Report and synthesis of Stakeholder Workshop 1

Table of Contents

1. Authors
2. Introduction
   1. Background
   2. Objectives
3. Workshops
   1. How the methodology was used
   2. Participants
   3. Duration
4. Results from the single exercises
   1. Causes and effects of land degradation identified through the water and biomass cycles
   2. Local indicators
   3. Stakeholders' influence on, and motivation for sustainable land management
   4. Assessment of locally applied technologies and approaches
   5. Outline of an overall strategy for sustainable land management
5. Workshop evaluation
   1. Stakeholder involvement and participation
   2. Atmosphere
   3. Methodology
   4. Mutual learning
   5. Objectives and results
   6. Recommendations from study sites
6. Overall conclusions
   1. Have the objectives been attained?
   2. Strengths, weaknesses and challenges
   3. Limitations and problems
7. Annex: List of stakeholder workshop reports

Outline of an overall strategy for sustainable land management

Exercise 8 is a kind of a synthesis and tries to identify relevant inputs for the design of an overall sustainable land management (SLM) strategy that fits the concrete local context of the study site. Of course, a comprehensive strategy can not be developed within the stakeholder workshop and would need a much broader societal negotiation process. The main goal of the exercise therefore is to sensitise for the need of developing a SLM strategy considering the wider socio-economic and political framework conditions.

In the course of previous experiences it became clear that SLM is best achieved by a combination of technical measures and the improvement of framework conditions for their implementation ('technologies' and 'approaches' in the WOCAT terminology). The result of Exercise 8, i.e the outline of a SLM strategy, is also used as a starting point for the 2nd stakeholder workshop in WP 3.3.

Objectives:

• To create awareness on the need of a comprehensive strategy towards land and water conservation / sustainable land management.
• To identify and discuss important elements for a draft outline of a SLM strategy for the local context.

The following is a compilation of the outlines made by different study sites.

Spain-> Exercise not made. However, interesting information comes from the synthesis made by the study site team:

• Farmers are open to apply conservation measures on their fields, but need economic help from the administration.
• Farmers stress the fact that close collaboration through agricultural cooperatives is required to apply conservation measures.
• All farmers agree that it is fundamental to develop a strategy at regional level, since application of most measures at the individual or farm level is considered useless.
• All participants agree that an important unfavorable factor for soil conservation and sustainable development is the absence of young people with interest in farming and the loss of traditional knowledge on soil and water conservation in agricultural landscapes.

Portugal

n.c. - not completed: DGRF -General Department of Forest Resources: FFP - Permanent Forest Fund: GTF - Forest Technical Office: OPF - Organizations of Forest Owners: ZIF - Forest Intervention Area

Eskisehir, Turkey

Karapinar, Turkey

1. Strip cropping perpendicular to dominant wind direction -> Determination of space in-between and suitable crop types
2. Controlling grazing on pasture area and improving grassland -> protecting the pasture by fencing, education of farmers, foundation of local guarding assemblies
3. Extending the drip irrigation system -> Informing local stakeholders about the benefits of this technique as well as the way they can follow in receiving bank credits

Morocco-> not made, other methodology

Tunisia -> not made, other methodology

Djanybek, Russia

Saratov, Russia

China

The strategy for sustainable land management mainly includes:

1. Convert steep slope farmland to forest and grass: this is fundamental to control soil and water loss and improve the quality of land.
2. Constructing terraces in gentle slopes: terraces can increase the land productivity, thus reduce the requirement of total land area for food production. Meanwhile terraces can change the hydrological process of slope land and reduce the runoff.
3. Planting cash trees in gentle and south facing slopes
4. Strengthen the construction of irrigation works and improve their management in order to ensure stable yields despite drought.
5. Implement scientific farming practices, including the application of optimum amounts of fertilizer and the use of crop rotation methods.
6. Transformation of mono-crop systems into a mixed system of crops and grass

Botswana

Chile

The Chilean Ministry of Agriculture has implemented a program to recover degraded land areas. This program involves 50 practices that have direct subsidy. The strategy needs to be based on:

• Promotion of the appropriate technologies.
• More education in conservation issue.
• Generation of validated technologies with farmers.

Cape Verde

The discussion focused on strategies based on the natural resources (where the majority of the population directly depends on the surrounding natural resources, such as, the agriculture of subsistence, animals husbandry, etc.), the strategies not based on the natural resources (the small traders, drivers, etc.), and institutional strategies (as for example the laws, and regulations imposed by the Municipalities). The following strategy was outlined in a joint effort:

• Preservation & maintenance (of the fragile ecosystem and infrastructures of SWC)
• Increase (of infrastructures of SWC and the perimeter of the vegetation cover)
• Management of existing natural resources (rain water & and forest perimeter of Longueira)
• Promotion of activities not related to agriculture for women and youth (women traders, professional training, etc.)
• Application of existing laws (water conservation and management laws, land use laws, and natural resources conservation laws, etc.)
• Increase inspection (on natural resources, and water usage)

Discussion

In 9 study sites, the exercise has been made in more or less detail. In Morocco and Tunisia it has not been made, because it was not yet included in the guidelines used for the pilot workshop; and in Spain it was not made due to time constraints.

No relevant conclusions can be drawn from comparing the results of different study sites. However, there are a few points that deserve to be mentioned:

• None of the study sites explicitly mentioned any socio-economic, legal or institutional constraints that have to be considered in an overall SLM strategy, although such constraints have been identified in previous exercises!
• In a few cases, the outlined strategy resembles more a possible current governmental strategy and does not really seem to be a result of stakeholder discussion (e.g. China, Chile).
• Many of the outlined strategies are far too general and would need to be discussed again and refined to become more concrete (e.g. Cape Verde, Eskisehir).
• Most strategies clearly focus on SWC and technical aspects (e.g. drip irrigation, terraces, reforestation, etc.). In Cape Verde however, the wider context has been considered including strategies not based on natural resources and institutional strategies such as promoting income generating activities not related to agriculture and the enforcement of existing laws.