Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change Adaptation for Small-Scale Land Users in Sub-Saharan Africa
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Problems and Principles: The Need for Climate Change Adaptation and the Role of Sustainable Land Management
2.1. Climate Change, Challenges and Coping Capability
2.2. Adaptation and Resilience: The Ability to Absorb and Bounce Back
- •
- Financial capital:
- ◦
- For example, on-farm income and access to markets.
- •
- Social capital:
- ◦
- For example, equity, inclusiveness, connectivity and social cohesion.
- •
- Human capital:
- ◦
- For example, knowledge management, learning and innovation.
- •
- Physical capital:
- ◦
- For example, labor availability and infrastructure.
- •
- Natural capital:
- ◦
- For example, soils and plant and livestock resources.
2.3. Mitigation and Adaptation: Related, but Different
2.4. Sustainable Land Management: From Soil Conservation to an Environmental, Livelihoods and Climate Change Approach
- The use of land resources, including soils, water, animals and plants for the production of goods to meet changing human needs, while simultaneously ensuring the long-term productive potential of these resources and ensuring their environmental functions [3].
- Systems that aim to tackle three main objectives: sustainably increasing agricultural productivity and incomes; adapting and building resilience to climate change; and reducing and/or removing greenhouse gas emissions, where possible [30].
- The sustainable management, conservation and restoration of ecosystems to provide services that reduce disaster risks by mitigating hazards, and by increasing livelihood resilience [31].
- The use of biodiversity and ecosystem services as part of an overall adaptation strategy. It includes the sustainable management, conservation and restoration of ecosystems to provide services that help people adapt to the adverse effects of climate change [32].
- The process of avoiding, reducing and reversing land degradation to recover the biodiversity and ecosystem services that sustain all life on Earth. Land restoration refers to a regenerative process along a continuum of SLM practices that can be applied to conserve or rewild natural areas, upscale nature-positive food production in rural landscapes and green urban areas, infrastructure and supply chains [33].
- Actions to protect, conserve, restore, sustainably use and manage natural or modified terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems, which address social, economic and environmental challenges effectively and adaptively, while simultaneously providing human well-being, ecosystem services and resilience and biodiversity benefits [34].
- An integration of agroecology and sustainable intensification, with a strategy of creating a soil/ecosystem carbon budget so that the terrestrial carbon stock (soil and vegetation) is restored and on an increasing trend. At its core is the goal of restoring soil organic matter (derived from [2]).
2.5. Sustainable Land Management: How It Works for the Land and the People
3. Practices: Sustainable Land Management Solutions for Climate Change Adaptation
3.1. WOCAT and its SLM Database
3.2. Cropland and Grazing Land in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Analysis
- a.
- Main purpose
- b.
- Response to gradual climate change
- c.
- Source of practice
- d.
- SLM Grouping
3.3. Technology Group Options for Climate Change Adaptation
4. Attributes and Mechanisms: How SLM Confers Climate Change Adaptation
4.1. Aspects of Adaptation: An Analysis
4.2. The Attributes and Mechanisms That Help SLM Achieve Climate Change Adaptation
5. Future Directions
5.1. Scaling-Up of SLM for Adaptation: Delivering on Lessons Learned
- Institutional and legal bottlenecks: lack of institutional support; inappropriate rules and regulations.
- Market and input supplies: inability to access inputs or market produce.
- Insecure right to resources: land users lacking security to land and water, inhibiting investment.
- Top-down approaches: smallholders assumed to be ignorant while they are often skillful innovators.
- Lack of knowledge and/or extension service advice: inability to provide knowledge required.
- Lack of decision support: little or no guidance to smallholders (or advisors) to facilitate choices.
- Short-term projects instead of processes: obsession with short-term assistance and monitoring.
- Inadequate or inappropriate incentives: no incentives where needed, or dependency created.
- Gender insensitivity: a perception that smallholder decision-makers are always men.
- Emphasis on conservation rather than production: “saving the soil” instead of a focus on production.
5.2. International Action on Climate Change Adaptation: Funding and Relevance to Smallholders in SSA
5.3. Five Specific Lines of Action
- i.
