Informing Future Interventions For Scaling Up Sustainable Land Management

The review was conducted with the aim to provide guidance for future engagement/investments, in particular in the context of recent AU declarations on agriculture and on land restoration by NEPAD, GEF, TerrAfrica, the Great Green Wall Initiative for the Sahel and Sahara (GGWISS), UN agencies and other donors. This paper provides an abridged summary of the findings for easier access by country policy / decision makers, agencies, development partners and donors, as a basis for informing future interventions for scaling-up sustainable land management (SLM).

This book compiles a set of 26 papers that present the direct, practical experiences and results of a large number of local practitioners and experts that supported the Transboundary agro-ecosystem management project of the Kagera river basin (Kagera TAMP) during the period 2010-2015. The book has been compiled by the Land and Water Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to reflect the wide range of experiences, approaches and tools that were used for promoting participatory diagnostics, adaptive management and adoption of sustainable land and agro-ecosystem management (SLaM) practices from farm to watershed / landscape scale. The project was supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Governments of the four countries that share the transboundary basin - Burundi, Rwanda, the United Republic of Tanzania and Uganda and project partners. It is hoped that the lessons learned are considered and taken up by the Governments and the TerrAfrica partnership for scaling up and mainstreaming SLaM as part of the wider set of lessons learned from the 36 projects in 26 countries under the Terrafrica Strategic Investment programme, including Kagera TAMP.

This book presents an important discussion on land tenure rights for the effective implementation of sustainable soil management provisions. It investigates a variety of aspects, such as the clash of modern and traditional tenure concepts, forms of illegal or illegitimate land acquisition, and the preconditions for legal and legitimate investments. In addition, the book analyses the challenges to ensuring secure land tenure rights in Africa and in Germany. Lastly, it provides information on the role of women in this context. This fifth volume of the International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy is divided into four parts, the first of which deals with various aspects of the theme “Land Tenure Rights and Sustainable Soil Management”. The second part covers recent international developments, the third part presents regional and national reports, and the fourth discusses overarching issues. Given the range of key topics covered, the book offers an indispensable tool for all academics, legislators and policymakers working in this field. The “International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy” series discusses central questions in law and politics with regard to the protection and sustainable management of soil and land – at the international, national, and regional level.

The aim of this report is to define the strategy for the Science and Policy Interface under Component 1 of the Resilient Food Systems Programme (RFS) Hub. Under this component, FAO and UN-Environment Programme, in partnership with RFS country projects and a range of other actors and platforms and institutions in sub-Saharan Africa, aim to address institutional and policy barriers to inclusion of ecosystem services-aware approaches into policies and investments for improved and sustainable smallholder agriculture and natural resources. The focus of this component is the facilitation of dialogue, models, policies, and institutions that bridge the agricultural and environmental agendas and constituencies, at various scales.

Satisfying the changing food habits and increased demand for food intensifies pressure on the world’s water, land and soil resources. However, agriculture bears great promise to alleviate these pressures and provide multiple opportunities to contribute to global goals. Sustainable agricultural practices lead to water saving, soil conservation, sustainable land management, conservation of natural resources, ecosystem and climate change benefits. Accomplishing this requires accurate information and a major change in how we manage these resources. It also requires complementing efforts from outside the natural resources management domain to maximize synergies and manage trade-offs. The objective of SOLAW 2021 is to build awareness of the status of land and water resources, highlighting the risks, and informing on related opportunities and challenges, also underlining the essential contribution of appropriate policies, institutions and investments. Recent assessments, projections and scenarios from the international community show the continued and increasing depletion of land and water resources, loss of biodiversity, associated degradation and pollution, and scarcity in the primary natural resources. SOLAW 2021 highlights the major risks and trends related to land and water and presents means of resolving competition among users and generating multiple benefits for people and the environment. The DPSIR framework was followed in order to identify the Drivers, Pressures, Status, Impact and Responses. SOLAW 2021 provides an update of the knowledge base and presents a suite of responses and actions to inform decision-makers in the public, private, and civil sectors for a transformation from degradation and vulnerability toward sustainability and resilience.

Achieving the SDG targets requires the coordination of multiple government sectors. This paper is aimed at national and international actors who seek to work across sectors to achieve common development goals. Building on the available literature and on regional country studies, it emphasizes the role of multistakeholder collaboration at local and national levels.

Soil quality is threatened by many human-induced activities, but can also be improved by good land management. In the relatively short history of mankind on earth, the landscape and soils of the world have been drastically modified from their "natural " state. Landscapes altered by man's activities are termed "Anthroscapes" which are inextricably linked to culture and history. The challenges for today's scientists are to devise and implement sustainable land management strategies in order to preserve the land for the benefit of future generations. This book is a valuable compendium of the research experiences so far gained in studies of the context and concept of the "Anthroscape" and highlights the potential future contributions of such research to sustainable development.

This publication is a product of the GEF-funded FAO project ‘Decision Support for Mainstreaming and Scaling Out Sustainable Land Management (DS-SLM)’ which has developed a decision support framework (DSF). The DSF integrates experience from work with land degradation (LD) and SLM into an overall strategy for mainstreaming and scaling out SLM at different spatial and temporal scales. This publication serves as a step-by-step guide for the application and implementation of the DSF during planning, design and implementation of SLM interventions. It includes elements – both in its modules and proposed tools and methods – which can support countries in pursuing land degradation neutrality (LDN).