Desertification Mitigation Research Articles

The Australian three-dimensional soil grid: Australia’s contribution to the GlobalSoilMap project

Information on the geographic variation in soil has traditionally been presented in polygon (choropleth) maps at coarse scales. Now scientists, planners, managers and politicians want quantitative information on the variation and functioning of soil at finer resolutions; they want it to plan better land use for agriculture, water supply and the mitigation of climate change land degradation and desertification. The GlobalSoilMap project aims to produce a grid of soil attributes at a fine spatial resolution (approximately 100 m), and at six depths, for the purpose. This paper describes the three-dimensional spatial modelling used to produce the Australian soil grid, which consists of Australia-wide soil attribute maps. The modelling combines historical soil data plus estimates derived from visible and infrared soil spectra. Together they provide a good coverage of data across Australia. The soil attributes so far include sand, silt and clay contents, bulk density, available water capacity, organic carbon, pH, effective cation exchange capacity, total phosphorus and total nitrogen. The data on these attributes were harmonised to six depth layers, namely 0–0.05 m, 0.05–0.15 m, 0.15–0.30 m, 0.30–0.60 m, 0.60–1.00 m and 1.00–2.00 m, and the resulting values were incorporated simultaneously in the models. The modelling itself combined the bootstrap, a decision tree with piecewise regression on environmental variables and geostatistical modelling of residuals. At each layer, values of the soil attributes were predicted at the nodes of a 3 arcsecond (approximately 90 m) grid and mapped together with their uncertainties. The assessment statistics for each attribute mapped show that the models explained between 30% and 70% of their total variation. The outcomes are illustrated with maps of sand, silt and clay contents and their uncertainties. The Australian three-dimensional soil maps fill a significant gap in the availability of quantitative soil information in Australia.

APPRAISING AND SELECTING STRATEGIES TO COMBAT AND MITIGATE DESERTIFICATION BASED ON STAKEHOLDER KNOWLEDGE AND GLOBAL BEST PRACTICES IN CAPE VERDE ARCHIPELAGO

ABSTRACTDesertification is the most disturbing and detrimental cause of rural vulnerability in Cape Verde, affecting families' material and environmental resources. Combating desertification in Cape Verde is complex because it involves addressing a mixture of endogenous (manual agriculture, fuel wood and fodder extraction, land tenure and steep slopes) and exogenous drivers (high rainfall variability, climate change, prolonged drought or heavy rainfall). To address and mitigate the adverse effects of desertification, it is necessary to develop an approach that identifies and brings together all the key stakeholders affected by and acting on the desertification issue, including land users, policy makers, managers, researchers and rural development technicians. This paper presents a hybrid methodology based on global best practices, applied in Cape Verde. It combines experiences and skills of local stakeholders (farmers, local association of land users and local non‐governmental organizations) with scientific knowledge of external stakeholders such as technicians of the Ministry of Rural Development, environmental advisors of Municipalities and researchers. Integration takes place following a participatory process of appraising and selecting desertification control strategies. The paper presents the first results obtained from application of the hybrid methodology to Ribeira Seca, the largest watershed of Santiago Island. The approach was evaluated with local and external stakeholders. Both groups appreciated that they could voice their views and discuss ways to overcome barriers and also to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by jointly selected promising desertification mitigation options. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Participatory Evaluation of Monitoring and Modeling of Sustainable Land Management Technologies in Areas Prone to Land Degradation

