Oasis Agriculture in Pakistan: Folk Tales of Agro-Pastoral Heritage, Transformation and Biodiversity
暫譯: 巴基斯坦的綠洲農業：農牧遺產、轉型與生物多樣性的民間故事
Buerkert, Andreas, Wiehle, Martin, Schlecht, Eva
相關主題
商品描述
This book emerged from decades of agro-ecological research in the Karakoram Mountains and the Cholistan Desert of Pakistan conducted in collaboration with local scientists, PhD scholars, and villagers in partly very remote oases that exhibit a historically unusually high diversity of agro-pastoral land use systems. Due to their resilience under isolated harsh environmental conditions, as outlined in Section 1 these oases exemplify many centuries-old sustainable systems of resource use that are currently undergoing rapid transformation. The volume depicts a mixed-methods approach that combines classical multi-location biodiversity research and molecular analyses with a collection of 169 Folk Tales. Taken together, the book draws attention to the sustainability lessons that are encoded in ancient social-ecological systems.
In an environment whose interacting environmental stresses of droughts, floods, harsh winters, hot summers, wanted and unwanted vistors, and fragile political conditions could hardly be controlled by small agropastoral communities, their members found ways to navigate constraints and uncertainties. Sustainable water use (SDG 6, Clean water) is key to the ancient, gravity irrigated terrace agriculture practiced in the mountain and lowland desert oases. Given millennia-old trading between East and West but also South and North across Asia and with Europe, the crops cultivated and the animal husbandry systems practised in these areas of Pakistan are extraordinarily diverse and adapted to varying resources (SDG 15, Life on land). This equally applies to fruit and cereal species but also to livestock, mainly yaks and goats, that thrive on the summer pastures surrounding the oases. Responsible consumption and production (SDG 12) are inherent to these systems and a prerequisite for their mere existence. Section 3 of the book takes scientific account of this rich biodiversity. In managing their oasis systems, local residents are highly dependent on each other. Collaboration is essential for survival and this has formed strong social commitments (SDG 11, Sustainable communities). Resource governance is encoded in cultural practices, and has been passed on in a large reservoir of Folk Tales. Section 2 of the book presents a unique collection of such tales reported by village elders. In original language videos readily available through QR codes and their careful English transcriptions, peasants narrate historical events, traditional practices of every-day life, mystical fairy-tales with symbolic meanings, and general lessons of moral as part of an ancient heritage of humanity. Given that the linkage between socio-cultural heritage and bio-physical diversity has been little explored in scientific research, this book provides a starting point for a deeper, interdisciplinary analysis of the ancient social-ecological systems of Pakistan's desert oases, which takes into account different knowledge systems. It documents a rapidly vanishing bio-cultural diversity preserved for many centuries and testifies of eye-level partnerships that allowed their documentation.
商品描述(中文翻譯)
這本書源於數十年來在巴基斯坦喀喇昆仑山脈和喬利斯坦沙漠進行的農業生態研究，該研究與當地科學家、博士生以及村民合作，這些村莊位於部分非常偏遠的綠洲，展現出歷史上異常高的農牧土地利用系統的多樣性。由於這些綠洲在孤立的惡劣環境條件下展現出的韌性，如第一部分所述，這些綠洲是許多世紀以來可持續資源利用系統的典範，這些系統目前正經歷快速變革。本書描繪了一種混合方法，結合了經典的多地點生物多樣性研究和分子分析，以及169個民間故事的收集。綜合來看，本書引起了人們對古老社會生態系統中所編碼的可持續性教訓的關注。
在一個環境中，乾旱、洪水、嚴寒的冬季、炎熱的夏季、想要和不想要的訪客以及脆弱的政治條件等相互作用的環境壓力幾乎無法被小型農牧社區控制，這些社區的成員找到了解決約束和不確定性的方法。可持續的水資源利用（SDG 6，清潔水）是山區和低地沙漠綠洲中古老的重力灌溉梯田農業的關鍵。考慮到東西方之間以及南北方之間跨越亞洲和歐洲的千年貿易，這些巴基斯坦地區所種植的作物和實踐的畜牧系統異常多樣，並適應不同的資源（SDG 15，陸地生物）。這同樣適用於水果和穀物物種，也適用於主要在綠洲周圍夏季牧場上繁榮的牲畜，主要是牦牛和山羊。負責任的消費和生產（SDG 12）是這些系統的固有特徵，也是其存在的前提。本書的第三部分對這種豐富的生物多樣性進行了科學考量。在管理他們的綠洲系統時，當地居民彼此之間高度依賴。合作對生存至關重要，這形成了強大的社會承諾（SDG 11，持續社區）。資源治理編碼在文化實踐中，並在大量的民間故事中傳承下來。本書的第二部分呈現了村莊長者報告的這類故事的獨特收藏。在通過QR碼輕鬆獲得的原語視頻和其仔細的英文轉錄中，農民講述歷史事件、日常生活的傳統實踐、具有象徵意義的神秘童話以及作為人類古老遺產的一部分的一般道德教訓。考慮到社會文化遺產與生物物理多樣性之間的聯繫在科學研究中尚未得到充分探索，本書為深入的跨學科分析巴基斯坦沙漠綠洲的古老社會生態系統提供了一個起點，並考慮到不同的知識系統。它記錄了一種迅速消失的生物文化多樣性，這種多樣性在數世紀以來得以保存，並見證了使其得以記錄的平等夥伴關係。
作者簡介
Prof. Dr. Andreas Bürkert is head of the Section of Organic Plant Production and Agroecosystems Research in the Tropics and Subtropics at the University of Kassel. His research focuses on carbon and plant nutrient cycling in agroecosystems to analyze management effects on system sustainability, the role of organic amendments and mineral fertilizers on plant nutrient availability and product quality, and on nutrient acquisition by plants in marginal and intensive environments. Over the past decades he has increasingly initiated, coordinated, and engaged in interdisciplinary and international research collaborations, analyzing interactions in complex social-ecological systems, drivers and effects of land use change at different scales, and urbanization-induced transformation processes both in metropolitan regions as well as in remote oasis systems.
