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

Methodology

The workshop methodology with its sequence of 9 exercises was generally evaluated positively, except from Moroccan farmers, who didn't like it. However, two study sites found it to be quite challenging for local stakeholders: Tunisia; and Botswana, who stated that synthesis steps were very challenging due to low level of literacy.

Other study sites appreciate the methodology for:

• The suggested methods foster informal discussion, which motivated active participation (Portugal);
• The sequence of steps and exercises allows to reach a systematic and transversal perspective of land degradation causes and possible solutions (Portugal);
• Logical, well structured exercises (Djanybek, Saratov)
• An effective way to make sustainable land use planning (China)

Two exercises were particularly appreciated:

• the photo gallery (Ex. 1) was highly valued by participants and provoked ample discussion (Spain)
• The water and biomass cycles were very good and are now also used for training students at university (Djanybek, Saratov).