Vast areas of degraded land have proliferated worldwide. In response to this transformation, ambitious targets have been set to restore degraded ecosystems, such as the the Bonn Challenge, which aims to restore 350 million ha of forestland by 2030. Achieving such goals will require a larger evidence base of restoration studies, which could be realized by systematically embedding scientific experiments within restoration programs. We examine the feasibility of this strategy with examples of successful transdisciplinary research involving embedded experiments in associated fields, and recommend that such field sites be linked to create a global network of embedded experiments. To unify a networked approach, we call on restoration stakeholders to develop acceptable industry standards of experimental design. Finally, we suggest how to use this strategy effectively to meet the biome‐scale challenges of the coming decades.
Tag: degraded land
Communities of Practice: Creating and Sharing Knowledge
The Communities of Practice aim to foster relationships, develop learning situated in practice, and create and share new knowledge to restore degraded land. The goal of the project is to reduce food insecurity and improve livelihoods by restoring degraded land and returning it to effective and sustainable tree, crop and livestock production.
Restoration of Degraded Lands in Mali: a review on lessons learnt and opportunities for scaling. Workshop Report
LivestockPlus: The sustainable intensification of forage-based agricultural systems to improve livelihoods and ecosystem services in the tropics
As global demand for livestock products (such as meat, milk and eggs) is expected to double by 2050, necessary increases to future production must be reconciled with negative environmental impacts that livestock cause. This paper describes the Livestock Plus concept and demonstrates how the sowing of improved forages can lead to the sustainable intensification of mixed crop-forage-livestock-tree systems in the tropics by producing multiple social, economic and environmental benefits. Sustainable intensification not only improves the productivity of tropical forage-based systems but also reduces the ecological footprint of livestock production and generatesa diversity of ecosystem services (ES) such as improved soil quality and reduced erosion, sedimentation and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Integrating improved grass and legume forages into mixed production systems (crop-livestock, tree-livestock, crop-tree-livestock) can restore degraded lands and enhance system resilience to drought and waterlogging associated with climate change. When properly managed tropical forages accumulate large amounts of carbon in soil, fix atmospheric nitrogen (legumes), inhibit nitrification in soil and reduce nitrous oxide emissions (grasses), and reduce GHG emissions per unit livestock product. The LivestockPlus concept is defined as the sustainable intensification of forage-based systems, which is based on 3 interrelated intensification processes: genetic intensification-the development and use of superior grass and legume cultivars for increased livestock productivity;ecological intensification-the development and application of improved farm and natural resource management practices; and socio-economic intensification-the improvement of local and national institutions and policies,which enable refinements of technologies and support their enduring use. Increases in livestock productivity will require coordinated efforts to develop supportive government, non-government organization and private sector policies that foster investments and fair market compensation for both the products and ES provided . Effective research-for-development efforts that promoteagricultural and environmental benefits of forage-based systems can contribute towards implemention ofLivestockPlus across a variety of geographic, political and socio-economic contexts.
LivestockPlus – The sustainable intensification of forage-based agricultural systems to improve livelihoods and ecosystem services in the tropics
As global demand for livestock products (such as meat, milk and eggs) is expected to double by 2050, necessary increases to future production must be reconciled with negative environmental impacts that livestock cause. This paper describes the LivestockPlus concept and demonstrates how the sowing of improved forages can lead to the sustainable intensification of mixed crop-forage-livestock-tree systems in the tropics by producing multiple social, economic and environmental benefits. Sustainable intensification not only improves the productivity of tropical forage-based systems but also reduces the ecological footprint of livestock production and generates a diversity of ecosystem services (ES) such as improved soil quality and reduced erosion, sedimentation and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Integrating improved grass and legume forages into mixed production systems (crop-livestock, tree-livestock, crop-tree-livestock) can restore degraded lands and enhance system resilience to drought and waterlogging associated with climate change. When properly managed tropical forages accumulate large amounts of carbon in soil, fix atmospheric nitrogen (legumes), inhibit nitrification in soil and reduce nitrous oxide emissions (grasses), and reduce GHG emissions per unit livestock product.The LivestockPlus concept is defined as the sustainable intensification of forage-based systems, which is based on 3 interrelated intensification processes: genetic intensification – the development and use of superior grass and legume cultivars for increased livestock productivity; ecological intensification – the development and application of improved farm and natural resource management practices; and socio-economic intensification – the improvement of local and national institutions and policies, which enable refinements of technologies and support their enduring use. Increases in livestock productivity will require coordinated efforts to develop supportive government, non-government organization and private sector policies that foster investments and fair market compensation for both the products and ES provided. Effective research-for-development efforts that promote agricultural and environmental benefits of foragebased systems can contribute towards implemention of LivestockPlus across a variety of geographic, political and socio-economic contexts.
Ground- and satellite-based evidence of the biophysical mechanisms behind the greening Sahel
After a dry period with prolonged droughts in the 1970s and 1980s, recent scientific outcome suggests that the decades of abnormally dry conditions in the Sahel have been reversed by positive anomalies in rainfall. Various remote sensing studies observed a positive trend in vegetation greenness over the last decades which is known as the re-greening of the Sahel. However, little investment has been made in including long-term ground-based data collections to evaluate and better understand the biophysical mechanisms behind these findings. Thus, deductions on a possible increment in biomass remain speculative. Our aim is to bridge these gaps and give specifics on the biophysical background factors of the re-greening Sahel. Therefore, a trend analysis was applied on long time series (1987–2013) of satellite-based vegetation and rainfall data, as well as on ground-observations of leaf biomass of woody species, herb biomass, and woody species abundance in different ecosystems located in the Sahel zone of Senegal. We found that the positive trend observed in satellite vegetation time series (+36%) is caused by an increment of in situ measured biomass (+34%), which is highly controlled by precipitation (+40%). Whereas herb biomass shows large inter-annual fluctuations rather than a clear trend, leaf biomass of woody species has doubled within 27 years (+103%). This increase in woody biomass did not reflect on biodiversity with 11 of 16 woody species declining in abundance over the period. We conclude that the observed greening in the Senegalese Sahel is primarily related to an increasing tree cover that caused satellite-driven vegetation indices to increase with rainfall reversal
Field visit to Yatta, Machakos – January 17th, 2017
Restoration of degraded land for food security and poverty reduction in East Africa and the Sahel: taking successes in land restoration to scale
Project goal is to reduce food insecurity and improve livelihoods of poor people living in African drylands by restoring degraded land and returning it to effective and sustainable tree, crop and livestock production, thereby increasing land profitability as well as landscape and livelihood resilience.
Restoration of Degraded Lands in West Africa Sahel: Review of experiences in Burkina Faso and Niger
Summary of stakeholder and cross sectoral engagement process, with Makueni County Government and partners to co-design interaction with socio-ecological evidence for targeting land restoration investments
Land restoration and avoiding further degradation are key pathways to achieving food security and exiting poverty for some of the most vulnerable people living in Africa’s drylands. Achieving the UN’s SDGs requires that successful restoration efforts reach larger numbers of farmers and hectares over the coming decade.