Dr. Ellen Hoffmann is a member of the Section of Organic Plant Production and Agroecosystems Research in the Tropics and Subtropics at the University of Kassel. A biologist by training, she later engaged in the field of agricultural sciences, both as a researcher and a science manager. In her current position she coordinates collaborative research projects on rural-urban transformations and contributes to the interdisciplinary discussion on system approaches, land use changes, and social-ecological dynamics in the context of urbanization.
Prof. Dr. Eva Schlecht heads the joint Section "Animal Husbandry in the Tropics and Subtropics" at the University of Kassel and the University of Göttingen, Germany. Her research centers on livestock nutrition, livestock-mediated nutrient cycling, and livestock-based livelihoods across rural, peri-urban, and urban settings in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. For over thirty years, she has been engaged numerous interdisciplinary and international research projects exploring livestock-environment interactions at farm, pasture, and landscape scales. Her work aims at optimizing these relationships to ensure adequate animal nutrition, resource efficiency, enhanced livelihoods, and reduced environmental externalities.
PD Dr. Martin Wiehle is a researcher and lecturer in the Section of Organic Plant Production and Agroecosystems Research in the Tropics and Subtropics at the University of Kassel, Germany. With a background in biology, particularly in landscape ecology and botany, his academic focus has shifted toward agroecology, plant population genetics, and sustainable land use systems. He is actively involved in supervising students at all levels, including Ph.D. candidates, and has conducted field research in semi-arid regions of Africa and Asia. Dr. Wiehle also serves as the Managing Director of the Centre for International Rural Development (Tropenzentrum), where he contributes to academic capacity development in good scientific practice at faculty and project level. He further coordinates international academic cooperation, manages global mobility programs, and supports research collaborations, particularly in the Middle East, West Africa, and Southern Africa.
作者簡介(中文翻譯)
安德烈亞斯·比爾克特教授是卡塞爾大學熱帶與亞熱帶有機植物生產及農業生態系統研究部門的負責人。他的研究專注於農業生態系統中的碳和植物養分循環，以分析管理對系統可持續性的影響、有機改良劑和礦物肥料對植物養分可用性及產品質量的作用，以及植物在邊緣和密集環境中的養分獲取。在過去幾十年中，他越來越多地發起、協調並參與跨學科和國際研究合作，分析複雜社會生態系統中的互動、不同尺度的土地利用變化的驅動因素和影響，以及城市化引起的轉型過程，無論是在大都市區還是偏遠的綠洲系統中。
艾倫·霍夫曼博士是卡塞爾大學熱帶與亞熱帶有機植物生產及農業生態系統研究部門的成員。她的專業背景是生物學，後來轉向農業科學領域，擔任研究人員和科學管理者。在目前的職位上，她協調有關農村-城市轉型的合作研究項目，並參與有關系統方法、土地利用變化和社會生態動態的跨學科討論，特別是在城市化的背景下。
伊娃·施萊希特教授負責卡塞爾大學和德國哥廷根大學的「熱帶與亞熱帶畜牧業」聯合部門。她的研究重點是牲畜營養、牲畜介導的養分循環以及在撒哈拉以南非洲、中東和亞洲的農村、邊緣城市和城市環境中的以牲畜為基礎的生計。三十多年來，她參與了多個跨學科和國際研究項目，探索農場、牧場和景觀尺度上的牲畜與環境的互動。她的工作旨在優化這些關係，以確保適當的動物營養、資源效率、改善生計和減少環境外部性。
馬丁·維赫勒博士是卡塞爾大學熱帶與亞熱帶有機植物生產及農業生態系統研究部門的研究人員和講師。他的背景是生物學，特別是在景觀生態學和植物學方面，他的學術重點已轉向農業生態學、植物族群遺傳學和可持續土地利用系統。他積極參與指導各級學生，包括博士候選人，並在非洲和亞洲的半乾旱地區進行實地研究。維赫勒博士還擔任國際農村發展中心（Tropenzentrum）的執行董事，為學院和項目層面的良好科學實踐提供學術能力發展。他還協調國際學術合作，管理全球流動性計劃，並支持研究合作，特別是在中東、西非和南部非洲。
