musa spp 0 0 Chamaedora E enn lote 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 i 0 0 0 4 japonica Trema micrantha 0 0 0 0 0 0 E Cedrela tonduzii 0 0 0 n 0 n 0 0 0 0 n vo zn E Solanum bansii 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 Psidium guajava 0 A 0 0 0 0 0 Citrus sinensis 0 0 0 0 0 0 Key 0 indicates a neutral effect on the service indicated indicates a positive effect the service indicated indicates a negative effect on the service indicated The role and classification of coffee according to farmers was not as a tree it was placed in this table just to show how it compares with the shade trees it is intercropped with in terms of ecosystem service provision Many species of Inga have edible fruits but they were not considered a food source because the fruits were not part of the farmers diets 22 Despite their differences both cuje trees nga sp
68. sses or actions boxes with straight edges Arrows connecting nodes denote the direction of causal influence The first small arrow on a link indicates either an increase 1 or decrease in the causal node and the second arrow on a link refers to an increase 1 or decrease in the effect node Numbers between small arrows indicate whether the relationship is two way 2 in which case TA causing B also implies A causing fB or one way 1 which indicates that this reversibility does not apply Words instead of small arrows denote a value of the node other than increase or decrease e g when bird size is small their nesting location is near ground white stopper branch shape limon dulce crown density porosocos nesting imon dulce dense amate holes moisture lewel Figure 14 AKT5 causal diagram representing specific knowledge about interactions between species Legend same as above 29 4 2 1 Summary When looking at associations between fauna and flora within coffee farms it s important to consider which plants and trees attract which faunal species and the importance attached to maintaining or increasing these habitat features on farms The fauna and floral species present on farms make up the ecosystem and therefore in assessing which species should be encouraged there needs to be a clear understanding of what services people want from a coffee farm ecosystem Tools Useful AKTS
69. t 2008 2 3 Methodology 2 3 1 Location and definition of knowledge bases This guide is primarily focused on examining coffee farmers explanatory knowledge of the role that coffee faming plays within its surrounding ecosystem relationships between species found on coffee plantations farming practices and the wider environment e g impacts on soil water coffee productivity were considered important Interviews were conducted across eight communities in El Hato Watershed with the altitude ranging from just below 1000m to 1700m above sea level asl The communities visited were largely located at the higher altitudes within the coffee zone of the watershed however two communities El Cimiento and El Terraplen were notably lower just below 1000m to approximately 1 200 m asl and experienced hotter and drier conditions as a result 2 32 Informant selection Informants were selected according to size of farm altitudinal range and whether they were employing organic or conventional farming methods By stratifying coffee farmers according to these criteria there was more scope for comparing and contrasting their knowledge to see where the cross strata knowledge and or differences might lie The farms included in the study were classified as small less than 1 manzana to 5 manzanas medium between 5 and 10 manzanas and large above 10 manzanas Distinction could be made between different sized coffee farms due to differences in th
70. t appear are all the statements in the knowledge base that mention the term arboles_cuje excluding its subobjects Introduction to Diagrams Diagrams are a way of representing interacting statements However only causal and link statements can be represented diagrammatically One statement is represented by two nodes a rectangular or oval box connected by an arrow The different colours and shapes of the boxes indicate different types of node action process object and attribute nodes The words written within the nodes are key terms used within the statements The arrows represent the linkages between nodes It is possible to view diagrams in either English or another language when using the transpose_formal_terms_and_synonyms Kb Position tool with the latest version of Windows 2000 Repeat the process outlined above to show the Formal Term Details of the object hojas leaves Then select Show use in statements within the Formal Term Details box Click on All Statements shown under the Diagram Selection Type at the bottom of the formal term details dialog box The diagram that is generated will show you all the statements containing hojas that are able to be represented diagrammatically causal and link statements as Current knowledge base cafnet guatemala File KB Diagram Tools Help coffee leaves all C causal link Copy to Clipboard Add n