- Spread existing, well-known and documented SLM solutions:
- ii.
- Help the development of climate-smart thinking and innovation.
- Awareness of local and/or documented options: pushing back the “soft barrier”.
- Risk-spreading: diversification within the landscape; the farm; the field.
- Recycling and circularity: making full use of by-products and keeping resources within the system—building on “value retention loops”; see [84].
- Opportunism: making tactical and creative use of unexpected events—adding an intercrop (a “relay crop”) when the rains are prolonged, for example.
- Creating synergies: mixing and matching measures for optimum impact.
- Appreciating the power and potential of creating a critical mass of resources: where fertility, water, mulch, labor, etc., are too thinly spread.
- Innovation: being dynamic—constantly testing and trying new ideas: adapting existing, and developing new, coping mechanisms.
- Knowledge seeking and sharing: making full use of traditional market place sharing as well as general advice and information from early warning system (EWS) information through digital devices.
- iii.
- Continue to build a critical mass of knowledge as a basis for decision-making.
- iv.
- Underpin the spread of SLM adaptation solutions with support and scientific back-up.
- v.
- Improve methods to measure climate adaptation and climate resilience.
6. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
1. | CO2-eq = Carbon dioxide equivalent is a measure used to compare GHG emissions on the basis of their global warming potential. Thus, total GHG emissions—including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, etc.—are calculated as carbon dioxide equivalents. |
2. | Soil organic matter (SOM) and soil organic carbon (SOC) are closely related (and often confused). SOM contains approximately 60% carbon and, thus, SOM is most readily calculated by determining the SOC content and multiplying by (approx.) 1.7 [27]. |
3. | Practices under WOCAT include both “technologies” and “approaches”. In this article, the focus is on the analysis of technologies. |
4. | In three cases, both innovation and tradition were given. These are included in the figures above; in 73 cases, innovation alone; in 56 cases, tradition alone. |
5. | From the guidelines in the WOCAT Questionnaire. |
6. | For detail, search name of technology under the WOCAT Database (https://www.wocat.net/en/global-slm-database (accessed on 1 March 2023). |
7. | SLM “measures” are categorized by WOCAT as being agronomic, vegetative, structural or management. |
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SLM Group | Total (Number of Times Cited in the 384 Technologies) | Alone (Number of Times Alone) | Mixed (as % of Total) (Number and Percent of Times Cited Alongside) |
---|---|---|---|
Improved ground/vegetation cover | 97 | 8 | 89 (92%) |
Cross-slope measure | 80 | 41 | 39 (49%) |
Integrated soil fertility management | 61 | 11 | 50 (82%) |
Water harvesting | 51 | 10 | 41(80%) |
Pastoralism and grazing land management | 46 | 15 | 31 (67%) |
Agroforestry | 42 | 5 | 37 (88%) |
SLM Group | Main Purpose | How Well They Coped with Gradual Climate Change (Where Noted) | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Mitigate climate change | Adapt to climate change | Coped well/ very well with change in temperature | Coped well/ very well with change in rainfall | |
Improved ground/vegetation cover | 12% | 20% | 68% | 67% |
Cross-slope measure | 03% | 05% | 83% | 50% |
Integrated soil fertility management | 10% | 25% | 49% | 47% |
Water harvesting | 12% | 31% | 63% | 36% |
Pastoralism and grazing land management | 17% | 33% | 53% | 35% |
Agroforestry | 17% | 38% | 56% | 56% |
SLM Group | Brief Description 5 | Example of Technology from Global SLM Database 6 | |
---|---|---|---|
Improved ground/ vegetation cover | Measures that aim to improve ground cover, be it dead material, mulch or living vegetation. | Name | Soil Productivity Improvement Using a Combination of Technologies |
Country/Link | Tanzania/T1221 | ||
Single or Mixed Groups? | Mixed: Improved ground/vegetation cover + Agroforestry + Integrated soil fertility management | ||
Cross-slope measure | Earth or soil bunds, stone lines, vegetative strips across the slope—often along a contour—to reduce runoff and soil loss. | Name | Traditional Stone Wall Terraces |
