Sustainable Land Management Technologies Research Articles

Relationships and determinants of adoption of sustainable land management technologies in Eastern and Southern Highlands of Ethiopia

Degraded land is a major danger to agricultural productivity and food security in Ethiopia. Sustainable land management technologies (SLMTs), through targeted interventions, have been applied to address this problem. Notwithstanding some of the known agricultural and environmental benefits connected with the adoption of some SLMTs, the adoption rate remains below expectations. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the relationships and determinants of the adoption of SLMTs in eastern and southern Ethiopia. Data were collected from 384 sampled households selected using multi-stage sampling techniques. Descriptive statistics and multivariate probit (MVP) model were used to analyze data. Estimated results of MVP revealed that the adoption of SLMTs is positively and significantly influenced by education level, livestock, membership in a social group, extension contacts, access to SLM information, training, credit, land tenure, and slope, while age, farm distance, and the number of active family members due to youth migration abroad had negative effects. The widely adopted SLMTs on farmlands were inorganic fertilizer (49.5%), soil bunds (48.4%), bench terraces (47.2%), intercropping (46.1%), and manure (38%). This study concluded that farmers invested a blend of SLMTs, some of which complemented and others substituted for one another. Therefore, policy-makers and planners should focus on fortifying human and local institutions’ capacity to implement SLM and consider SLM technology interdependencies before communicating with farmers.

Does pluralistic agricultural advisory service delivery enhance sustainable land management? Evidence from southwestern Uganda

Declining land productivity and increasing land and food scarcity, amidst high population growth have precipitated the need for intensification of crop production. Sustainable land management technologies (SLMTs) have been suggested as a way to support the intensification process. In Uganda, agricultural advisory services (AAS) geared towards improved adoption of the SLMTs are provided, and farmers can access AAS from diverse sources, with the possibility of accessing from single or multiple sources. This study attempts to identify and prioritize the drivers of farmers’ access to (single/multiple) sources of AAS and determine the impact of access to these sources of AAS on the adoption of SLMT, and crop productivity. The study uses cross-sectional data collected from 435 households in the southwestern highlands of Uganda, in Kisoro and Kabale districts. The multinomial endogenous switching regression model combined with an endogenous switching regression model was used to analyse the data. Results indicate that both single and multiple sources of AAS have a positive effect on adoption of SLMTs and crop productivity, with the latter having a positive effect on the adoption of more SLMTs, while it seems to reduce the adoption of some other SLMTs. Similarly, accessing AAS from multiple sources has a higher positive impact on crop productivity, when compared to no access, but a lower impact when compared to access to a single source of AAS. These results suggest that access to multiple sources of AAS has positive impacts, but there are possible inherent challenges in the way it is implemented; lack of synchronisation of the messages given to the farmers, and the top-down approaches used to disseminate knowledge on SLMTs by some of the AAS providers may confound the possibly higher benefits of access to multiple sources of AAS. This study points out the need for policy to consider the advantages of having a streamlined agricultural extension system, with coordinated efforts from all agricultural advisory service providers and stakeholders. Key words: Agriculture, advisory services, sustainable land management, switching regression, highlands, Uganda

Awareness and Use of Sustainable Land Management Practices in Smallholder Farming Systems

Sustainable land management (SLM) practices are often touted as a vehicle for simultaneously increasing agricultural productivity and food security in rural areas. In Eastern Zambia, numerous initiatives such as the Zambia Integrated Forest Landscape Project (ZIFLP) have been implemented. Yet, empirical data suggest relatively low levels of SLM uptake in the smallholder farming sector. Therefore, the broad objective of this study was to estimate the relationship between smallholder farmer awareness of SLM technologies and land allocated to SLM at the farm level. We hypothesized the following: H1: Increased farmer awareness of SLM practices leads to more land allocated to SLM activities in Zambia’s Eastern Province; and H2: Adoption of specific SLM practices influences the extent of land allocated to SLM. Using an intra-household cross-sectional survey, data were collected from 761 randomly selected households from 11 chiefdoms of the Eastern Province. The Heckman selection procedure was used to analyze the study’s overarching hypothesis. Findings showed that farmers were generally conversant with SLM as a construct (>90%), with choices being influenced by gender. Conservation agriculture in the form of crop rotations, use of manure, mixed cropping, tree planting, and minimum tillage methods were the most commonly known SLM technologies among farmers. Findings also indicated that awareness is an important antecedent in the use of SLM practices (χ2 = 76.6, p = 0.00), with greater access to extension being positively associated with farmer awareness (p < 0.05). The land allotted to SLM hinged on crop diversity, ownership of different types of livestock, and access to agricultural extension. These findings suggest that long-term commitments to training farmers in SLM is critical. This will be achieved when there is coherence in the information on SLM being given to farmers by all the actors working in the region.

Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change Adaptation for Small-Scale Land Users in Sub-Saharan Africa

Land is both a source and a sink of carbon dioxide (CO2), the chief greenhouse gas. Through sustainable land management (SLM), it can capture extra CO2 and store it as carbon in vegetation and soil. SLM can also reduce CO2 emissions from the land. Thus, SLM is viewed as the key land-based solution for climate change mitigation. Yet, SLM also provides effective climate change (CC) adaptation practices—such as agroforestry, mulching and water harvesting—which confer resilience, and simultaneously help secure production. This is especially valuable for land users in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) who depend on rainfed agriculture. They are amongst the poorest on Earth and the most vulnerable to CC impacts, despite their minimal carbon footprint. The World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) manages the Global SLM Database: this holds a rich and ever-growing collection of SLM practices. Analysis of the database for rainfed SSA sheds light on which SLM technologies are effective in CC adaptation, and how well they cope with changing rainfall and temperature. Both “mechanisms” and “attributes” are explored, yielding new insights. This perspective paper showcases current developments in the field, and summarizes future directions for SLM as a CC adaptation solution for land users in SSA.

Strengthening climate resilience of rural communities by co-producing landscape-specific integrated farming systems in Cambodia

ABSTRACT Climate change poses a major threat to the livelihoods of rural smallholder farmers in Cambodia. Adaptation measures through sustainable land management (SLM) and farming practices can help farmers to increase their resilience to climate change and secure their livelihoods. This paper presents a novel approach for promoting landscape-specific integrated farming systems (IFS) through multi-stakeholder engagement, knowledge-based decision-making and improved land use planning. It presents a stepwise participatory approach, applied under an IFAD-funded project, to define context-specific IFS models. Through co-production processes with multiple stakeholders, three landscape units and seven landscape-specific IFS models consisting of different SLM technologies were defined and demonstrated on 1,500 farms in two case study sites. The process included training and awareness raising to enhance local stakeholder engagement in developing integrated farm plans. This paper provides insights into how such a novel approach can be embedded in rural development projects to enhance smallholders’ resilience and livelihoods.

Effect of integrated sustainable land management technologies on households’ food security in the North Gojjam sub-basin, Blue Nile River

Integrated Sustainable Land Management (ISLM) is progressively viewed as a key strategy to boost food security in Ethiopia and feed its growing population. By understanding this logical ground, this paper examines the effect of ISLM technologies adoption on household food security. The study relies on cross-sectional household-level data collected from 414 randomly selected household heads across three districts to analyze this issue. An Endogenous Switching Regression (ESR) model coupled with the Full Information Maximum Likelihood (FIML) technique was applied to analyze the required data. The finding shows that the adoption of ISLM technologies has significantly increased food security. It specifically increases food consumption expenditure in households by ETB (national currency in Ethiopia; as of August 2021, 1 ETB is equal to approximately USD $0.02) 38.3 (27%) when compared to households that do not adopt groups. Similarly, it increases the adopter households’ dietary diversity by 14.5%. Furthermore, it plays a significant role in reducing the food gap period by one and a half months per year and the food insecurity access scale by 46% points in the north Gojjam sub-basin for those who adopted versus those who did not adopt. The policy implication is that the adoption of ISLM technologies can improve rural household food security and may be used as a means of reducing rural poverty. As a result, the adoption of ISLM technologies should have been promoted in the study area and elsewhere by inspiring land users by accessing external agricultural inputs at the right time and place to increase small-scale land productivity.

