http://www.fao.org/asiapacific/events/detail-events/en/c/1262/ Presentation of Damayanti Buchori, from Bogor Agricultural Unviserity, describing knowledge development on agroecology. The presentation was prepared and delivered in occasion of the Regional Symposium on Agroecology in Asia and the Pacific, held in Bangkok, Senegal on 24-26 November 2015. © FAO: http://www.fao.org

1. KNOWLEDGE DEVELOPMENT FOR
AGROECOLOGY MOVEMENT: FROM
SCIENCE TO POLICY
DAMAYANTI BUCHORI
DEPARTMENT OF PLANT PROTECTION,
FACULTY OF AGRICULTURE
BOGOR AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY
IPB, INDONESIA
Multistakeholders Consultation on Agroecology in Asia and the Pacific
24-26 November 2015, Bangkok, Thailand

2. THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE
• Challenges in today’s
life:
Multifunctionality of
land (Mosaics),
• Science and
Technology played an
important role
– has helped find
answers to problems
of life e.g food
– Science helps us
gained knowledge
AND YET

4. WHY?

5. “The saddest aspect of life right now is that science
gathers knowledge faster than society gathers
wisdom.”
(ISAAC ASIMOV)

6. WHAT IS GOING ON WITH HUMANS
AND HUMANITY?
On again off again
ecological amnesia
• Pragmatisam in Life Choices
• Life is about filling your
checklists

7. Theme 5: Agroecological transition,
initiatives and policies to scale up
Agroecology
• Knowledge Development
– From Science :What does the Science say?
– To Policy: What is the role of science in policy? What
role should it play? How do we treat uncertainties in
policy?
– Is evidence based policy a good thing?
– How much can you rely on the science to develop
policies?
• Agroecology and the Changes of Paradigm:
– From patch to Landscape
– From Monodisciplines to Transdisciplinary

8. WHAT DOES THE DATA SAYS?
Science in Agroecology

9. Coffee
and
Cacao

10. BENEFIT OF SHADE,
Tscharntek, 2011
• Shade trees in agroforestry
enhance functional
biodiversity, carbon
sequestration, soil fertility,
drought resistance as well
as weed and biologicalpest
control.
• However, shade is needed
for young cacao trees only
and is less important in
older cacao plantations.
This changing response to
shade regime with cacao
plantation age oftenresults
in a transient role for shade
and associated biodiversity
in agroforestry.

11. Agriculture intensification
Pesticide application
(Wanger et al. 2010)
Shade reduction
(Tscharntke et al. 2011)

12. • Species richness of trees, fungi,
invertebrates, and vertebrates did
not decrease with yield.
Moderate shade, adequate
labor, and input level can be
combined with a complex habitat
structure to provide high
biodiversity as well as high yields.

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

14. (Pseudacteon)
(Hypothenemus)
(Azteca)

15. UNDERSTANDING COMPLEXITY REQUIRES
A DIFFERENT SET OF THINKING

16. UNIT OF RESEARCH
Individual Population Community Landscape

17. If the data IS CLEAR
Then why?

18. BECAUSE THERE is ALWAYS
UNCERTAINTY IN SCIENCE
AND SOMETIMES PEOPLE BANK IN
ON THIS

19. Science aims to Explain and
Understand
• Science as a collective institution aims to produce more
and more accurate natural explanations of how the
natural world works, what its components are, and how
the world got to be the way it is now.
• Classically, science's main goal has been building
knowledge and understanding, regardless of its
potential applications — for example, investigating the
chemical reactions that an organic compound
undergoes in order to learn about its structure.

20. AN Example:
• Keynote by Marcello Tabarelli: hyperfragmented
landscapes has limited conservation value,- a
question from the audience: what if someone uses
your result to make a decision that it is not
worthwhile to have small patches of forests under
hyperfragmented landscapes?
• This is a very important question to us all.
• Is the absence of evidence = the evidence of
absence?
• Scientific result and judgement on the implications of
the findings can have a significant impact on the
trajectory of our lives

21. Science:is based on evidence
• Provoking questions:
– How much more science do we need to proof that
biodiversity is important?
• What about the limitations of humans to understand
and unravel the complexity of life?
• If all scientific evidence points to the importance of
conservation, sustainable development, etc: will it
actually be implemented on the ground?

