Chapter 2.5 - Flood and Drought Prevention and Disaster Mitigation: Combating Land Degradation with an Integrated Natural Systems Strategy

Abstract

This section of the chapter discusses the efforts that can be made to enhance and maintain the highly valuable ecosystem services provided by functioning ecological landscapes, as well as their importance. These efforts have focused on knowledge sharing and capacity building, with the aim of long-term local stewardship. Local stewardship capacity, leadership, and skills are developed by building on existing institutions, by training locals who might then go on to train and support local efforts (thereby increasing local stewardship and effort ownership) in land design and management sciences, by expanding the diversity of livelihood strategies in line with stewardship principles, and by practicing learning and implementation. While increasing the local capacity for applying integrated land use design and management, the aforementioned regenerative interventions impart substantial beneficial impacts on food security, livelihood diversification, and regional adaptive capacity. This text discusses some examples of these interventions, the manner in which they might be applied practically, and their vital importance to the future.