Local Perception on Effect of Land Degradation in the Blue Nile River Headwaters

Poor land-use practices have threatened the livelihood of rural people in Ethiopia. This study assessed the local perception of the impact of land degradation on rural livelihood in the Blue Nile river headwaters, North Gojjam sub-basin. To achieve this objective, questionnaires were administered for 414 sample households and series of focus group discussions and detailed interviews were held with participants. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze quantitative data while qualitative data were buildup using narration and simple description approaches. The finding showed that all local farmers perceived that land degradation was the main local ecological problem since 2008 in the form of soil erosion, soil nutrient depletion; soil acidity and soil biodiversity loss. Most of them (62.54%) perceived as land degradation severity was high and increasing through time, primarily on cereal crop land. Population growth, using animal dung and crop residue for domestic cooking and heating energy, free grazing, using crop residue for construction, absence of fallowing, poor farming, steep slope, and using inappropriate SWC technologies are the main causes of land degradation in the study area. Most local farmers observed as land degradation has decreased crop and livestock productivity, firewood, and surface water resources accessibility. These resulted in the decline in households’ food security and net income over the last 10 years. The finding showed that farmers used traditional ditche, hillside terrace, soil bund, stone bund, check dam, and waterway to reduce land degradation. To reduce the effect of abject land degradation and to improve rural livelihood in the north Gojjam sub-basin, adopting landscape friendly sustainable land management technologies, encouraging various off-farm livelihoods strategies, upgrading livestock feeding systems, and inspiring sustainable energy sources are very urgent.

Relationships and the Determinants of Sustainable Land Management Technologies in North Gojjam Sub-Basin, Upper Blue Nile, Ethiopia

Sustainable land management (SLM) is a leading policy issue in Ethiopia. However, the adoption and continuous use of SLM technologies remain low. This study investigates the interrelationship of adopted SLM technologies and key factors of farmers’ decisions to use SLM technologies in the North Gojjam sub-basin of the Upper Blue Nile. The study was based on the investigation of cross-sectional data obtained from 414 randomly selected rural household heads, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews. Descriptive statistics and Econometric models (i.e., Multivariate Probit and Poisson regression) were used to analyze quantitative data, while a content analysis method was used for qualitative data analysis. Results indicate that at least one type of SLM technology was implemented by 94% of farm households in the North Gojjam sub-basin. The most widely used technologies were chemical fertilizer, soil bund, and animal manure. Most of the adopted SLM technologies complement each other. Farm size, family size, male-headed household, local institutions, perception of soil erosion, livestock size, total income, and extension service increased the adoption probability of most SLM technologies. Plot fragmentation, household age, plot distance, off-farm income, market distance, and perception of good fertile soil discourage the adoption probability of most SLM technologies. To scale up SLM technologies against land degradation, it is important to consider households’ demographic characteristics, the capacity of farm households, and plot-level related factors relevant to the specific SLM technologies being promoted.

Does participatory farmer-to-farmer training improve the adoption of sustainable land management practices?

Human-induced land degradation currently threatens the livelihoods of over 3 billion people globally. While Sustainable Land Management (SLM) has emerged as a widely accepted approach for addressing land degradation in agroecosystems, the use of SLM practices remains low among smallholder farmers. Empirical research points to the potentially beneficial role of participatory farmer-to-farmer (F2F) training and knowledge sharing in improving SLM in resource-poor contexts. Drawing theoretical insights from social learning and using cross-sectional data from an agroecology intervention with smallholder farming households in Malawi (n = 609 farming households, comprising 463 households that received F2F training in agroecology and 146 households that did not receive F2F training), we examine the association between participatory agroecology training and the adoption of SLM practices. Findings from tobit regression analysis show that F2F training was positively associated with the use of SLM practices (β = 0.04 p < 0.05) two years following the intervention after accounting for demographic, agricultural and socioeconomic factors. These findings contribute to a growing body of literature that demonstrates the potential of participatory F2F training to improve the uptake and maintenance of SLM technologies. In the context of resource constraints and the associated low agricultural extension in sub-Saharan Africa, participatory F2F training may offer a cost-effective way to reach a wide range of smallholder farmers to promote the use of SLM practices.