71. t hierarchy e g Grevillea robusta would be a subobject of trees Superobject of an object Synonym An object that appears above another object in an object hierarchy e g trees would be a superobject of Grevillea robusta A word with the same meaning as a formal 50 term usually used to denote a local or scientific name for a specified species and as a method for switching between English and the language of the particular research site There can be any number of synonyms System tools Tools stored within AKTS which can be used to interrogate and evaluate the content within knowledge base s Tool A small computer program supplied with AKT5 that serves to interrogate and reason with the content of the knowledge base s Topic A collection of statements organised around a particular topic e g bio indicators of clean water or miang pests Topic hierarchy A collection of topics organised under a broader umbrella topic area User defined tools Tools created by the knowledge base user that are stored separately to the main AKTS program file with an mcr extension Value A type of formal term that is always attached to an attribute and describes that attribute e g 5kg yellow high increase WinAKT The old name for AKTS Agroforestry Knowledge Toolkit for Windows 51 Appendix 3 Full ecosystem services table showing
72. that grew across the low medium and high areas Table 5 Many species were able to indicate transitions between agro ecological zones not necessarily just because of abundance but also how well they were growing in comparison to other areas Some species were found in all areas but with abnormal features e g fruit trees growing but not producing fruit and some trees were having problems surviving and just a few individuals could be found 32 Table 5 Differences in tree species according to high medium low areas within the coffee zone This table represents all the trees present in the knowledge base that farmers gave information about in terms of their abundance and growth in different areas The trees that lacked this information are given in the notes to this table Tree species High zone Medium zone Low zone Abundance Growth Abundance Growth condition condition Scientific synonym Abundance Acacia acanthophylla Many Growth condition x Good Many Many Good Naranja Many Good Many Good Spondias mombin Chamaedorea tepejilote Good Many Good Suguinay Vemoniapatens Many Goa May Goa Eryobotria japonica Psidium guajava Higuerillo Cecropia obstusifolia Erythrina berteroana Bad without Few fruits Many Banano Undefined Good Many Good Bad less Few fruits Good Undefined 33 Guineo Undefined Many Good Many Good C
73. the interviewee and the climatic zone of the area are listed If you select Memo you will be given any further details that the creator of the knowledge base deemed important contextual information Click on X on all three dialog boxes to return to the main AKTS screen Topics From the tool bar on the main AKTS screen select Topics from the KB drop down menu This gives you a list of all the topics in the knowledge base Highlight coffee and water and select Details Edit In the dialog box that appears you will see in the Boolean Search String how the topic was created it is a search for any of the following object terms coffee plants water rainy_season and rainfall Click on Show use in statements at the bottom of the dialog box and a list of all the statements on coffee and water will appear There are 9 statements in all As you scroll through the list of statements you will notice that the translation does not sound like a natural use of English this is illustrated and explained further on Close the list of statements and the topic details dialog box Try the same thing with the topic Habitat for birds Answer the following question Question How many statements are attached to the topic Habitat for birds You can see that the number of statements generated by a topic is often a large number to look through We will now continue to look at smaller
74. the information available for all the tree species that are represented in the cafnet_guatemala knowledge base Table 10 Ecosystem services table showing the information available for all the tree species that are represented in the cafnet_guatemala knowledge base Providing services Regulating services Soil Disease and Resources Presence Soil Food Firewood Water Climate stability pest for within farm Tree species formation source timber Medicinal regulation regulation erosion regulation Pollination biodiversity Coffea arabica 0 0 0 0 Inga vera 0 0 0 Banana Undefined 0 0 0 Guineo Undefined 0 0 0 N o Chamaedora 3 tepejilote 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Eryobotria japonica 0 0 0 0 0 ez Psidium 0 0 0 0 0 Citrus sinensis 0 0 0 0 0 0 Q Persea americana 0 0 0 Persea schiedeana n H 0 0 0 0 0 0 F Trichilia americana 0 0 F 0 T 0 0 0 0 0 Cupressus 0 0 0 0 0 0 92 Cupania glabra Piper adumcum Prunus persica Quercus peduncularis Quercus sapotifolia Inga jinicuil Inga edulis Cecropia obstusifolia e ccc Ricimus communis Yucca elephantipes CItrus aurantifolia Citrus limonia Liquidambar styraciflua Sabal mexicana Pi
