Managing Land Sustainably for Better Livelihoods This is our world, our land, our life, we must nurture it. © 2013 UNCCD and World Bank UNCCD Secretariat Langer Eugen, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1 D-53113 Bonn, Germany Tel: +49-228 / 815-2800 Fax: +49-228 / 815-2898/99 Email: secretariat @unccd.int World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington, DC 20433 USA Tel: (202) 473-1000 Fax: (202) 477-6391 Internet: www.worldbank.org E-mail: mseck@worldbank.org All rights reserved. This publication is a product of the staff of UNCCD and World Bank. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the GEF Council members or the governments they represent. The Global Environment Facility does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of the UNCCD and World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS The material in this publication is copyrighted. Copying and/or transmitting portions or all of this work without permission may be a violation of applicable law. The UNCCD and World Bank encourage dissemination of its work and will normally grant permission to reproduce portions of the work promptly. For permission to photocopy or reprint any part of this work, please send a request with complete information to secretariat@unccd.int. ii UNCCD . World Bank Managing Land Sustainably for Better Livelihoods L and for Life . iii Contents Forests.. . . . . . . . . .............................................................. 19 Dry Forests.. . . . . ............................................................. 21 Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii It Takes Chifeng City: Restoring Land Foreword. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii on a Grand Scale............................................................... 25 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x Out of Environmental Hazards Livelihoods Are Restored, Friendships Created......................................... 27 Unearthing the Ethiopian Humbo Forest with World Bank–Supported Project....................................... 29 World Bank/GEF Support Integrated Productivity Conservation in Forests’ Protected Areas.. .............................................................. 31 Fighting Desertification Is Everybody’s Poverty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Everyday Business in Nigeria. . ............................................... 33 Poverty Not a Fate!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 The Fight for Dirt: TEMA...................................................... 34 Conservation Efforts Lift People Out of Poverty in Benin with World Bank Support.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 World Bank–Supported Project Increases Productivity and Reduces Conflicts in Sahel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Land Management Comes Full Circle in the Pearl of the Antilles. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Self-Governance Saves Common Lands from Degradation in India. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Climate Change......................................................... 37 Holistic Land Management Improves Climate Change: Ground Zero........................................ 38 Livelihoods in Kenya. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Native Trees to Restore Salinized Soils The Magic Wand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 and Sequester Carbon......................................................... 41 iv UNCCD . World Bank World Bank/GEF Sahel and West Africa Program Supports the Great Green Wall Initiative. ............ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Scientist’s Persuasiveness Saves Mongolian Grasslands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 DeCo! Ghana. ...... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 A Balancing Act for Competing Land Uses Water.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ......................................... 69 in India. ............. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Land for Life, Water for Life: Profitable Land Investments with Managing the Extremes.. . . . . . . ......................................... 71 Wildlife Works. ..... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Restoring Dry and Salinized Seabeds in the Aral Sea.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ......................................... 73 A Green Wall to Catch Fresh Water in Indonesia.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ......................................... 75 Building Riverbeds from Sand Dams........................................ 76 Mexico’s Water Solution from Integrated Landscape Management.. 78 World Bank Support Unleashes Prosperity from Senegal River Resources.. . . . . ......................................... 80 Biological Diversity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Biodiversity and Preventing Land Degradation.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 The Hummingbird in China’s Gobi Desert.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Life Replaces Once Dry Scrub in Jordan. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 World Bank Experience in Community Conservancy as a Social Development Movement in Namibia.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Payment for Ecosystem Services Preserves Food Security.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ......................................... 83 a Valuable Biodiversity Zone in Portugal.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Food Security and Land Degradation.............................. 85 World Bank/GEF Project Protects Environment-Friendly Farming by the Mountain Gorillas in Uganda.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Biovision Foundation.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ......................................... 88 Using Nature to Restore the Grasslands. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Underground Forests That Restore Soil Biodiversity.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ......................................... 90 World Bank Project Brings Food Security from Sustainable Land Management in Senegal.. . . . . . . . . . . . ......................................... 92 L and for Life . Contents v Children, Agents of Food Security in Uganda.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 EcoAgriculture: An Innovation That Restores Landscapes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Moving Africa’s Drylands toward Modern Technologies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Awareness Creation.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Coalition Building, Communication, and Social Media for Greater Awareness.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Africa’s Faiths Commit to a Living Planet under a World Bank–Supported Initiative.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 The DESIRE Project for Greener Land.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 ISO-Certified Cities in the Negev Desert.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Endnotes.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Web Sites and Addresses..........................................................114 vi UNCCD . World Bank Acknowledgments Project coordinators: Wagaki Mwangi, UNCCD, and Madjiguene Seck, Lotayef, Shelley McMillan, Aifa Fatimata Ndoye Niane, Emmanuel Nikiema, World Bank. Bérengère Prince, Emmanuel Sene, Claudia Sobrevilla, Siv Tokle, and Jean Philippe Tre; Lucia Grenna and the Connect4Climate team. This book was published under the auspices of the UN Decade for Deserts and the Fight against Desertification (UNDDD) partners: CBD, DPI, FAO, We thank the organizations profiled in the publication, for their sup- ICRAF, IFAD, IUCN, The GEF, UNCCD, UNDP, UNEP, UNESCO, UNFCCC, port and feedback during its production: Abellon CleanEnergy Limited, UNFF and WMO. Biovision Foundation, Chifeng City, Consejo Civil Mexicano para la Silvicultura Sostenible (CCMSS), Conservation Efforts for Community We thank the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency team: Estherine Development, Conservation International, DeCo!, DESIRE, Dr. Venanzio Fotabong, Teko Hlapho, Bougadare Kone, Rudo Makunike, Vincent Vallerani, EcoAgriculture Partners, Excellent Development, FADE Africa, Oparah, and Tendai Tofa for their contributions. Federazione Italiani Dottori in Agraria e Forestali (FIDAF), Forestry and Environmental Protection Bureau of Qinghai Province, Foundation for We would like to especially thank the UNCCD team who initiated this Ecological Security (FES), Future Forest, GADE Argentina, Institute of project: Emily Davila, Yukie Hori, Wagaki Mwangi (lead author) and Komila Botany and Phytointroduction, Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy Nabiyeva. of Sciences, Jordan Royal Botanic, Liga para a Protecção da Natureza (LPN), Liliya Dimeyeva, SOIL, Sustainable Development for the Negev, Special thanks to the members of the Inter-Agency Task Force of the TEMA, The RAE Trust, The Savory Institute, The Wand Foundation, Wildlife UNDDD for their contributions: Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias and David Works, and World Vision Australia. Ainsworth, CBD; Jonathan Davies and Musumi Gudka, IUCN; Mohammed Bakarr, The GEF; Mona Haidar and Anne-Juepner, UNDP; Robert Photos credit: Andrea Borgarello (vi, viii, x, xiii, xiv, xv, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 20, Ondhowe, UNEP; and Jose Camacho, WMO. 28, 30, 40, 42, 46, 52, 53, 68, 69, 80, 81, 84, 92, 93, 96, 100, 101, 103, 105, 106, 108, 112, back cover); Lisa Kristine (36, 37, 50) and the semifinalists and We thank the World Bank team for their contributions: Jamal Saghir, winners of the Land for Life Award who contributed their photos to this Magda Lovei, Paola Agostini, Umou Al Bazzaz, Richard Damania, Steve publication. Danyo, Phillip Hay, Sarwat Hussain, Gayatri Kanungo, Judith Laufman, Madjiguene Seck (lead author), and project leaders: Asferachew Abate Design: Will Kemp, General Services Department, Printing & Multimedia, Abebe, Amos Abu, Amadou Alassane, Dinesh Aryal, Edward Dwumfour, World Bank Ijeoma Emananjo, Martin Fodor, Salimata Follea, Million Alemayehu Gizaw, Claire Grisaffi, Maman-Sani Issa, Nathalie Johnson, George Ledec, Dahlia Editor: Gina Wiatrowski L and for Life . Acknowledgements vii Foreword Productive land is one of the world’s most valuable natural assets in ban- diversity and range show us that barriers to scaling up sustainable land and ishing extreme poverty and creating shared prosperity. Yet land degra- water management are not for lack of ideas and initiatives. dation—which leads to desertification and robs soil fertility—is steadily marching across large tracts of the globe, especially in Africa. This is now The uplifting news is that people are taking action themselves to restore one of the most important environment and development issues of our and protect newly fertile land all over the world. There are many cases, time. Today, drylands cover about 34 percent of the earth’s surface, and land degradation is reaching far beyond drylands. Recent estimates show that every year, 24 bil- lion tons of fertile soils are lost through erosion alone. Between 1981 and 2003, 78 percent of all land degrada- tion was occurring outside drylands. It has taken us a very short time to destroy what took generations to create—productive soils. We need to look for innovative new approaches and solutions from grassroots communities which are seldom consulted for their advice and experience. The purpose of the UNCCD’s Land for Life Award is to unearth these grassroots solutions and bring them into the forefront of our plans for turning degraded and drylands back into productive use. This magazine presents 40 innovative case studies from all over the world, illustrating how we can restore the health of degraded lands. These cases have been selected from the more than 250 applications received for the UNCCD Land for Life Award during 2011-2013, and from the World Bank’s TerrAfrica portfolio. Their viii UNCCD . World Bank such as those presented here and beyond, that we can learn from. In 2011 we can pursue a comprehensive approach whereby forest, pastoral and alone, the Parties to the Desertification Convention documented some agriculture lands are managed in an integrated way to create ecosystems 240 successful sustainable land and water management measures in their that keep the world’s land alive and productive. reports to the last Conference of the Parties. We lose more and more fertile land each day to the steady advance of These stories testify to the fact that desertification and land degradation degradation. Let us all cooperate to fight land degradation at all levels, are not our automatic destiny. We can roll back the encroachment of demand action, set measurable targets, and forge partnerships for drylands and reclaim enough fertile land for the world to feed itself, banish effective results on the ground. malnutrition, and create sustainable land and water management policies. This is what a land-degradation neutral world is about. As the global community comes together to develop the Sustainable Development Goals, now is the time to act on reversing and preventing We need political leaders, private sector and communities to mobilize future land degradation. These stories provide the testimony that it is behind scaling up good practices; disseminate valuable new information possible to fight land degradation. and knowledge; invest in and mainstream sustainable land and water management at the national level; forge effective partnerships; and moni- Land is a source of life, a source of wealth and we must nurture it. Let us tor desertification, land degradation and drought at all levels. In this way, answer the call. Luc Gnacadja Makhtar Diop Executive Secretary, United Nations Convention Vice President, The World Bank Group, Africa Region to Combat Desertification L and for Life . Foreword ix Introduction poverty, which severely impacts the ability of subsistence farmers to grow Land Is Life food, irrigate their crops and get decent yields. The greatest challenges facing humanity are interconnected. Ending Close to one third of the wealth of low-income countries comes from poverty requires economic growth creating more opportunities for better their “natural capital” which includes forests, protected areas, agricultural livelihoods, access to education for all, and empowering women. Food lands, energy and minerals, according to a World Bank report1. Countries security depends on healthy soils and agricultural yields, which in turn that manage these natural assets carefully are able to move up the depend on water supply and are being increasingly impacted by climate development ladder—investing more and more in manufactured capital, change. It is hard to name any one issue that stands alone. infrastructure and “intangible capital” like human skills and education, strong institutions, innovation and new technologies. It is also true that solving the problems of land degradation and desertification offers an entry point for tackling many pressing An estimated 70 percent of the developing world’s 1.4 billion extremely development issues. Land degradation is often an underlying factor of rural poor people live in rural areas, according to a 2011 report by the x UNCCD . World Bank International Fund for Agricultural Development. When land and soil are subregions of southern Africa, the Sahel region, and the Horn of Africa, healthy, it leads to improved agricultural productivity, enhanced biodiver- the additional burden of climate change is already evident. Recurrent, pro- sity, and reduced carbon emissions. When land and soil are healthy, both longed, and severe droughts come with a high loss of human life, conflict, the earth and the communities who inhabit it are more resilient to weather migration, and political instability. variances and disasters. The World Bank and its partners recognize that tackling immediate, We need to meet the needs of the 2.6 billion people without access to decisive steps to slow the effects of climate change is essential to eradi- sanitation, the 1.3 billion without access to electricity, the 1 billion who are cate poverty. Looking at all of its operations through a climate lens , the hungry, and the 900 million who lack safe drinking water. We must do so in World Bank is helping 130 countries take action on climate change by an era of increased uncertainty as we adapt to climate change and unprec- supporting on-the-ground action to finance projects that help the poor edented urbanization. And we must do so without sacrificing the environ- grow their way out of poverty and increase their resilience to climate ment. There is no time like the present. change. The urgency for action in Africa is undisputable. Two-thirds of the continent Recognizing that healthy land is the backbone of healthy communities, is either desert or drylands—arid, semiarid, or dry subhumid. In the dryland the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and partners have created the Land for Life Award. This is the only global award that focuses solely on organizations and individuals working to restore degraded lands and improve the soil’s natural health and productive capacity. The stories presented here speak about the successes and impacts of land The Land for Life Award consists of an annual prize fund of US$100,000, restoration through sustainable land management practices taking place which is typically shared among three winners that are chosen by a panel worldwide. They are also a call to action, to get meaningful actions on of experts. the ground, boost private investment and encourage governments and The award is a public affirmation of proven initiatives that offer important development agencies to cooperate better to end land degradation. lessons on land restoration and that must be scaled up to meet a growing food demand. These global stories of success are expected to increase investment on SLMW, promote south-south cooperation, and accelerate effort to end Applications come from individuals, nongovernmental organizations, poverty. They should inspire every one of us to make a commitment and governments, businesses, media, and others contributing to sustainable take all measures we can to strive for eliminating land-degradation. We land management. need to take action now If not, these testimonies will bear silent witness to The call for applications runs from October through early March, and the a generation that knew better, yet failed to act. winners are announced every June 17, which is World Day to Combat Desertification. L and for Life . Introduction xi Climate Change Land: Central to the New Development Agenda The deadline for the Millennium Development Goals in 2015 is upon us. In India, Abellon is the only business in the world that employs landless Soon, world leaders will meet to take stock and set a new agenda on issues farmers and women to practice agriculture under the shade of solar panels. that are not new, but on which their understanding of how these issues are The 12 hectares of solar panels provide the community with clean energy, integrated has changed. Of the proposed sustainable development goals, as well as organic fruits and vegetables grown with water run-off from an overarching goal has been put forward: “sustainable land use for all and frequent panel cleaning. The World Bank/GEF Sahel and West Programs by all.” in support of the Great Green Wall also offer much hope as they promote a landscape approach to increase productivity while nurturing land Building on the Rio +20 agreements to strive for a land-degradation-neu- resources. tral world, there is a need to set concrete measureable targets for curbing land degradation. This goal is achievable by encouraging sustainable land and forestry management, agroforestry, water management, soil conserva- Biological Diversity tion, and sustainable agriculture and livestock practices. Policy makers are This may sound counter-intuitive, but grazing animals can help regenerate debating whether a land-degradation-neutral world is achievable. The sto- degraded landscapes and increase biodiversity. Through the introduction ries in this book show that good examples for land restoration exist, and, if of the framework of holistic management, Alan Savory and the Savory scaled up, can indeed be transformational and positively impact lives and Institute have trained more than 10,000 people in the concept of holistic the environment. management to restore land and increase productivity. In Namibia, we learn that community conservancies expanded as social development movement to preserve the growing wildlife populations and generate Poverty income. That poverty is not fate becomes apparent from the stories from Haiti, from the conservation effort of the coastal population of Benin, and from the courage of farmer innovators in Burkina Faso. Water Water is the source of life. The regional World Bank-funded Senegal River Basin Project goes beyond countries, to bring cross border solutions that Forests make a long-term dent in poverty and transform the lives of the 35 million From the Korea-China Friendship Great Green Wall in Kubuqi Desert riparian people. Projects like this offer many more opportunities with to Africa’s Great Green Wall for the Sahara and Sahel and Lake Chad multiplier impacts for agriculture, water supply, energy, navigation, and Initiative, we learn that forests abound and massive afforestation progress health. In Indonesia, Conservation International targeted the restoration exists in arid and semi-arid areas. Curiously, world maps rarely show for- of a key watershed and planted a green wall of 100,000 native trees over ests. You get to find out why. We also learn from communities in Humbo, a 200-hectare area bordering two national parks. The wall prevents soil Ethiopia, that unearthed an underground forest and are now deriving erosion and protects water flows for 30 million consumers downstream in multiple benefits. Greater Jakarta. xii UNCCD . World Bank Food Security initiatives profiled here empower people at the community level, people One of the biggest challenges for sustainable land management is who are spreading the word one by one, people becoming a movement reaching small holder farmers and changing unsustainable practices. for change on how we care for our land and soil. By popularizing the concept of Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR), World Vision has changed how thousands of farmers manage But the voices of the people and organizations profiled here are often not their land, helping them cultivate buried root systems or “underground heard across borders, disciplines and political spheres; leaving their efforts forests,” in