The Effect of Participation in Farmer Groups on Household Adoption of Sustainable Land Management Practices in Kenyan Drylands

Land degradation is a major cause of declining yields and loss of dryland ecosystems resilience in the Lake Baringo Basin in Kenya. One of the solutions to land degradation in drylands is the application of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) technologies. Improving farmers’ capacity to adopt SLM technologies has been an important strategy of the Kenyan government and her development partners to addressing land degradation. State agricultural extension services are charged with the role of building this capacity. Unfortunately, such extension services have had little impact in the Kenyan drylands. To counter this inadequacy in extension services, farmers have formed grass-root organisations to foster networks of support and information sharing. In this paper, we analysed the effect of participation in farmers organisation in promoting adoption of SLM practices by agropastoralists in the Lake Baringo Basin. Data were collected through in-depth household interviews with 150 farmers, 79 of them group members and 71 non-group members. Level of knowledge, sources of information and challenges of SLM adoption were studied. The study revealed significant and positive association between group participation and adoption of SLM practices at X2 (3, N=150=63.209, P=0.000). Additionally, group partnering with development agencies like Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and government departments was reported to have significant influence on household adoption of SLM practices at X2 (3, N=79=13.147, P=0.004). The results indicated that farmer groups can effectively be used to leverage farmers' adoption of SLM innovations and potentially improve household income and food security in the Kenyan drylands. We recommended organizational and resource capacity building for farmer groups to promote their effectiveness in provision of resources and services to their members. In addition, government research and extension agencies and academia should consider forming collaborations with farmer groups in generation of SLM technologies that are suited to the farmers location and prevailing context.

The influence of food security on sustainable land management technologies of farming households in Kwara State, Nigeria

Suboptimal land management practices (SLM) are degrading soils and undermining food security. Despite this, there is scant information regarding households’ decision towards the effect of food security on SLM technologies. This paper, therefore, measured food security status and assessed the effect of food security on SLM technologies. Structured interview schedule was used to gather data for this study. A three-stage sampling procedure was employed for this study. Two out of the four ADP zones were randomly selected in the first stage. This was followed by a proportionate selection of 30 villages from the two selected zones. Lastly, ten farming households each, were picked randomly from the chosen villages to make up a sample size of 300 farming households. The result revealed that the calculated MPCFE was ₦4218.587 and the proportion of food secure and food insecure households are 37.7% and 62.3% respectively. The findings affirmed that much opportunities exist for increasing productivity and income through increased adoption of SLM technologies among the food insecure households when compared with their food secure counterparts. The R2 value of 29.8% suggests that the explanatory variables explained about 30% of the variation in the explained variable. Furthermore, the factors influencing SLM technologies of households are food security status, family size, monthly income and plot size. This study provides useful insight into policies and actions taken by farmers and government to mitigate the effects of suboptimal use of SLM technologies for improved production and food security. Policies favoring increased plot size should be vigorously pursued.

Survey data on factors that constrain the adoption of soil carbon enhancing technologies in Ethiopia

The data described in this paper were collected in two watersheds – Azuga-suba watershed in Angacha woreda (district) of Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples (SNNP) region and Yesir watershed of Bure woreda (district) of the Amhara region – in Ethiopia. The data were collected from 379 households with the main objective being to assess the factors constraining the adoption of sustainable land management technologies (SLMT) that enhance soil organic carbon sequestration. The data were collected using a structured questionnaire that was designed in SurveyCTO. The data cleaning and analysis was done using STATA SE version 14. This data can be used by researchers to assess the extent of adoption of SLMTs in Ethiopia by, for example, comparing the North and the South regions of Ethiopia. It can also be used to assess the probability of adoption as well as the benefit and costs of adopting SLMTs in Ethiopia both at farm and plot level.

The effect of sustainable land management technologies on farming household food security in Kwara state, Nigeria

Nigeria is among countries of the world confronted with the food insecurity problem. The agricultural production systems that produce food for the teeming population are not sustainable. Consequently, the use of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) technologies becomes a viable option. This study assessed the effect of SLM technologies on farming households? food security in Kwara State, Nigeria. A random sampling technique was used to pick 200 farming households for this study. The analytical tools included descriptive statistics, Shriar index, Likert scale, food security index and logistic regression analysis. The results indicated that the average age of the respondents was 51.8 years. The food security index showed that the proportions of food secure and insecure households were 35% and 65% respectively. The binary logistic regression revealed that SLM technologies were one of the critical determinants of food security. An increase in the usage of SLM technologies by 0.106% raised food security by 1%. Other important factors that were estimated included farm income, family size, gender and age of the household head. To reduce the effects of food insecurity, the effective coping strategies adopted by the respondents were reduction in quantity and quality of food consumed, engaging in off-farm jobs to increase household income and using of money proposed for other purposes to buy foods. Governments at all levels should encourage the adoption and use of SLM technologies through both print and electronic media. Policies and strategies towards reducing the household size should be vigorously pursued to reduce food insecurity.