75. tions activities with a human agent e g harvesting or planting and processes activities without a human agent e g decomposition or germination You will notice that underscores e g rboles cuje are used to connect two words to make a single formal term in AKTS Terms which require a capital letter or number are put in inverted commas e g April and 2_ metros Go to the toolbar on the main AKTS screen and select Formal Terms from the KB drop down menu Click on the downwards arrow and scroll down the Type menu to see the different types of formal terms within the Kb Select object All the objects in the knowledge base are now listed Scroll down and get an idea of the objects in the knowledge base 14 Highlight arboles_cuje and select Details This tells you what arboles_cuje is the most common shade tree found on coffee plantations in the research communities Formal Term Details cafnet_suatemala E Save Definition rboles de sombra en Guatemala Arbol nat ivo asado como le a Hay DE Li Arboles cuje Pares Inga pp Delete down Show use in statements Show use in hierarchies Figure 4 The Formal Term Details box provides a brief description including information on the type of formal term definition synonym and a thumbnail photograph if one is available You c
76. tions of the AKTS software Once this is completed the user should then be able to consult the knowledge base according to particular topics of interest using any of the examples provided Valuing tree attributes in terms of biodiversity conservation Desirable attributes of trees within coffee plantations Comparison of knowledge held by coffee farmers in different climatic zones Role of coffee plantations in water provisioning services The topics given above indicate the type of knowledge contained in the knowledge bases and the ways in which to access it will be explored below After completing A quick sightseeing tour around AKTS the user will be able to consult the knowledge base using topics different search options and exploring diagrams These skills will then be reinforced and developed by the section entitled Exploring the knowledge base some highlights from local knowledge which introduces more contextual information and how to utilise tools Once the user has completed these sections they should then be able to explore the knowledge base independently There are tools designed to help the user pull out relevant information and some of the more useful ones are listed in Appendix 1 Tools for analysing the knowledge Definitions of key terms and concepts used in the sightseeing tour and the AKTS software are included in Appendix 2 Glossary The user should note that not all functions of the softwar
77. tools e Cafnet tool hierarchic objects usage Can be used to see the object hierarchies that particular animals and birds appear in e Boolean Search tool found under KB Boolean Search Can be used to search statements that are attached to particular formal terms sources and user values e Topics found under KB Topics Can be used to pull up statements that have been grouped together as topics such as Phenology of tree and plant species Habitat for birds or Trees and insects 30 4 3 Trees as indicators of landscape change Across the coffee zone of El Hato Watershed farmers illustrated how their coffee farming practices differed throughout the year The timing of specific management practices was related to climatic conditions which was also affecting the abundance and growth of various tree species in the research communities From talking to a local coffee technician and then gathering the information during interviews with farmers the following Figure 15 was drawn up to show these differences Farmers knowledge about the growth and attributes of specific tree species in different zones was not dependent on the communities the farmers were from Because the low medium and high areas were within a relatively close distance to one another in some cases communities had farms located across different areas the knowledge associated with these areas and their relationship with coffee farming was widespread
78. ts of avocado and coyo_avocado and caulote are all types of tree that have been identified by farmers as having a dense crown and would therefore fall under the umbrella term dense crown trees as they share this attribute Figure 2 Phenology of pree and plant species Flowering of tree and plant species Fruiting of tree and plant species Pollination of tree and plant species Figure 1 The topic phenology of tree and plant species is arranged in a topic hierarchy tree with a list of subtopics rown trees amate american sweetgum avocado trees avocado coyo avocado caulote cypress durasnillo jocote limon trees limon dulce limon puro limon real Figure 2 The object dense crown trees is arranged in an object hierarchy tree with a list of its subobjects what is shown is just a small sample of the available dense crown trees 2 The CAFNET Guatemala knowledge base Context of the study 2 1 CAFNET CAFNET is a four year European Commission funded project that hopes to make some positive changes to how the coffee process chain operates in order to improve coffee farmer income while at the same time protecting biodiversity hotspots A major concern of the project is ecosystem services and how coffee farming practices can benefit the environment as well as the farmer Approximately 125 million people across Asia Africa and Latin America depend on coffee for their l