degraded landscapes, and help restore productivity over under appreciated and underutilized. time. The goal of this publication and the Land for Life Award is to draw atten- tion to these valuable lessons. Awareness Raising One the greatest achievement of the organizations featured here is their Each story is different, but taken success at making beneficiaries as well as policymakers know the urgency together, they are all about breaking of finding solutions against desertification. The World Bank has contributed the vicious cycle of land degradation by using its convening power to scale up investments, facilitate knowledge and poverty, and shifting the sharing and bring together the various stakeholders. paradigm towards a virtuous cycle of healthy soils and better conditions of You will find inspiring stories on dialogue and knowledge sharing from life for greater prosperity. We hope the Negev desert, one of the most degraded environments in Israel, you find these stories valuable and through the activism of Bilha Givon, DESIRE’s toolbox of sustainable land inspiring. management techniques and TerrAfrica’s work to shape beliefs, behavior and actions for a greener and better Africa. Creating Eco-systems of Success The organizations profiled here are successful because they understood that there are many aspects required to create change. They are tackling the problems of land degradation in various ways, by educating students, by mobilizing volunteers, by offering farmers training and assistance, and by using advocacy with governments for policy change. They are experi- menting with new techniques, and revisiting old methods that have since been forgotten. Much of their work demonstrates that sustainable land and water management does not have to be complicated. Many of the L and for Life . Introduction xiii Poverty xiv UNCCD . World Bank L and for Life . POVERT Y 1 Overview Poverty Not a Fate! by UNDP and World Bank Ann Juepner, UNDP, and Paola Agostini and Richard Damania, World Bank “Poverty is like heat; you cannot see it; so to know poverty, you have to go through it.” —A poor man from Adaboya, Ghana 2 P Persistent poverty is overwhelmingly rural and geographically Multidimensional poverty acknowledges deprivations in key aspects of concentrated. Despite much progress in reducing poverty in recent human well-being such as health, education and living standards,4 with years, about 1.4 billion people still live on less than US$1.25 a day— more than 1.75 billion people are living under these conditions. which is a widely used poverty line.3 South Asia is the region with the greatest number of poor people, but sub-Saharan Africa has the highest At least 70 percent of the world’s poor are rural and a large proportion of incidence of rural poverty. these are children and the young. Low productivity—especially of land— is often the root cause of much of the poverty that is observed in rural Poverty is described in different ways, and there is growing agreement that areas. Vulnerability is especially high in the drylands where climate related it is multidimensional and at low levels of income it goes well beyond the shocks coupled with land that has low productivity and is vulnerable to historical notion of lack of sufficient income (or income poverty) reflected overgrazing.5 in this global poverty line. It is a dynamic and transformative process that is increasingly influenced by numerous short-term shocks and longer-term The causal links between poverty and land productivity often run both stresses, such as seasons, climate variability and change and household- ways. The poor typically inhabit marginal lands with limited potential, but level demographic shocks. This is why, when data is available, there is a extreme poverty also creates conditions which induce the poor to degrade greater focus on measuring consumption poverty than income poverty. soils and deplete valuable natural resources in their bid for survival. The However defined, such vulnerable populations may move in and out of short term gains are counterproductive and ultimately unsustainable. poverty due to these natural and anthropogenic factors. This is especially relevant in regions of the world where agriculture and livestock production, are and will remain, the default sources of income, employment and livelihoods. 2 UNCCD . World Bank L and for Life . POVERT Y 3 The most disadvantaged bear the greatest repercussions of environmental for the poorest, the hungriest, the least healthy and the most marginalized degradation since they directly depend on natural resources for their people in the world.7 livelihoods. They are especially sensitive to increased drought intensity in a warming world, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.6 They Drylands cover more than 40 percent of the world’s land surface and include the more than 1 billion people living in the drylands which account embrace a variety of environments—sandy deserts, temperate grasslands and savannah woodland—that share the common feature of water scarcity.8 Despite the challenges, drylands have been home to people for thousands of years. Today, drylands support about half the world’s livestock and are major areas of cereal production. Drylands also affect global climate and are some of the most conflict-prone regions in the world—they cannot be ignored. The vignettes that comprise this volume tell stories of lands degraded to meet urgent survival needs and innovative policies and land management systems that have reversed these trends. This calls for actions on many fronts—engaging communities, improving land tenure and administration systems and creating resource buffers—such as community forests that reduce incentives to exploit and deforest land with unclear ownership and ensure a supply of resources for times of need. Partnerships are probably the most needed actions to accelerate the scaling up of existing innovative local efforts. The Land for Life demonstrates that innovations are not lacking. The Equator Initiative, a UNDP-led partnership, brings together the United Nations, governments, civil society groups, businesses, and grassroots organizations to recognize and advance local and indigenous 4 UNCCD . World Bank efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use the gains are sustainable and do not diminish opportunities for future of biodiversity. TerrAfrica, led by the Africa Union, offers much hope as it generations. On its part, the World Bank has embraced a target date for brings together partners such as African countries, World Bank bilaterals reaching an extreme poverty rate of no more than 3 percent in 2030. and civil societies that use their convening power to scale up investments, knowledge dissemination and use of a landscape approach. A sustainable human development path calls for strategies that maintain and nurture the productive capacity of nations and communities, so that One of the critical gaps that need to be filled is the involvement of the future generations neither pity the current cohort for consuming too little, private sector. Sustainable development is indeed a viable investment for nor resent them for diminishing future opportunities. What is needed the private sector. is a balance that expands the economic opportunities and substantive freedoms of people today while making reasonable efforts to avoid The stories in this publication contain innovations that demonstrate how seriously compromising those of future generations.11 land restoration turns the tide on poverty. Integrated sustainable land management approaches that are applied in a participatory manner, built Fundamental to poverty alleviation and sustainability in the rural landscape on indigenous knowledge and experience, and particularly target women of the drylands is the need for stewardship of land and natural assets to and young people as illustrated in the stories from Haiti, the Philippines, enhance productive capacity and build resilience to the inevitable climate India and Kenya, are key in achieving more sustainable and shock-resilient related shocks. livelihoods. Building on existing opportunities in the drylands, international actors In the last decade, a lot of progress has been made globally in fighting need to rally support for the implementation, through truly participatory poverty, resulting in the ‘rise of the South’ with more than 40 developing processes, of an integrated strategy that enhances the economic and social countries showing markedly accelerated progress in achieving the well-being of dryland communities, while enabling them to sustain their Millennium Development Goals by 2015.9 Clearly, the eradication of ecosystem services and to strengthen their adaptive capacity to manage all extreme poverty and hunger, as Millennium Development Goal number forms of environmental change. one, is possible.10 After 2015, efforts to achieve a world of prosperity, equity, freedom, dignity and peace will continue. An ambitious post-2015 development agenda is It is an ambitious, though achievable target that will depend on the currently being developed in close consultations among a broad array of growth of economies and the distribution of benefits from that growth. partners which include the voices of the poor themselves.12 The challenge for policy makers and the world at large is to ensure that L and for Life . POVERT Y 5 Story 6 UNCCD . World Bank Story Benin Conservation Efforts Lift People Out of Poverty in Benin with World Bank Support I n Bamezoun, Benin, a sacred forest located in the commune of To enable residents to better manage these newly protected zones, Aguégués, in a region irrigated by the Ouémé River in the southeast of training sessions were organized that covered marine and coastal resource the country, the villagers did not realize that wood cutting, poaching, conservation and management, tools and techniques for community-based and overfishing—activities they had hitherto depended on to meet their natural resource management, community-based procurement, financial needs—had been exerting considerable pressure on natural resources. management of associations, planning, and monitoring of activities. Through the World Bank–funded Community-Based Coastal and Marine Infrastructure for market gardening (water pumps, sprayers, development Biodiversity Management Project, communities have now been persuaded of irrigated areas, seeds, organic fertilizers), fish farming (fish ponds, fish to abandon these practices. A participative process allowed the creation cages, fish pens, aboveground fish tanks), and transport (motorized boats, of community conservation areas to preserve the biological diversity of tricycles, motorcycles) were also provided to enable beneficiaries to coastal wetlands. Deeply involved in the process, about 150 communities engage in income-generating activities such as the production and sale of can now enjoy the sustainable use of the biological diversity of marine market products, salt trade, fish farming, fish processing and marketing, resources and benefit from environmentally friendly business activities. and palm oil production. Communities have increased their production, expanded their businesses, and now have profits deposited in savings The project has helped bring the riparian populations out of poverty, account at the local agricultural credit union. which had forced them to destroy the natural resources. Now they know that protecting mangroves, coastal zones, and forests is essential for the Awareness-raising campaigns organized under the Community-Based survival of future generations. Coastal and Marine Biodiversity Management Project have helped residents to realize the importance of conserving their natural resources. Fish farming is now possible and allows them to meet their families’ The project is expected to finance a total of 149 community groups, needs and educate their children. Communities and palm oil producer involving 1,669 direct beneficiaries. The project has not only reduced associations have realized the importance of preserving their forest, as they pressures on natural resources, but has also increased the revenues of have reaped the benefits of income-generating activities derived from their beneficiaries. It is important to make the necessary investments so that conservation efforts. other Beninese communities can benefit from the project. Web site: www.worldbank.org L and for Life . POVERT Y 7 8 UNCCD . World Bank Story Burkina Faso World Bank–Supported Project Increases Productivity and Reduces Conflicts in Sahel L ocated in the heart of West Africa, Burkina Faso is endowed with natural habitats such as gallery forests, sacred forests, nature reserves, and wetlands. Particularly notable sites include the Pics de Sindou, the Karfiguela Waterfall, the Sacred Dafra Pond, and the Tengréla Lake. Many of these sites are threatened, in addition to species such as panthers, elephants, crocodiles, and pythons. Over the years, high pressure on the natural resource base and the environment caused rapid degradation. Deforestation alone claims an estimated 10,000 hectares per year. A World Bank–funded project focusing on lowland areas in selected subwatersheds in Burkina Faso has demonstrated how communities can improve the productive capacity of rural resources. Through sustainable conservation of biological and agricultural diversity and rehabilitation of soil and water resources, the Burkinabe were able to simultaneously and by rewarding, while continuing to strengthen, individual and collective generate income and environmental benefits. know-how. The Sahel Integrated Lowland Ecosystem Management (SILEM) Project Around 160 villages benefited from investment funds to support various pioneered the concept of biodiversity in production landscape. It created natural resource management activities that included soil and agriculture and catalyzed community dynamics for the sustainable management of techniques, water conservation technologies, livestock and fishery natural resources at the microwatershed level by implementing incentives, management, reforestation and forest management techniques, and creating an investment framework consistent with the country’s priorities, natural resource protection. L and for Life . POVERT Y 9 The SILEM Project developed a number of activities related to land of pasture zones, 417 kilometers of pasture ways, and 10 pastoral water planning, including 100 local conventions on natural resources; points. 3,837 hectares of improved land through stone bunds; 8,307 fosses fumières; the recuperation of 3,138 hectares of degraded land using the The key outputs in the promotion of plant production were the conversion scarifiage, the zai technique, and demi-lunes; the treatment of 250 gullies and rehabilitation of 166 hectares of lowland areas (mainly for rice for agropastoral production; and 26,500 meters of revitalized small dykes. production) and the supply of 8,800 kilograms of improved cereal seeds to Through the SILEM Project, 7,500 hectares of native forest were designated the beneficiaries of the converted or rehabilitated parcels of land. for conservation. Other key activities related to the restoration of forest cover and biodiversity included the production of 195,720 seedling plants, Overall, 2,971 microprojects were implemented and 13,218 producers, the use of 941,934 plants for reforestation, and the establishment of an local institutions, and extension agents were trained on sustainable land 11 hectares of botanical conservatory. management practices. Through participative planning and open dialogue between villages, farmers and herders, the SILEM project fostered peace Because the main constraint for livestock production is the poor organiza- building and eliminated most conflicts. tion of space, SILEM’s investment focused on the creation of 3,514 hectares Web site: www.worldbank.org 10 UNCCD . World Bank Story Haiti Land Management Comes Full Circle in the Pearl of the Antilles I n a country that was once referred to as “The Pearl of the Antilles” due its vast land productivity, poverty in Haiti is now widespread and agri- cultural productivity low due to declining soil fertility and extensive soil erosion. Meeting people’s daily food needs is one of Haiti’s greatest and long-standing challenges. The massive earthquake that hit the island in January 2010 worsened this situation dramatically, and recovery has been painfully slow. Soil fertility urgently needs to be improved to meet the dietary needs of the rural population. But it’s not just food insecurity that is putting people’s health at risk. Haiti also faces a sanitation crisis. People are forced to find other ways to dispose of their wastes, often in the ocean, rivers, ravines, plastic bags, or abandoned houses. This was one of the causes of the chol- era outbreak in late 2010, which quickly turned into an epidemic that has since claimed another 8,000 lives. In 2006, Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL) started address- ing these challenges using an integrated approach called ecological sani- tation (EcoSan). EcoSan uses specially designed toilet facilities to collect human waste, which is turned into safe, nutrient-rich compost that can be used to regenerate depleted soils and improve agricultural production. This technology is not only environmentally sustainable, it is also afford- able—a great asset in a country like Haiti. More than 30,000 people in Haiti have used SOIL’s EcoSan toilets or simi- lar sanitation facilities set up by other organizations with SOIL’s expertise. L and for Life . POVERT Y 11 Waste treatment centers collect all the waste products and process them into compost, in accordance with the highest public health standards. The soil quality and yields have improved on many farms, nurseries, and gardens that use the compost. SOIL has set up experi- mental gardens to show that the quality of the compost improves output. The gardens are also used to test and demonstrate other sustainable land management practices and cultivate seedlings for reforestation. In 2012, SOIL won the Land for Life Award with a cash prize of US$40,000. They are using the award to develop an integrated agri- cultural livelihood learning center. The center will include a full-scale composting operation, fruit tree nursery, and a solar-powered drip irrigation demonstration farm near Cap-Haïtien on the northern coast. “We live by the Haitian sayings painted on the back of the SOIL Poopmobile: ‘Pwoteje anviwonman an se pwoteje tet ou’—‘Protect the environment and you are protecting yourself’ and ‘Chanjman tout bon an komanse nan mwen avan’—Change begins with me,” says Sasha Kramer, Executive Director of SOIL. Web site: http://www.oursoil.org 12 UNCCD . World Bank Story India Self-Governance Saves Common Lands from Degradation in India T he fate of common land is predictable—misuse and abuse. In India, common property lands, which are usually located on uplands, Rangelands are overgrazed. Forests are stripped bare. Water is are vital for ecological functions. They play key roles in the water cycle, polluted. Scientists call it the “tragedy of the commons.” But with biodiversity conservation and pollination, among other functions. But these support from the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), villagers lands are also a vital source of livelihoods, especially for the poor, who get from various states in India have found solutions, and even restored and their energy and food and fodder for livestock from the forests and water improved 200,000 hectares of common property rangelands. from wells. For villagers in Barundni in Rajasthan, for instance, the improvements made A study conducted in 2010 showed that more than one-third of India’s on their leased land inspired eight other villages to protect 780 hectares land was degraded, and the commons were among the most affected. of common land, which has improved their livestock systems and fodder FES, established in 2001 in New Delhi, began working with the affected supply. Similarly, interventions on the Ladwan watershed by villagers in communities to set up systems that meet their needs and rehabilitate land Madya Pradesh led to an increase in water levels in 63 of the 83 wells, in using various restoration techniques. addition to increases in food, timber, and fodder production! When beginning a new project, FES follows some key steps. It uses local self-governance institutions to promote the conservation and sustainable management of natural resources. FES locates forests and other natural resources to fulfill the economic, social, and ecological demands of the vil- lages and village conglomerates. And FES focuses on improving the living conditions of the poor by stimulating more activities and projects in their areas. Today, FES is active in over 4,000 villages, and more than 1.7 million people benefit from its activities. The success of FES interventions has led to revi- sions of national laws for common land management. These achievements earned FES the 2013 Land for Life Award, taking home a first prize of US$40,000. Web site: http://fes.org.in L and for Life . POVERT Y 13 14 UNCCD . World Bank Story Kenya Holistic Land Management Improves Livelihoods in Kenya T he most recent study of the economic costs of desertification issued income-generating activities such as baling hay, harvesting and selling the in April 2013 by the UNCCD 2nd Scientific Conference concluded that grass seed, beekeeping, leasing fields, selling milk, thatching grass, and the most effective solutions must be based on a systems approach. collecting fuelwood. A prime example is the work of the Rehabilitation of Arid Environments (RAE), a charitable trust involved in rural development in Kenya. RAE is Today, over 20,000 people benefit directly from the project, with 380,000 based in Baringo County, in the arid and semiarid lowlands of Kenya’s Rift of the county’s population of 550,000 benefitting indirectly. All of the Valley, where it has operated for over 30 years. issues have not been resolved, but native grass and tree species that had disappeared from the area are flourishing. The soil’s physical qualities— When RAE began operations, about 70 percent of Baringo County’s land nutrition and infiltration rates—have improved. Poverty levels have fallen was unproductive, subject to increasing soil erosion and vegetation and and food security has improved for community groups. Men and women biodiversity losses. The land was severely degraded, and insecurity and are profiting from the utilization and sustainable management of their ethnic conflicts were rife due to resource scarcity. Poverty was high, up to improved natural 90 percent in some areas, and food insecurity was common. Lake Baringo, resources and the main source of fresh water in the area, had become silted. diverse income- generating Taking a participatory approach, building on traditional knowledge, RAE