Synergizing global tools to monitor progress towards land degradation neutrality: Trends.Earth and the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies sustainable land management database

As part of the Sustainable Development Goals, countries are striving to achieve by 2030 a land degradation neutral world. Land degradation neutrality (LDN) is the state whereby the amount and quality of land resources remains stable or increases within specified temporal and spatial scales. Achieving this will require the uptake of sustainable land management (SLM) practices to increase the sustainable provision of ecosystem goods and services the human population will require. It will also require the development of systematic, robust, and validated methods for tracking progress at project, subnational and national scales. However, to date, no systematic comparison between the SLM practices and the indicators proposed for monitoring LDN has been performed. In this article, we used the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification primary recommended global sustainable land management database of World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT), and an innovative tool designed to assess and monitor land condition via changes in land productivity, Trends.Earth, to evaluate the agreement between self-reported sustainable land management technologies and indicators derived from satellite-based earth observations. We found that a combination of two primary productivity indicators derived from annual integrals of normalized difference vegetation indices (NDVI), trajectory and state, were able to identify increases in primary productivity in the locations where the SLM practices are implemented in comparison to control sites where SLM practices are not known to have occurred. Moreover, different SLM practices showed unique responses in terms of proportional area which experienced increase, decrease, or remained stable terms of primary productivity. We also found that the time since establishment of the SLM technology was critical for identifying improvements in the SLM sites, as only technologies with more than 10 years since implementation show statistically significant improvements. Our results show that satellite-derived land productivity indicators are successful at detecting the impacts of SLM practices on primary productivity, positioning them as essential elements of the monitoring and assessment tools needed to track land condition to assure the achievement of a land degradation neutral world.

Factors influencing small-scale farmers’ adoption of sustainable land management technologies in north-western Ethiopia

Land degradation is a serious global problem because it leads to losses in food production and thus jeopardizes food security worldwide, particularly in developing countries. Despite numerous efforts to introduce sustainable land management (SLM) strategies and practices, their adoption by the primary target group, small-scale farmers in developing countries, has been [s]low. This study assesses the problem for the case of Ethiopia. The aim was to analyze the underlying factors that affect the adoption of SLM technologies in the Upper Blue Nile Basin. A detailed survey of 300 households and 1010 farm plots was conducted. Data were analyzed by using both descriptive and econometric analyses. Results show that farmers’ adoption of interrelated SLM measures depended on a number of socio-economic and farm-related factors in combination with the characteristics of the technologies themselves. For example, plot size and the availability of labor, as well as the gender of the household head, affected which SLM technologies were adopted by certain types of households. The adoption of SLM measures depended on the adaptive economic capacity of the farmers, which can be quite diverse even within a small region and can differ from the adoption potential in other regions. Our results suggest that SLM policies and programs have to be individually designed for specific target groups within specific regions, which in turn means that “one size fits all” and “across the board” strategies – which are quite common in the field of SLM – should be abandoned by development agencies and policymakers.

Method for Analyzing Trade-offs in Biomass Management in Smallholder Farming Systems Based on Mass Balance

In smallholder farming systems, especially in mountainous areas, households face trade-offs between meeting short-term human needs and ensuring long-term soil productivity. Improved biomass management can help break the downward spiral of overexploitation of natural resources, land degradation, and productivity decline, and support more sustainable use of marginal land. Mixed crop/livestock systems are often carefully balanced to minimize risks. Thus, when planning interventions, profound systems knowledge is crucial. However, the data required for system characterization are often scarce, and original field studies are thus necessary. The aim of this research, a case study in Tajikistan, was to improve systems understanding of the biomass cycle in crop/livestock systems in order to quantify the obstacles to the spread of sustainable land management technologies to farming households. It aimed to establish a database and methods of rapid data collection to quantify the stocks and flows of biomass, with a focus on mass balances, and to evaluate smallholders’ biomass management options and trade-offs. Data collection included household interviews, secondary literature, and reference data sets from global sources. Trade-off analysis focused on household-level self-supply of food, fodder, and fuel by farmers with different sizes of smallholdings, and their potential for on-farm recycling of organic matter. Results indicate that food self-supply by small and medium smallholders is insufficient and fodder sources are scarce. Fodder scarcity means that application of crop byproducts to soils is unlikely. Animal dung is largely used as fuel. Firewood needs exceed on-farm wood production, leading to deforestation. The approach presented facilitates an understanding of current and potential agricultural land interventions in the crop/livestock farming systems prevailing in mountainous areas.

