Synthesis of thematic papers from the series ‘Women’s empowerment in the drylands

Women’s land rights and their importance for women’s empowerment and wider development goals have gained increased attention in recent years. However, gender inequality in land rights in dryland countries and across the developing world more broadly remains pervasive. This is related to discriminatory socio-cultural norms that are found in customary and statutory institutions and practices that differ according to local contexts. In addition, women often lack representation and the authority to make decisions in land management and governance. Against this backdrop, the UNDP Global Policy Centre on Resilient Ecosystems and Desertification (GPC-Nairobi) and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) have commissioned three new studies exploring the issues of gender justice with respect to dryland land rights, governance and resilience

Tools for Soil Organic Carbon Estimation and Management

Land degradation neutrality (LDN) is achieved if land degradation is avoided or reduced, and new degradation is balanced by reversing degradation elsewhere in the same land type through restoration or rehabilitation. The primary instrument for avoiding and reducing degradation is the application of sustainable land management (SLM) approaches and technologies. Because of its multifunctional roles and its sensitivity to land management, soil organic carbon (SOC) is one of the three global indicators for LDN, so predicting and monitoring change in SOC is vital to achieving LDN targets. Measuring SOC is challenging because SOC stock is highly variable across landscapes, even within the same soil type and land use, and SOC stock fluctuates over time. Predicting the potential change in SOC stock due to changes in land management is also a challenge. Accurate evaluation of SOC stock change resulting SCIENCE-POLICY BRIEF Tools for Soil Organic Carbon Estimation and Management from SLM interventions is often limited by the availability of data and the performance of tools/models for SOC assessment. Therefore, targeted investment in SOC estimation is vital. Guidance on harmonized methods that provide accurate estimations of changes in SOC stocks resulting from SLM interventions is required. Software tools and biophysical models for SOC assessment can help “fill the gaps” in measured datasets for SOC estimation. The following decision trees will guide efforts to predict change in SOC under alternative SLM practices, and monitor SOC change in response to SLM interventions, and thereby support decision-makers to pursue the right SLM interventions in the right locations, at the right time, at the right scale with the overall goal to increase or maintain SOC and improve soil health in support of LDN achievement

Valuing Ecosystem Services in Semi-arid Rangelands through Stochastic Simulation

Ecosystem services and economic returns from semi-arid rangelands are threatened by land degradation. Policies to improve ecosystem service delivery often fail to consider uncertainty in economic returns gained through different land uses and management practices. We apply an analytical framework using stochastic simulation to estimate the range of potential monetary outcomes of rangeland ecosystem services under different land uses, including consideration of the uncertainty and variability of model parameters. We assess monetary and non-monetary dimensions, including those ecosystem services with uncertain and missing information, for communal rangelands, commercial ranches, game farms and Wildlife Management Areas in southern Kgalagadi District, Botswana. Public land uses (communal grazing areas and protected conservation land in Wildlife Management Areas) provide higher economic value than private land uses (commercial ranches and game farms), despite private land uses being more profitable in their returns from meat production. Communal rangelands and protected areas are important for a broader range of ecosystem services (cultural/spiritual services, recreation, firewood, construction material and wild food), which play a key role in sustaining the livelihoods of the largest share of society. The full range of ecosystem services should therefore be considered in economic assessments, while policies targeting sustainable land management should value and support their provision and utilisation. By forecasting the range of plausible ecosystem values of different rangeland land uses in monetary terms, our analysis provides policymakers with a tool to assess outcomes of land use and management decisions and policies

Integrating knowledge exchange and the assessment of dryland management alternatives – A learning-centered participatory approach

The adoption of sustainable land management strategies and practices that respond to current climate and human pressures requires both assessment tools that can lead to better informed decision-making and effective knowledge-exchange mechanisms that facilitate new learning and behavior change. We propose a learning-centered participatory approach that links land management assessment and knowledge exchange and integrates science-based data and stakeholder perspectives on both biophysical and socio-economic attributes. We outline a structured procedure for a transparent assessment of land management alternatives, tailored to dryland management, that is based on (1) principles of constructivism and social learning, (2) the participation of stakeholders throughout the whole assessment process, from design to implementation, and (3) the combination of site-specific indicators, identified by local stakeholders as relevant to their particular objectives and context conditions, and science-based indicators that represent ecosystem services of drylands worldwide. The proposed procedure follows a pattern of eliciting, challenging, and self-reviewing stakeholder perspectives that aims to facilitate learning. The difference between the initial baseline perspectives and the final self-reviewed stakeholder perspectives is used as a proxy of learning. We illustrate the potential of this methodology by its application to the assessment of land uses in a Mediterranean fire-prone area in East Spain. The approach may be applied to a variety of socio-ecological systems and decision-making and governance scales.The PRACTICE protocol was developed in the framework of the project PRACTICE: Prevention and Restoration Actions to Combat Desertification. An integrated Assessment, funded by the European Commission (GA226818). This research was also funded by the European project CASCADE (GA283068), and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Fellowship of the European Union (GA 629677) “S4S, Science for Society Solutions”, awarded to B.J.O

Making Brexit Work for the Environment and Livelihoods : Delivering a Stakeholder Informed Vision for Agriculture and Fisheries

1. The UK’s decision to leave the EU has far-reaching, and often shared, implications for agriculture and fisheries. To ensure the future sustainability of UK agricultural and fisheries systems, we argue that it is essential to grasp the opportunity that Brexit is providing to develop integrated policies that improve the management and protection of the natural environments, upon which these industries rely. 2. This article advances a stakeholder informed vision of the future design of UK agriculture and fisheries policies. We assess how currently emerging UK policy will need to be adapted in order to implement this vision. Our starting point is that Brexit provides the opportunity to redesign current unsustainable practices and can, in principle, deliver a sustainable future for agriculture and fisheries. 3. Underpinning policies with an ecosystem approach, explicit inclusion of public goods provision and social welfare equity were found to be key provisions for environmental, agricultural and fishery sustainability. Recognition of the needs of, and innovative practices in, the devolved UK nations is also required as the new policy and regulatory landscape is established. 4. Achieving the proposed vision will necessitate drawing on best practice and creating more coherent and integrated food, environment and rural and coastal economic policies. Our findings demonstrate that “bottom-up” and co-production approaches will be key to the development of more environmentally sustainable agriculture and fisheries policies to underpin prosperous livelihoods. 5. However, delivering this vision will involve overcoming significant challenges. The current uncertainty over the nature and timing of the UK’s Brexit agreement hinders forward planning and investment while diverting attention away from further in-depth consideration of environmental sustainability. In the face of this uncertainty, much of the UK’s new policy on the environment, agriculture and fisheries is therefore ambitious in vision but light on detail. Full commitment to co-production of policy with devolved nations and stakeholders also appears to be lacking, but will be essential for effective policy development and implementation