Examples of sustainable land management (SLM) exist throughout the world. In many cases, SLM has largely evolved through local traditional practices and incremental experimentation rather than being adopted on the basis of scientific evidence. This means that SLM technologies are often only adopted across small areas. The DESIRE (DESertIfication mitigation and REmediation of degraded land) project combined local traditional knowledge on SLM with empirical evaluation of SLM technologies. The purpose of this was to evaluate and select options for dissemination in 16 sites across 12 countries. It involved (i) an initial workshop to evaluate stakeholder priorities (reported elsewhere), (ii) field trials/empirical modeling, and then, (iii) further stakeholder evaluation workshops. This paper focuses on workshops in which stakeholders evaluated the performance of SLM technologies based on the scientific monitoring and modeling results from 15 study sites. It analyses workshop outcomes to evaluate how scientific results affected stakeholders' perceptions of local SLM technologies. It also assessed the potential of this participatory approach in facilitating wider acceptance and implementation of SLM. In several sites, stakeholder preferences for SLM technologies changed as a consequence of empirical measurements and modeling assessments of each technology. Two workshop examples are presented in depth to: (a) explore the scientific results that triggered stakeholders to change their views; and (b) discuss stakeholders' suggestions on how the adoption of SLM technologies could be up-scaled. The overall multi-stakeholder participatory approach taken is then evaluated. It is concluded that to facilitate broad-scale adoption of SLM technologies, de-contextualized, scientific generalisations must be given local context; scientific findings must be viewed alongside traditional beliefs and both scrutinized with equal rigor; and the knowledge of all kinds of experts must be recognised and considered in decision-making about SLM, whether it has been formally codified or not. The approach presented in this paper provided this opportunity and received positive feedback from stakeholders.

Designing a Public Web-Based Information System to Illustrate and Disseminate the Development and Results of the DESIRE Project to Combat Desertification

Until around 1995 it was challenging to make the scientific results of research projects publicly available except through presentations at meetings or conferences, or as papers in academic journals. Then it began to be clear that the Internet could become the main medium to publish and share new information with a much wider audience. The DESIRE Project (desertification mitigation and remediation of land-a global approach for local solutions) has built on expertise gained in previous projects to develop an innovative online 'Harmonized Information System' (HIS). This documents the context, delivery and evaluation of all tasks in the DESIRE Project using non-scientific terminology, with much of it also available in the local languages of the study sites. The DESIRE-HIS makes use of new possibilities for communication, including video clips, interactive tools, and links to social media networks such as Twitter. Dissemination of research results using this approach has required careful planning and design. This paper sets out the steps that have culminated in a complete online Information System about local solutions to global land management problems in desertification-affected areas, including many practical guidelines for responsible land management. As many of those who are affected by desertification do not have Internet access, printable dissemination materials are also available on the DESIRE-HIS.

Participatory approach for integrated development and management of North African marginal zones: demonstrative plan to fight desertification in Morocco and Tunisia

A demonstrative and participatory development project on desertification mitigation and rural development has been launched in Northern Africa under SMAP Programme (Short and Medium-term priority environmental Action Programme) financed by the European Union. The project, which title is Demonstration Project on Strategies to Combat Desertification in Arid Lands with Direct Involvement of Local Agro-pastoral Communities in North Africa, is carried out in sensitive regions of Morocco and Tunisia with the coordination of the Nucleo Ricerca sulla Desertificazione (NRD, Desertification Research Center) of the University of Sassari (Italy) and the partnership of Morocco and Tunisia Agriculture Ministries. The areas concerned are located in regions characterised by rural poverty, food dependency and land abandoning where urgent measures are needed to promote optimisation of resource availability and management for a sustainable development. The project involves direct desertification mitigation by vegetation cover restoration, with drought resistant perennial forage species ( Opuntia ficus-indica , Atriplex nummularia and Acacia saligna ) in highly degraded rangelands in order to mitigate desertification processes while improving rangelands productivity; and adopts measures for local population technical capacities building through training sessions related to all project activities, and making it a concrete demonstration supported by the direct involvement of local communities. Successful actions already carried out in this field by the participants of the project as well as by other Mediterranean countries, has been taken into account, re-elaborated and exploited, thus promoting south/south co-operation and exchange of knowledge. Participation of all actors and especially of local communities is the key point in all phases of the project and is strengthened by means of dissemination and sensitisation campaigns and by training courses. At the end of the project, all actors own/share all choices made and the technology used participating thus to the intervention sustainability.

Diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in the rhizosphere of three host plants in the farming–pastoral zone, north China

The spatial diversity and distribution of AM fungi were investigated in three plots located in farming–pastoral zone, north China. The rhizospheres of Caragana korshinskii, Artemisia sphaerocephala and Salix psammophila were sampled and thirty AM fungal species belonging to five genera were isolated. The study demonstrated that AM fungal diversity and distribution differed significantly among the three host plants and the three studied plots. Spore density of AM fungi ranged between 2 and 22 spores per g−1 of soil and species richness between 8 and 23. Correlation coefficient analysis demonstrated that spore density was significantly and positively correlated with soil organic matter and available N (P < 0.01). Species richness was significantly and positively correlated with soil organic matter and available P (P < 0.01), but significantly and negatively correlated with soil pH (P < 0.01). Finally, the Shannon–Weiner index was significantly and positively correlated with soil organic matter (P < 0.05). In this farming–pastoral zone, Glomus reticulatum and G.melanosporum may be more adaptable to the arid conditions than other AM fungal species. This research into AM fungal diversity may lead to exploitation of AM fungi for the mitigation of soil erosion and desertification using mycorrhizal plants, such as C.korshinskii, A.sphaerocephala and S. psammophila. The results of this study support the conclusion that diversity and distribution of AM fungi might be useful to monitor desertification and soil degradation.

Impact of vegetation on land‐atmosphere coupling strength and its implication for desertification mitigation over East Asia

Desertification of the East Asian drylands and the consequent dust transport have been serious concerns for adjacent Asian countries as well as the western United States. Tree planting has been considered one applicable strategy to mitigate the desertification. However, the desired effect of the tree planting would not be brought to fruition unless the newly planted trees change the coupling characteristics between the land and the atmosphere. Based on this perception, we attempt to clarify the effects of vegetation on the coupling strength between the atmosphere and land surface, and we suggest the most efficient areas of tree planting for desertification mitigation in East Asia. Using regional vegetation‐atmosphere coupled model simulations, coupling strength with and without vegetation was computed and compared with each other. An increased vegetation fraction reduces the coupling strength in June, July, and August (JJA), primarily due to decreased evapotranspiration variability. This effect is pronounced over the Manchurian Plains and the highly populated areas of Beijing and Tianjin. The reduced coupling strength tends to weaken feedback between soil moisture and precipitation as a maintenance mechanism of warm season droughts in the midlatitudes and subsequently decrease the probability of droughts, a finding that is reflected in the enhanced JJA mean soil moisture. However, some drylands like the eastern edges of the Gobi desert present marginal or even opposite changes in coupling strength, meaning a limited effect of vegetation on relieving droughts. Therefore, given limited financial and human resources, acupuncture‐like afforestation, i.e., concentrated tree planting in a particular region where the coupling strength can be substantially reduced by vegetation, is an effective strategy to secure long‐standing desertification mitigation.

Desertification and Its Mitigation Strategy in China

Abstract: China is severely impacted by desertification. Of its territory, 34.6% — some 3.32 million km2 — is classified as drylands1) (including arid, semi—arid and semi—humid arid areas). Of the drylands, 2.62 million km2 meets the UNCCD definition of desertified land. These desertified lands spread across 18 provinces and account for 27.33% of the country's landmass. Over 400 million residents are affected, causing an annual direct economic loss exceed 64 billion CNY. China's desertification mitigation began in late 1950s. Through a number of high—profile programs — “Three—North Shelterbelt Development Program”, “National Program on Combating Desertification”, “Sandification Control Program for Beijing and Tianjin Vicinity”, and “Croplands to Forests or Grasslands Program” launched between 1978 and 2000, the Government of China has poured on average 0.024% of the country's annual GDP into desertification mitigation and, as a result, some 20% of desertified lands have been brought under control. Approxi...