Country/Link | South Africa/T1369 | ||
Single or Mixed Groups? | Single: Cross-slope measure | ||
Integrated soil fertility management | Managing soil by combining methods of fertility amendment with soil and water conservation. Aims to maximize organic fertilizer, minimize loss of nutrients and use inorganic fertilizer judiciously. | Name | Push-Pull Integrated Pest and Soil Fertility Management |
Country/Link | Kenya/T958 | ||
Single or Mixed Groups? | Mixed: Improved ground/vegetation cover + Improved plant varieties/animal breeds | ||
Water harvesting | The collection and management of rainwater runoff or floodwater to increase water availability for domestic use or for crops/livestock. | Name | Runoff Water Harvesting for Bananas |
Country/Link | Uganda/T1390 | ||
Single or Mixed Groups? | Mixed: Water harvesting + Irrigation management + Water diversion and drainage | ||
Pastoralism and grazing land management | The grazing of animals on natural or semi-natural grasslands, grasslands with trees or open woodlands. | Name | Couloirs de Passage (Livestock Passageways through the landscape) |
Country/Link | Niger/T1353 | ||
Single or Mixed Groups? | Single: Pastoralism and grazing land management | ||
Agroforestry | Integration of woody perennials with crops or animals for a variety of benefits and services, including the better use of soil and water resources; multiple fuel, fodder and food products; and habitats for associated species. | Name | Agroforestry Parkland |
Country/Link | Senegal/T1167 | ||
Single or Mixed Groups? | Mixed: Agroforestry + Improved ground and vegetation cover + Improved plant varieties/animal breeds |
WOCAT SLM Group | UNCCD SLM Group | Comparison |
---|---|---|
Improved ground/vegetation cover | Vegetation management | Similar |
Cross-slope measure | Soil erosion control | UNCCD group is broader: covers cross-slope measures but also gully control, water spreading weirs, windbreaks, etc. |
Integrated soil fertility management | Integrated soil fertility management | Similar |
Water harvesting | Water management | UNCCD group is broader: covers water harvesting but also micro-irrigation, drainage in rice paddies, etc. |
Pastoralism and grazing land management | Gazing pressure management | Similar |
Agroforestry | Agroforestry | Similar |
Land Degradation | Adaptation | Mitigation | |
---|---|---|---|
Soil erosion control | *** | * | zero |
Soil fertility/structure | *** | *** | ** |
Water availability/retention | * | *** | * |
Yield/productivity | ** | *** | ** |
Soil organic carbon (SOC) | * | ** | *** |
Non-CO2 GHG reduction | Zero | Zero | ** |
| |
VERSATILITY | Versatile systems are those that can be used in a wide array of situations (though often in different forms and varieties), e.g., agroforestry. In contrast, water harvesting—at least for crop production—is mainly focused on/applicable to semi-arid areas. |
RELIABILITY | Reliability speaks for itself: does the SLM group consistently perform well? Or, like mulching (an example of IG/VC), does it require materials that have an opportunity cost (e.g., fodder for livestock)? Or, like water harvesting, is it dependent on runoff-generating rain? |
ADJUSTABILITY | Some systems can be easily adjusted to fit a changing situation. Those based on seasonal operations can be modified. However, trees in agroforestry systems, for example, need time to have impact. Adjustability can imply ease of mixing and matching with other groups, meaning it can be readily “upgraded”. |
ROBUSTNESS | This describes whether the SLM group can stand up to extreme events without breaking or losing integrity. Cross-slope barriers of earth are especially susceptible to overland flow and can fail in a “domino” sequence, while stone-built barriers are hardier. Vegetative barriers can cope better still, and are self-regenerating. |
| |
MICRO-ENVIRONMENT | Some groups confer CC adaptation by creating a favorable micro-environment; this may be by blanketing the earth with mulch, under which the soil surface becomes a protected and protective micro-environment, or by establishing a wind break (where it can create a microclimate—a specific form of micro-environment). |