Economic Benefits and Costs of Sustainable Land Management Technologies: An Analysis of WOCAT's Global Data

AbstractPerceived profitability is a key factor in explaining farmers' decision to adopt or not adopt sustainable land management (SLM) technologies. Despite this importance, relatively little is known about the economics of SLM. This paper contributes to the literature by analysing data on costs and perceived cost/benefit ratios of SLM technologies. Data are taken from the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies technology database and cover 363 case studies conducted in a variety of countries between 1990 and 2012. Based on an in‐depth descriptive analysis, we determine what costs accrue to local stakeholders and assess perceived short‐term and long‐term cost/benefit ratios. Our results show that a large majority of the technologies in our sample are perceived as being profitable: 73% were perceived to have a positive or at least neutral cost/benefit ratio in the short term, while 97% were perceived to have a positive or very positive cost/benefit ratio in the long term. An additional empirical analysis confirms that economic factors are key determinants of land users' decisions to adopt or not adopt SLM technologies. We conclude that a wide range of existing SLM practices generate considerable benefits not only for land users, but for other stakeholders as well. High initial investment costs associated with some practices may, however, constitute a barrier to their adoption; short‐term support for land users can help to promote these practices where appropriate. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Combining Sustainable Land Management Technologies to Combat Land Degradation and Improve Rural Livelihoods in Semi-arid Lands in Kenya.

Drylands occupy more than 80% of Kenya's total land mass and contribute immensely to the national economy and society through agriculture, livestock production, tourism, and wild product harvesting. Dryland ecosystems are areas of high climate variability making them vulnerable to the threats of land degradation. Consequently, agropastoralists inhabiting these ecosystems develop mechanisms and technologies to cope with the impacts of climate variability. This study is aimed to; (1) determine what agropastoralists inhabiting a semi-arid ecosystem in Kenya attribute to be the causes and indicators of land degradation, (2) document sustainable land management (SLM) technologies being undertaken to combat land degradation, and (3) identify the factors that influence the choice of these SLM technologies. Vegetation change from preferred indigenous forage grass species to woody vegetation was cited as the main indicator of land degradation. Land degradation was attributed to recurrent droughts and low amounts of rainfall, overgrazing, and unsustainable harvesting of trees for fuelwood production. However, despite the challenges posed by climate variability and recurrent droughts, the local community is engaging in simple SLM technologies including grass reseeding, rainwater harvesting and soil conservation, and dryland agroforestry as a holistic approach combating land degradation and improving their rural livelihoods. The choice of these SLM technologies was mainly driven by their additional benefits to combating land degradation. In conclusion, promoting such simple SLM technologies can help reverse the land degradation trend, improve agricultural production, food security including access to food, and subsequently improve livelihoods of communities inhabiting dryland ecosystems.

Fostering technological transition to sustainable land management through stakeholder collaboration in the western highlands of Kenya

Application of sustainable land management (SLM) practices is essential to lessen the negative impacts of land degradation on rural welfare in sub-Saharan Africa. Scaling-up of SLM technologies requires collaboration of diverse stakeholders across multiple scales. We follow inter-disciplinary approaches to evaluate prospects for wider promotion of SLM practices in the western highlands of Kenya. Findings from this study reveal that only 10 per cent of farmers are properly implementing the available SLM practices. Agricultural productivity is low and there is high dependence on benefits extracted from the forest resource. A positive correlation (rho=0.8) was found between stakeholder co-operation and success level of SLM projects. Results clearly show reasonable prospects such as some technology adoption activities and organisation of local actors that are necessary for triggering the transformation process to sustainable state of productivity. Nevertheless, technological transition could likely succeed if facilitated by enhanced stakeholder collaboration, a supportive policy environment and substantial resource mobilisation. We suggest the application of a context-specific transition management approach in this area in order to learn lessons on governance of transformative environmental programmes for similar socio-ecological systems in SSA.

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.