activities. introduced a multi-faceted strategy to rehabilitate the degraded areas. Specifically, RAE began to restore the natural savannah grass ecology by Web site: www. seeding the land with indigenous grass species that had disappeared reatrust.org due to overgrazing. RAE agreed on an method to manage the reseeded areas. Fencing was used by the sedentary groups and community-based grazing by the pastoralists. These approaches are complemented by L and for Life . POVERT Y 15 16 UNCCD . World Bank Story Philippines The Magic Wand W hen farmers are poor, the land also suffers. Land requires constant The Wand Foundation breaks this cycle of powerlessness by helping investment, and can quickly become degraded due to lack of farmers reclaim their land through microloans. The organization also inputs like fertilizer. For poor farmers in the Philippines, the helps farmers improve yields and increase their incomes by introducing challenges of poverty are far-reaching. They often lack access to sanitation, agricultural technology and eliminating middlemen. The Wand Foundation and as a result are prone to diseases. The combination of low incomes, has trained more than 300 barefoot farm technicians, half of them women, degraded land, and poor health creates a downward spiral that leaves to educate small farmers on how to increase their outputs, diversify crops, farmers vulnerable. Many poor farmers fall prey to usurious lenders and and improve their family’s nutrition through growing vegetables and other lose their only asset—their land. type of livelihoods using their own resources. The Wand Foundation promotes ecological sanitation by providing toilets to those previously without, and then processing the waste into high-grade organic fertilizer. The fertilizer improves the quality of the soil and yields, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by acting as a carbon sink and replacing the use of synthetic fertilizers. The Wand Foundation also organizes the community to maintain the watershed and plant trees to prevent soil erosion. Over 1,700 farmers are Wand members and, so far, more than 1,400 hectares of degraded land have been restored through tree planting and soil and water conservation techniques. Web site: http://mindaterrapretabiochar.blogspot.de L and for Life . POVERT Y 17 18 UNCCD . World Bank Forests L and for Life . FORESTS 19 20 UNCCD . World Bank Dry Forests by IUCN Masumi Gudka and Jonathan Davies, International Union for the Conservation of Nature A single tree in a dryland landscape can hold as much importance to not only dry subhumid, semiarid and arid areas, but the hyperarid areas. In the survival of an entire dryland ecosystem as a patch of forest can in short, it includes all dry areas and deserts. a humid landscape. A few individual trees are often the pillars to the survival of many of the inhabitants and ecosystems in the drylands. In some Deserts are ecosystems in their own right, with highly specialized cultures indigenous communities in dry regions of the world, one tree is owned by and biodiversity that are unique to them. The misconception that deserts several families, signifying the high value placed on this resource. Usually, are wastelands and should be “restored” to a state similar to humid a tree is the link to a plethora of biodiversity, becoming an ecosystem in forests inadvertently leads to their degradation, for instance, by planting itself. of alien invasive species to “green” the drylands. However, man-made deserts, like those of Inner Mongolia, which were once productive areas Dryland trees are the key ingredient in supporting the environmental pro- in the days of the great Genghis Khan, can and need to be restored. The cesses and social functions found in the mosaic of habitats and ecosystems term desertification is also misleading because it conjures up images of that collectively make up the dryland areas. But the trees in drylands often increasing or advancing deserts. In reality, desertification is the process of do not reach above 5 meters, one of the criteria defining forests. As a land degradation in the drylands, which leads to the loss of productivity. result, extensive tree clusters in the drylands are invisible on forest maps because they fall outside the typical forest definition. Consequently, dry- The cases highlighted in this magazine highlight many ways to control land forests have been largely disregarded as important ecosystems—even desertification using soft technologies, like the tree planting in China’s if they account for 42 percent of all tropical forests. Future Forests Programme or FADE’s sand fixing of desert dunes in Nigeria. Dryland trees can be sparse, but tree density and height can also be comparatively high. Irrespective of their densities and heights, dryland Desertification can also be tackled through effective land use planning and trees and dry forests play important, but often underestimated, roles in sustainable natural resource management by local communities. It is crucial dryland livelihoods and ecosystems. How drylands are defined also varies to encourage governments to support bottom-up mechanisms to reverse among organizations and governing bodies, which affects how and where or mitigate land degradation and incorporate these mechanisms into their development is addressed. For our purposes, “drylands” encompass policy and governance systems. L and for Life . FORESTS 21 Sustainable management and restoration of dry forests contributes greatly and regulations developed and implemented by local institutions. Many to overcoming the challenges of desertification, land degradation, and dryland farmers also conserve forest cover through agroforestry practices, drought. In many drylands, forests protect the water towers and riparian which, among other benefits, is known to boost fertility and moisture and zones that are pivotal for ecosystem function. Dry forests also provide to provide secondary incomes. Agroforestry is a common land use strategy essential seasonal safety nets—sources of secondary income and grazing in the drylands of Africa and Asia, increasingly being recognized as a reserves—for dryland residents. Restoring and sustainably managing these contributor to biodiversity conservation. zones reduces the risk of drought, increases ecosystem resilience, and strengthens adaptive capacities. The current global emphasis on maintaining, reviving, and creating forests has major implications for the drylands. There are increasing incentive Forest management in the drylands depends heavily on local land opportunities for dry forests through carbon credits, although there are management practices, which have been shown to play a role in barriers to participation in this market and certain associated risks. Weak conservation, but which in many cases are growing weaker or being tenure and poor penetration of government institutions can constrain abandoned. Dryland trees are conserved through agroforestry, farm fallow the use of carbon finance for sustainable land management practices. practices, pastoralism, and through community protection of sacred sites There is also a risk that incentives to increase forest cover may lead to and forest patches of economic significance. The preservation of abundant degradation of important dryland ecosystems—such as savannahs— biodiversity and traditional cultures in dryland areas is inextricably linked to in pursuit of carbon credits. Carbon stores in dryland ecosystems are the availability and use of indigenous trees. predominantly belowground in the root systems, rather than aboveground in standing biomass. Recognition of this and orientation of markets toward Indigenous and community-conserved areas (ICCAs) widely conserve compensating for these significant carbon stores will provide important dryland ecosystems and habitats. There is no clear idea of the number incentives for sustainable land management in the drylands. The spatial or size of ICCAs across the world, although an estimated 420 million scale of the drylands makes them a high priority for climate change hectares of forests, or 11 percent of the world’s total, are under community mitigation—about 2 × 109 hectares of global shrubland and C4 grassland ownership or administration (Molnar et al. 2004).13 Increasing trends of (Grunzweig et al. 2003).15 Investment in anti-desertification measures in policy decentralization could double forest conservation through ICCAs in the world’s drylands appears to be an economical method to mitigate the near future (White et al. 2004).14 Mobile pastoralism in the drylands is carbon dioxide build-up in the atmosphere while accomplishing other highly influenced by the presence of trees, which provide feed, shade, fuel, international objectives such as combating desertification and conserving and a variety of products that can support livelihoods. In many pastoral dryland biodiversity (Glenn et al. 1993).16 communities, trees owned by families are governed by a set of rules 22 UNCCD . World Bank • The definition of drylands and deserts varies between different organizations and government bodies. • Dryland forests don’t fit the typical definition of forests. • The preservation of abundant biodiversity and traditional cultures in dryland areas are inextricably linked to the availability and use of indigenous dryland trees. • Drylands and desert ecosystems can become degraded by planting trees without carefully considering the prevailing ecosystem. L and for Life . FORESTS 23 24 UNCCD . World Bank Story China It Takes Chifeng City: Restoring Land on a Grand Scale C hifeng City, in Inner Mongolia, China, may not ring a bell. But it bears emphasizes afforestation efforts led by companies, households and the title of “the first Chinese village” and is home to the excavation professional teams. Every year, the peoples’ congress holds a debriefing on site of the first jade dragon and is the land of the famous Genghis desertification. The government reports on the progress and the people Khan. Back then, it was lush and green. But how times change! give feedback. Until 60 years ago, a third of the arid lands of Inner Mongolia was The Chifeng government has invested in strengthening a scientific desertified, forest cover was only 5 percent, and drought was frequent. approach to land restoration by training 65,000 technicians and 50,000 Animal husbandry was difficult, crop returns low, and people lived in local farmers and paying special attention to the ecologically sensitive poverty. But the tide is turning. Today, forests cover nearly 35 percent of areas. To learn from and track these efforts, Chifeng has documented over land and the sand is retreating. Through scientific policy planning and mass 100 afforestation technologies. As a result, the forestry industry, animal mobilization, Chifeng’s government has rehabilitated 750,000 hectares of husbandry, and agriculture degraded land. Each hectare of shelterbelt forest prevents 10 tons of soil have all experienced loss each year on average. The area of desertified land is now declining at economic growth, and the a rate of 150,000 hectares per year. The government and the people have surrounding environment has worked together to turn Chifeng into a model for desertification control in improved. China. Chifeng City government is a County governments sign a “responsibility contract” with local model in China on combating municipalities, which produce two positive outcomes: first the job desertification, and has of combating desertification becomes a priority across all levels of received the top 10 national government, and second, it is integrated into local development planning. awards for teams combating desertification. The aim of the municipal government is to improve policies and encourage innovation for sustainable land management. The bottom-up approach Web site: www.cfly.gov.cn L and for Life . FORESTS 25 26 UNCCD . World Bank Story China/Korea Out of Environmental Hazards Livelihoods Are Restored, Friendships Created I t is almost a ritual. Around March of every year, dust storms envelop Much of the work has been achieved by Korean and Chinese students, who the city of Beijing. Cities located in the dust path, from China to the have gained valuable experience along the way and remain ambitious. Republic of Korea and Japan and as far away as the United States are not Recently, the team launched a campaign to plant a billion trees in the spared. A big part of the problem is the expanding Kubuqi Desert in Inner region. Mongolia, China, which has caused residents to leave their homes. But the construction of the Great Green Wall in the region is halting desertification Squabbles and disagreements and preventing sand dune encroachment. are common in international efforts to solve transboundary The Great Green Wall is being built through collaboration between the environmental problems. Korean NGO Future Forest and the All China Youth Federation. It is But cooperation around the 16 kilometers long and about 1 kilometer wide. As of August 2013, more Great Green Wall has come to than 6.62 million trees covering an area of 2,400 hectares have been symbolize friendship between planted. The “wall” serves as a windbreak, slowing the advance of the the people of Korea and China, yellow sand dunes toward the farms and ranches of the Yellow River Basin. which has earned the wall the The results are even visible by satellite. nickname, “Korea—China Friendship Great Green Wall.” The most important lesson from the project is that a combination of tree- planting and sand fixation methods can slow sand migration and greatly http://www.futureforest.org enhance soils natural health and yield capacity. The wall has many benefits for residents and the ecosystem. Local living conditions have improved, plants and animals have returned, and the amount of soil sediment washed into the Yellow River is decreasing. L and for Life . FORESTS 27 28 UNCCD . World Bank Story Ethiopia Unearthing the Ethiopian Humbo Forest with World Bank–Supported Project T hree decades ago, Humbo was covered with a dense jungle and was its multiple benefits. The increased production of wood and tree products, home to a variety of animal species. In the 1980s, variable rainfall, such as honey and fruit, has contributed substantively to household expansion of farm and grazing land, environmental degradation, and economies. Improved land management stimulated grass growth, a severe food shortage turned the lush green forests into a barren stretch providing fodder for livestock that can be cut and sold as an additional with a few clumps of bushes. Trees had been cut down for buildings, source of income. Lastly, the regeneration of the native forest is expected firewood, charcoal and furniture, with little or no regulation. Groundwater to provide an important habitat for many local species and reduce soil reserves that provided 65,000 people with potable water were threatened. erosion and flooding. Agriculture productivity fell by 70 percent. As a result, more than 85 percent of Humbo’s 48,893 residents live in poverty. This mirrors the trend The Humbo Project is the first large-scale forest-focused Clean in Ethiopia, where overexploitation of forest resources has left less than 3 Development Mechanism project in Africa to be registered with the percent of the country’s native forests untouched. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The World Bank’s BioCarbon Fund will purchase 165,000 tons worth of these credits The Humbo Reforestation Project established seven forest cooperatives and provide an income stream of more than US$700,000 to the local with local communities and raised and distributed 1 million seedlings to communities over a minimum of 10 years. So far the communities have communities. Together, local and international communities managed received US$322,000 from carbon revenue. Further revenue will be and reforested over 2,700 hectares of degraded land. Community available to the community from the sale of the remaining carbon credits empowerment through mobilization, awareness creation, land tenure not purchased by the World Bank, as well as from the sale of timber certification, forest cooperative formation, and capacity building provided products from designated woodlots in the project. the communities with security, incentives to protect the forest, and a sense of ownership. The protected areas of forest now also act as a “carbon sink,” absorbing and storing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere to help mitigate Using farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR) with prudent climate change. Over the 30-year crediting period, the project will cut an stewardship, communities unearthed an underground forest. Surprised and estimated 880,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. excited to see the quantity and speed with which vegetation now grows on the once rocky and barren slope, they can now own their forest and reap Web site: www.worldbank.org L and for Life . FORESTS 29 30 UNCCD . World Bank Story Liberia World Bank/GEF Support Integrated Productivity Conservation in Forests’ Protected Areas L iberia is endowed with the major share of the remaining Upper 70,000 hectares of surrounding forest under sustainable use conservation Guinean Tropical Rainforest, a recognized hotspot for biodiversity management in a manner compatible with local development. that is considered a global priority for conservation. Liberia’s forests house a range of important biodiversity, including some 240 tree species, SNP was chosen for its distinctive biological attributes within the Upper 2,000 flowering plants, 125 mammal and 590 bird species, 74 reptiles and Guinea rainforest ecosystem, the escalating threats it faced, and because amphibians, and over 1,000 insect species. of its potential to spearhead the development of the Liberian Protected Areas System under an integrated biodiversity conservation and In May 2003, based on evidence that suggested that the country’s forestry community-based natural resources management mechanism. stocks were being vastly overexploited and used primarily to finance the civil conflict, sanctions imposed on Liberia by the UN Security Council in The GEF grant also financed the expansion of a protected areas network 2001 were extended to include a ban on timber production and export. that will encompass five protected areas in the country’s western region, To speed up the lifting of the sanctions, an ambitious forest sector reform including a transfrontier Peace Park with Sierra Leone, and sustainable process was launched in 2004, led by the establishment of the Liberia community livelihood activities around Liberia’s protected areas. Forests Initiative (LFI). The process of defining the LFI resulted in a more balanced and integrated development of Liberia’s forests for commercial, The foremost accomplishment of the project was that it conclusively community, and conservation uses—the 3 Cs approach, which became the established the basis for integrated biodiversity conservation and key driving principles for the new forest policy. community development at SNP and in its fringe communities. Furthermore, the project set standards for protected area management in The World Bank, through a GEF grant, has recently financed the Liberia through its modern form of participatory and adaptive management establishment of an effective park management process in Sapo National practices, with the possibility of influencing that sector in the West African Park (SNP), which is recognized as the most pristine tract of forest in West region and beyond. Africa and home to the endangered pygmy hippopotamus. The project was designed to bring SNP’s 180,400 hectares of highly threatened lowland Web site: www.worldbank.org rainforest under effective conservation management, as well as bring up to L and for Life . FORESTS 31 32 UNCCD . World Bank Story Nigeria Fighting Desertification Is Everybody’s Everyday Business in Nigeria A s the sand dunes advanced in Kano, Nigeria, farmers abandoned In 2010, FADE produced a reality show, designed to bring young profes- their land and students dropped out of school. The community sionals to the cause of combating desertification. Fifteen “desert warriors” had to do something to stop the advancing desert. In 2000, the made the journey from Lagos to London, learning about and advocating Fight against Desert Encroachment (FADE) partnered with the Ministry of for environmental protection. Environment to plant a wall of trees, consisting of three rows. The row of trees facing outward serves as a windbreak. It protects the inner trees and FADE has also been part of exchanges with scholars in China, the United the village from the encroaching sand. The second row is used as wood- States and Niger, and has succeeded in advocating for greener policies lots, which can be chopped down for fuel, so that the community does with both the government and companies like MTN, one of Nigeria’s larg- not chop down the windbreak. The final row has fruit trees for food and est cellular phone service providers, to support these initiatives. income-generating products. Web site: http://www.fadeafrica.org After the trees took root, school enrollment tripled, cloud cover improved, and rain increased. The sand retreated and farm- ers returned home. After two years, FADE replicated the project in other areas using a tree-planting competition for secondary schools as a mechanism to involve young people. FADE organized seminars among farmers, teachers and administrators, and provided advisory services to farmers on what types of trees to plant to prevent desert encroachment. L and for Life . FORESTS 33 Story Turkey The Fight for Dirt: TEMA I t’s the same vicious cycle that takes place in many drylands of the world. year according to scientists. That is a loss of 3 tons of soil per person per In rural Turkey, agriculture is the ticket out of poverty for many people. year, estimated in monetary terms to be US$70 per person per year or But farmers often end up overexploiting marginal soils. Erosion and land US$490 billion per year for the global population. This achievement earned degradation are the inevitable consequences. TEMA the second runner-up position for the 2012 Land for Life Award of But in the fight against land degradation, US$30,000. Turkey has an ace up its sleeve through the work of the Turkish Foundation for Combating Through its legal cases, TEMA prevented a total of more than 70,000 hect- Soil Erosion, for Reforestation and the ares of fertile agricultural land from being sealed for tourist sites or power Protection of Natural Habitats (TEMA). plants. Influencing national legislation and court rulings on environmental issues is at the core of TEMA’s advocacy campaigns. Success is rooted in its TEMA, the largest environmental NGO in varied approaches that combine people power with practical work. People Turkey, tackles the problem of land degradation power is built through educating those who have a multiplier effect in the in various ways, including policy advocacy, legal society, such as the teachers, clergy, police and others, and students from and educational campaigns, and practical work preschool to university, as well as through publishing books and teaching on the ground. materials. TEMA has filed or has been involved in over TEMA has over 475,000 volunteers and over 100 volunteer scientists and 150 legal cases with a 75 percent success legal advisors. About 2.5 million people have attended TEMA’s education rate of the cases that went to a verdict. It has programs. TEMA General Manager, Serdar Sarigul, says: applied the power of civil mobilization to protect the land. In a historic case, it gathered Our volunteers are our most important asset. They help us to communicate a million signatures in support of a law that our message to the public. TEMA talks about the issues of soil erosion and TEMA had drafted to protect the soil. This is land degradation in a language that the public can understand. The volunteers significant given that at least 24 billion tons of can also launch their own initiatives in their respective regions. This means that fertile soil are lost through soil erosion every TEMA is always relevant to local people’s current concerns. 