General

Sustainable Land Management to Strengthen Social Cohesion in the Drylands of Burkina Faso

Objectives

Promoting sustainable food systems, restoring degraded ecosystems, and reducing deforestation in the Motagua River Watershed (MRW)

Other

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

Target Groups

122. The socioeconomic benefits to be delivered by the project at the national level consist of enhancing capacity of staff from public institutions (e.g., MARN, CONAP, INAB, MAGA, and Segeplán) for promoting sustainable production, biodiversity conservation, SLM, mitigation and adaptation to the impacts of climate change on land use planning, and for production-conservation conflicts, among other topics. At the local level, local governments and palm oil, coffee, and agroforestry producers, as well as small-scale producers of corn, beans, fruit trees, and other crops with high nutritional value and medium-scale cattle ranchers, will also participate in this training. In total, training activities will benefit 7,865 people, including women and indigenous peoples. The project will also strengthen local planning processes and governance for implementing ILM systems; this will include developing/updating and implementing five (5) micro-watershed management plans, six (6) PDM-OTs and PEI-POM-POAs at the municipal level, the operational strengthening of departmental, municipal, and community councils, and of governance associations of the MRW and micro-watersheds for implementing ILM systems. The project will strengthen and promote the diversification of coffee farming as a sustainable food production system, improving shaded areas through improved forest cover practices and fruit trees that will ensure the continuity of the coffee crop as an agroforestry system free from deforestation. This will benefit 1,502 coffee producers, including those most vulnerable to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through an inclusive technical assistance program for palm oil, the project will benefit eight (8) producers covering 16,879 ha of palm oil plantations, to strengthen their socio-environmental responsibility and promote new sustainable food production systems in the direct areas of influence of the these plantations, thereby benefiting 2,000 small farmers. In addition, an inclusive production program to address production activities identified as causing deforestation and environmental degradation, primarily subsistence crops and cattle ranching, will result in sustainable food production systems with a focus on integrated landscape management that will benefit an additional 225 farmers. The project will also make available national forest cash incentives such as PINPEP and PROBOSQUE and other financial mechanisms (i.e., government, private, municipal, etc.) that will promote the conservation and restoration of natural habitats. These incentives are expected to benefit 3,344 small- and medium-scale producers and to contribute to the delivery of global environmental benefits such as enhanced habitat for biodiversity, restoration of degraded lands, and mitigation of climate change. In total, the project will directly benefit 12,966 people (40% women and 60% men).123. The expected economic benefits the project will generate include cash incentives to producers through the PINPEP and PROBOSQUE programs. The PINPEP program is directed to beneficiaries and landholders who lack legal ownership titles in the municipalities that are prioritized according to their levels of poverty. This program covers agroforestry activities, forest plantations (only native species will be used in this project), and forest management activities to reverse the processes of deforestation, reduce vulnerability to extreme weather events, mitigate or adapt to the effects of climate change, and reduce the level of extreme poverty in the country. Projects usually receive payments during 6 to 10 years. On average the PINPEP program has paid the following: a) Incentive amount for managing natural forests for protection purposes per year for 10 years: a) from 0.1 to 5 ha: $370 per ha; b) over 5 ha: $1,853.84 for the first 5 ha + $95.10 per additional ha; and b) Incentive amount for managing natural forests for production purposes (plantations with native species and agroforestry) per year for 10 years: a) from 0.1 to 5 ha: $396.86 per ha; b) over 5 ha: $1,984.28 for the first 5 ha + $110.78 per additional ha.[19] 124. The PROBOSQUE program provides cash incentives for managing natural forests to protect and provide environmental services, establishing and maintaining agroforestry systems, managing natural forests with production aims, and restoring degraded forest lands, among other things. The program is directed to a wide group of stakeholders such as municipalities, CSOs, cooperatives, individuals, and indigenous communities. Payments through the PROBOSQUE program for the restoration of degraded forestlands have averaged $225.54 per ha.[20] At least this level of payments (economic benefits) is expected through the project for those producers that will make use of these incentive programs. In addition, producers will benefit from commercial sales agreements established between national and international buyers of coffee and national producers for the development of sustainable value chains in the prioritized landscape of the MRW. Finally, coffee growers may benefit from the certification (premiums); benefits from coffee certified as sustainable will depend on market conditions.125. Other project benefits include improved water supply for producers and other stakeholders through the implementation of a pilot scheme for the compensation for water ecosystem services. Finally, through knowledge management activities and products, the project will benefit multiple stakeholders nationally by increasing awareness about mainstreaming biodiversity in production landscapes, SLM, climate change mitigation, and sustainable production; this will be key for replication and scaling-up of successful experiences in other production landscapes and watersheds. [19] Source: http://portal.inab.gob.gt/index.php/component/content/article/112-servicios/183-pinpep?Itemid=437 [20] Custodio De Leo´n, L. M. 2017. Boleti´n Estadi´stico 1998-2017. Departamento de Incentivos Forestales. INAB Guatemala.

