Regenerating Degraded Agricultural
Ecosystems
(RDE)
ECOSYSTEM BASED APPROACHES
TO COMBAT LAND DEGRADATION
September 2014 Update
RDE ASPIRATIONS
By 2025
Benefit 2 million
farmers half women
Slow degradation by
50% on 5 million
hectares
RDE Theory of Change
FAO GSP
RDE & WLE GOALS
OUTCOME
SDG’s
ACTOR
ACTIVITY
Investment
planning &
implementing
program planners and
implementers, NGO’s,
government at district
and higher scales.
IPBES
UNCCD
3.2
Analysis Tools
Capacity
FutureEarth
Adoption of
Improved
practices
communities and local
implementers, NGO’s,
investors and
government extension
3.1
Proof of
Concept EbA
Public and
Private
Investment
higher level government
(agricultural and planning
ministries) and public &
private entities
3.3
Economics
and Incentives
20by20
ELD
RDE 3.1 Landscape restoration and its impacts
Transdisciplinary Approaches & Indirect Drivers
• Evaluate impact of degradation of
ES on human well being
• Identify (indirect) drivers of
degradation
• Map and quantify ES
• Pilot ecosystem based
interventions
• Monitor impact
communities and local
implementers, NGO’s,
investors and
government extension
Adoption of practices, proof of
concept appreciated
RDE 3.2 ES Ass’t, tradeoffs, equitable planning
Capacity building
• Use, improve, adapt existing
models, InVEST, RIOS, SWAT,
DSSAT, APSIM
• Use, improve, adapt social and
participatory approaches for
understanding gendered social
landscapes
• Capacity building
program planners and
implementers, NGO’s,
government at district
and higher scales.
Awareness of tradeoffs and equity
in planning
RDE 3.3 Economic Solutions and Incentives
Bringing ELD to the farm level
higher level government
(agricultural and planning
ministries) and public &
private entities
Increased and targeted Investment
RDE Ecosystem Services
Mainstreaming WLE ESR Framework
ES related to:
 Soil and Land
 Water
 Agrobiodiversity
Food
Ecosystem based income
opportunities
Energy
Hydrologic cycle
Climate resilience
Soil retention
Nutrient cycling
Pollination
Pest and Disease control
Salinity control
Forest and biodiversity
Agro- & landscape diversity loss
ES threatened: Food, Climate Resilience,
RAINFED, IRRIGATED, PASTORAL Pest and Disease Resistance
RDE LANDSCAPES
Soil erosion, nutrient depletion, forest loss, pasture loss
ES threatened: Food, Energy, Clean Water, Nutrient
Cycling, Hydrologic Cycle, Climate Resilience
Salinization
ES threatened: Food,
Clean Water
RDE Impact narrative
Agrobiodiversity Conservation in Cuba
OUTCOME
ACTOR
ACTIVITY
National policy
on family farms,
protected areas
GO Centro Nacional de
Areas Protegidas
Agro-biodiversity
assessment
methods for national
plans on protected
areas
100,000
households
communities and local
NGO – Diversity &
Development
Agro-ecological
Family Farms in
MaB Buffer
Zones
Biosphere
reserves in 170
Countries
Public
Investment in
value adding
strategy
Ministries
MINTUR, MINAG,
CITMA
Farmer Driven
certification schemes for
sustainable products
RDE 2014 Tools, Datasets, Models

Land Use Land Cover Change (LULCC) datasets
•
•

RS/GIS databases for salinity management
•
•



Tanzania, Ghana, Malawi
For gender based targeting of interventions
Decision support tools and data for agro-biodiversity related ES
•


Nile Delta, Central Asia and Mesopotamia
To develop Salinity Management Frameworks
Integrated Social-Ecological Landscaping
•
•

Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Ghana, Honduras and El Salvador
For Ecosystem Services mapping and modeling, determining trajectories of
change, scenario building, SWAT, InVEST, Rios modeling
Nepal, Sri Lanka, Cuba
Yield datasets and modeling, DSSAT & Soil
SAGCOT integrated datasets, soils, pop., LULC, Critical conservation
areas, agricultural potential
Land Degradation Assessment
ELD Operational Framework & Africa Hub
UPPER TANA, KENYA
 Upland degradation, food
insecurity, poverty
WLE/CIAT supplies evidence
for payment for ecosystem
services to TNC Water Fund, a
public private partnership, first
in Africa!
 Downstream
hydropower, water
supplies threatened
 90% of Nairobi’s water
 70% Kenya’s
hydropower
 On what basis can
investments be made
that benefit upstream
and downstream ?
tea, vegetables and
grassland to cereals
Land Use
Dynamics
2001-2013
 Cereals (maize)
biggest gains
cereals and forest to tea
and coffee
agriculture to forest
 Forest and
grassland biggest
loses
 Within agricultural
areas experiencing
the most dynamic
change
Average Sediment Yield (T/ha)
Many Sediment Sources in Landscapes
Quarries
No Quarries
26% more sediment
Nyeri watershed
Climate Change Futures?
MAIZE
BEAN
COFFEE
TEA
Suitability Increased for
maize and beans in existing tea zones
coffee in some existing tea zones
tea in existing coffee and forest zones
Combined current trends and future suitability to develop future
scenarios and resulting sediment loads
Plausible Scenarios
Starbucks
Food Security
Queen’s
60% tea
coffee
60% tea
annual crops
40% annual crops
tea
Change in Sediment Yield (%)
40
30
20
10
Nyeri
Thika
0
Starbucks
-10
-20
-30
Food Security
Queen's
RDE OUTCOME 2014
Africa’s First Water Fund, Kenya
 Public Private partnership (TNC, Kenya
Breweries, KenGen and others) agreed to
create a legal entity (charity) with 10M
endowment to support farmers upstream
in protection of soil and water



Situation: Water towers of East Africa are degraded,
deforestation, soil erosion, quarrying, siltation
Research: LULCC, SWAT modeling, quantifying impacts
of practice, targeting interventions; monitoring systems
design and implementation, capacity building
Future: Monies will flow upstream to farmers for
sustainable land management
RDE OUTCOME 2014
Balanced nutrient management adopted in India
 Karnataka State government has invested in the
‘balanced nutrient management’ approach to restore
degraded soils, now in all 30 districts, 3.72M ha, crop
productivity increased 22 – 66%. Andhra Pradesh and 4
provinces in the Philippines also adopted



Situation: Soils degraded, low productivity, blanket fertilizer
recommendations
Research: Soil testing, demonstrations of site specific recommendations for
balanced nutrient management, especially micronutrients, and other inputs
Future: Government of India considering to adopt throughout the country
RDE OUTCOME 2014
Farmer driven amelioration of salinity in Central Asia
 Investors constructed a factory in the Syrdarya province
to process 9,000 t/ha of Licorice root per year into
extract. Factory rented 500 ha of abandoned land and
contracted farmers to cultivate Licorice



Situation: Half the irrigated lands in Central Asia are salt-affected, and
much land now abandoned
Research: Farmer alliance using licorice to ameliorate salinity, impact
documented and communicated
Future: This example brought attention of the World Bank (WB), that now
recommends Licorice to improve productivity of degraded land in the area
surrounding the Aral Sea. The Government of Uzbekistan keen to release
up to 10,000 ha of low productive land for adopting WB recommendations.
The Future of Agriculture?
Photo Neil Palmer
 “Farming Systems Ecology: Towards
ecological intensification of world agriculture”
Tittonell 2013
 “Harnessing ecosystem-based approaches
for food security and adaptation to climate
change in Africa” UNEP, 2013
 Water, Land and Ecosystem Research
Program of the CGIAR “agricultural
development through healthy functioning
ecosystems” (wle.cgiar.org;
wle.cgiar.org/blogs)
A question: If an ecosystem based approach was taken, how might
that alter intensification trajectories and entry points?