The influence of water content on soil erosion in the desertification area of Guizhou, China

Rocky desertification of karst in Southwest China has seriously influenced the normal life of local people. Soil erosion is the key process for inducing rocky desertification. This paper analyzes the stability and variation of shear strength under different of water contents of the brownish clay soil in carbonate rock area Chenqi of Puding in Guizhou province. Results show that the cracking of brownish clay soil aggregates occurs in the early soaked stage. The lower the initial water content of soil aggregates, the faster and more completely large particles disintegrate. Stability of soil aggregates is stronger with higher water content, but the entire shear strength decreases significantly; it will collapse entirely in the rainy season. Therefore, for desertification prevention and control in carbonate rock areas, greater attention should be given to effective protection measures during the rainy periods after long-term dry weather. The control during this period is essential in the whole process of desertification mitigation.

MAKING LAND MANAGEMENT MORE SUSTAINABLE: EXPERIENCE IMPLEMENTING A NEW METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK IN BOTSWANA

ABSTRACTIt is increasingly recognised that tackling land degradation through more sustainable land management depends on incorporating multiple perspectives by using a variety of methods at multiple scales, including the perspectives of those who manage and/or use the land. This paper reports experience implementing a previously proposed methodological framework that is designed to facilitate knowledge sharing between researchers and stakeholders about land degradation severity and extent, and sustainable land management options. Empirical findings are presented from the Botswana site of the EU‐funded Desertification Mitigation and Remediation of Land project. The paper reflects upon the challenges and benefits of the proposed framework and identifies a number of benefits, notably related to insights arising from the integration of local and scientific knowledge, and the ownership of the sustainable land management strategies that emerged from the process. However, implementing the framework was not without challenges, and levels of poverty and formal education may limit the implementation of the framework in some developing world contexts. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Soil creeping in the weathering crust of carbonate rocks and underground soil losses in the karst mountain areas of southwest china

Rocky desertification is of extensive occurrence in karst mountain areas, particularly in the areas where pure carbonate rocks are underlying in Southwest China. Rocky desertification has great impacts on local social and economic development. This paper puts its focus on the mechanism of rocky desertification and its deterioration due to human activities. Soil creeping and sliding occur intensively in the weathering crust of carbonate rocks and at the interface between the weathering crust and the underlying bedrock. Abrupt soil-rock contact occurs at the interface is attributed to long-term soil creeping and sliding on the bedrock surface, which is usually very smooth. Both surficial and underground soil losses can cause rocky desertification in this area. In the areas where pure carbonate rocks are underlying, underground piping erosion may be the predominant process of rocky desertification because the pedogenic rate is usually lower than the rate of natural soil erosion. In general, rocky desertification is a natural, irreversible geomorphologic process in most of the karst mountain areas where pure carbonate rocks are underlying in Southwest China. Human activities often speed up rocky desertification. Present soil conservation measures, such as forestation and terracing, have little effect on the mitigation of rocky desertification. Therefore, it is a new challenge to mitigate rocky desertification in the karst mountain areas where pure carbonate rocks are underlying.

Appraising and selecting conservation measures to mitigate desertification and land degradation based on stakeholder participation and global best practices

AbstractMost desertification research focuses on degradation assessments without putting sufficient emphasis on prevention and mitigation strategies, although the concept of sustainable land management (SLM) is increasingly being acknowledged. A variety of already applied conservation measures exist at the local level, but they are not adequately recognised, evaluated and shared, either by land users, technicians, researchers, or policy makers. Likewise, collaboration between research and implementation is often insufficient. The aim of this paper is to present a new methodology for a participatory process of appraising and selecting desertification mitigation strategies, and to present first experiences from its application in the EU‐funded DESIRE project. The methodology combines a collective learning and decision approach with the use of evaluated global best practices. In three parts, it moves through a concise process, starting with identifying land degradation and locally applied solutions in a stakeholder workshop, leading to assessing local solutions with a standardised evaluation tool, and ending with jointly selecting promising strategies for implementation with the help of a decision support tool. The methodology is currently being applied in 16 study sites. Preliminary analysis from the application of the first part of the methodology shows that the initial stakeholder workshop results in a good basis for stakeholder cooperation, and in promising land conservation practices for further assessment. Study site research teams appreciated the valuable results, as burning issues and promising options emerged from joint reflection. The methodology is suitable to initiate mutual learning among different stakeholder groups and to integrate local and scientific knowledge. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Contributions of agroforestry to ecosystem services in the miombo eco-region of eastern and southern Africa