79. ty and other ecosystem service provision was occurring when farmers kept trees within the plantation as a source of timber or firewood The case of Perymenium grande is a good example of this Even though farmers recognised that it was highly competitive with coffee plants it was still present in a low abundance on many farms just because the wood from it was commonly used for making fences Even though trade offs between coffee productivity and ecosystem services were clearly understood by farmers they also mentioned trade offs between ecosystem services especially between provisioning and regulating services An example of this was that many of the trees protecting water sources were not used to obtain timber either because they did not have quality timber and or because they were observed to be providing a more important service of protecting valuable water sources Amate Ficus glabrata capulin Trema micrantha and cordoncillo Piper adumcum were species that were all considered able to protect water sources while their firewood or timber was deemed not useful Another example of a trade off between provisioning and regulating services could be seen between soil erosion control and fruits provision amate Ficus glabrata cipr s Cupressus lusitanica cuje Inga vera gravilea Grevillea robusta guachipelin Dyphisa americana balsamo Liquidambar styraciflua pino blanco Pinus maximinoi pino colorado Pinus oocarpa and yaje Acac
80. vity biodiversity and ecosystem services in coffee plantations in El Hato Watershed Guatemala A GUIDE TO USING THE CAFNET GUATEMALA KNOWLEDGE BASE 1 1 What is the purpose of this AKT5 guide 1 2 Consulting knowledge bases 1 3 The Agro ecological Knowledge Toolkit AKT5 1 3 1 What is AKT5 1 3 2 What is knowledge 1 3 3 What is a knowledge base 2 The CAFNET Guatemala knowledge base Context of the study 2 CAFNET 2 2 Study area 2 3 Methodology 2 3 1 Location and definition of the knowledge base 2 3 2 Informant selection 2 3 3 Compilation of the knowledge base 2 4 The knowledge base 3 How to consult the knowledge base 3 1 Using the guide 3 2 A quick sightseeing tour around 5 4 Exploring the knowledge base Some highlights from local knowledge 4 1 Local classification of trees and their attributes 4 1 1 Discussion of ecosystem services table 4 1 2 Shade tree classifications 4 1 3 Summary 4 2 Interactions between flora and fauna in coffee farms 4 2 1 Summary 4 3 Trees as indicators of landscape change 4 3 1 Climatic conditions and farming practices 4 3 2 Climatic conditions and tree species variation 4 3 3 Summary 4 4 Coffee plantation composition soil stability and water provision 4 4 1 Discussion of Table 6 4 4 2 Summary 4 5 Coffee productivity and its relationship with agroforestry practices 4 5 1 Discussion of Table 7 4 5 2 Coffee agroforestry in comparison to other land uses 4 5 3 Summ
81. ween coffee farmers and scientists 2 2 Study area Central America is the central geographic region of America which connects northern South America Colombia with southern North America Chiapas Tabasco Campeche and Quintana Roo Mexican states Central America is made up by seven countries Belize Guatemala El Salvador Honduras Nicaragua Costa Rica and Panama The Central American region has approximately 522 000 square kilometres with coffee being grown on an estimated 893 000 hectares of this area CEPAL 2002 Coffee has been one of the main agricultural crops and source of export earnings over the last century and currently plays an important role in the national income of many countries 7 2 of the GDP Gross Domestic Product of Nicaragua 4 2 of Guatemala GDP and 1 3 of Costa Rica GDP ICAFE 2005 Three areas were selected in Central America to take part in the CAFNET project and they were located in Guatemala Nicaragua and Costa Rica Selection criteria for the As elaborated on in the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment 2005 research areas were according to their geo hydrological attributes the percentage of land covered by coffee plantations and their proximity to protected areas and wildlife parks this was to assess their potential as buffer zones for purposes of enhancing biodiversity conservation and watershed protection in fragmented landscapes In Guatemala the CAFNET researchers were working in El Hato Watershe
82. y Alternatively diagrams can be browsed by clicking on the buttons underneath Select Diagram When you have finished go to the main toolbar top left hand corner and select Hide Diagrams from the Diagram drop down menu This will return you to the main AKTS screen 18 Boolean Search Go to the main toolbar top left and select Boolean Search from the KB drop down menu You will see Display Kb terms of type in the top left hand corner of the dialog box with formal terms and sources underneath it Click on the downwards arrow next to formal terms and sources scroll down and select object Select suelo Spanish for soil from the List of existing terms in Kb of the specified type and click on Details to see the definition and or synonym of that formal term Then Close the Formal Term Details dialog box by clicking on X and this will take you back to the Boolean search dialog box While the same term is highlighted click on Select and suelo will appear in the Boolean Search String at the bottom of the dialog box Then press the AND button under Boolean options Now highlight nivel de humedad an attribute and click on Select once more The search string will now have suelo and nivel_de_humedad as its search criteria Figure 9 m Boolean search cafnet guatemala Display Kb terms of type Name of new t

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