Research And Development For Sustainable Management Of Semi Arid Miombo Woodlands In East Africa

Climate change, demand for development and already deteriorating state of ecosystems produce an immediate need for innovative opportunities enabling development and human well-being without undermining ecosystem services. Rainwater harvesting creates synergies by upgrading rainfed agriculture and enhancing productive landscapes. The publication describes rainwater harvesting systems, their roles and impacts. It focuses to both negative and positive aspects of using technology and explains how we can decrease constraints and build upon benefits. It examines 29 cases of different economic activities including forestry, agriculture, watershed development and, rural and urban development.

Miombo woodlands and their use: overview and key issues. The ecology of miombo woodlands. Population biology of miombo tree. Miombo woodlands in the wider context: macro-economic and inter-sectoral influences. Rural households and miombo woodlands: use, value and management. Trade in woodland products from the miombo region. Managing miombo woodland. Institutional arrangements governing the use and the management of miombo woodlands. Miombo woodlands and rural livelihoods: options and opportunities.

This study explores policies, incentives and options for the rural poor who depend on the miombo woodlands of Southern Africa. Because of the important role of forests as social safety nets, planners must keep in mind the cost of deforestation and degradation to rural populations.

The dry forests and woodlands of Sub-Saharan Africa are major ecosystems, with a broad range of strong economic and cultural incentives for keeping them intact. However, few people are aware of their importance, compared to tropical rainforests, despite them being home to more than half of the continent's population. This unique book brings together scientific knowledge on this topic from East, West, and Southern Africa and describes the relationships between forests, woodlands, people and their livelihoods. Dry forest is defined as vegetation dominated by woody plants, primarily trees, the canopy of which covers more than 10 per cent of the ground surface, occurring in climates with a dry season of three months or more. This broad definition - wider than those used by many authors - incorporates vegetation types commonly termed woodland, shrubland, thicket, savanna, wooded grassland, as well as dry forest in its strict sense. The book provides a comparative analysis of management experiences from the different geographic regions, emphasizing the need to balance the utilization of dry forests and woodland products between current and future human needs. Further, the book explores the techniques and strategies that can be deployed to improve the management of African dry forests and woodlands for the benefit of all, but more importantly, the communities that live off these vegetation formations. Thus, the book lays a foundation for improving the management of dry forests and woodlands for the wide range of products and services they provide.

This publication focuses on the links between food security, nutrition and wood energy in the Miombo woodlands, one of the most important forest ecosystems in southern Africa. Miombo woodland is a key dryland forest ecosystem stretching across southern Africa (Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique,Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe). The woodlands are considered one of the most globally important biodiversity hotspots. They sustain the livelihoods of close to 100 million rural poor through the provision of wood energy, food and nutrition. Miombo woodlands are increasingly under threat from a growing population, expansion of agricultural land, overuse of forest resources and unsustainable management. With the impacts of climate change already contributing to rising food insecurity in many parts of the world and with growing biodiversity loss, bringing the Miombo countries together to share best practices towards addressing common challenges facing the woodlands is vital.

This 35-chapter book is based on several oral and poster presentations including both invited and contributory chapters. The book is thematically based on four pillars of sustainability, with focus on sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): Environment, Economic, Social and Institutional. The environmental sustainability, which determines economic and social/institutional sustainability, refers to the rate of use of natural resources (soil, water, landscape, vegetation) which can be continued indefinitely without degrading their quality, productivity and ecosystem services for different ecoregions of SSA. This book will help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of the U.N. in SSA. Therefore, the book is of interest to agriculturalists, economists, social scientists, policy makers, extension agents, and development/bilateral organizations. Basic principles explained in the book can be pertinent to all development organizations.

Sustainability rests on the principle that we must meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Starving people in poor nations, obesity in rich nations, increasing food prices, on-going climate changes, increasing fuel and transportation costs, flaws of the global market, worldwide pesticide pollution, pest adaptation and resistance, loss of soil fertility and organic carbon, soil erosion, decreasing biodiversity, desertification, and so on. Despite unprecedented advances in sciences allowing to visit planets and disclose subatomic particles, serious terrestrial issues about food show clearly that conventional agriculture is not suited any longer to feed humans and to preserve ecosystems. Sustainable agriculture is an alternative for solving fundamental and applied issues related to food production in an ecological way. While conventional agriculture is driven almost solely by productivity and profit, sustainable agriculture integrates biological, chemical, physical, ecological, economic and social sciences in a comprehensive way to develop new farming practices that are safe and do not degrade our environment. In that respect, sustainable agriculture is not a classical and narrow science. Instead of solving problems using the classical painkiller approach that treats only negative impacts, sustainable agriculture treats problem sources. As most actual society issues are now intertwined, global, and fast-developing, sustainable agriculture will bring solutions to build a safer world. This book gathers review articles that analyze current agricultural issues and knowledge, then propose alternative solutions. It will therefore help all scientists, decision-makers, professors, farmers and politicians who wish to build a safe agriculture, energy and food system for future generations.