34 UNCCD . World Bank TEMA’s strength also comes from its practical experience. It has imple- Last year, TEMA celebrated its 20th anniversary under the theme, “Soil mented more than 100 demonstration projects on sustainable rural Means Life.” It is using the prize money from the Land for Life Award to development, reforestation, biodiversity conservation, and on combat- raise awareness and promote special publications and seminars conducted ing desertification countrywide. Many of them show that sustainable land by leading environmental experts. management does not have to be overly complicated. An example is the saffron project in Çütlük, a semiarid upland region close to Turkey’s borders Web site: http://www.tema.org.tr with Syria and Iraq. Here, soils suffer from cotton monocrop- ping, which demands fre- quent irrigation and leads to increased salinity and loss of nutrients in an already water- scarce area. With experts from Harran University, TEMA explored the viability of com- mercial saffron cultivation and then reintroduced it into the area. Saffron requires only 10 percent of the irrigation water needed to grow cotton. L and for Life . FORESTS 35 Climate Change 36 UNCCD . World Bank L and for Life . CLIMATE CHANGE 37 Climate Change: Ground Zero by UNEP Robert Ondhowe, United Nations Environmental Programme C limate change is transforming how society lives and interacts with maize, by 2030. In South Asia, losses of many regional staples, such as nature. Its effects are most readily evident and felt in food security, rice, millet and maize could top 10 percent.17” Globally, in many rain-fed, with land resources playing a major role because of the sizeable nonirrigated areas, crops are already near their maximum temperature global population that still relies on rain-fed and subsistence agriculture. tolerance due to rising temperatures. Yields are also likely to fall sharply Most African economies, unlike much of the rest of the world, largely from even small climate changes. The poorest countries will be hardest depend on land-based economic activities, especially agriculture. Thus, hit, with reductions in crop yields in most tropical and subtropical regions land management strategies that can assist farmers in dealing with caused by decreased water availability and new or changed insect/pest changing climatic patterns are critical for food security. incidences. Experts project a fall in agricultural productivity of up to 30 percent during the 21st century, but the effects of climate change on crops Since 1880, the Earth’s average surface temperature has increased by 1.5°F are expected to vary from region to region. (0.83°C). However, the effect of climate on agriculture is associated more with the variability of local climate than to the global climate patterns. The Tanzania’s official report on climate change suggests that the areas that United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), in Livelihood Security: usually get two rainfalls in a year will probably get more, and those that get Climate Change, Conflict and Migration (2011), observes that, from 1970 only one rainy season will get far less. The net result expected is that 33 to 2006, changes in the seasonal temperatures in the Sahel region of percent less maize—the country’s staple crop—will be grown. Overall, the Africa have risen by a range of between 0.5 to 2.0°C. The impact is such average crop yield is expected to drop in areas where there is decreased that United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advisor on Conflict, Jan rainfall, whereas cereal production could actually increase in places of Egeland, referred to the Sahel region of Africa as the “ground zero” of increased rainfall, if managed properly. climate change. Despite technological advances such as improved crop varieties, genetically modified seed and irrigation systems, the weather is For the favorable effects on yield to happen, much will depend on the still a key factor in Africa’s agricultural productivity, as are its very fragile soil realization of the potentially beneficial effects of carbon dioxide on crop properties and communities. growth and an increase in efficient water use. Stated differently, while adaptation is linked to efficient water use, the health of the land will A study published in Science magazine suggests that, due to climate matter for resilience, with regard to producing more organic carbon and change, “southern Africa could lose more than 30 percent of its main crop, increasing groundwater recharge. 38 UNCCD . World Bank Most agronomists, the experts in soil In the long run, climatic change could affect management and crop production, agriculture in several ways, including: believe agricultural production will be • productivity, in terms of the quantity and quality affected most by the severity and pace of of crops; climate change, not so much the gradual trends in climate. • agricultural practices, through changes in water use, particularly irrigation, and agricultural inputs, The projected climate variability and such as herbicides, insecticides, and fertilizers; change are expected to severely • environmental effects, particularly those relating compromise agricultural production to the frequency and intensity of soil drainage and access to food. With 70 percent of through nitrogen leaching, soil erosion, and the population still relying on rain-fed reduced crop diversity; agriculture for their livelihoods, Africa’s population dynamic and geography • rural space, through the loss and gain of make it particularly vulnerable to climate cultivated lands, land speculation, land change. If change is gradual, there may renunciation, and hydraulic amenities; and be enough time for the ecosystem, as • adaptation, organisms may become more or well as agricultural techniques, to adjust. less competitive, and humans may develop an Rapid climate change, however, could urgency to create more competitive organisms, harm agriculture in many countries, such as flood-resistant or salt-resistant varieties especially those that are already suffering of rice. from rather poor soil and climate conditions, because there is less time for optimum natural selection and adaption. Decreases in potential yields are likely to arise from a shortening of the The imperative to accelerate the scaling up and scaling out of efforts to growing period, a decrease in water availability, and poor seed quality. restore degrading land in the drylands and elsewhere to mediate the effects of climate change is therefore urgent. The innovations highlighted For scientists and policy making, there are many uncertainties to handle for in this magazine are part of the solution and offer hope if supported effective policy design. The uncertainties include the magnitude of climate adequately. In the end, it is the agricultural policies in place that will change, the effects of technological changes on productivity, global food determine how countries are affected. The urgent need for polices to demand, and adaptation possibilities. Worse, related information at the mainstream sustainable land management to minimize climate change regional level is often lacking. effects cannot be overemphasized. L and for Life . CLIMATE CHANGE 39 40 UNCCD . World Bank Story Argentina Native Trees to Restore Salinized Soils and Sequester Carbon I n 2006, in Colonia El Simbolar, a town located 1,150 kilometers northwest blanco, or the white carob tree, which produces wood, flour, and honey. It of Buenos Aires, farmers struggled to make ends meet and large is a leguminous tree that improves the soil’s structure, texture and organic amounts of land were abandoned. Former farmers of cotton, soybean, matter content, and reduces surface salt. Nearly 7,000 hectares have been fruit, and vegetable survived on social assistance. Part of the problem was reforested in six years, and the nurseries have generated 1,750,000 white land degradation due to high soil salinity. But the producers also lacked carob seedlings. education and the capital to invest in agriculture. For GADE, community leadership gets priority at every stage. Local To address these challenges, Grupo Ambiental par el Desarrollo (GADE) people, particularly women, who previously had no knowledge about trained the community to plant a resilient native tree called algarrobo tree nurseries, now construct, prepare and plant seeds, and prune, irrigate, and maintain the nurseries. The community, especially youth, have been mobilized to protect the environment. The project has set a precedent for large-scale native forestation and carbon sequestration and is a prototype in efforts to fight severe desertification in Latin America and the rest of the world. Project organizers estimate that 324,000 tons of carbon dioxide may be sequestered over 20 years. L and for Life . CLIMATE CHANGE 41 42 UNCCD . World Bank Story Benin/Burkina Faso/Chad/ Ethiopia/Ghana/Mali/ Mauritania/Niger/Nigeria/ Senegal/Sudan/Togo World Bank/GEF Sahel and West Africa Program Supports the Great Green Wall Initiative A yeleh Fikre, a 73-year-old farmer from Ethiopia’s Amhara region, Ghana, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sudan, and Togo. devoted her life to perfecting reforestation techniques. Yacouba This program includes an innovative framework to address the region’s Sawadogo, the 70-year-old farmer from Burkina Faso, known environmental and social issues—Africa is leading the way on tackling as The Man Who Stopped the Desert, spent over 30 years reversing sustainable land and water management in a changing climate. Based on desertification. Thanks to these farmers, and to many other unknown the smart management of a landscape as a portfolio of renewable assets, innovators, unproductive lands have become a source a life again. the program hopes to secure more food, fiber, freshwater, and firewood However, the challenge facing African countries is to work together to while protecting natural assets in the face of climate variability and change. harness these modest successes and expand their opportunities. The program builds on the many years of experience developed under Success means scaling up these actions through investment, knowledge, the TerrAfrica Partnership Program on Sustainable Land and Water and partnership. The World Bank is doing just that through the Sahel Management led by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development and West Africa Program (SAWAP), which is its main contribution to the (NEPAD). It leverages TerrAfrica partnerships and benefits from the continent’s Great Green Wall Initiative. Funded in collaboration with knowledge of its partners, their investments, and the harmonization of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the SAWAP supports the efforts efforts promoted by the coalition. of farmers by scaling up investments on sustainable land and water management, facilitating knowledge sharing, and using the World Bank’s The SAWAP is composed of 12 discrete country projects that have various convening power to bring partners together. entry points, such as land management, biodiversity, water resources, sustainable forest management, disaster risk management, agribusiness, The multisectoral program uses a landscape approach working with and food security. The portfolio is glued together by a regional project, the agriculture, environment, water, and energy to expand sustainable land Building Resilience through Innovation, Communication, and Knowledge and water management. It strengthens a country-driven vision in 12 Services (BRICKS) Project. The BRICKS Project provides technical assistance Sahelian and West African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, to the regional centers of excellence of Interstate Committee for Drought L and for Life . CLIMATE CHANGE 43 Control in the Sahel (CILSS), the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS), and The resulting global environmental benefits could include sustainable the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to facilitate management of natural resources (land, water, and vegetation) on technical knowledge exchanges and monitor services among the 12 up to 2 million hectares of croplands, rangelands, and dryland forest country investment operations in the broader portfolio. ecosystems per country; protection of threatened drylands’ biodiversity; protection against erosion and desertification; and the potential for sequestering 0.5 to 3.1 million tons of carbon per year. The most important achievement is the Great Green Wall Initiative’s potential to transform the lives of millions of people from Dakar to Addis Ababa and lift them out of poverty. Web site: www.terrafrica.org 44 UNCCD . World Bank Story China Scientist’s Persuasiveness Saves Mongolian Grasslands T he grasslands of Inner Mongolia in northern China are seriously Reversing desertification seemed impossible, but Goaming Jiang, a degraded due to overgrazing and the pressures of a growing scientist from China, has found a way—his research shows that removing population. In Hunshandake, herdsman and their families struggle human disturbance on degraded land restores it in a matter of years. So he to make a living on land that has nothing left to give. Native species have persuaded herdsman to stop grazing large animals like goats. Instead, they disappeared, and the loose topsoil triggers sand storms that blow to adopted chicken farming, tofu production and ecotourism, and took the Beijing and beyond. pressure off the land. Chicken droppings are used to fertilize the soil. Not only has the land improved, but the incomes of the Bayinhushu villagers have nearly doubled. Jiang has also encouraged the community to help youth find educational opportunities in the cities in a bid to allow the land time to rehabilitate and support more farmers in the future. The project spurred changes in China’s policy for grassland restoration and management. In fact, farmers who lose grasslands for ecosystem restoration are compensated. Clearly, among the poorest populations, creating alternatives to livelihoods is crucial to restoring degradation. L and for Life . CLIMATE CHANGE 45 46 UNCCD . World Bank Story Ghana DeCo! Ghana T he soils in the savannah region of northern Ghana are poor and crop the government.
Compared to chemical fertilizer use and the dumping of yields are low. Chemical fertilizers offer only a temporary solution, organic waste into landfills, DeCo! organic fertilizer is an environmentally and, if not used properly, they can be dangerous to farmers’ health. friendly alternative that reduces the annual emissions by approximately In addition, a large share of the nutrients is eventually washed away due to 1,500 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent. DeCo!’s long-term goal the low levels of organic matter in the soil. Moreover, chemical fertilizer is is to create a franchise that will enable it to scale-up its operations and subsidized by the government and there is no official supplier of organic encourage local entrepreneurship. fertilizer. Initiatives to encourage farmers to compost also have failed. This failure was the genesis of DeCo!, a social enterprise that makes an organic fertilizer by working with the local waste management company that collects the waste, fruit, vegetables, and other biomass. DeCo! composts the waste to create a ready-to-use organic fertilizer that is rich in humus and can potentially double crop yields by improving the water- and nutrient-holding capacity of the soil. The waste treatment plants are located close to the villages to minimize the transport costs. The treatment plants are run by highly educated graduates from around the world, but the enterprise also offers many positions for unskilled labor, providing crucial employment opportunities during the farming off-season. The goal of DeCo! is to become a financially sustainable social business. Through a partnership with myclimate, a Swiss company offering carbon offsets, DeCo! could potentially become the first organization in Africa to use carbon credits for composting. The credits could lower the price of organic fertilizer by 30 percent, which would make it more competitive with chemical fertilizers. Chemical fertilizers are currently subsidized by L and for Life . CLIMATE CHANGE 47 48 UNCCD . World Bank Story India A Balancing Act for Competing Land Uses in India T he food shortages that first emerged in 2007 revealed an emerging Involving rural communities, including through targeting women at the policy crisis in the land sector due to the competing demands of workplace, is having a socio-economic impact because landless farmers food production, carbon sequestration, biofuel production and urban and rural women are among Abellon’s employees who weed and harvest development, to name a few. Nearly 60 percent of India’s population relies the crops. Local laborers are also hired to till, clear and fence the land, and on agriculture. But the sunny state of Gujarat, which was once a leading for construction. food-producing area, has heavily degraded soils. Abellon estimates that all the solar plants in place to date, with a total To boost the local economy, the state has put in place incentives to capacity 1,059.64 MW, cover 6,181 acres and can sequester about promote solar power production. Abellon, a solar panel business in India’s 1,600,000 tons of carbon every year. If a similar approach was applied in this western state of Gujarat, has developed a land use approach that may help area, they would generate 10,000 tons of agricultural produce and employ balance some of the policy challenges facing governments—it set up a 2,000 farmers and “Solar-Agro-Electric-Model” on 30 acres to generate 5 mega watts (MW) villagers. of electricity. Abellon also deliberately decided not to interfere with the existing predominant land use. In 2010, India also launched the Bhatkota Village, near Modasa, was chosen because it is situated in the Jawaharlal Nehru foothills of the Aravalli mountain range in Sabarkantha district, a rocky and National Solar stony area with poor soil water retention and poor cereal production. On Mission to generate the first 17.5 acres set up to produce 3 MW, Abellon discovered that under 20,000 MW of solar the region’s hot sun, the solar panels provide shade that keeps the soil power by 2022. sufficiently cool for shade-loving vegetables to grow. Water melons and the bottle, little, and finger gourds as well as ginger and turmeric spices Web site: can grow underneath the panels. The solar panels have to be washed every http://www. two days to avoid dust build up. These precious drops are used to water abelloncleanenergy. the vegetables and spices. com L and for Life . CLIMATE CHANGE 49 50 UNCCD . World Bank Story Kenya Profitable Land Investments with Wildlife Works I s land restoration a viable business investment? The experience of The VERs are calculated by determining how much of the carbon stored Wildlife Works, a private, for-profit company registered in the United in a native forest would have been converted to greenhouse gases if the States, speaks for itself. For over a decade, the company has worked with forest was destroyed. If Wildlife Works and the community can prove local communities around Rukinga Ranch, in Taita Taveta County, southeast every year that they are protecting the forest, the project earns VERs, also Kenya. The area is located between the Tsavo East and Tsavo West national known as carbon credits, for preventing the release of the forest carbon parks, which are Kenya’s large natural wildlife sanctuaries. A majority of the into the atmosphere. With the funds, the organization created the Wildlife local people directly depend on natural resources for livelihoods, including Works Carbon Trust (WWCT), which finances projects that deliver tangible those located within the project area. As a consequence, the local cobenefits to the surrounding communities. In addition, Wildlife Works has communities extensive harvesting of these natural resources had significant implemented a number of initiatives that directly address the main drivers negative impacts on the environment. of deforestation. Community projects include the provision of bursaries for education and local development, including constructing classrooms, Deforestation and slash-and-burn agriculture were rampant. Illegal providing school furniture, building water tanks, and renovating chiefs’ activities such as bush charcoal production and bushmeat hunting were offices. In 2012, the WWCT’s bursary program sponsored 1,607 students for widespread and uncontrolled. The results were land degradation due to secondary school, university, and college education. severe soil erosion, infrequent rainfall, and longer droughts. Initial analyses showed that the land would be completely deforested within 30 years. Today, more than 300 people are employed in various ventures of Wildlife Works, with the direct benefits flowing to about 1,800 people. In total, In 2010, Wildlife Works successfully implemented a project under the about 120,000 people benefit from the project’s activities and the WWCT. REDD+ Project, which is a mechanism for financing large-scale forest Sustainability is a core of its business model, and a large number of conservation in the tropics. The consequent Kasigau Corridor REDD+ members are involved in facilitating knowledge transfer and empowering Project abides by two of the most stringent and highly regarded local actors. On the whole, Wildlife Works has alleviated pressure on environmental standards, and was