Objectives

To create an enabling environment for an integrated landscape approach in support of SLM and LDN implementation in The Gambia

Other

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

Target Groups

1. The objective of the project is to create an enabling environment for an integrated landscape approach in support of SLM and LDN implementation in The Gambia, and directly benefit 9,608 people (5,715 (59%) women; and 3,893 (41%) men. Generally, land degradation threatens the livelihoods of billions of people around the world, particularly the rural populations, 80% of whom live extreme poverty, and 65% among them work in the agricultural sector.[1] For rural communities, land is a key asset for the livelihoods, as it provides key resources such as food, energy, shelter, and fodder, among others. Land degradation, however, constrains the supply of these ecosystem services and negatively impacts household income and consumption in many parts of the world, worsening poverty and widening inequalities.[2] Thus, land degradation negatively impacts on human wellbeing as it leads to a decrease in food availability, energy provision, groundwater recharge, soil fertility, carbon sequestration capacity, biodiversity and construction materials, among others.[3] Physical declines in ecosystem services have a direct impact on the capacity of households to generate income due to reductions in labour, livestock and land productivity, as well as on the capacity of households to harvest products from nature for their own livelihoods. 2. This project will invest in SLM and LDN to improve the productivity of production landscapes in targeted regions in The Gambia. The project acknowledges that land improvements support rural populations to generate income, contributing to the prosperity and equality of those at the bottom of the income distribution ladder through mechanisms such as sustaining the income of households largely dependent on land for their subsistence, increasing labour, livestock and land productivity and enabling resources for economic growth in the agricultural sector.[4] 3. The project recognises the relationship between poverty and environmental degradation. As has already been noted, The Gambia’s poverty rate remains at 48%, while food insecurity has risen from 5 to 8% over the past five years as a result of weak food production systems and the effects of successive shocks such as drought and floods. Due to COVID-19, poverty expected to increase by 9.6% percent in 2020.[5] Poverty rates remain highest in rural areas, where the poor typically work in the low-productivity agricultural sector, while in urban areas they work in the lowproductivity informal service sectors. In addressing the challenges of land degradation, the projects also seeks to address the poverty levels which remain stubbornly in rural Gambia. 4. The socioeconomic benefits for direct beneficiaires are trifurcated into capacity development, access to improved resource base, and direct handouts in form of equipment that will support them to reduce their exploitation of natural resources. The benefits include the following:· The project seeks to build the capacity of stakeholders through vocational education strategies and trainings tools that will benefit 4,200 people. Capacity development will also include the Songhai Centre and Farmers Field Schools. Additionally, the capacity of 7 communities; 50 women associations and technical services; and 150 extension services workers in 11 districts will be enhanced on SLM for climate resilient and low emission agriculture leading to improved agricultural and livestock production. The socioeconomic benefit in capacity development lies in the adage that knowledge is power. The project, through capacity development, will therefore empower beneficiaries.· The project will support 700 households to improve water and soil management practices that will have overall benefits in terms of food and nutrition security on 1,500 ha. Additionally, the productivity of more land (12,000 ha) will be improved, and bushfires controlled on 7,500 ha – further contributing to the provisions of ecosystem services that underpin livelihoods. Furthermore, the creation of woodlots using multipurpose tree species will be crucial in the provisioning of traditional medicines and fuelwood which they would otherwise have to fetch far away;· The project will distribute 1,000 Jambar cooking stoves distributed to 1,000 households to reduce the use of charcoal and fuelwoods which contribute to soil erosion and general land degradation. Jambar cooking stoves as improved biomass cooking stoves, as the name suggests, improves the consumption of firewood, and therefore, saves on the collection time of fuelwood. 5. It is reiterated here that, for rural communities that are financially constrained, the balanace between land management and poverty is delicate because the wellbeing of resource users is not only a function of the productivity of those resources, but the socioeconomic wellbeing also depends those resources. Thus, avoiding and reducing the negative impacts on land, as well as restoring land resources, will be crucial to conserve and protect biodiversity and maintain vital ecosystem services, while also ensuring shared prosperity and well-being. Generally, healthy and productive land plays an important role as an engine of economic growth and a source of livelihoods for billions worldwide, including the most vulnerable populations.[6] [1] Global Mechanism of the UNCCD, Conservation International, DIE. 2019. Land Degradation, Poverty and Inequality. Bonn, Germany [2] Idem [3] IPBES (2018): The IPBES assessment report on land degradation and restoration. Montanarella, L., Scholes, R., and Brainich, A. (eds.). Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Bonn, Germany [4] Global Mechanism of the UNCCD, Conservation International, DIE. 2019. Land Degradation, Poverty and Inequality. Bonn, Germany [5] World Bank. (2020). Poverty and Equity Brief: Africa Western & Central - The Gambia [6] UNCCD. (2019). Land and Sustainable Development Goals