Onto the farm, into the home: how intrahousehold gender dynamics shape land restoration in Eastern Kenya

While attention has been paid largely to forest restoration, meeting global land restoration pledges will require scaling-up restoration of ecosystem services on agricultural land. This paper contributes to the literature on restoration practice and agricultural technology adoption, by shifting the focus onto the farm and considering the role of intrahousehold dynamics in the uptake of farmland restoration practices. We examine the intrahousehold decisions and gender relations surrounding the trial of two on-farm restoration practices: tree planting and planting basins; with over 2,500 farmers in the eastern drylands of Kenya. Combining results from household surveys, interviews and focus group discussions, our findings reveal that decisions over the uptake of restoration practices, although usually initiated by women who attend agricultural workshops, are often discussed between husband and wife and that multiple social dimensions intersect to shape men's and women's interest in, contribution to, and benefit from different practices. Furthermore, our study demonstrates that these intrahousehold relations are, in turn, shaped by women's participation in innovation processes and broader societal changes, particularly the outmigration of rural men. Based on these insights, we offer recommendations for improving the dissemination and uptake of on-farm restoration practices in eastern Kenya and achieving more inclusive and gender-equitable outcomes

Women's Changing Opportunities and Aspirations Amid Male Outmigration: Insights from Makueni County, Kenya

In Makueni County, Kenya, an area experiencing intensifying migration flows, we investigate the aspired futures of rural men and women using a novel methodology combining a narrative-based survey tool, focus group discussions and semistructured interviews. Our findings indicate that, in the absence of men and presence of norms restricting women’s movement out of rural life, women are becoming increasingly engaged in farm management. Women’s aspirational narratives focused on commercialising farm activities, likely reflecting their changing agricultural opportunity space and new realities as farm managers. We highlight that only considering aspirations at the household level overlooks differing individual contributions, agency over various household income streams and individuals’ changing roles throughout life. Based on our findings, we make recommendations for further aspirations research including explicit consideration of intrahousehold heterogeneity and how individual strategies and aspirations interrelate and are negotiated at the household level to build an overall livelihood strategy

Exploring the effects of migration on smallholder farm households in Kenya and Burkina Faso

This brief brings together insights from a cross-country comparative study exploring the effects of rural outmigration on smallholder farm households in Eastern Kenya and the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso. It sheds light on the context-dependent nature of migration and how different types of migration can have different effects on gendered labour relations and household capacities to invest in farming and manage the farm

Enhancing synergies between gender equality and biodiversity, climate, and land degradation neutrality goals: Lessons from gender-responsive nature-based approaches

Land- and nature-based approaches in the agroforestry and forestry sectors provide a unique opportunity to generate win-wins against the interrelated environmental crises of biodiversity loss, climate change, and land degradation. Harnessing synergies among these environmental goals, reflected in the Rio Conventions, critically hinges on land-use decisions, which are influenced by social dynamics – including gender. Yet, despite the linkages between gender equality and climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation, approaches that generate desirable feedback loops among these processes remain poorly understood and applied. This paper explores how putting gender equity at the forefront of nature-based solutions can help leverage synergies among the Rio Conventions' environmental goals. Moreover, it examines the possible risks that nature-based approaches used to advance these goals can pose to gender equality if these approaches are not responsive to gender issues. Through a social equity framework, we demonstrate that greater gains can be accrued from gender-responsive nature-based approaches that address a wider set of priorities, harness a broader set of skills to address environmental ails, enhance capacities of marginalized groups by securing their rights and access to resources, and generate more equitable incentives to garner the buy-in of an array of actors. Our examples also illustrate potential tensions between social and environmental objectives, highlighting the need to carefully consider and reconcile trade-offs while incorporating strong social safeguards

Land restoration amid male outmigration: The cases of Burkina Faso and Kenya

Within the global literature on ecological restoration, a subset of literature examines the relationship between smallholder land restoration and rural outmigration. However, intrahousehold dynamics surrounding the outmigration of one or more household members and the capacity of the household to undertake land restoration activities are often overlooked. With analyses rooted in Burkina Faso and Kenya, we explore the relationships between restoration, household labor, and rural outmigration, which is a prominent livelihood strategy in the two contexts. Our case studies draw on data from interviews, focus group discussions, and small-n household surveys in Burkina Faso and Kenya. Our analysis substantiates the need to consider migration in understanding and promoting smallholder land restoration. Our multi-sited approach further reveals that the contextually-specific characteristics of the migration event (i.e., type of migration [permanent or temporary], position of the migrant within the household, timing and duration of migration) play an important role in shaping restoration and gender outcomes. As male heads of households or their sons outmigrate periodically in Kenya compared to young men leaving seasonally in Burkina Faso, the impacts of migration on intrahousehold gender relations are more transformative in the Kenyan case study, with women garnering greater decision-making power on the family farm and in land restoration activities, whereas entrenched gender norms in the Burkina Faso case remain unchallenged by migration

TH3.3: Beyond crops: Towards gender equality in forestry, fisheries, aquaculture, and livestock development