the first project in the world to be 500,000 acres of land and helped secured a contiguous wildlife migration validated and verified under both the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and corridor between the Tsavo East and West national parks. the Climate, Community, and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA). Through these, the project is now able to raise funds through the sale of Verified Emissions Web site: http://www.wildlifeworks.com Reductions (VERs). L and for Life . CLIMATE CHANGE 51 52 UNCCD . World Bank Biological Diversity L and for Life . BIOLOGICAL DIVERSIT Y 53 54 UNCCD . World Bank Biodiversity and Preventing Land Degradation by CBD Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, Convention on Biological Diversity W hile all life requires water, almost half of the world’s terrain, which However, through a combination of human and climatic factors, pressure is is home to almost one-third of the world’s people, comprises areas increasing on dry and subhumid ecosystems and the benefits they provide, where water scarcity is the norm. The arid, semiarid and subhumid such as food, forage, fuel, building materials, and water for humans and lands, including deserts, grasslands, savannahs and Mediterranean livestock. Droughts, especially when associated with desertification, can ecosystems, cover about 41 percent of the world’s land and are home have serious impacts on biodiversity, putting further stress on ecosystem to around 2 billion people, or 30 percent of the global population, and resilience. provide approximately 44 percent of the world’s cultivated systems. But there is inspiring work being carried out to conserve the biodiversity These carefully balanced ecosystems are at the heart of the challenges we that underpins these provisioning services. This work includes past all face in the 21st century. Conserving them, protecting their biodiversity, winners and semifinalists of the United Nations Convention to Combat preventing land degradation, and mitigating effects of drought will all be Desertification Land for Life Award. important if we are to feed a growing population, adapt to climate change, guarantee water security, and ensure secure livelihoods for billions of For instance, sixty years ago, in the arid lands of Inner Mongolia in China, the world’s poorest people. The solutions to conserving these lands and one-third of the land was desert, forest cover was only 5 percent, and preventing their degradation lie in biodiversity—the variety of life and the droughts were frequent. Through scientific policy planning and mass patterns and relationships it forms. mobilization, the government of Chifeng rehabilitated 750,000 hectares of degraded land. Each hectare of shelterbelt forest prevents, on average, 10 Because of the harsh conditions in dry and subhumid lands, many species tons of soil loss each year. In 2012, the forest cover of Inner Mongolia had have developed unique adaptations. The gemsbok (large antelope) of the risen to 20 percent. Government and residents worked together, signing Kalahari Desert, for example, can survive for weeks without drinking water, “responsibility contracts,” making the job of combating desertification while the sociable weaver of southern Africa builds communal nests that a priority across all levels of government and ensured its integration into can weigh up to 1,000 kg to ensure insulation from extreme temperatures. local development planning. L and for Life . BIOLOGICAL DIVERSIT Y 55 Examples such as this one are greatly encouraging and show how including restoration of at least 15 percent of degraded ecosystems, joint efforts can make a difference. The Conference of the Parties to thereby contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation and the the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted the Strategic Plan for fight against desertification. The actions undertaken to achieve this target Biodiversity 2011–20. The Plan’s Aichi Biodiversity Target 15 aims that will help ensure that dry and subhumid ecosystems continue to provide by 2020, ecosystem resilience and the contribution of biodiversity to their crucial services to people, and the examples here can help inspire carbon stocks have been enhanced through conservation and restoration, such action. 56 UNCCD . World Bank Story China The Hummingbird in China’s Gobi Desert W hen asked how she ended up winning the Nobel Peace Prize, the several green walls to shield the land from sand and wind. Part of the late Professor Wangari Maathai would recount the story of the little success is his starting point, which is always to increase benefits for people hummingbird she was emulating. When its forest caught fire, that at the grassroots level, and his advanced thinking and research on people- small bird decided not to watch its forest burn with the rest of the animals, centered sustainable land management. but to stay and do what it could do to put out the forest fire with water collected in its beak. “I am doing the best I can,” she would declare. Shunliang also pioneered wolfberry cultivation for medicinal use as a sustainable business to provide environmental benefits. The venture has The role of Tie Shunliang, Director of the Forestry and Environmental increased the income of 30,000 people, particularly poor herdsmen and Protection Bureau of the Qinghai Province, doesn’t seem much different. women. He is in charge of a large region that stretches from the highlands of the Tibetan Plateau to the Gobi Desert, where combating desertification through afforestation is a gigantic task. But through his dedication and leadership, 25,000 hectares of degraded land have been restored, reducing the area affected by desertification at a rate of 2.7 percent per year. Limited funding and technical staff as well as lack of resources to conduct surveys and outreach in the Gobi desert are daily challenges. But Shunliang’s methods of increasing vegetation on degraded land have been widely adopted in dryland areas. He uses poplar planting, farming caragana shrubs, and a special trimming technique for wolfberry. By combining these techniques with water-saving irrigation technologies, the survival rate of plants increases and planting costs fall. Shunliang is especially well known for the Grain for Green Program, under which 2,000 hectares of land were afforested. He led residents in building L and for Life . BIOLOGICAL DIVERSIT Y 57 58 UNCCD . World Bank Story Jordan Life Replaces Once Dry Scrub in Jordan A fter overgrazing had reduced rangelands near Tell Ar-Rumman, benefits quickly became evident to the early joiners and, by 2009, livestock Jordan, to bare land, in 2007, the new Royal Botanic Garden (RBG) owners who once grazed the site to bare soil were policing themselves and fenced off an area to allow its recovery. The action incensed the local teaching others. herders, who believed they had a right to graze their sheep and goats in the area. Resisting all efforts to fence off the area, they often cut open the Focusing on animal health also resulted in increased incomes. For instance, fence and sneaked their herds in very early in the morning or late at night. one herder’s income rose from US$8,200 in 2007 to over US$20,000 In response, the RBG set up a dedicated Community-Based Rangeland annually. Another herder with a smaller flock began with a net loss of Rehabilitation (CBRR) Program to find solutions of mutual benefit. The US$496 a year, but now earns over US$6,300 per year. Today, over 400 CBRR team held meetings with members of the herding community to people benefit directly from the CBRR Program, and a total of around 1,500 foster cooperation and find agreement on a sustainable land management individuals have benefitted indirectly. Approximately 200 hectares of land approach. have been rehabilitated. Local herders were offered forage in exchange for not grazing on the site, Biomass increased by 30 percent from 2008 to 2009, by another 30 percent making it possible for RBG to conduct vegetation surveys and biomass from 2009 to 2010, and 10 percent per year in subsequent years. Some estimates and determine sustainable stocking rates and grazing scenarios. plant species that disappeared from the region years ago have now In addition, the CBRR Program provided the herding community with spontaneously reappeared. The plant species recorded during RBG plant training on better health management, hygiene and herd management surveys increased from 436 in 2006 to 580 in 2011. techniques, and facilitated access to veterinary care. Given the interest shown by associations, NGOs and government agencies, After training, the CBRR team allowed the herders to resume grazing on the CBRR Program is planning to share and transfer its expertise to other the site at certain times and under specific conditions. This managed- herding communities, such as the Bedouin communities in the 500 hectare grazing arrangement has yielded positive results for both the land and the Badia area. With a little financial help, the local communities’ vision can be livestock owners, and can be replicated in small degraded rangeland areas realized. in other parts of the country. Web site: http://www.royalbotanicgarden.org Although only five local herding families cooperated fully with the CBRR Program in the first year, by 2012, some 38 families were participating. The L and for Life . BIOLOGICAL DIVERSIT Y 59 60 UNCCD . World Bank Story Namibia World Bank Experience in Community Conservancy as a Social Development Movement in Namibia O ver 40 percent of Namibia’s land area is under a conservation regime, km.2 The project’s overall impacts are numerous, particularly in terms of the most interesting of which is the communal conservancy, an institu- the participatory management of the conservancies, the conservation and tional arrangement that gives local communities property rights over sustainable utilization of biodiversity, and the improved livelihood of local commercial utilization of wildlife and other resources. The 71 community communities. conservancies now support 25 percent of the rural population and greatly contribute to the growing wildlife populations in Namibia, which include In addition, the project put a legal framework in place and built human the largest population of free-roaming black rhinos, the only growing pop- capacity by incorporating integrated ecosystem management into the ulation of free-roaming lions, and others. national program. It also created enabling conditions to link economic incentives with environmental management and wildlife conservation These conservancies have also enabled communities to more easily form through strengthened ownership at the local level. joint ventures with commercial enterprises (primarily for tourism, but also enterprises that make commercial use of indigenous plants), which Between 2005 and 2009, the total revenues for all the conservancies— have generated income and other economic benefits for remote rural including cash (salaries, jobs from the tourism sector, and various pay- communities. Their formation has become a social development movement ments) and proceeds from other sources (such as meat sold and consumed as well as an accepted and holistic approach to conservation. and plants utilized and sold)—increased substantially from US$1.4 million to US$3.5 million (NACSO 2010). Also, the increase in the number of reg- With the U.S. Agency for International Development’s LIFE Program, the istered conservancies established since the start (from a baseline of 42 in World Bank and the GEF have provided support to conservancies for partici- 2005 to 59 in 2010) indicates that the community-based natural resource patory land use planning, development, and extension of community wildlife management initiative has grown in popularity over the years at both the management and monitoring. Through the program, communities are pro- national and international levels. vided incentives to manage and use resources in sustainable and productive ways to reduce deforestation, land degradation, and biodiversity loss. This The program in Namibia has already demonstrated the effectiveness support has facilitated the strategic introduction of wildlife in conservancies of devolving management authority over wildlife to landholders as a with low game densities and diversified income-generation opportunities to conservation mechanism. Still, to enhance conservation efforts, more increase nonfinancial benefits and new income to households. effort is needed to improve community coordination and management of conflicts between people and wildlife. The project supported community-based integrated ecosystem management practices in 16 conservancies, covering a total area of 38,595 Web site: www.worldbank.org L and for Life . BIOLOGICAL DIVERSIT Y 61 Story Portugal Payment for Ecosystem Services Preserves a Valuable Biodiversity Zone in Portugal N ature acts as one. And a design for holistic approaches to manage According to Portugal, 60 percent of its territory is susceptible to the environment sustainably, while widely recognized, has been desertification and drought. The Baixo Alentejo region to the south is one difficult to create due to the varied and complex nature of managing of the most vulnerable areas in the country. Soil erosion and low fertility are the interests in land use. The Baixo Alentejo region in southern Portugal common, and extreme climatic events are becoming more frequent in the is a showcase that confirms this delicate balance is possible and profitable form of floods, droughts, and heat waves. for all. Castro Verde, a rural semiarid and subhumid zone in Baixo Alentejo, has shallow and stony soils. Up to 80 percent of Castro Verde’s soils are less than 20 centimeters deep, of which more than 40 percent are stones and gravel. There is a high risk of soil erosion and the soil’s water-retention capacity is less than 40 millimeters. But these constraints mask the area’s high biodiversity value. In 1995, Birdlife International listed it as an Important Bird Area (IBA). In 1999, the European Commission recognized it as a Special Protection Area for Birds (SPA) in the Natura 2000 Network. The Castro Verde SPA is about 85,000 hectares. It is the most important and representative area for the conservation of steppe birds in Portugal, and one of the most important in Europe, because of its diversity and abundance of endangered species. These endangered species include the great bustard, the little bustard, the lesser kestrel, the black-bellied sangrouse, the Montagu’s harrier, and the Calandra lark. 62 UNCCD . World Bank Although the local economy depends heavily on farming, mining and years. The measure is strongly supported by local farmers and over the last services, it does not threaten the survival of these unique birds, because 15 years has been key to the preservation of agriculture, birds, landscape, farmers have found a way to integrate the traditional farming practices in and traditional livelihoods. their lifestyle. Fallowing is combined with the rotation of cereal farming and livestock rearing. The result is an extensive traditional farming system with LPN is guided by the principle that man is an integral part of nature and a landscape that resembles the steppe habitat, but in reality, it is a cereal the two work best when in partnership. steppe—a pseudosteppe. This ecosystem is a habitat for this unique bird community. Web site: www.lpn.pt In 1990, it became obvious to the League for the Protection of Nature (LPN) that this land use was threatened because of the growing interest in intensive forestry of the water-draining non-native Eucalyptus tree. The likelihood of wiping out the already threatened bird species became high. In 1992, LPN, in partnership with the Castro Verde Municipality and the Campo Branco Farmers Association, began looking for a solution that would also maintain the Mediterranean agroecosystem as part of the local heritage. With the farmers and local authorities, they agreed on a farming regulation to protect steppe birds. Known as the Castro Verde Zone Plan, the agri-environmental scheme, which is part of Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy, aims to preserve the ecosystem, protect the exceptional birdlife associated with it, and maintain the traditional farming system. Through the Castro Verde Zone Plan, farmers are compensated for the loss of income and added costs of applying measures to protect the birds’ habitat. Farmers apply voluntarily for a minimum period of five L and for Life . BIOLOGICAL DIVERSIT Y 63 64 UNCCD . World Bank Story Uganda World Bank/GEF Project Protects Mountain Gorillas in Uganda A frica’s tourism potential will continue to grow by attracting new protected areas. Thanks in large part to the Bwindi and PAMSU projects, markets and developing new products. Safari tourism, nature tourism, poaching has been all but eliminated in Bwindi. Gorilla populations, tourist and cultural tourism are all booming and generating employment visits, and revenues have all climbed steadily. and significant revenues. The World Bank has many successful stories engaging with the tourism sector in Uganda, South Africa, Mozambique, Across Uganda, the 1,300-member staff of the Uganda Wildlife Authority Zambia, Namibia, and Botswana. In most of these projects, evidence shows (UWA) is well trained and equipped for the first time in living memory. that by improving protected area management, economic benefits can PAMSU has delineated park boundaries in all 23 of Uganda’s protected result from nature-based tourism activities that take place in the better- areas. It has also provided critical infrastructure, such as roads and staff managed parks. housing, to the priority areas. PAMSU has been instrumental in helping communities form comanagement partnerships with UWA that promote Since the mid-1990s, wildlife conservation projects in the mountainous conservation and provide alternative livelihoods and social services such as regions of Uganda have played a pivotal role in protecting the mountain education and health clinics. (eastern) gorilla and its habitat, and in the process have created thousands of new conservation and tourism jobs. Prior to that time, poaching was The PAMSU Project left a legacy of successful partnerships among World rampant and institutional capacity was weak. Beginning in 1995, with Bank, GEF, and Ugandan stakeholders. A new project in the Democratic the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga National Park Republic of Congo (DRC) has just begun to support management in the Conservation Project, and continuing in 1999 with the US$35 million neighboring Mikeno sector of the Virunga National Park, an important Protected Areas Management and Sustainable Use (PAMSU) Project, the habitat for mountain gorillas. Since some of the gorilla groups cross back World Bank and the GEF provided the financial foundation for a long-term and forth from the DRC to Uganda and Rwanda, protecting this charismatic program of sustainable biodiversity conservation. species in each of the three countries has positive externalities for the other countries, driving economic growth in otherwise remote areas. The The Bwindi Trust is now considered a model of innovative conservation effective enforcement has led to the resurgence of the mountain gorilla in finance and management. Its original endowment of US$4 million has Uganda, Rwanda, and the DRC. generated income that assisted communities with alternative livelihoods and has underwritten core operating expenses of the mountain gorilla’s Web site: www.worldbank.org L and for Life . BIOLOGICAL DIVERSIT Y 65 66 UNCCD . World Bank Story Zimbabwe Using Nature to Restore the Grasslands F rom the savannahs of Africa and the pampas of Latin America to the world’s grasslands through its global Impact Hub Strategy, with learning steppes in North America and North Africa, drylands are famous for centers being established on all continents to disseminate this knowledge their vast grasslands. Alan Savory, a Zimbabwean biologist, rancher and speed up the natural regeneration of grassland landscapes. and farmer, has dedicated his life and more than half a century of his research to healing grasslands around the world. Over many years of trial Web site: www.savoryinstitute.com and error to find the root causes of desertification, he developed and refined the method now known as “holistic management.” Holistic management is based on a decision-making framework that results in ecologically regenerative, economically viable, and socially sound management of the world’s grasslands. From this knowledge, land managers and users can use large herds of domestic livestock to mimic wildlife and to restore balance to the land. Holistic management has enhanced biological diversity and wildlife habitat and increased land productivity, livestock stocking rates, and the prosperity of pastoralists worldwide. More than 10,000 people have been trained in holistic land management and its associated land and grazing procedures, and an estimated 40 million acres are managed holistically worldwide. Savory donated his ranch in Zimbabwe to create the Africa Center for Holistic Management as a learning site for community and emerging commercial farmers. He is cofounder of the Savory Institute in the United States, which is dedicated to promoting large-scale restoration of the L and for Life . BIOLOGICAL DIVERSIT Y 67 68 UNCCD . World Bank Water L and for Life . WATER 69 70 UNCCD . World Bank Land for Life, Water for Life: Managing the Extremes by World Meteorological Organization W ater and land are closely intertwined. When a rain drop falls, the to the nearby areas. The outcome is land with an arid or semiarid climate, land surface determines which way it will initially flow and, to where plants can cope with a short rainy season and dry conditions that last some extent, the variety of uses it will be put to. Water can two-thirds of the year. evaporate directly from the surface, infiltrate the ground, or flow into rivers, dams, or other areas. It can be used by plants and animals to give Then around Christmas, the trade winds vanish and the previously cold life, consumed by humans, or used for a variety of purposes before being waters in the ocean warm up. An ocean breeze full of moisture flows and channeled back into the system. Water can be stored naturally, but it can rises over the land, but the hills block its flow, and the moisture turns take many years to reenter the surface land system. into clouds and falls as rain. A rainy season with dark clouds arrives to deliver hour after hour of rain on the land. Plants, animals, and humans But this story about water begins with the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, are prepared for their most productive period of the year and a burst where intense solar heating produces high evaporation, which turns into of