This information note describes the proposed dynamic system to monitor and track land degradation, land health status and agroforestry systems to allow for evidence based planning and decision making.
Tag: land health
Resilience Diagnostic and Decision Support Tool
Land health surveillance for four sites in Malawi
Land health information across large areas is instrumental in understanding land degradation trends and patterns across the landscape, especially in those areas in Africa which support a growing population dependent on land-based resources. This study was carried out at four sites in Malawi, three containing important agricultural systems and one currently subject to great ecological disturbance. The Land Degradation Surveillance Framework was used to characterize land health and provide information needed to target areas at high risk for land degradation for management practices that provide increased soil cover and increased soil organic matter, so that these soils might become are resilient to environmental stresses. Among the four sites, the one in Ntchisi district (Visa) was the most heavily cultivated, followed by the sites in Kasungu (Kasu) and Salima (Sali) district. The site in Neno district (Mwan) was the least cultivated. The most prevalent HISD was root restriction at the 20-50cm depth, and was most prevalent at Mwan site. Kasu site contained the greatest cultivated area of soils with high inherent soil degradation risk (HISD). Soil analysis from Kasu site showed a deficit in soil organic carbon (SOC) in cultivated fine-textured soils, compared to semi-natural finetextured soils, indicating nutrient mining from cultivation, and also indicating fallowing as a possible solution to the decline in soil fertility. The Mwan site contained the highest proportion of shrubs compared to trees, indicative of high current rates of wood harvesting from the landscape. These areas within these sites and surrounding districts should be targeted for education in soil protection practices appropriate to each farming system, and provision of incentives that bring these practices within reach of the farmers managing the landscape. As Malawi transitions from subsistence agriculture to production to meet the needs of growing urban and industrial populations, care must be taken to protect the health of the land for the benefit of both current and future populations.
Systematic Land and Soil Health Assessment in Solwezi, Zambia: Milestone 3.2
Land health surveillance and response: A framework for evidence-informed land management
Degradation of land health – the capacity of land, relative to its potential, to sustain delivery of ecosystem services – is recognized as a major global problem in general terms, but remains poorly quantified, resulting in a lack of specific evidence to focus action. Land health surveillance and response is designed to overcome limitations of current assessment approaches. It is modelled on science principles and approaches used in surveillance in the public health sector, which has a long history of evidenceinformed policy and practice. Key elements of the science framework are: (i) repeated measurement of land health and associated risk factors using probability based sampling of well defined populations of sample units; (ii) standardized protocols for data collection to enable statistical analysis of patterns, trends, and associations; (iii) case definitions based on specific diagnostic criteria; (iv) rapid low cost screening tests to permit detection of cases and non-cases in large numbers of samples; (v) cost-effectiveness evaluation of interventions based on projected reduction in risks and problem incidence; (vi) design of statistically analysable studies to evaluate interventions in the real-world; (vii) meta-analysis of these data to guide design of public policy and intervention programmes; and (viii) integrating surveillance and the communication and use of results into operational systems as part of regular policy and practice. The scientific rigour of land health surveillance has potential to provide a sound basis for directing and assessing action to combat land degradation. Specialized national surveillance units should be established to harness and realign existing resources to provide integrated national land health systems. An international unit is needed to provide science and technology support to governments and develop standards, whereas an international agency should coordinate land health surveillance globally. Application of the surveillance framework could result in a shift away from a focus on rehabilitation of severely degraded land towards a preventive approach that focuses more on reducing distal risks at national and regional levels.