Landslide resilience in Equatorial Africa: Moving beyond problem identification!

Landslides (LS) impacts are acute in Equatorial Africa, which is characterized by mountainous topography, intense rains, deep weathering profiles, high population density and high vulnerability. This study aims to move beyond the recognition of landslide occurrence and investigate effective risk reduction strategies. Based on 5 workshops with local stakeholders, we illustrate the widespread occurrence of LS on 4 representative study areas known for being severely affected by rainfall-triggered LS in Uganda (Mount Elgon, Mount Rwenzori) and Cameroon (Limbe and Bamenda urban regions). The findings highlight the good knowledge of local stakeholders on factors controlling the timing and spatial distribution of these events. Stakeholders identify a wide range of direct, but also far-reaching indirect and intangible cumulative impacts of LS. Finally, the project inventoried and categorized risk reduction strategies currently implemented in the targeted regions, as well as the factors identified by stakeholders as bottlenecks in the implementation of potential alternative strategies. The experience underlines the usefulness of involving stakeholders at an early stage in selecting study areas and defining specific research objectives.En Afrique Équatoriale les glissements de terrain ont des conséquences très lourdes en raison de la topographie montagneuse, des pluies intenses et d'épais profils d'altération, ainsi que d'une densité de population élevée et d'une grande vulnérabilité. Cette étude a pour objet de dépasser la simple identification des occurrences des glissements de terrain et de rechercher des stratégies efficaces de réduction des risques. En nous basant sur 5 workshops organisés avec des acteurs locaux, nous montrons la fréquence générale des glissements de terrain sur 4 zones d'étude sévèrement impactées par les précipitations en Ouganda (Mount Elgon, Mount Rwenzori) et au Cameroun (zones urbaines de Limbe et Bamenda). Il ressort de nos résultats que les acteurs locaux ont une bonne connaissance des facteurs qui déterminent la distribution de ces évènements dans le temps et l'espace. Ils identifient toute une série d'impacts directs mais aussi d'impacts indirects intangibles d'une grande portée.Enfin, le projet a inventorié et catégorisé les stratégies de réduction des risques habituellement mises en œuvre dans les régions touchées, ainsi que les facteurs identifiés par les acteurs comme des obstacles à la mise au point de stratégies alternatives. Cette expérience souligne l'utilité d'engager des acteurs locaux à un stade très précoce de la sélection des zones d'étude et de la définition d'objectifs de recherche spécifiques

Assessing the Impact of Farm-Management Practices on Ecosystem Services in European Agricultural Systems: A Rapid Evidence Assessment

Many farm-management practices focus on maximizing production, while others better reconcile production with the regulation of ecological processes and sociocultural identity through the provisioning of ecosystem services (ESs). Though many studies have evaluated the performance of management practices against ES supply, these studies often focused on only a few practices simultaneously. Here, we incorporate 23 distinct management practices in a rapid evidence assessment to draw more comprehensive conclusions on their supply potential across 14 ESs in European agriculture. The results are visualized using performance indicators that quantify the ES-supply potential of a given management practice. In total, 172 indicators are calculated, among which cover crops are found to have the strongest positive impact on pollination-supply potential, while extensive livestock management is found to have the strongest negative impact for the supply potential for habitat creation/protection. The indicators also provide insight into the state of the peer-reviewed literature. At both the farm and territorial levels, the literature noticeably fails to evaluate cultural services. Further, disparities between the number of indicators composed at the farm and territorial levels indicate a systematic bias in the literature toward the assessment of smaller spatial levels

Investing in land to change your risk exposure? Land transactions and inequality in a landslide prone region

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd The poor and vulnerable tend to be increasingly exposed to natural hazards such as landslides. Land markets are one of the channels through which farmers get exposed to such hazards. This paper investigates the consequences of land transactions for the (un)equal distribution of exposure to landslide risk and of total land holdings in a rural area in Western Uganda. We propose and empirically test a mechanism through which land holdings and exposure to landslide risk evolve over a farmer's lifetime. A structured household survey and detailed information on land transaction as well as georeferenced information on plots was used to construct a panel dataset of land transactions. Regressions with household fixed effects were run to identify how landholdings and exposure to landslide susceptibility evolves over a farmer's lifetime. We find that farmers that are initially more exposed to landslides manage to reduce their average exposure to some extent by acquiring plots outside landslide prone areas. This goes at a cost, as farmers that are initially highly exposed acquire land more slowly than farmers that have a lower exposure on their first plot. Over a lifetime, in our case study, land transactions therefore have a somewhat levelling effect on inequality in exposure to landslides, but increase the inequality in land ownership. As such, one of the ways through which unequal risk exposure contributes to propagating inequality in total land ownings is theoretical and empirically identified.status: publishe

Lower Risk Reduction Intentions Among Households Exposed To Landslide Risk?

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Pro-poor land transfers in the presence of landslides: New insights on norms in land markets

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Investing in land to change your risk exposure? Land transactions in a landslide prone region

The poor and vulnerable tend to be increasingly exposed to natural hazards like landslides. Land markets are one of the channels through which farmers get exposed to such hazards. This paper investigates the consequences of land transactions for the (un)equal distribution of exposure to landslide risk and of total land holdings in a rural area in Western Uganda. We propose and empirically test a mechanism through which land holdings and exposure to landslide risk evolves over a farmer’s lifetime. A structured household survey and detailed information on land transaction as well as georeferenced information on plots was used to construct a panel dataset of land transactions. Regressions with household fixed effects were run to identify how landholdings and exposure to landslide susceptibility evolves over a farmer’s lifetime. We find that farmers that are initially more exposed to landslides manage to reduce their average exposure to some extent by acquiring plots outside landslide prone areas. This goes at a cost, as farmers that are initially highly exposed acquire land more slowly than farmers that have a lower exposure on their first plot. Over a lifetime, in our case study, land transactions therefore have a somewhat levelling effect on inequality in exposure to landslide susceptibility, but increase the inequality in land ownership. As such, one of the ways through which unequal risk exposure contributes to propagating inequality in total land ownings is theoretical and empirically identified

Land markets and social norms: a DCE in the presence of landslides

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