activities takes place in the rural areas. Vegetation grows, insect moisture. This moisture then moves into the lower levels of the atmosphere populations explode, and landscape changes in a matter of days. The land and plays a key role in defining the weather and distribution of water over changes color as the soil moisture is replenished by constant rainfall, and land surfaces. This low-level atmospheric moisture is carried westward by the water reservoirs, which were dry, dusty surfaces, are refilled. the trade winds across the Earth and thus shapes the spread and location of the drylands around the globe. The results from this global picture are But the climate, like humans, is not a static artifact; it is dynamic. The next further influenced by how the moisture flow interacts with, among other year, a phenomenon termed la Niña may appear. It happens when the factors, the different oceans. ocean waters are cooler than at the start of the rainy season and the trade wind system fails to weaken enough. The moisture that should form over Now let’s go to South America, where this story continues to unfold. The the South American coast travels and falls way out, causing flooding in the coastal region is virtually a dryland for a reason. Along the coast, a breeze western Pacific islands. There is still rain for the plants, animals and farmers, also forms and flows from the ocean over the land, but barely brings but only toward the end of the season. The land may be green, but there enough moisture with it to form a cloud canopy that can supply rain water L and for Life . WATER 71 is a noticeable difference in plant development—they do not develop as famous Inca period, and while the farmers are familiar with it, passing on usual because of drought. knowledge from one generation to the next, inhabitants of the region now also have mobile phones and the Internet to turn to. Climate experts and The other extreme occurs when most of the year those warm conditions government authorities are using these technologies to announce rainy prevail and the supply of moisture in the atmosphere is greatly increased. seasons, so that the arrival of el Niño finds people who are prepared for a This is the el Niño—not the global el Niño—that brings rainfall amounts longer than normal rainy season. three or four times more than in a normal year, with massive negative effects including landslides, known locally as deslaves, erosion, and People sometimes relate drought to dry or desert lands, but climate data destruction of infrastructure. show that from year to year, there are big changes in the total amount of rainfall and its distribution. Even lands rich in water can suffer drought This rainfall cycle in South America has been in place for centuries and when water is not available in the required quantity and at the right time to occurs in different forms in other regions. It dates further back than the maintain the systems that depend on it. Water quality is influenced by all of these uses, including the interactions with the land and vegetation, and so forth. It can be abundant and revitalize the floodplains, but it can cause damage to the land and crops. Clearly, to manage water efficiently, the health of the land must remain on our radar screens as part of a sound drought and flood management plan. The stories featured here underline the importance of healthy land to meet present and future water demand in a climate where extremes are present. These stories also show that simple technologies can make the difference between drought and water scarcity and access to and the availability of freshwater resources for present and future generations. 72 UNCCD . World Bank Story Aral Sea Restoring Dry and Salinized Seabeds in the Aral Sea T he shrinking Aral Sea has exposed 60,000 km2 of seabed, which is now a giant salt desert. The dust and salt that blow from it across the countryside are causing health problems for people living nearby. Dr. Liliya Dimeyeva has dedicated her career to creating green seabeds in the desiccated land, and has discovered an effective afforestation procedure of planting saplings in the severely degraded land. The road was bumpy; the saplings Dimeyeva planted the first year were destroyed by frost. The following spring the saplings took root, and survival rates varied from 33 to 72 percent. This is no small feat on heavy and highly saline ground. The results of her methods are promising, but it is impossible to cover the entire dried up seabed with green plantations. Other strategies must be used, like planting protective forests to form windbreaks or creating “green spots,” which are a small ecological oasis of up to 5 hectares that would speed up the natural plant colonization of the dry seabed. But Dimeyeva now has new challenges to resolve: how to preserve the saplings that survived, identifying the factors that have the greatest impact on their survival in the tough seabed conditions, and the further Land degradation through salinization, following prolonged irrigation development of the ecosystem. Her studies are the first of their kind. She of land for food production, is a widespread and well-known problem. has long collaborated with Japanese scientists; they have conducted joint But land salinization due to the shrinking of a sea is not common, and expeditions and created documentary films, and she has presented her her work has brought public attention to new challenges in combating work at scientific conferences and universities in Japan. desertification. L and for Life . WATER 73 74 UNCCD . World Bank Story Indonesia A Green Wall to Catch Fresh Water in Indonesia T he Gedepahala landscape in the West Java Province of Indonesia The CI initiative also emphasizes the value of the forests. There are new includes a network of mountainous water catchments that provide schemes to provide clean water to the villages. And for the first time last water to more than 30 million people in the Greater Jakarta year, one village started using electricity generated from a local stream metropolitan area. But water springs in the region have disappeared, as using a pico-hydropower system. forest cover in the upper streams was lost to the conversion of land to smallholder agriculture and an increase in human activity. The Green Wall Project to Improve Ecosystem Services and Protect Future Generations on the Gedepahala Landscape still has two unmet goals: Since 2008, Conservation International (CI) has led a collaborative, first, to create a conservation community-based sustainable land management initiative to create a education program that will “green wall” of native trees to restore the landscape. More than 100,000 allow it to reach the villagers trees have been planted on more than 200 hectares, with the active through the school system, collaboration of 644 local community members and 20 park rangers. There and second, to purchase a are new efforts to restore another 100 hectares as a corridor between the four-wheel vehicle to reach natural forest site and the initial restoration block. This would restore a 300 areas with some of the most hectare buffer zone in the degraded area and connect the natural forest to difficult terrain. the existing forest block. Web site: www.conservation. In addition to using participatory approaches to involve the communities, org/global/indonesia there are incentives to strengthen the project’s long-term survival, particularly because the land users are often tenants, not the owners. Participants who practice agroforestry—planting and tending the trees on their farms—get assistance in growing food crops. They are also given training on sustainable land cultivation, soil retention and regeneration, and are encouraged to add other income-generating activities like fisheries and livestock rearing. L and for Life . WATER 75 Story Kenya Building Riverbeds from Sand Dams G lobally, 500 million smallholder farmers provide up to 80 percent percent of Kenya is drylands, and the rainfall is increasingly unpredictable, of food consumed in most of the developing world. Most of these variable, and infrequent. And when it rains, up to 85 percent of the farmers rely on rain-fed agriculture. In the drylands, climate change is water may be lost as runoff, washing away fertile topsoil and seeds and causing more droughts and floods as well as shorter, more unpredictable undercutting food production. rainfall. It is reducing the ability of these farmers to grow food. Eighty-four Makueni County in Kenya is typical. An estimated 57 percent of the households lack access to an improved water source. On average, women and children spend four and a half hours a day collecting water. In times of drought, it takes up to 12 hours, which leaves little time to invest in sustainable land management and food production. It is not surprising that Makueni County has a Human Development Index of 0.558 and that 31.1 percent of its children are underweight. But a study conducted in Kenya in 1999 showed that where sand dams were built, households suffering from malnutrition declined from 32 to 0 percent, and incomes significantly increased. Guided by the principle that poverty alleviation in drylands can only be achieved through sustained investment in soil and water conservation, Excellent Development began working with self-help groups in Makueni in 2002, with the sand dam as the technology of choice. A sand dam is a reinforced concrete wall that is built across a seasonal sandy river. During the rainy season, the river carries silt and sand downstream. The heavy sand accumulates behind the dam, while the light silt washes over the dam. Within one to four rainy seasons, the dam fills with sand. But, up to 40 percent of the volume behind the dam is water, trapped between sand 76 UNCCD . World Bank particles and protected from evaporation. A mature sand dam stores up Foundation (ASDF). Sand dams supply water for domestic and agricultural to 20 million liters of water. The dam is replenished with each rainfall, but use. Livestock can drink from beneath the dam—often from a specially built even without regular rain, it can supply over 1,000 people with a year-round trough. The banks of the sand dams also sustain the vegetation, tree plant- local water source. ing, and other greening activities around the dams. Best of all, water col- lection now only takes 30 minutes, saving people between 4 and 11.5 hours Sand dams differ from other dams. Their spillway is in the middle, not on a day. Time saved from collecting water creates the opportunity for people the side of the dam. This allows the river to continue flowing normally, to invest in sustainable land use techniques like terracing, tree planting, which reduces soil erosion. In fact, a sand dam is not really a dam— and reclaiming gullies. This improves soil and water conservation, restoring rather, it is the creation of a new and higher riverbed that acts like a degraded land and enabling improved food production. sponge to soak and store the water and protects it from evaporation and contamination. The aquifer is replenished from the water stored behind Excellent Development and ASDF provide support for people to the dam, and the river flow is slowed down, which reduces flooding in the achieve food security through climate-smart agriculture. This support lower catchment. Sand dams are invaluable in areas with seasonal rivers involves establishing seed banks with improved drought-resistant seeds, and sandy sediments. diversifying crops, zero grazing of livestock, composting, using manure and planting cover crops, inter-cropping, setting up vegetable nurseries, Altogether, 111 self-help groups have constructed 366 dams with help and planting trees on farms. Between them, the self-help groups, from Excellent Development and its strategic partner, Africa Sand Dam Excellent Development, and ASDF have built over 1,400 kilometers of terraces and planted 860,487 trees on farms. The impact on the community is visible. A 2013 Normalized Difference Vegetation Index study of Makueni County shows that there is significantly greater vegetation during drought, drought resilience, and recovery from droughts where sand dams have been built. Excellent Development and Africa Sand Dam Foundation (ASDF) have supported pilot programs of the technology in another six countries. But with only limited funds, scaling up the activities remains a challenge. L and for Life . WATER 77 Story Mexico Mexico’s Water Solution from Integrated Landscape Management T he Amanalco-Valle Bravo Basin located near Mexico City is one of for good reason. The valley’s rich natural resource base includes over Mexico’s highly valued natural resources. Some describe it as a 35,000 hectares of temperate forest, nearly 18,000 hectares of agricultural promising area for creating markets for environmental services, and land, 5,300 hectares of pastureland, and 1,770 hectares of surface bodies of water. Today, the Amanalco-Valle Bravo Basin feeds the Valle de Bravo dam that supplies water to 8 million people, including 40 percent of the drinking water of the Cutzamala System, which accounts for 20 percent of the water that is consumed in Mexico City and other cities and towns in the State of Mexico. The basin’s natural resources support the livelihoods of 53 highly marginalized rural communities. But it was not always this way. Population pressure and unplanned development led to the basin’s environmental degradation over at least 15 years. Then, in 2007, the Mexican Civil Council for Sustainable Forestry (CCMSS)—a nongovernmental not-for-profit organization that was created in 1996 to address community forest use, forest conservation, forest industrialization, and forest commercialization—started working in the basin under the Integrated Landscape Management Project. Guided by a few core principles, CCMSS’s strategy became strengthening governance capacities and sustainable land use management to improve the living conditions of the local population. CCMSS focuses on three major activities: strengthening local governance and building social capital; applying sustainable land management 78 UNCCD . World Bank through the hands of rural communities; and setting up mechanisms of CCMSS promotes community forest management as a means to achieve payment for environmental services (PES) and Reduced Carbon Emissions forest conservation and stimulate development for people living in from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). Governance and the forests. It is also expected to help rural communities apply forest social capital are built through a communal approach. In Mexico, ejidos management schemes on par with international standards of best forest and communities collectively own 60 percent of the land, so CCMSS is management practices. CCMSS participates in research and public policy working with a dozen communities and ejidos to implement land use plans analyses that promote favorable governmental actions for community and improve their natural resource management strategies. Some 1,500 management and forest use and that aim to improve the living conditions smallholder farmer families practice sustainable agriculture and forestry of hundreds of rural communities. CCMSS also focuses on encouraging management on over 15,200 hectares of communal areas and ejidos. The forest research and knowledge sharing about the principle problems benefits are apparent down to the household level. The communities have and important trends in forest management. The Integrated Landscape worked on restoration of over 2,800 hectares of forest and have planted 22 Management Project could achieve more, much more, if scaled up. new hectares of native tree forests. CCMSS also works closely with 122 peasant families that have converted their 200 hectares of agricultural land to sustainable agriculture, while eliminating agrochemicals and developing activities to regenerate and protect soils and improve hydrological services. At least 10 percent of the families now produce 3–5 tons of compost per hectare per year to improve soil fertility. There is evidence of increased food security among the farming families and crop diversity has increased from just one—corn—to seven crops, including fruit trees. Further, women make up 40 percent of the participants and agricultural productivity for the participating families increased by 20 to 50 percent. L and for Life . WATER 79 Story World Bank Support Unleashes Prosperity from Senegal River Resources I n Senegal, near the village of Sadel and five hours of rough road The Senegal River Basin has huge potential and can transform the lives of northeast of Dakar, the markets are anything but deserted. Thanks 35 million people. Currently, less than 30 percent of the basin’s hydropower to improved irrigation, communities along the river are now able to potential of 1,200 MW is utilized. Less than 40 percent of the 375,000 sell watermelons, squash, tomatoes, and even rice. Now, the riparian hectares of irrigable lands are developed. Of the nearly 140,000 hectares population can enjoy the waters flush with fish and earn their livelihoods that are serviced, only 90,000 are really usable. almost entirely from river resources. The World Bank–funded Senegal River Basin Multi-Purpose Water Resources Development (MWRD) Project brought some solutions as it addresses fisheries, irrigation, health, and water resources management in Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, and Senegal. As part of the World Bank’s Regional Integration Program, the project goes beyond countries to bring cross-border solutions that make a long-term dent in poverty. The approach used offers more opportunities to develop infrastructure with multiplier impacts for agriculture, water supply, energy, navigation, and health than a single operation. As proven by the results and the recent inclusion of Guinea to the Senegal River Basin Organization, when countries jointly manage shared water resources, there are significant benefits—benefits that emerge beyond the water sector in terms of poverty reduction, low carbon growth, regional trade, and stability. For the 12 million residents of the Senegal River Basin, water is a vital part of their livelihoods. Not only are fish from the river a source of food, but the annual floods during the rainy season are crucial for replenishing the nutrients that sustain pasture land and irrigated crops. Without access to 80 UNCCD . World Bank water, grass for grazing becomes scarce, and only a few crops grow in the more than doubled the number of households using bed nets, regular harsh climate. medication, and antiparasitic treatments have reduced the prevalence of malaria and bilharzias, or snail fever. With the MWRD project, more than 5,200 hectares of land have been rehabilitated for agricultural use through irrigation and water management, Web site: www.worldbank.org meaning that some residents can plant at least two seasons during the year. The increased cultivation opportunities have particularly impacted women, many of whom are household heads and rely on subsistence agriculture to support their families. By some estimates, fish sales in the Senegal River are up nearly 13 percent since the start of the project and there are clear indications from residents in riverside villages that both the size and quantity of the catch have significantly improved. Thanks to the uptick in fishing, former migrants are back among the fish, fields, and family that— after making a difficult choice—they had previously left behind. Perhaps the most compelling result has been in the improvement of local health, and subsequently improvements in child mortality and education. Prevention and control activities such as distributions of mosquito nets, which have L and for Life . WATER 81 82 UNCCD . World Bank Food Security L and for Life . FOOD SECURIT Y 83 84 UNCCD . World Bank Food Security and Land Degradation by UNCCD Komila Nabiyeva, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification F ood production has a profound impact on our environment. Globally, inappropriate farming practices, and agropastoral land uses as the lead agriculture consumes 70 percent of all freshwater for irrigation. It drivers. Missing or misguided policies often make the situation worse. drives 80 percent of deforestation and is the source of 30 percent of Scientists estimate that soil erosion alone is costing the international all greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, food production is unavoidable because community up to US$490 billion per year. food is a basic need for all of us. To make things worse, unsustainable land and water management exacerbate land degradation and biodiversity loss. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations projects that by 2030, the growing global population will increase the demand for food by 50 percent. To meet this demand, an additional 120 million hectares of new, productive land will be needed. This is a new farm the size of South Africa. At the same time, the amount of productive land available for food production globally is falling, largely due to urban development and other human activities that degrade an already limited natural resource. Humanity will never meet the global food demand unless the current trend of land degradation is curbed. Globally, 43 percent of rangelands and 20 percent of croplands are already degraded, according to FAO. And the annual loss of 12 million hectares of productive land to desertification and drought is an opportunity lost to produce 20 million tons of grain. Human action and chemical processes are the main causes of land degradation in all ecosystems, with overgrazing, L and for Life . FOOD SECURIT Y 85 For a long time, it was assumed that because food production was a • Chronic hunger affects over 900 million people worldwide necessary evil, the associated environmental degradation should be tolerated. But researchers are now finding that food production need • By 2030, the demand for food is expected to increase by 50 percent not be synonymous with environmental degradation. The case studies • By 2030, we may need 120 million hectares of new land to meet food presented here back that evidence and expose other myths associated demand with food production and the drylands. Innovations from the Biovision Foundation show that fertilizer-free and herbicide-free food production • 12 million hectares of land are lost due to land degradation every systems are possible without compromising production levels. Mechanical year technologies, like those invented by the late Italian scientist Venanzio • Land degradation costs the global community at least US$490 billion Vallerani, that are built on traditional knowledge and systems can transform per year the land situations in most drylands. And with the use of “underground forests” and EcoAgriculture, Niger and Kenya can give new life to tired land and soil. avoided, sustainable land use is rewarded, and the restoration of degraded The moral obligation to feed the growing population and to eliminate land becomes an investment. chronic hunger and poverty is not in question. But the research advances to date mean that meeting this demand at the expense of the environment The Green Revolution was the legacy of the 20th century. The aspiration is irresponsible. What is lacking is the shift of policy makers from food of a land-degradation neutral world, which was articulated by all world production to sustainable food production, where new land degradation is leaders at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), must be the legacy of the 21st century agriculture. 