The miombo, the most extensive tropical woodland formation of Africa with particular ecological and economic importance, is threatened by deforestation, land degradation and loss of biodiversity. Over the past two decades, agroforestry has been studied as one of the integrated natural resource management interventions for addressing various environmental and social problems. This has helped to establish a solid knowledge-base on the functions and capabilities of agroforestry. However, little attempt has been made to synthesize and publicize the knowledge on ecosystem services provided by the various agroforestry practices in southern Africa. This has led to lack of appreciation of the environmental benefits of the practices, and hence less attention being paid to accelerating their adoption and institutionalization in national agricultural and natural resource programmes. The objective of this review was to summarize the state of current knowledge on ecosystem services of agroforestry. From the studies reviewed, it is concluded that agroforestry practices provide (1) provisioning services such as food, source of energy and fodder, (2) regulatory services including microclimate modification, erosion control, mitigation of desertification, carbon sequestration and pest control, and (3) supporting services namely, soil fertility improvement, biodiversity conservation and pollination in the miombo eco-region. The paper also outlines challenges to wider adoption of agroforestry and makes recommendations for future research, development and policy to capitalize on ecosystem services. Keywords: Biodiversity, carbon sequestration, deforestation, fire, soil erosion

Potential synergies between existing multilateral environmental agreements in the implementation of land use, land-use change and forestry activities

There is potential for synergy between the global environmental conventions on climate change, biodiversity and desertification: changes in land management and land use undertaken to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions can simultaneously deliver positive outcomes for conservation of biodiversity, and mitigation of desertification and land degradation. However, while there can be complementarities between the three environmental goals, there are often tradeoffs. Thus, the challenge lies in developing land use policies that promote optimal environmental outcomes, and in implementing these locally to promote sustainable development. The paper considers synergies and tradeoffs in implementing land use measures to address the objectives of the three global environmental conventions, both from an environmental and economic perspective. The intention is to provide environmental scientists and policy makers with a broad overview of these considerations, and the benefits of addressing the conventions simultaneously.

The application of EIA in the evaluation of sustainable desertification control activity: examples from Namibia and Inner Mongolia

To judge potential success stories in combating desertification, the UN Environment Program (UNEP) sent teams to agricultural projects in Namibia and Inner Mongolia. UNEP evaluation criteria were used. Each team first used records, interviews, and anecdotes to outline the pre-treatment situation, and ‘guesstimated’ the impacts of pre-treatment activities on the bio- physical environment. A description of the desertification control, mitigation and treatment projects was prepared. An EIA determined the impacts of the projects. A comparison of before and after revealed how far mitigation was successfully achieved.

Decision support system for desertification mitigation in the Agri basin, southern Italy

As a contribution to understanding the interaction between the factors which influence desertification, a decision support system (DSS) is developed for the 1700-km 2 Agri basin in southern Italy. This integrates the SHETRAN physically based hydrological and sediment yield model, a simple socio-economic model (in which farmers select those crops which give the highest income relative to cost of production), a database (containing climate, physical and socio-economic data according to a range of future scenarios) and existing desertification management experience into a single tool to aid decision-making in desertification mitigation. It provides a means of examining the effect of climate change and land management on desertification, allowing for feedback between the physical conditions and land use as determined by farmer decisions and government or EU agricultural policy (especially crop subsidies). Typical issues which the DSS can address include: what are the desertification consequences of specified climate scenarios, within a context of fixed agricultural policy?; and, given a climate scenario, is a specified land use or agricultural policy sustainable?