General

In the past five years, commercial interest and investments in agricultural land have intensified in quantity, speed, and size over the past five years, with demand for land in Africa particularly high. Yet, while the supply of fertile land diminishes globally, pressure continues to mount to meet the demands of growing populations. Experience has shown that even when communities welcome outside investment, they can face a number of potentially destabilizing risks. These include expropriation, or reduced use, displacement, loss of livelihoods, and conflict brought on by increased competition for land. Communities are often left out of land concession-granting processes. They tend to have little power to advocate for equitable terms which support local prosperity and protect community interests. This is particularly true for communities that manage land use and ownership through customary rules, and have no formal legal title to their lands. In these contexts, communal lands not under cultivation can become flashpoints, as they are often the first to be allocated to investors, claimed by elites, and appropriated for state development projects. Studies have shown that increased scarcity and competition for land can trigger a breakdown in customary rules, especially rules that previously protected vulnerable groups' land rights and ensured that communal resources were equitably and sustainably managed. The effects for women can be particularly pronounced. Evidence shows that families may reinterpret customary rules to weaken women's right to land. This project aims to fill an important knowledge gap. Researchers will conduct the first known longitudinal study on the impact of community land registration efforts. The potential for community land protection to provide an alternative to individual land rights registration systems' remains largely unknown. Initial evidence suggests that community land protection may help to build more accountable land governance and management practices at the local and national level. This, in turn, can help increase communities' ability to negotiate with government and outside investors in cases of proposed land concessions. Efforts to secure community land titles have also produced important improvements in women's land rights and their participation in local decision-making processes. The research will take place in three countries: Liberia, Mozambique, and Uganda. Each has laws that create community land titles, and processes to formally register them. The research will draw on a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods, including randomized control trials to assess the use of different legal empowerment interventions. Researchers will also apply participatory action methods used to build community governance processes. The project team includes a strong mix of local civil society organizations. The project will build on their existing close partnership with researchers based in developed countries. This project is part of a series of projects on promoting accountability around large-scale land acquisitions in Africa.

Objectives

Project Objective: To initiate a transformational shift towards sustainable, integrated management of multi-use dryland landscapes in the Miombo-Mopane ecoregions of Angola (Okavango and Cunene river basins) based on Land Degradation Neutrality principles

Other

Note: Disbursement data provided is cumulative and covers disbursement made by the project Agency.

Target Groups

1.Benefits407.The project will work towards the implementation and mainstreaming of sustainable and integrated approaches to the management of dryland landscapes and decision-making regarding land-use in selected landscapes in Angola. By scaling-up SLM and SFM best practices in priority landscapes in the south of the country, the project will have a transboundary focus and impact (Cunene basin) complementing existing interventions, which will in turn contribute to the achievement of both the project and the Impact Program main objectives.The strengthened national policy and capacity on LDN and the empowerment of stakeholders on SLM/SFM/LR/IWRM planning and implementation in combination with the establishment/strengthening of inclusive dryland commodity value chains will have a positive impact beyond the target landscapes.408.Global benefits from the project’s successful implementation will include:·The project will apply the LDN response hierarchy to 633,278 hectares of production systems located within the two target landscapes that cover 1.3 million hectares of Miombo-Mopane woodlands.·Carbon benefits: Through the land management strategy mentioned above, the project will both sequester carbon and avoid emissions in the AFOLU sector,totaling1,047,911tCO2-eq.·Co-benefit of GEF investment: At least 2,000 households, comprising approximately 10,000 individuals, will benefit directly from the GEF investment within the two project landscapes.409.Project activities will focus on enhancing key stakeholders’ capacity for handling spatial data, develop strategic partnerships, mobilizing finance, and conceiving projects, all related to SFM/SLM practices, creating conditions for collaborative landscape management. The project expects to train approximately 2000 land users in multiple locations across the landscapes of southern Angola (targeting at least 35% are women) with focus on skills development for SLM/SFM practices through the Farmer Field Schools and Forest Farm Facility approaches as applicable. Within the landscapes, the project expects to engage with 10,000 local stakeholders at the level of households. Efforts will be made to enlist the participation of female-headed and dual-headed households at higher rate than male-headed households (target 65% for female plus dual)410.SFM/SLM practices mainstreamed in the country:Principles and evidence-based best practices of SFM/SLM will be disseminated among project beneficiaries, including local communities and national institutions. By implementing activities related to it, the project will be able to reduce key policy barriers currently challenging the country’s enforcement to prevent causes of land degradation and will bring a positive long-term impact on a part of Angola where LD is the most critical issue.411.GreenValue chain development:The project foresees the strengthening of viable and sustainable promising value chains identified during the PPG process. Producer organizations will be able to participate in capacity building activities, as well as have access to finance and market mechanisms which will allow their business to develop. Therefore, it is also foreseen that the project, by contributing to the productivity and sustainability of agricultural practices and green value chain development, has the potential forindirectlycontributing to long-lasting improvement of livelihoods and food security, particularly in direct beneficiary communities of the demonstration landscapes.

General

The Swedish Embassy issued a call for proposals on Sustainable Use of Natural Resources with focus on the Agricultural sector. The call was issued in recognition of the fact that agriculture is one of the most important sectors in the economy of Zambia and apart from contributing to, is also highly affected by environmental degradation. SNV submitted a proposal to implement a project called "Sustainable Integrated Land Management Solutions (SILMS)" at a cost of 39 508 017 SEK in Lundazi and Katete districts of the Eastern Province of Zambia for the period 2015 to 2018. The Project proposes a market based approach. SNV views the proposed market approach, and rightly so, as key to the success and sustainability of the project which aims to incentivise smallholders to adopt sustainable production practices through increased income generation. At the same time the approach enables small holders to increase their production in a sustainable manner through increased access to modern farm inputs; extension services; finance and markets. The increased income will incentivise small holder farmers to adopt integrated soil fertility management, agro forestry and deforestation-free production. The increased availability of market-based services enables them to continue to use these sustainable land management practices even after the end of the Project. An overview of results expected from this intervention include: 1. 15,000 Small holder farmers improve productivity using ISFM and Agro forestry practices through increased access to inputs and extension services 2. 20,000 Small holders have increased access to markets and finance to support and sustain their adoption of ISFM and Agro forestry practices 3. Deforestation and damage to land from uncontrolled agricultural expansion in Lundazi and Katete Districts is reduced by 15% 4. The development of nationwide frameworks of practice that will enable wide spread adoption of ISFM and agro forestry practices and replication of the deforestation free supply chain model to other commodities is supported SNV will be the implementer of the project and will manage the grant and oversee the project’s implementation. The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) will be sub-contracted to provide technical expertise to the project. The total budget for technical assistance that will be subcontracted to SEI over the three year period is 304,428 Euro. The budget for ICRAF for technical assistance is 146,130 Euro.