Award details

Restoring African degraded landscapes with plant biodiversity and livestock management

Reference	BB/S014934/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Mariana Rufino
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Professor Richard Bardgett, Professor Klaus Butterbach-Bahl, Dr Peter Cronkleton, Mr Joseph Hitimana, Dr Lutz Merbold, Dr Esther Mwangi, Professor John Quinton
Institution	Lancaster University
Department	Lancaster Environment Centre
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	1,151,253
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/04/2019
End date	31/03/2022
Duration	36 months

Abstract

The large extend of degraded land across Africa leads to stagnation in food production, poor livestock feed quality and lack of resilience of farming to climate shocks. In areas of high agro-ecological potential like the East African highlands, there is an urgent need to design and implement restoration approaches alongside agricultural intensification. This project aims to reverse trends of land degradation by exploiting plant biodiversity and livestock management to accelerate restoration, and boost livestock productivity. We hypothesize that mixtures of species with different functional traits combined with moderated grazing, can be successfully used by communities in the highlands of Kenya to restore their degraded grasslands. This interdisciplinary project will use a multi-scale approach to i) study primary productivity and landscape-level degradation in two contrasting sites; ii) characterise the biological and socio-ecological determinants of degradation and use complementary field and plot scale studies to identify mechanisms involved in a process of restoration exploiting biodiversity; and iii) explore alternative management and regulatory scenarios quantifying the benefits for livestock production and ecosystem conservation. WP1 will identify stages degradation and their association with ecosystem functioning, and livestock management measuring soil and vegetation characteristics, feed quality, and livestock management. WP2 will test the potential for selected plant species and species mixtures to accelerate and restore the functioning in degraded soils. WP3 will define opportunities to manage landscape-level interactions to support restoration and livelihoods through a validation of alternative scenarios. WP4 will ensure that the research addresses farming communities needs and that findings feed into appropriate fora at multiple levels. The project will design a multi-scale action plan for restoration, a model relevant for the highlands of East Africa.

Summary

Across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) approximately 660 million hectares of land is degraded, leading to low land productivity, poor and variable biomass production, inability to graze livestock and lack of resilience of agriculture to climate extremes. Land degradation is a major factor in the instability of crop and livestock production, leading to a significant burden of food and income security. Extensive forest areas of East Africa have been converted to grasslands and to agriculture, largely driven by the expansion of crop-livestock farming, a preferred livelihood option in these regions to minimize the impacts of climatic risks. Once land is converted for agriculture, a combination of low input of nutrients and high grazing pressure, with social and climatic changes leads to this land becoming degraded. Once degraded is it extremely difficult to recover the functionality of the land leading to a downward spiral of productivity and resulting in systems that are less resilient to climate extremes. Local farmers, who rely on livestock for their livelihoods, seek new land for grazing within natural ecosystems. As a consequence, high livestock densities have led to larger loads of nutrients and sediments entering water systems and are releasing greater emissions of harmful greenhouse gases. Land restoration must be a priority if we are to secure future food supplies, and protect high carbon and high biodiversity ecosystems across East Africa. This project seeks to explore the use of a novel combination of different local grassland plants species, coupled with new livestock management models to help farming communities in Kenya to recover degraded grazing lands. Working in partnership with local farmers and community based organisations, the project team aims to improve grassland productivity, thereby increasing the quality of livestock fodder, and nutrient content of manure. This will lead to restored functionality of soils for future plant production and a greaterdegree of resilience to future climate shocks. Specifically, this interdisciplinary project will use a multi-scale approach to: 1) Study the primary productivity and state of degradation of land at two contrasting sites of the densely populated highlands of Kenya; 2) Explore the biological and socio-ecological characteristics of these different sites and use complimentary field and plot scale studies to identify the mechanisms involved in a process of successful restoration using plant biodiversity and; 3) Explore alternative management and regulatory scenarios with local farmers and stakeholders, highlighting the benefits for livestock production and for ecosystem conservation. 4) Engage key stakeholders to understand restoration needs and constraints and to build the necessary capacity Halting and reversing land degradation in Africa is urgent given the projections of human population increase, the large proportion of the African population living in a rural setting, and the prominence of agriculture as a source of income across the continent. Single interventions such as increasing mineral fertiliser use or the supplementation of livestock feeds are unlikely to be sufficient to achieve nutritional security given the large scale of the problem, and the increases in productivity and new land that may be required. Protecting natural ecosystems such as forests and grasslands, and restoring soil resilience is also needed to reduce negative feedbacks on the regional climate system including livestock production of greenhouse gases and buffering negative impacts of climate change on the water cycle.

Impact Summary

We aim to reverse trends of grazing land degradation by exploiting plant biodiversity and livestock management to accelerate grassland restoration, and boost livestock productivity and ecosystem conservation. To achieve this, we designed an impact pathway that identifies stakeholders, and envisaged intermediate and end-of the project outcomes. The impact plan will to enable key stakeholders to use the knowledge, tools and analysis developed to deal with the restoration of degraded grazing lands. The core impact of this project will be based on the combination of excellent biophysical research, the development of metrics to diagnose and monitor land degradation, new knowledge on plant species diversity and traits, and dedicated knowledge exchange (KE) to map needs and constraints and to build capacity. The impact pathway is built on the idea that land degradation affects livelihoods by reducing livestock productivity and the value of livestock assets, increasing feeding costs and by increasing competition for arable land between food and feed crops. In addition, degradation affects neighbouring ecosystems by increasing pressures due to grazing, creating competition with wildlife and preventing regeneration. We hypothesise that the poor management of grazing lands is the result of capacity and knowledge gaps. To increase the likelihood to achieve impact, the research will address real needs from the farming communities of the study area; the findings will feed into appropriate fora at national and regional, and international levels, and the project will monitor the impact of activities. We will target stakeholders from five categories: i) grassland users and grassland managers, ii) community based organisations (CBOs), iii) ecosystem-level managing actors, iv) universities who provide training in natural resources management, v) research organisations. The current mapping of project stakeholders comes from the project partners and their ongoing projects in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The partners have in addition a network of implementing partners including government officials, legislators, NGOs and community-based organizations. This list of stakeholders will be expanded through surveys purposively designed to focus on grazing land degradation. Key knowledge outputs for impact activities will include: i) Land degradation maps used during stakeholder meetings to discuss institutional factors that may drive degradation processes; ii) Metrics of restoration used during KE events to build capacity to recognise landscapes that can be restored; iii) New knowledge on plant traits will be used to show the potential for restoration using local plant biodiversity. We will produce infographics to be distributed through social media to increase awareness on the connection between livestock productivity and land degradation. From the institutional analyses, stakeholders will be able to understand variations in degradation status with tenure/property rights, investments in grazing management and land management and implications of land degradation on gender. To measure the impact of the activities, stakeholders should have: i) increased their capacity to select landscapes that can be restored, ii) CBOs understood recommendations emerging from the project, iii) stakeholders learnt how to monitor a recovering soil and the plant species that can help the process, and iv) stakeholders recognise the properties that dictate whether a grassland is recovering or not. During the community feedback workshops participants will diagnose knowledge gaps to be addressed through dedicated KE events and training, outreach through engagement with the media, and the co-development of multi-stakeholder future action plan for restoration. KE at international level will be done by project members attending conferences and organising one dedicated stakeholder session in 2020 at the Global Landscape Forum organised by CIFOR and partners every year.

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Crop Science, Plant Science, Soil Science
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	GCRF Sustainably Enhancing Agricultural Production [2018]
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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