86 UNCCD . World Bank L and for Life . FOOD SECURIT Y 87 Story Kenya Environment-Friendly Farming by the Biovision Foundation T he Green Revolution came with the increased use of fertilizers and improved their productivity with sustainable and affordable methods and insecticides and doubled global wheat production. But it had a are braced for the challenges of climate change. huge environmental price tag. The 700 percent increase in fertilizer use resulted in soil acidification, depletion of essential humus content, A classic example of Biovision’s approach is a method known as Push-Pull. and eventual loss of its economic viability. The intensification produced It is an integrated, sustainable farming method that improves maize yields further damage through the loss of soil fertility, unsustainable water usage, and soil fertility: the stemborer pest is repelled by the smell of desmodium greenhouse gas emissions, and chemical runoff poisoning rivers. planted as an intercrop between the maize (push). Napier grass is planted as a border crop and it attracts the stemborers away from the maize The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science, and field (pull) and kills the stemborer’s larvae with its sticky plant material. Technology for Development (IAASTD), published in 2008, came to the Desmodium can also fix nitrogen and so improves maize yields without the conclusion that industrial style agriculture was not sustainable and would use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and protects the soil from drying never be able to feed the over 9 billion people expected to inhabit our out too fast. The napier grass is also a welcome source of healthy animal planet by 2050. The report, written over six years by over 400 scientists fodder. This method has increased yields among smallholders by 200 to from all over the world, recommended localized smallholder structures for 300 percent. It also protects the environment in a truly sustainable manner our agriculture and food systems. and is affordable for those who lack the capital to invest in fertilizers and pesticides. The Cochair of the IAASTD was Hans R. Herren, World Food Prize Laureate 1995, and founder of Biovision Foundation. Guided by the While industrial agriculture is still viewed by many as the answer to principle that nature can be a powerful ally to science and technology in improving yields, drought and pest infestations still cause crop failures. poverty alleviation, this Swiss-based NGO has been supporting ecological With climate change, the rainfall has become more irregular, so more sustainable development in East Africa for 15 years to combat hunger, resilient methods are required. The ability to control pests ecologically poverty, and disease. Its special focus is on information dissemination for can transform the food sector significantly, given that plant pests alone are smallholders. Through the magazine The Organic Farmer, radio shows, responsible for up to 80 percent of crop losses. In addition, the negative a special Internet platform called Infonet-Biovision.org, an SMS advisory effect of pesticides on bees, and therefore the pollination process, is now service and practical courses on the ground, millions of smallholders have globally recognized. 88 UNCCD . World Bank Biovision Foundation seeks to establish sustainable ecological food approach at the national and global levels to ensure that the political systems across the globe, starting with work on the ground with those framework supports the changes. directly involved in the production process, but also by advocating its Web site: www.biovision.ch L and for Life . FOOD SECURIT Y 89 Story Ethiopia Underground Forests That Restore Soil Biodiversity V isualize severely degraded land and images of bare denuded lands— these are usually missed or mistaken for weeds and are burned or cleared no trees and no plants, conjure it up in your mind. But according to before planting crops. Tony Rinaudo, who pioneered farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR), these degraded woodlands and farmlands are often hiding vast In Rinaudo’s FMNR method, however, through culling and nurturing, these “underground forests” just waiting to spring into life to restore the land. tiny shrubs grow into resilient multipurpose trees that eventually restore Look closely at these bare landscapes and you are likely to find small the land to full productivity. According to Rinaudo, the first step is to assess shrubs sprouting from tree stumps, or roots buried under the ground. But each of the germinating stumps, taking note of the types and numbers of each species. Next, the stumps to be used for regeneration are identi- fied and tagged so that the community spares them. About five or so of the tallest and straightest stems of the selected stumps are identified and pruned, while the rest are culled. Crops are then cultivated around the stumps. The stems grow over time and provide a protective barrier to the environment and for crops. Pruning provides the community with sources of fodder, fuel, or building materials. However, whenever a stem is cut, the rule is to nurture a new young stem to replace it. FMNR repairs the land by increasing woody vegetation and biodiversity as well as improving the soil structure and fertility through leaf litter and nutrient recycling. As trees grow, they curb erosion and serve as windbreaks that decrease soil moisture evaporation and protect crops and livestock from harsh climatic elements. Eventually, springs reappear and water tables are restored. Rinaudo stumbled upon the idea in the early 1980s in Niger. He observed that these indigenous shrubs and stumps were “just waiting for some care 90 UNCCD . World Bank to grow.” With the cooperation of a few willing farmers back then, his Moreover, the technique is effective not only for drylands, but in theory proved right, and within 20 years, this form of land regeneration nondryland ecosystems as well. World Vision, where Rinaudo has been had spread to over 5 million hectares of land in Niger. The successful trial working for the past 14 years, has trained thousands of farmers in FMNR run on nearly 3,000 hectares in Ethiopia led the government to make a in 14 countries and diffused the technology successfully to countries commitment to restore over 15 million hectares of degraded land using like Indonesia, East Timor, and Myanmar. FMNR is a revolutionary land Rinaudo’s approach. The results are quick and dramatic, especially where restoration technique with vast untapped potential for investment. they are combined with other sustainable land management techniques. In Ethiopia, for instance, the communities were picking fruits, animals were Web site: www.worldvision.com.au returning, and erosion and flooding were in decline within two years. L and for Life . FOOD SECURIT Y 91 Story World Bank Project Brings Food Security from Sustainable Land Management in Senegal L and degradation is increasingly affecting land resources in Senegal: most of the rural population heavily depends on land resources for its almost two-thirds of the arable land, about 2.5 million hectares, livelihood, increasing land degradation reduces their livelihood options is degraded. Soil fertility depletion is one of the main causes of and income-generating opportunities, thus exacerbating their poverty and stagnating agricultural productivity and, consequently, one of the major vulnerability. constraints to agricultural and economic growth. In the small village of Wellou Bell, a World Bank–funded sustainable land Senegal’s territorial ecosystems and their products are an important part of management (SLM) project was critical in addressing land degradation and its natural wealth and essential to the country’s food security. But because subsequently contributed to food security. By making water available in Wellou Bell through water retention, the project allowed pastoralists to stay longer in their villages, therefore increasing the amount of milk provided to the communities. This sedentary period also increased the manure and improved soil fertility. In addition, because Wellou Bell is a crossroad village, the pond is used by about 2,000 cattle and 15,000 sheep and goats in transhumance from all regions. As a result of these efforts, Wellou Bell has become a vibrant community, animated by the social and economic activities. Many other villages and communities benefitted from this SLM project. The 20,066 hectares of land recovered using SLM practices contributed to food security, income generation and improved living conditions, including better health and education. The improved soil fertility translated into an increase of production of the main staples: millet production rose from 550 to 850 kilograms per hectare by fighting the millet wild weed Striga helmonthic; rice production rose from 1,200 to 2,300 kilograms per hectare with the use of peanut shell; and 92 UNCCD . World Bank peanut production from 600 to 1,400 kilograms with the use of organic The diffusion of technologies responding to women-specific needs, fertilizer. Furthermore, nurseries built for fruit and plant production and like improved charcoal-saving stoves and biogas from manure, reduced their associated gardening activities had significant positive impacts on the time women spend collecting wood and gave them more time to resident’s nutrition in the short run. devote to productive activities. The 6,600 improved charcoal-saving stoves distributed to women added to the success in the fight against The SLM project brought a dynamic change at the grassroots level by deforestation by reducing the pressure on natural resources. empowering women to purchase or request land ownership as individuals or as a group. The introduction of certain technologies like fruit and tree Web site: www.worldbank.org planting, usually dedicated to women, made them even more involved in the production and reinforced the need to change the rules of land tenure. Before the project, my agricultural production covered just about 3 months With the 30,000 plants produced by the project, we hope to turn our local of my household consumption needs. With the organic amendment with the landscape green in the near future. Before, I spent FCFA 300 (US$0.6) per day project, my yield increased by 50%. This allowed me to feed my family for 7 to buy wood for cooking, with the improved charcoal-saving stoves, I only spent to 8 months. FCFA 100 (US$0.2). Now my house is cleaner and the fire risks are reduced. —Producer from Meouane —Ndeye Fatou Ndiaye, female leader, president of CLCOP in Notto Diobass I have abandoned my land for years because it was invaded by salt. With the anti-salt dam built by the project, I can now access my village even in rainy I migrated to the city of Thies as a cab driver but I came back to the village season and grow rice on my farm. From November to May 2012, I managed because of the project. With my agroforestry activities and the use of compost, to produce enough rice to feed my family. I am earning more than in town. —Fatou Faye, female head of household —Young man, Notto Diobass and rice producer from Simal L and for Life . FOOD SECURIT Y 93 94 UNCCD . World Bank Story Uganda Children, Agents of Food Security in Uganda T he reality of the primary school system in Uganda is often ecoschool children have planted almost 52,000 trees in their communities, disheartening. Drop-out rates, especially in rural areas, are up to 75 and the training has benefited about 18,750 households. The organization percent, and the curriculum tends to focus on theory, not practice. has launched over 250 ecostudent parliaments and ecoparent associations Children who drop out of school early often depend on subsistence that spearhead pupils’ involvement in school planning and influence agriculture, but don’t understand the many negative environmental decision making in environment-related activities. impacts that may result from their agricultural practices. CECOD’s achievements made them one of the two runners-up for the 2012 The Conservation Efforts for Community Development (CECOD) has a Land for Life Award, and it received US$30,000 to support its activities. program that gets to the heart of these challenges. It takes children out of In granting this award, the panel concluded that this approach may have the classroom and into the real world, where they learn many different ways several other positive externalities in addition to promoting sustainable of managing land sustainably. CECOD has trained 7,500 teachers from land management education like improved school attendance by children, 681 primary schools under Primary Teacher Colleges Catchment Area. The if they perceive that there are tangible additional benefits of going to organization has 364 ongoing school-based microprojects that promote school because of sustainable land management learning. sustainable land management practices. With the cash award, CECOD immediately launched its own Green Flag In St. Aloysius Primary School in Mbarara, for instance, 14-year-old Brendah Award. This is a competition that recognizes schools and communities that Nyakato shows her school friends how to sort waste and produce organic are leaders in collaborative, sustainable natural resource management. manure for the school garden, where the children grow bananas. In another In 2013, the Green Flag Award was shared by 88 primary schools, and the primary school in Mbarara, children are learning to build energy-saving scheme is targeting 200 schools in 2014. With appropriate support and stoves to avoid deforestation and protect soil from erosion. They are guidance, children need not wait to be leaders of tomorrow. They can start also encouraged to take practical action, like leading campaigns to stop investing in their future today. littering and to improve the local environmental quality. The outcomes are impressive: the program has reached 103,600 primary school pupils, the Web site: http://cecodug.org L and for Life . FOOD SECURIT Y 95 96 UNCCD . World Bank Story Costa Rica EcoAgriculture: An Innovation That Restores Landscapes T he new land rush, popularly known as the “land grab,” the recent hectares of land could potentially be restored and there are growing calls, food crises, and the recurrent resource-based conflicts simmering in on the global level, to adopt a landscape approach to their restoration. many regions all signal that productive land is in short supply. Not surprisingly, the advocates for food security and biodiversity conservation EcoAgriculture has developed the tools to assess, plan, negotiate and are vying to advance their agendas in the same critical regions of the design the interventions, and to track the changes that result. Experience world. has also taught EcoAgriculture that having strong leadership is the single greatest factor for success in scaling up integrated landscape EcoAgriculture Partners is built on the idea that meeting societal needs management. They build this human capacity by training, supporting, and will require pursuing strategies that address these competing demands networking leaders at the grassroots level. simultaneously. Its strategies are designed to manage landscapes so that they can produce food, conserve ecosystem services and biodiversity, EcoAgriculture has given and improve the well-being of residents. The desire of EcoAgriculture advisory and technical support Partners is to create a world where agricultural communities manage their to dozens of landscape landscapes so that they can simultaneously enhance rural livelihoods, initiatives in countries such as conserve biodiversity and ecosystem services, and produce crops, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, India, livestock, fish, and fiber sustainably. Kenya, Nepal, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and the United States. EcoAgriculture launched the Landscapes for People, Food, and Nature EcoAgriculture Partners and Initiative to break down the silo or tunnel vision that was blocking the Landscapes for People, collaboration among the many different organizations and stakeholders Food, and Nature Initiative working on these issues. The approach begins with seeking to understand have tremendous potential the system itself—the first step is to map the movement of water, nutrients for replication on a wide scale and wild species through landscapes, observing how they interact with across Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, crops and livestock production. In the process, EcoAgriculture identifies and Latin America. opportunities to modify farming practices or other land uses to minimize the trade-offs and take full advantage of the synergies between agriculture Web site: www.ecoagriculture. and biodiversity conservation. Scaling this work is critical; over 2 billion org L and for Life . FOOD SECURIT Y 97 Story Burkina Faso Moving Africa’s Drylands toward Modern Technologies is this correct map? A griculture has come a long way since the hoe gave way to the plow run-off and enables the drought-resistant plants already sown or planted in and then to the tractor, and in the process these inventions have the semicircular bunds to germinate. This soil-processing system raises the improved global food security. But agriculture is also responsible for water table and makes two to four times more water available for crops, land degradation—crops consume essential soil nutrients, land clearing pastures, and plants. When compared with the manual approach to land and tilling pave the way to soil erosion, irrigation causes saline build up rehabilitation, food production increases two to four times, animal and in the soils, and on and on. Food production is a necessary evil, but land vegetable biodiversity rise considerably, while pastureland increases both degradation is outpacing its restoration at an increasing and unsustainable in terms of quality and quantity up to 30 times. rate for ecosystem functioning. The Vallerani System, as the innovation is now known, is a mechanization of But Dr. Venanzio Vallerani, who passed away in November 2012, again a traditional water-saving practice that is widely used in the Sahel region— turned to the tractor and the plow to fix the problem. Working with the digging half-moons to trap water for cultivation. Vallerani believed in water Nardi agricultural machinery firm, they designed three special types of harvesting and retention for the reforestation of arid zones. But his field plows, the Treno, Delfino and the new Delfino3, suitable for rehabilitating experience convinced him that the labor-intensive initiatives in the Sahel, different soil types and for different uses. while effective, would have limited reach. Delfino automatically penetrates into the soil and reemerges on the soil Mechanization was the solution to rapid and vast landscape-level surface, excavating semicircular microbasins that are about 3.5 to 5 meters restoration, and with the poor in mind, Vallerani designed and patented long, and 40 to 70 centimeters deep, at intervals of 1 to 3 meters. It creates this system. Up to now, it has been used in 13 countries on over 115,000 up to 7,500 microbasins with underground bags per day, and can also hectares. Studies show that wherever it has been used correctly, the results create them as contours. Up to 15 hectares of land can be treated and are excellent. It restores hundreds of acres in a relatively short time and is seeded per day, but to minimize the above mentioned problems and highly efficient and fast, especially in soils that are not too stony or sandy. maximize results, only 10–20 percent of the soil is plowed. In the Gansu and Inner Mongolia regions of China, Vallerani and Chinese Rainwater, its runoff and other valuable resources, such as fine soil, organic scientists used it in a pilot reforestation program including over 3,000 matter and seeds, are trapped in the semicircular bunds. This prevents hectares of degraded land. A study conducted afterward shows that it is 98 UNCCD . World Bank twice as efficient in catching water. Soil moisture increased by 60 percent Delfino, Treno, and Delfino3 are not yet used widely, but they have great and the soil’s compactness was reduced by 82 percent. The survival rate of potential for reforestation, pasture development or re-greening, and for planted trees increased by 50 percent. the international community to achieve the global aspiration of a land- degradation neutral world in a relatively short period. L and for Life . FOOD SECURIT Y 99 100 UNCCD . World Bank Awareness Creation L and for Life . AWARENESS CREATION 101 Coalition Building, Communication, and Social Media for Greater Awareness by TerrAfrica Gayatri Kanungo and Madjiguene Seck, World Bank TerrAfrica Team S ustainable land and water management (SLWM) has proven to be dissemination of information in stronger partnerships with governments central to combating desertification and increasing agricultural and international institutions. productivity. SLWM provides multiple dividends to livelihoods, growth, social protection, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. This featured section focuses upon approaches used by selected civil In essence, SLWM sustains the people, preserves the land, and impacts society, groups, and organizations—the DESIRE project, Sustainable vegetation cover and composition—all contributing to a green economy. Development for the Negev, and TerrAfrica—in building awareness. It Creating awareness on these issues has helped us—the beneficiaries— captures the successful link created up the chain between beneficiaries better understand that desertification and land degradation threaten the as well as policy makers in the context of land degradation and processes that sustain the global ecosphere and life on earth. desertification. Clearly, combating desertification, land rehabilitation, SLWM, livelihood Twenty-eight partner institutions from across the world, consisting of generation, and awareness raising are all now part of the same equation— research institutes, universities, NGOs and SMEs, have started a large given that raising awareness is inherently linked to these key issues, and integrated research project—the DESIRE—to establish promising even more closely to the ones on meeting basic needs, capacity building, alternative land use and management conservation strategies in 16 and data and information. Creating equitable access and ownership degradation and desertification hotspots around the world. through awareness creation and communication are critical for success. Similarly, the Sustainable Development for the Negev was set up to Cognizant of the fact that civil society organizations play a key role in increase public awareness and involvement; data collection and analyses; influencing national, regional, and global policy making, their efforts in education discussions; and local, regional, and international cooperation promoting and enhancing awareness around critical land issues need to be on environmental issues and use of natural resources. brought into the discussion. It is encouraging to see that there is a spread in both the numbers and types of actors involved in communication and 102 UNCCD . World Bank TerrAfrica, an African-driven global partnership program,18 is working to improve natural resource–based livelihoods and ecosystem functions through scaling up SLWM across sectors. Significantly, it is a vehicle for implementing the land-related strategies of the Rio conventions, especially the UNCCD. The partners work together across sectors to mobilize, align TerrAfrica Mandate and Mission and plan investments, and to convene knowledge, tools, and stakeholders. “Our Land, Our Wealth, Our future in Our hands” • Coalition building: 24 Sub-Saharan countries members under the leadership TerrAfrica created an enabling environment for effective mainstreaming, of the African Union; 20 partners including Regional Economic Communities, upscaling, and financing of SLWM strategies and is recognized as the UN bodies, international organizations such as the World Bank, EU, bilaterals precursor of climate-smart agriculture. Interestingly, the TerrAfrica and civil society. “Knowledge Base” is providing a shared space for people committed to advancing SLWM in Africa to share resources, ideas, and experiences—an • Knowledge creation and dissemination: the TerrAfrica Knowledge Base effort toward creating an open knowledge platform that engages the provides a shared space for people committed to advancing SLWM in Africa global community in conversations that drive local action. More recently, to share resources, ideas, and experiences. TerrAfrica established a partnership with Connect 4Climate (C4C) to • Investment: TerrAfrica scaled up US$3 billion for SWLM; put an additional develop a more visible and radical new approach for communication. 