22. Something is Terribly Wrong:
Decoupling of science from societal and
socio economic processes?

23. What is The Ultimate Goal of
Science?
• Uses and Misues of Science
• Science and Technology has change the course
of lives
• Now, we are moving toward:
– Science – based economy
– Science – based wars
– Science – based powers
• Where science is used as a tool for a new way to
control
– WTO (SPS Agreement, GAP, Pest Free Area)

24. Always Remember:
SCIENCE IS THE BELIEVE IN THE
IGNORANCE OF THE EXPERTS
(Richard Feynman)

25. SO what happened?
• Science should lead to humility—has it?
• Misconception: Science is a collection of facts. Correction:
Science is both a body of knowledge and the process for
building that knowledge.
• Science is both a body of knowledge and a process.
• Science is ongoing. Science is continually refining and
expanding our knowledge of the universe, and as it does, it
leads to new questions for future investigation. Science will
never be "finished."
• Science is a global human endeavor. People all over the
world participate in the process of science.

26. Science is a Social Activity
• Science is now undertaken with the explicit goal
of solving a problems or developing a technology,
and along the path to that goal, new knowledge
and explanations are constructed.
• In today’s market economy, science is very much
determined by supply an demand, where science
is explicitly expected to be produced by scientists
and societies are the consumers

27. MISPERCEPTION
Scientific Thinking is A Mechanical
Thinking
The power which knowledge brings can be used
for both good and evil
-- If knowledge has met with power, the key
now is to develop that they are joined by
wisdom
– However, the rapid advanced of knowledge
makes a better use of science more difficult

28. “The saddest aspect of life right now is that science
gathers knowledge faster than society gathers
wisdom.”
(ISAAC ASIMOV)

29. Science and Policy
Jacques Monod in “Work and Necessity”
argues that science has to be based on
morals. Therefore scientific development
also has morality in it

30. From Science to Policy: Interphase
• What does it mean:
– The level of significance (probability of being wrong)
– Is the absence of evidence the same as evidence of
absence?
• What is Evidence-based Policies? Implication?
• How ready are we to move toward evidence-
based policies?
• Someone mentioned something about valuation
the other day: which I agree:
– In the end: it is about the hearts and the minds

31. Brown, Handbury, 1986. The Wisdom
of Science its relevance to culture
Religion
The most sensitive, the most fragile part
of the total ecology of science is the
understanding on the part of of the
scientist themselves of the nature of
the scientific enterprise

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

33. Moral Responsibility
• In ethics, moral responsibility is primarily the
responsibility related to actions and their
consequences in social relation
• It concerns the harm cause to an individual, a
group or the entire society by the actions or
inactions of another individual group entire
society
• Science should be an integral part of cultural
development as opposed to agent of change
To achieve wisdom and moral responsibility is
an ongoing struggles between
romantiscm dan rationalisme

34. Ultimately, it’s about
• Education and “humbleness”
• The courage to believe in what is
not seen by the eyes, not heard by
the ears, but could be felt with an
open heart
• For those who always argue in the
name of development and
economy: To make the journey
into the abyss, and believe that we
shall not perish because of the big
jump

35. GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP
• Building local capacity and empowerment
• Strengthening local institutions
• It’s about changing the hearts and minds of people
• And building critical mass of people together, globally

36. AGROECOLOGY MOVEMENT
• Not only advocacy for rights of farmers
• But also science for society
• Movement of science back to its origin: to
seek for truth and honesty
– Science began as a branch of philosophy, and for a
long time the two pursuits were closely
intertwined. Science has since then grown up and
moved out of the family home, and its successes
have put its parent in the shade (Southwell, 2013)