Reducing risks to land health and targeting agroforestry interventions to enhance land productivity

Problems being addressed

Land degradation is a global threat to habitat, economy and society, and is the overarching environmental issue of concern in Africa, threatening food security, ecosystems and livelihoods. However, current measurement and information systems on land degradation in developing countries are grossly inadequate for the task of planning and evaluating land health and agroforestry policy and practice. In particular there is a lack of systematic data on land health risks to enable efficient targeting of land management and agroforestry interventions and to answer questions such as:

  • What are the socioeconomic and biophysical determinants of land degradation (land heath risks) how are they geographically distributed?
  • How much future land degradation can be avoided or reversed through targeted action to reduce risks?
  • What is the cost efficiency of preventative and rehabilitation agroforestry interventions under different conditions?

Objective

In our research relating to land health, we aim to:

(i) develop multi-scale and widely usable land health surveillance methods that can provide information on where land problems exist, what are the major land health risks, whom they affect, where programmatic and prevention activities should be directed, and how well they are working

(ii) quantify and map major risks to land health in the tropics, target land management and agroforestry interventions to reduce and reverse these risks at different scales, and evaluate cost effectiveness and outcomes of intervention programmes

(iii) develop national capacity in operational land health surveillance methods and tools.

Sub projects

In the Land Health Global Research Priority there are two major sub-projects:

  • Developing effective land health surveillance methods
  • Assessing land health risks and targeting agroforestry interventions to reduce and reverse land degradation

Research questions

Recent World Agroforestry Centre research advances in land health surveillance are based on principles adapted from public health surveillance, where accurate measuring and monitoring of changes and improvements in the health of populations is closely integrated with statistical methods to form a scientific basis for policy development, priority setting and management. Our research builds on these advances and tackles the key methodological question:

  • How can land health surveillance systems deploy modern science and technology to strengthen evidence-based decision-making on land and agroforestry management at multiple scales, to help better (i) understand hazardous and protective factors affecting land health risk, (ii) target of agroforesty options, (ii) resource allocation and priority setting, and (iii) learning through quantitative impact assessment?

Through development and application of the land health surveillance methods, we aims to address the following research questions:

  • What are the main environmental and behavioural risk factors associated with land degradation syndromes in the tropics and how are they distributed in relation to different settings and factors such as ecoregions and poverty levels?
  • What types of agroforestry interventions can help reduce or reverse key risk factors associated with land degradation and what are the cost efficiencies of alternative preventative and rehabilitation interventions under different circumstances?

Intended deliverables

The deliverables envisaged to be produced in this are of our research are:

  • Land health surveillance approaches, methods, standards, tools and protocols.
  • Land health risk assessments at multiple scales.
  • Spatial targeting and evaluation of agroforestry interventions in relation to major land degradation problems.
  • Capacity building in land health surveillance methods.
  • Co-development of an Africa Soil Information System

Approaches

The primary focus of our research into land health will be in non-desert portions of sub-Saharan Africa and then extending this work into developing countries in Asia and Latin America. External partnerships include the Earth Institute and Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University; National soil survey institutes in Africa; UN agencies (UNEP, FAO, UNDP, World Bank), the International Soil Reference Information Centre (ISRIC), and other CGIAR centres (e.g. TSBF-CIAT, ICRISAT, ICARDA).