CONCENTRATING RESOURCES | The concentration of fertility, water, plants and livestock, and labor and investment is characteristic of agrobiodiverse, productive, and adaptative systems in SSA. Home gardens and urban agriculture thrive on this. A critical mass of concentrated resources may be essential for production in poor years—if thinly spread, they may not provide a yield. |
BUFFERING EXTREMES | Covering the ground by vegetation or mulch protects against high (or low) temperatures and against rainfall splash where there is more intense and erosive rainfall. Soil fertility and the water-holding capacity help ensure yields during droughts. Buffering provides a “shock absorber”, ironing out climatic extremes. |
SLM Groups | Improved Ground/ Vegetation Cover | Cross-Slope Barriers | Integrated Soil Fertility Management | Water Harvesting | Pasture and Grazing Land Management | Agroforestry |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||
VERSATILITY | Widely applicable. Constraints in drier areas with competition for mulch [2.5]. | Applicable on range of slopes. Vegetative barriers less effective in semi-arid areas. Stone lines limited by availability [2.0]. | Widely applicable in various forms [2.0]. | Focus on drier areas for crop production. Widely applicable for ponding/roof tanks, etc. [1.5]. | Limited to systems with pastures [1.5]. | Very widely applicable through all agroecosystems and climatic zones [2.5]. |
RELIABILITY | Good except when mulch limiting [2.0]. | More reliable on lower slopes [1.5]. | Good [2.5]. | Problems with too much/too little rainfall [1.0]. | Good except in severe drought [2.0]. | Good [2.5]. |
ADJUSTABILITY | Adjustments can be made seasonally with, e.g., crop mixtures [2.0]. | Barriers fixed: costly to move. Can be built up or vegetated [1.0]. | Availability of resources may limit changes [2.0]. | Micro-catchment systems easier to adjust than macro-catchments [1.5]. | Management can be adjusted in response to needs [1.5]. | Trees limited by establishment time. Crop component adjustable [1.5]. |
ROBUSTNESS | Not easily damaged. Easy to amend/repair [2.0]. | Rigid structures—especially earth bunds—vulnerable to breaching [1.0]. | Not easily damaged [2.0]. | Damage by floods/excess runoff common [1.0]. | Management responsive to vegetative changes [2.0]. | Tree component vulnerable to wind damage [2.0]. |
| ||||||
MICRO-ENVIRONMENT | Good: especially under deep mulching [2.0]. | Only around barrier: where strips are wetter/more fertile [1.0]. | Good where resources are concentrated [1.5]. | Pronounced where water concentrates. Harvests rich organic matter in runoff [2.5]. | Limited [1.5]. | With windbreaks, etc., a distinct microclimate is established [2.0]. |
CONCENTRA-TING RESOURCES | Yes, especially where mulch used: creates resource-rich areas [2.5]. | May occur where nutrient-rich particles trapped [2.0]. | Especially true for manure; fertility-rich areas created [2.0]. | Concentration of runoff is core principle. Also of nutrients in (e.g.) zaϊ pit systems [2.5]. | Skilled management improves selected areas [1.5]. | True of intensive systems. In extensive systems, fertile spots under large trees [2.0]. |
BUFFERING EXTREMES | Buffers against temperature/rain. Crop mixes spread risk [2.5]. | Effective barrier buffer against floods at catchment level [1.5]. | Fertility/SOM buffers against crop failure [2.0]. | Effective except when rainfall fails and no runoff generated [2.0]. | Through production of hay/dry season grazing [1.5]. | Effective especially under intensive systems [2.0]. |
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© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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Critchley, W.; Harari, N.; Mollee, E.; Mekdaschi-Studer, R.; Eichenberger, J. Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change Adaptation for Small-Scale Land Users in Sub-Saharan Africa. Land 2023, 12, 1206. https://doi.org/10.3390/land12061206
Critchley W, Harari N, Mollee E, Mekdaschi-Studer R, Eichenberger J. Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change Adaptation for Small-Scale Land Users in Sub-Saharan Africa. Land. 2023; 12(6):1206. https://doi.org/10.3390/land12061206
Chicago/Turabian StyleCritchley, William, Nicole Harari, Eefke Mollee, Rima Mekdaschi-Studer, and Joana Eichenberger. 2023. "Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change Adaptation for Small-Scale Land Users in Sub-Saharan Africa" Land 12, no. 6: 1206. https://doi.org/10.3390/land12061206