Land health surveillance & Agroforestry in support of land restoration in Africa

Ermias Betemariam (e.betemariam@cgiar.org)Keith ShepherdDennis Garrity

UNCCD COP 12, Ankara20 Oct. 2015

Land Health Surveillance

Shepherd KD, et al. 2015. Land health surveillance and response: a framework for evidence-informed land management. Agricultural Systems 132: 93–106

Land Health - the capacity of land, relative to its potential, to sustain delivery of essential ecosystem services (the benefits people obtain from ecosystems)

Land health surveillanceDevelop and promote methods for measuring and monitoring land health, assessing land health risks, and targeting interventions to improve agro-ecosystem health and human wellbeing

Context-Harnessing New Opportunities

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WLE Flagship Project 1 (2017 – 2022): Restoring Degraded Landscapes (RDL): restore 7 million ha land in Africa, Asia and LAC

20–25% of global land degraded affecting 1.5 billion people

Sustainable Development Goal # 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

The Bonn challenge: restore 150 million ha (85 billion a year) of deforested and degraded lands by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030

Zero Net Land Degradation (ZNLD) UNCCD by 2030: degradation < restoration= f(halting further loss, restoring already-degraded lands)

CGIAR strategy 2016-2030 “Harnessing New Opportunities”: Improved National Resource Systems & Ecosystem Services (SLO 3): targets to restore 190 million hectares of degraded land by 2030

CRP

Opportunities• Current global and national commitments to achieve all SDGs

and to meet the Bonn Challenge • Rewarding schemes of ecosystem services, REDD+• Climate smart agriculture, CC adaptation and mitigation, and

green economy • Advances in monitoring technologies such as remote sensing

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In Africa, mostly the opportunity is in restoring mosaic landscapes with multiple functions

Pakistan

El Salva

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Costa Rica

ColombiaBra

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Guatemala

Rwanda

Uganda

D R Congo

Initiative 20x2

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United St

ates

Ethiopia0

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8

12

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0.38 1 1 1 1 1.22 2.5

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Area

(mill

ion

hect

ae)

Africa 50% of 59 M committed

~ 1.5 billion ha suitable for mosaic restoration, in which forests and trees, including agroforestry, smallholder agriculture, and settlements

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At what stages? Under what contexts?

Land degradation and restoration as a continuum

• How can drivers of degradation can be reversed, • What function is to be restored for whom (objectives), • Who has rights, obligations (responsibilities) and stakes? (including

restoration after planned destruction in the case of mining contracts), • What means are appropriate (do nothing, support natural processes, or

plant and manage), • What incentives and investment is needed and how can this be sourced, • How all of the above can be managed in a multi-stake-holder process,

supported by monitoring and evaluation

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Key questions in land restoration

Risk framework

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Soil spectroscopy • Rapid (~ 1000 samples/ day-

robotic)• Low cost (~ 56 %) • Reproducible• Predicts several soil functional

properties

Cost-effective monitoring of land/soil degradation and restoration

• Lowering cost of acquisition and access• Satellites, UAVs, lab spectroscopy

• Improving relevance to improving critical decisions • Decision analytics, Value of Information

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Baseline information for targeting land restorationAfrica Soil Information Services ++ Prediction map for soil organic carbon for

sub-Saharan Africa. (Source: Africa Soil Information Service)

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Information for targeting land restoration

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Cost-effective monitoring

Increase in vegetation cover could be a sing of land degradation – e.g. bush encroachment in rangelands

National capacity development is important

Land restoration to target multiple benefits- synergy

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Healthy landscapes

CBD

UNFCCCUNCC

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UNCCD

UNFCCC

CBD

• Measurement could be expensive– Measure/monitor for multiple benefit

LDN: Monitoring framework

• Land cover and land cover changes• Land productivity dynamics• Soil Organic Carbon content

• Biodiversity??• Socio-economic indicators??

Northern Ethiopia

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Context specific solutions

• There is insufficient specific evidence on land degradation to focus action.

• Land health problems share many features with public health problems.

• National land health surveillance systems could generate large development benefit.

• Preventive strategies that reduce distal risks at national levels are needed

Ermias Betemariam | Hands-on soil infrared spectroscopy training course | Nairobi | Nov. 12, 2013 | 15

Final remarks

• Avoid further degradation and restoring degraded lands • Sustainable land management • Avoiding degradation of non-degraded Lands

– enhancing the productivity of cropland and pastoral land per unit area, time and input rather than expanding the area of land in production

• Community-based and traditional approaches• Payment for ecosystem services

Ermias Betemariam | Hands-on soil infrared spectroscopy training course | Nairobi | Nov. 12, 2013 | 16

Pathways

Actors Activities

Farmers and pastoralists

• Engage in capacity development• Involve in preparedness and risk management schemes

Private sector • Engage in investments that increase efficiency in land use

• Invest in R&D on SLM

Governments • Create enabling environment- policy • Set up national goal and targets• Measure and monitor LDD Measuring LDD

Intergovernmental actions

• Agree on a Sustainable Development • Agree on a new legal instrument (e.g. ZNLD) to the UNCCD • Establish an Intergovernmental Panel/Platform

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Recommendations