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Collective potato harvest in Senegal.
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Credit: Camille Jahel
In rural Africa, where livelihoods are often tied directly to the land, environmental degradation poses a significant threat to both ecosystems and people’s well-being. New research reveals ways to tackle the dual challenges of land degradation and poverty.
In rural Africa, where livelihoods are often tied directly to the land, environmental degradation poses a significant threat to both ecosystems and people’s well-being. A new study co-authored by researchers from Stanford University and the French Center for International Research in Agriculture and Development (CIRAD) analyzes how different communities in Africa have attempted to reverse this trend, and what has worked. It provides valuable insight into how things are going. The study, published October 30 in the journal Sustainability Science, highlights that long-term collaboration between communities, governments and organizations is essential to accelerate the transition to sustainability. are.
“Every place is different and a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to environmental policy should be avoided, but we also need to learn from past experience to identify conditions that lead to success in reversing environmental degradation,” study co-authors said. said Eric Rambin. , a specially appointed professor at the Stanford Doerr Graduate School of Sustainability, George and Setsuko Ishiyama, and a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.
reverse the decline
For decades, many African communities have faced the dual challenge of addressing environmental degradation while improving people’s lives. As land becomes less productive due to reduced soil fertilization, deforestation and climate change, pressures on these communities intensify. Lambin and CIRAD study co-author Camille Jahel said that in many cases, this situation is closely tied to a history of colonialism in which authorities denied people’s rights to natural resources and broadcast stories of overexploitation of natural resources. Point out that they are connected. This has led to top-down remediation efforts, often with limited success, according to the researchers.
Recently, new efforts have been made in many sectors to reverse these negative trends, often with the support of governments, NGOs, or international organizations. However, results have been mixed, with some efforts leading to significant improvements and others falling short.
After examining 17 case studies representing a variety of efforts to reverse land degradation in 13 African countries, researchers found that successful interventions typically had several key characteristics in common. did. First and foremost, they often involve strong social arrangements between actors, supported by well-functioning institutions. In cases like the Shinyanga region of Tanzania, where 90% of the population participates in tree-planting activities, the results are impressive. Between 300,000 and 500,000 hectares, or approximately 1,100 to 1,900 square miles, of forest were restored in the region, improving livelihoods through the provision of resources such as fuel wood.
Another important element is the alignment of incentives and environmental goals. In Burkina Faso, for example, farmers began planting cashew trees in search of an opportunity to sell their produce on international markets. This not only provided a new source of income, but also helped fight desertification by planting more trees. These examples highlight the importance of ensuring that environmental restoration efforts also address the economic and social needs of local communities.
“Although most of the incentives were of an economic nature, some were related to security of access to land and improved provision of ecosystem services once natural resources have been restored,” CIRAD researchers Jahel said. During his research, Jahel received funding from the Stanford France-Stanford Center for Interdisciplinary Research for a joint research project with the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.
Supporting recovery
In addition to local coalitions, this study highlights the importance of external support, especially in the form of resources and technical assistance. In many success stories, such as Niger and Burkina Faso, NGOs and government agencies provided the tools, knowledge, and financial support needed to get projects off the ground. This external support is often essential in the early stages of an intervention and reduces the risks associated with introducing new practices in the context of resource scarcity and climate change.
However, the study also cautions that external support must be carefully managed. In some cases, top-down approaches that did not fully involve local communities led to limited success or even failure. For example, in Zambia’s Kafue Plains, interventions aimed at restoring wildlife populations ultimately failed, in part because new governance structures imposed by external actors were not accepted by local communities. Ta. This highlights the need for external agencies to work closely with local stakeholders and respect existing social and governance systems.
Lambin and Jahel emphasize the need to maintain momentum over the long term. Some of the interventions they studied had good results initially, but as external funding dried up and local interest waned, results waned. The researchers highlight the importance of building long-term resilience into these projects, allowing local communities to continue managing and maintaining improvements without ongoing external support. In Namibia, for example, some local organizations for wildlife management, known as conservation groups, are now making enough profits to sustain their operations in the long term.
This study provides general lessons learned from past experiences in Africa to improve the design, management and monitoring of projects aimed at reversing land degradation and introducing sustainable land use practices. Helpful.
“It is possible to reverse the trend of environmental degradation,” Lambin said. “The key is to create long-term interventions that are locally driven (and) integrate poverty-related concerns, supported by strong governance structures and based on stakeholder collaboration.”
journal
sustainability science
Article title
Reversing the degradation of social-ecological systems: explaining the outcomes of interventions in Africa
Article publication date
October 30, 2024
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