The fisheries, aquaculture, forestry, and livestock sectors are critical for sustaining rural livelihoods and achieving global food and nutrition security. Yet each of these sectors embeds important gender and other social inequalities, hindering people who rely on these livelihood systems from achieving their full potential. In this background paper for the Report on The Status of Rural Women in Agri-food Systems: 10 Years after the SOFA 2010-11, we review the literature to examine gender gaps in relation to each sector, their implications for achieving multiple food system outcomes, what has worked to reduce inequalities, and the potential these sectors hold for advancing gender equality as an outcome in itself. We demonstrate that, despite specificities across sectors, similar gender barriers limit the benefits women receive from fisheries, aquaculture, forestry, and livestock. These constraints, which occur at multiple levels, include: the invisibility and undervaluation of rural women's labor and their disproportionately heavy labor burdens, limited and precarious control over resources, norms that hinder women's voice and influence in decision-making and governance, and exclusionary institutions such as resource-user groups and extension and data systems. Drawing on Njuki et al.'s (2021) Gendered Food Systems framework, we demonstrate that, to achieve transformative change in food systems, changes in each sector are required in women's agency, access to and control over resources, gender norms, and policies and governance. Such changes can improve dietary outcomes, gender equality and women's empowerment, economic and livelihood outcomes, and environmental outcomes. To conclude, we argue that closing gender gaps across sectors requires multipronged strategies that simultaneously engage these four change pathways to lift structural barriers to inequality

A Planetary Health Perspective on Agroforestry in Sub-Saharan Africa

Human activities change the structure and function of the environment with cascading impacts on human health, a concept known as “planetary health.” Agroforestry—the management of trees with crops and livestock—alters microclimates, hydrology, biogeochemistry, and biodiversity. Besides the nutritional benefits of increased fruit consumption, however, the ways agroforestry affects human health are rarely articulated. This review makes that link. We analyze the pathways through which tree-based farm and landscape change affect food and nutrition security, the spread of infectious disease, the prevalence of non-communicable diseases, and human migration in Sub-Saharan Africa. The available evidence suggests that, despite some increased risks of infectious disease, agroforestry is likely to improve a diverse range of pressing health concerns. We therefore examine the factors determining agroforestry use and identify three drivers of social and environmental change that will determine the future uptake of agroforestry in the region. Thirty percent of Sub-Saharan Africa's cropland has at least 10% tree cover. The available evidence indicates that agroforestry drives environmental change, which can improve a diverse range of pressing health concerns such as malnutrition, spread of infectious disease, prevalence of non-communicable disease, and human migration. This, however, does not always apply: transdisciplinary, participatory approaches are needed to dive more deeply into specific land-management systems to identify synergies and tradeoffs among health outcomes

Ten people‐centered rules for socially sustainable ecosystem restoration

As the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration begins, there remains insufficient emphasis on the human and social dimensions of restoration. The potential that restoration holds for achieving both ecological and social goals can only be met through a shift toward people-centered restoration strategies. Toward this end, this paper synthesizes critical insights from a special issue on “Restoration for whom, by whom” to propose actionable ways to center humans and social dimensions in ecosystem restoration, with the aim of generating fair and sustainable initiatives. These rules respond to a relative silence on socio-political issues in di Sacco et al.'s “Ten golden rules for reforestation to optimize carbon sequestration, biodiversity recovery and livelihood benefits” on socio-political issues and offer complementary guidance to their piece. Arranged roughly in order from pre-intervention, design/initiation, implementation, through the monitoring, evaluation and learning phases, the 10 people-centered rules are: (1) Recognize diversity and interrelations among stakeholders and rightsholders'; (2) Actively engage communities as agents of change; (3) Address socio-historical contexts; (4) Unpack and strengthen resource tenure for marginalized groups; (5) Advance equity across its multiple dimensions and scales; (6) Generate multiple benefits; (7) Promote an equitable distribution of costs, risks, and benefits; (8) Draw on different types of evidence and knowledge; (9) Question dominant discourses; and (10) Practice inclusive and holistic monitoring, evaluation, and learning. We contend that restoration initiatives are only tenable when the issues raised in these rules are respectfully addressed

Mitochondrial physiology

As the knowledge base and importance of mitochondrial physiology to evolution, health and disease expands, the necessity for harmonizing the terminology concerning mitochondrial respiratory states and rates has become increasingly apparent. The chemiosmotic theory establishes the mechanism of energy transformation and coupling in oxidative phosphorylation. The unifying concept of the protonmotive force provides the framework for developing a consistent theoretical foundation of mitochondrial physiology and bioenergetics. We follow the latest SI guidelines and those of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) on terminology in physical chemistry, extended by considerations of open systems and thermodynamics of irreversible processes. The concept-driven constructive terminology incorporates the meaning of each quantity and aligns concepts and symbols with the nomenclature of classical bioenergetics. We endeavour to provide a balanced view of mitochondrial respiratory control and a critical discussion on reporting data of mitochondrial respiration in terms of metabolic flows and fluxes. Uniform standards for evaluation of respiratory states and rates will ultimately contribute to reproducibility between laboratories and thus support the development of data repositories of mitochondrial respiratory function in species, tissues, and cells. Clarity of concept and consistency of nomenclature facilitate effective transdisciplinary communication, education, and ultimately further discovery

Mitochondrial physiology

As the knowledge base and importance of mitochondrial physiology to evolution, health and disease expands, the necessity for harmonizing the terminology concerning mitochondrial respiratory states and rates has become increasingly apparent. The chemiosmotic theory establishes the mechanism of energy transformation and coupling in oxidative phosphorylation. The unifying concept of the protonmotive force provides the framework for developing a consistent theoretical foundation of mitochondrial physiology and bioenergetics. We follow the latest SI guidelines and those of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) on terminology in physical chemistry, extended by considerations of open systems and thermodynamics of irreversible processes. The concept-driven constructive terminology incorporates the meaning of each quantity and aligns concepts and symbols with the nomenclature of classical bioenergetics. We endeavour to provide a balanced view of mitochondrial respiratory control and a critical discussion on reporting data of mitochondrial respiration in terms of metabolic flows and fluxes. Uniform standards for evaluation of respiratory states and rates will ultimately contribute to reproducibility between laboratories and thus support the development of data repositories of mitochondrial respiratory function in species, tissues, and cells. Clarity of concept and consistency of nomenclature facilitate effective transdisciplinary communication, education, and ultimately further discovery