174,000 hectares under SLWM; sequestered 520,000 tons of carbon dioxide Together they have energized participating countries’ constituencies by equivalent; positively impacted 420,000 farmers; engaged 95,000 extension increasing their audiences through social media and by stimulating their workers; prepared or delivered 18 country investment frameworks; 37 interest in seeking solutions to adapt to climate change. operations are in preparation or implementation in 27 countries; implemented 10 country-level and 3 multicountry/regional TerrAfrica-supported projects; TerrAfrica designed an innovative and strategic communication approach and monitoring and evaluation framework has been approved and key that: indicators have been adopted in investment operations and country programs. • promotes SLWM practices in Sub-Saharan Africa; • motivates key stakeholders to collaborate as a coalition of institutions mainstreaming SLWM; • improves the mechanism through which partner organizations and national governments collect and exchange SLWM knowledge; • shapes public opinion with the ultimate goal to create pressure on policy makers and governments to increase funding for projects across L and for Life . AWARENESS CREATION 103 sectors and countries to tackle land degradation, climate change, and program to both focus on its core and streamline methods to reach its natural resource overreach; and widening group of stakeholders. • provides communication support to combine the traditional and new Overall, the TerrAfrica program is now proving to be a robust model for media/processes/tools, according to each project’s needs. donor harmonization, Africa-driven development, multi-disciplinary work, and mutual accountability. The World Bank—along with numerous national Youth outreach has also been a key element of this communication and international partners—has been deeply involved in cofounding and strategy, as African youth have asked to be part of the debate and the implementing the TerrAfrica partnership with the African Union’s (AU) New solutions. To kick start an interactive dialogue among African youth Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Planning and Coordinating and give them a voice, TerrAfrica, in collaboration with C4C, organized Agency (NPCA). competitions to challenge young people aged 13–35 from all over the world to submit photos, videos, music videos, and podcasts that Web site: www.terrafrica.org communicate compelling climate change and land degradation stories. TerrAfrica and C4C’s innovative communication approach has enabled the 104 UNCCD . World Bank L and for Life . AWARENESS CREATION 105 106 UNCCD . World Bank Story Ethiopia/Ghana/Kenya/ Nigeria/Rwanda/ South Africa/Tanzania/ Uganda/Zimbabwe Africa’s Faiths Commit to a Living Planet under a World Bank–Supported Initiative D escribed as the biggest civil society movement on climate change the Qadiriyyah Sufi Movement in Nigeria, and the Protestant Council of in history, and the biggest mobilization of people and communities Rwanda. This is the first time that African faith communities have come that we have ever seen on this issue, faith groups have a crucial role together to develop long-term plans on the environment, and this offers a to play in protecting our planet. Nowhere is this more true than in Africa, unique opportunity for the World Bank, through TerrAfrica, to further build where 90 percent of the population describe themselves as either Christian on its initial pioneering engagement to secure practical results. or Muslim—with 470 million Christians and 234 million Muslims. Moreover, faith leaders are figures of huge influence and trust. They cannot be The 27 faith groups in 11 different countries proposed a range of practical ignored in the search for a coordinated response to protecting our planet. actions for their 184 million followers. Plans focus on community awareness raising, conservation and climate smart agricultural practices, including The Alliance of Religions and Conservation, a secular body that helps the sustainable use of land and water and environment education in faith- the world’s major faiths develop environmental programs based on their run schools. Many of the plans focus on using faith institutions as model own core teachings, beliefs and practices, is doing just that, with support demonstration centers to teach followers simple techniques of sustainable from the World Bank’s African-led TerrAfrica partnership. The innovative conservation agriculture. The faiths are also planning massive reforestation project is a new awakening to help shape beliefs, behavior, and actions for and tree-planting programs, with over 43 million trees to be planted in the a greener and better Africa. The unprecedented outreach to 184 million next seven years. people provides an extraordinary opportunity for long-term engagement to achieve long-lasting impact and create a more sustainable Africa. In Ethiopia, where 85 percent of people make their living from the land, and with a church membership of 43.5 million people, this engagement In fact, 27 faith groups in Sub-Saharan Africa have received support under could have a huge impact. The Orthodox Church, with 500,000 clergy, the project to consult with their own local communities—in their mosques, proposes that its 3,000 monasteries be not only spiritual centers, but temples and churches, with their young people’s associations and become monastic communities that act as pioneers for the introduction women’s groups, and in their schools—on actions needed to protect their of environmental conservation and carbon trading, as well as centers of environment. The resulting long-term plans of action on the environment demonstration and learning for improved agricultural practices, sustainable were endorsed by the highest authority of the faith groups, ranging from land management techniques, and innovations such as the introduction of the National Muslim Council of Tanzania to the Hindu Council of Africa, biogas digesters and solar energy. L and for Life . AWARENESS CREATION 107 In Kenya, the 9 million Catholics, 3 million Methodists, 3 million Children are also a key feature of the environmental plans—educating Presbyterians, 5 million Anglicans, 1.2 million members of the Full Gospel them continues to be the backbone of the faiths’ activities in Africa. In Churches of Kenya, and the 6.5 million of the Supreme Council of Kenya Kenya, the project has reached out to faith schools and introduced a toolkit Muslims agreed together to introduce “Farming God’s Way,” rooted in on “education for sustainable development,” integrating religious wisdom biblical teachings. and environmental education. Women are central to the life of faith groups and have been key partici- In Nigeria, the Qadiriyyah Movement, which has an estimated 15 million pants in this effort. In Tanzania, women not only gain new skills in nursery followers, proposes setting up Green Grocery kiosks on the streets of Kano management and agroforestry, but are able to earn money to put food on as official retail outlets, where the organic fruit and vegetables grown by the table and send their children to school. In Uganda, Muslim women in its children in school orchards can be sold. A street-cleaning program also Gomba have been planting fruit and ficus trees around their homes, gar- gives children school marks and trains them to recycle discarded plastic dens and mosques, practicing agroforestry, and installing energy saving water bags for use in the school’s tree nursery. tools. This work has been hailed as transformative and “a new awakening that will help shape beliefs, behavior, and actions for a greener and better Africa.” There is hope that with faith, vision and partnership, that “new awakening” will be only the beginning—on the journey together to protect our living planet.19 Web site: www.arcworld.org 108 UNCCD . World Bank Story Netherlands The DESIRE Project for Greener Land P roductive land is scarce and, partly because everyone likes to use droughts. Findings from the project have been published in the Desire for the best land available, is often threatened by degradation and Greener Land.20 desertification processes that reduce its productivity. This is especially the case in dryland areas. More than 1 billion people, many of whom are In short, the DESIRE project is a like toolbox that contains a variety of farmers who depend on the land for their livelihoods or even their survival, solutions and advice on how to “treat sick” land. The DESIRE approach live in affected areas. Preventing desertification is critically important, as is is to identify, scientifically assess, and develop sustainable local land restoration where it has occurred. management strategies in partnership with stakeholder groups. It also places priority on integrating social and economic aspects, including DESIRE—Desertification Mitigation and Remediation of Land, a “global gender issues and economic analysis, into land management strategies. approach to local solutions”—is a research network focused on building a DESIRE offers guidance and accessible tools to support decision making, learning community among scientists and practitioners. DESIRE offers fresh evaluate sustainable land management activities, and disseminate the thinking and practical solutions to the problems of land degradation and results. soil and water conservation, especially in dryland areas. It is a knowledge management hub for sustainable dryland management. Since its launch DESIRE is a partnership between Alterra Wageningen University in the in 2007, using a unique approach developed by the project, DESIRE Netherlands and 25 other partners worldwide. Funded by the European has gathered about 40 case studies in the WOCAT—World Overview of Union, DESIRE works in close collaboration with the WOCAT network. Conservation Approaches and Technologies—format (www.wocat.net). Problems addressed range from wind and water erosion to salinization, Web site: http://www.desire-project.eu, vegetation degradation, competition for access to water, forest fires, and http://www.desire-his.eu L and for Life . AWARENESS CREATION 109 110 UNCCD . World Bank Story Israel ISO-Certified Cities in the Negev Desert T he Negev Desert, Israel’s largest land reserve, boasts some of the together industry polluters and community for constructive dialogue. The country’s largest nature reserves and national parks, but this desert outcome was an upgrade in environmental standards and industry taking is also used by its chemical industry for quarrying, mining, and responsibility for the surrounding communities. Today, Israel has nine such agriculture. In the mid-1990s, Israel set up two industrial municipalities, one active forums, with 12 factories in the Negev region. of which is the Romat Hovav Industrial Park, situated 12 kilometers south of Beer-Sheva. It has 21 chemical factories spread over 6,000 acres. All of In 2005, the Sustainable Development for the Negev initiated a the factories deal with the treatment of hazardous waste, air pollution, comprehensive environmental empowerment program in Dimona, a chemical waste, and chemical sewage. Over 400 acres at Romat Hovav development town with 40,000 people. Its pursuit of the sustainable Bilha Givon Industrial Park serve as evaporation pools. The resultant air pollution settlement concept earned it International Organization for Standardization and chemical leaching into the soil and water have earned the region (ISO) 14001 certification, which is recognition as one of the country’s most polluted and polluting sites. audited every year. It is the first settlement in Israel to earn this Thus, the region is vulnerable to land degradation and environmental title. hazards with impacts on groundwater, air quality, and public health. The chemical waste has a direct impact on the health and well-being of some These and other initiatives 400,000 residents in North and Central Negev, of which over 230,000 live have been replicated in other within a 20 kilometer radius of the area. This is one of Israel’s peripheral settlements such as Beer-Sheva, zones, not just due to the significant environmental problems caused by with 200,000 people, Ofakim, and unsustainable planning, but also because it is populated by economically Kiryat Gat and Kiryat Malachi, marginalized groups like the Bedouin. and also with six Bedouin cities: Raat, Kseifa, Arara, Hora, Segev To promote sustainability in the area, Bilha Givon, without government Shalom, and Tel Sheva. help or affiliation to a national body, set up Sustainable Development for the Negev in 1998. She has dedicated her career to engaging communities Web site: http://www.negev. in environmental awareness, protection, and restoration. In 2003, she org.il created environmental responsibility forums that, for the first time, brought L and for Life . AWARENESS CREATION 111 112 UNCCD . World Bank Endnotes 1. World Bank (2011). The Changing Wealth of Nations: Measuring Sustainable 12. See http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/beyond2015-news.shtml for more Development for the New Millennium. details regarding the post-2015 development agenda. 2. Narayan et al. (2000) Voices of the Poor: Crying Out for Change. New York, 13. Molnar, A., S. Scherr, and A. Khare. 2004. “Who Conserves the World’s Forests: Published for the World Bank by Oxford University Press. Community Driven Strategies to Protect Forests and Respect Rights.” Forest Trends and Ecoagriculture Partners, Washington, DC. 3. Poverty is mainly viewed as a lack of access to resources and opportunities, but Murphy, P., and A. Lugo. 1986. “Ecology of Tropical Dry Forest.” Annual Review it also has other dimensions including deprivations in key aspects of human well- of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 17:67–88. being such as health, and education and the millennium development goals as well as the Human Development Index attempt to capture these broader 14. White, A., A. Molnar, and A. Khare. 2004. “Who Owns, Who Conserves, and Why elements. Definitions of poverty vary and continue to be widely debated. It Matters.” August, Forest Trends Association, Washington, DC. Differences persist on the appropriate concept of poverty, how it is measured and 15. Grunzweig, J. M., T. Lin, E. Rotenberg, A. Schwartz, and D. Yakir. 2003. “Carbon how given measures are to be interpreted. It is not the intent of this short note to Sequestration in Arid-Land Forest.” Global Change Biology 9: 791–99. revisit these issues. Whatever definition is used there is no denying that much of poverty is rural and especially deep in arid biomes of developing countries. 16. Glenn, E., V. Squires, M. Olsen, and R. Frye. 1993. “Potential for Carbon Sequestration in Drylands.” Water Air Soil Pollution 70: 341–55. 4. See UNDP (2010) Human Development Report, for more details regarding the Multidimensional Poverty Index launched in 2010. 17. D. B. Lobell, M. B. Burke, C. Tebaldi, M. D. Mastrandrea, W. P. Falcon, and R. L. Naylor, “Prioritizing Climate Change Adaptation Needs for Food Security in 5. Landholdings vary widely across drylands. In South Asia landholdings are small 2030,” Science 319 (5863): 607–10 (2008). and of limited productive potential. This is among the root causes of poverty in these biomes. Elsewhere, livelihoods are determined by pastoralism—though 18. TerrAfrica is an African-led program that addresses land degradation in Africa the low productivity of the land remains a development constraint. by scaling up harmonized support for effective, country-driven sustainable land and water management practices. Partners include 23 Sub-Saharan countries, 6. World Bank (2012) Turn Down The Heat: Why A 4°C Warmer World Should Be the African Union, regional economic communities, United Nations bodies, Avoided. and international organizations such as the World Bank, the European Union, 7. UNCCD-UNDP (2011) The Forgotten Billion. MDG Achievement in the Drylands. bilaterals, and civil society. Partners collaborate on knowledge dissemination, coalition building, and scaling investments. 8. See the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment for more detailed information on the world’s drylands. 19. Many Heavens, One Earth, Our Continent: African Faith Commitments for a Living Planet. 9. UNDP (2013) Human Development Report. 20. Desire for Greener Land: Options for Sustainable Land Management in Drylands 10. See http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/poverty.shtml for more detailed (2012). progress updates on MDG1. 11. UNDP (2011) Human Development Report. L and for Life . AWARENESS CREATION 113 Web Sites and Addresses “Conservation Efforts for Commu- “Elmer Sayre nity Development (CECOD-FEE), http://mindaterrapretabiochar. The Wand Foundation, Lubluban, http://www.cecodug.org/ UGANDA Plot 1305 Najeera, Kampala blogspot.de/ Libertad,Cagayan di Oro, Uganda” Misamis, Oriental 9021 Philippines” “Institute of Botany and Phytoin- troduction , 36-D Timiryazev Str. “Head R & D Almaty 050040 Abellon CleanEnergy Limited Kazakhstan” http://www.abelloncleanenergy. Sydney House, Premchand Nagar Forestry and Environmental Pro- com/ Road, tection Bureau of Qinghai Prov- Bodakdev, Ahmedabad-380054, cciccd@forestry.gov.cn, quhai- ince Shunliang, No.18 Hepingli India” hua9@sina.com DongJie, Dongcheng District, Beijing, 100714, CHINA “Consejo Civil Mexicano para la “TEMA, Silvicultura Sostenible (CCMSS), Çayır Çimen Sokak Emlak Kredi http://www.ccmss.org.mx/ Mexico, Miguel Angel de http://english.tema.org.tr/ Blokları A-2 Blok Kat:2 Daire:8 Quevedo 103 34330, Levent-İstanbul, TURKEY” Chimalistac, Álvaro Obregón, “Foundation for Ecological Secu- 01070 Distrito Federal, México “ rity (FES) A-1 Madhuram Park, Near Sri- “DeCo! - NGO Ltd. by guarantee http://fes.org.in/ nathji Society http://www.deco-farming.com/ P.O. Box TL 1634 Ganesh Crossing, Anand-388001 Gujarat, India” Tamale N.R., Ghana” “The Savory Institute, Zimbabwe “DESIRE http://holisticmanagement.org/ 5941 Jefferson St. NE, Suite B Alterra, P.O. Box 47 Albuquerque, NM 87109 http://www.desire-project.eu Droevendaalsesteeg 3 United States” 6700 AA Wageningen Netherlands” 114 UNCCD . World Bank “Excellent Development, Studio “Wildlife Works http://www.excellentdevelop- 59, The Market Building, 195 High http://www.wildlifeworks.com/ 242 Redwood Highway - Frontage ment.com/home Street, index.php Road Brentford, TW8 8LB, United Mill Valley, CA 94941, USA” Kingdom” “Biovision Foundation Future Forest, Kwon Byong Hyon, Stiftung für ökologische http://www.futureforest.org/ Hyundai Plaza #201 Muak-dong www.biovision.ch Entwicklung, 82, Jongro-gu, Seoul, South Schaffhauserstr. 18, 8006 Zürich, Korea, 110-080 Switzerland” “Sustainable Development for the Chifeng City, No.18 Hepingli Negev www.cfly.gov.cn DongJie, Dongcheng District, http://www.negev.org.il/ Dafna 4 Beijing, 100714, CHINA Omer 84965 Israel” Conservation International, Jl. www.conservation.org Pejaten Barat No.16A, Kemang, “SOIL Jakarta, 12250, West Java, http://www.oursoil.org/ #4 Impasse Chandou, Delmas 33 INDONESIA Port-au-Prince, Haiti” EcoAgriculture Partners, http://www.royalbotanicgarden. “Jordan Royal Botanic, PO Box www.ecoagriculture.org 1100 17th St NW, Suite 600, org/page/community-based- 99, Amman 11910, Jordan Washington, DC 20036, USA rangeland-rehabilitation “ FADE Africa, 175 Akin Adesola “Institute of Botany, the Chinese www.fadeafrica.org/ Street. Victoria Island. Lagos, Academy of Sciences Nigeria http://www.scidev.net/en/fea- Room 312, Ecology building, tures/getting-to-the-root-of-killer- Institute of Botany,Nanxincun 20, Federazione Italiani Dottori dust-storms.html Xiangshan www.fidaf.it in Agraria e Forestali (FIDAF) Beijing 100093, China President Luigi Rossi, Via Livenza “ 6, Rome, 00198, ITALY L and for Life . AWARENESS CREATION 115 “GADE Argentina, Pedro Únzaga “The RAE Trust www.gade.org.ar Sur 21 www.reatrust.org P.O. Box 1051 Santiago del Estero Nakuru, Kenya” Argentina G4200BBA” World Vision Australia, GPO Box “Liga para a Protecção da www.worldvision.com.au 399, Melbourne, Victoria, 3001 Natureza (LPN) Australia www.lpn.pt Portugal Estrada do Calhariz de Benfica, 187, 1500-124 Lisboa, Portugal” 116 UNCCD . World Bank Land for Life Managing Land Sustainably for Better Livelihoods XXXXXX 1400506