SFB 552:  Stability of Rainforest Margins in Indonesia

• Subject Area: Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine ; Biology ; Geosciences ; Social and Behavioural Sciences
• Term: from 2000 to 2009
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5483746

The basic goal is to analyse and to assess processes of destabilisation and factors that contribute to the stability of rainforest margin areas both in their temporal and spatial dimensions. The Lore Lindu National Park and its surroundings in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, provide the research area. Research focuses on the interactions between socio-economic and ecological processes and is based on the hypotheses that-- stability of forest margin areas depends on the sustainability of the local land use systems-- sustainable land use systems avoid irreversible processes in water and nutrient cycles-- functions of biodiversity contribute to the sustainability of land use systems-- social, economic and cultural factors determine patterns and sustainability of resource use. Long-term objectives are:-- identifying ecological and socio-economic indicators of instability and testing them for their generalisation-- developing general principles and methods of resource management in order to stabilise the forest margin areas-- developing a framework for so called "Rapid Appraisals".The collaborative research centre is characterized by continuous Indonesian-German scientific cooperation. Our cooperation partners are the Universities of Bogor (Institut Pertanian Bogor) on Java and of Palu (Universitas Tadulako) in Sulawesi. Substantial efforts are made in mutual tertiary education of young Indonesian and German scientists. Emphasis is put on team effort in the context of interdisciplinary, international and intercultural work. This applies to all 17 projects of the center, which are grouped into five sub-programs: A Social and Economic Dynamics, B Water and Nutrient Turnover, C Biodiversity, D Land Use Systems and Z Central Services. The results of research can be of importance to development organisations on the local, regional and national levels. A feedback system is developed to warrant transfer of knowledge from scientists to local development agencies and non-governmental organisations. Moreover, we will test in which way participation of the local population in the research processes will contribute to practical application of the research findings in the long run.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• International Connection: Indonesia, Netherlands, USA

Completed projects

• A01 - Demographic change and its impacts on land use (Project Heads Faust, Heiko ;  Kreisel, Werner )
• A02 - Social organization and processes of ecological stabilization and destabilization: A comparative analysis (Project Heads Amini, Siawuch ;  Fremerey, Michael )
• A3 - Der Einfluss von Märkten und Politikmaßnahmen auf die Ressourcennutzung (Project Heads Birner, Regina ;  Zeller, Manfred )
• A04 - Socio-economic analysis of land use systems at household and village level (Project Heads Schwarze, Stefan ;  Zeller, Manfred )
• A05 - Welfare Economic Assessment of Forest Encroachment and ENSO effects in the face of personal capital and social capital dynamics (Project Heads Barkmann, Jan ;  Faust, Heiko ;  Marggraf, Rainer ;  Stoll, Peter-Tobias )
• A06 - Poverty, Vulnerability and Gender Dynamics at the Intra-household level, Household, Local, Regional, and National Level (Project Heads Grimm, Ph.D., Michael ;  Klasen, Ph.D., Stephan )
• B01 - Energy and mass exchange between atmosphere and tropical ecosystems (Project Heads Gravenhorst, Gode ;  Panferov, Oleg )
• B02 - The influence of pedo-hydrological changes on the water and nutrient cycle in catchment areas (Project Head Gerold, Gerhard )
• B3 - Gasförmige Verluste von Stickstoff in Regenwäldern und Agro-Öko-Systemen (Project Heads Brumme, Rainer ;  Veldkamp, Edzo )
• B04 - Drought effects on soil water regime and water partitioning in cacao agroforest (Project Heads Hölscher, Dirk ;  Schwendenmann, Luitgard )
• B05 - Effects of ENSO droughts and land-use practices on soil C, N, P dynamics in a tropical rainforest and agroforestry systems Central Sulawesi, Indonesia (Project Head Michalzik, Beate )
• B06 - Carbon dioxide production in soils under cacao agroforestry and natural forests: effects of drought and landscape variability (Project Head Veldkamp, Edzo )
• B07 - Drought Effects on Water Consumption and Plant Water Status of Trees in the Natural Forest (Project Heads Horna, Viviana ;  Leuschner, Christoph )
• C01 - Einflüsse der Landnutzung auf Diversität und Struktur von Vertebratengemeinschaften (Project Head Mühlenberg, Michael )
• C02 - Diversity and spatial distribution of herbaceous and woody plant assemblages in relation to natural and anthropogenic factors (Project Heads Gradstein, Stephan Robbert ;  Kessler, Michael )
• C03 - Insect diversity and trophic interactions in relation to agroforestry management and ENSO droughts (Project Heads Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf ;  Tscharntke, Teja )
• C04 - Drought effects on vitality and activity of tree fine roots in natural forest and agroforestry systems (Project Heads Hertel, Dietrich ;  Leuschner, Christoph )
• C06 - Diversity of endophytic fungi on cacao and impact on plant pathogenherbivorous insect interactions in relation to agroforestry diversity and management (Project Head Vidal, Stefan )
• C07 - Stability of rainforest margins in space and time: Holocene rainforest, climate, fire, human impact and land use dynamics in Sulawesi, Indonesia (Project Head Behling, Hermann )
• D1 - Struktur und Prozesse in traditionellen Waldgärten (Project Heads Mitlöhner, Ralph ;  Weidelt, Hans-Joachim )
• D2 - Entwicklung nachhaltiger landwirtschaftlicher Landnutzungssysteme (Project Heads Claassen, Norbert ;  Kroschel, Jürgen )
• D4 - Nährstoffflüsse und ihre Steuerungsfaktoren in Landnutzungssystemen (Project Heads Fölster, Horst ;  Veldkamp, Edzo )
• D05 - Central data management: Multivariate spatial analysis and modelling of the dynamics of rainforest margins (Project Heads Alcamo, Joseph ;  Saborowski, Joachim ;  Sloboda, Branislav )
• D06 - Remote sensing based modelling of continuous environmental variables for ecological and socio-economic scenarios (Project Heads Erasmi, Stefan ;  Kappas, Martin )
• Z1 - Monitoring von Zustand und Veränderung der Wald- und Landschaftsstrukturen (Project Head Akca, Alparslan )
• Z2 - Klimatische Kennwerte im Untersuchungsgebiet - Stützmessungen und Regionalisierung (Project Head Gravenhorst, Gode )
• Z03 - Central Laboratory Unit (Project Heads Gerold, Gerhard ;  Grotheer, Jürgen )
• Z04 - Coordination and Administration (Project Heads Leuschner, Christoph ;  Tscharntke, Teja )
• Z05 - Verwaltung (Project Head Tscharntke, Teja )

• Applicant Institution: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
• Participating University: Universität Kassel
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Teja Tscharntke