Applying the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Africa: Scientific and Land User Dimensions of Environmental Degradation

This study takes an integrated approach using theories and methods from both the natural and social sciences to examine western scientific, government, NGO and local land user understandings of land degradation in Swaziland. Of key importance in the research is the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), which itself marks a new, integrated approach to sustainable development, promoting concepts of community participation and local level decision-making. Grounded in the theory of political ecology, these concepts are examined in the Swazi context. Local knowledges are integrated with western scientific understandings of land degradation to create hybrid understandings of environmental degradation and to examine issues such as how far, under what conditions and for whom land degradation is problematic. Understandings of soil fertility, drought, changes to woodland areas and soil erosion in three case study villages are critically assessed, as local inputs into policies addressing land degradation are evaluated and reasons behind both individual and collective actions to combat degradation are considered. Issues of access and power are found to dominate natural resource management in Swaziland, as the majority of the power is concentrated in the hands of the minority of the population. Using a community land rehabilitation project as a case study, it is discovered that concepts such as community participation and local level decision-making by democratically elected village committees can cause conflict to develop between new and traditional institutions, as new institutions challenge the traditional balance of power. It is concluded that until changes are made to broader scale governance structures, concepts advocated by the UNCCD will not be implemented to their full potential in Swaziland and this could have important social and ecological implications

Using a novel climate-water conflict vulnerability index to capture double exposures in Lake Chad

Climate variability is amongst an array of threats facing agricultural livelihoods, with its effects unevenly distributed. With resource conflict being increasingly recognised as one significant outcome of climate variability and change, understanding the underlying drivers that shape differential vulnerabilities in areas that are double exposed to climate and conflict has great significance. Climate change vulnerability frameworks are rarely applied in water conflict research. This article presents a composite climate–water conflict vulnerability index based on a double exposure framework developed from advances in vulnerability and livelihood assessments. We apply the index to assess how the determinants of vulnerability can be useful in understanding climate variability and water conflict interactions and to establish how knowledge of the climate–conflict linked context can shape interventions to reduce vulnerability. We surveyed 240 resource users (farmers, fishermen and pastoralists) in seven villages on the southeastern shores of Lake Chad in the Republic of Chad to collect data on a range of exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity variables. Results suggest that pastoralists are more vulnerable in terms of climate-structured aggressive behaviour within a lake-based livelihoods context where all resource user groups show similar levels of exposure to climate variability. Our approach can be used to understand the human and environmental security components of vulnerability to climate change and to explore ways in which conflict-structured climate adaptation and climate-sensitive conflict management strategies can be integrated to reduce the vulnerability of populations in high-risk, conflict-prone environments

Climate Science, Development Practice, and Policy Interactions in Dryland Agroecological Systems

The literature on drought, livelihoods, and poverty suggests that dryland residents are especially vulnerable to climate change. However, assessing this vulnerability and sharing lessons between dryland communities on how to reduce vulnerability has proven difficult because of multiple definitions of vulnerability, complexities in quantification, and the temporal and spatial variability inherent in dryland agroecological systems. In this closing editorial, we review how we have addressed these challenges through a series of structured, multiscale, and interdisciplinary vulnerability assessment case studies from drylands in West Africa, southern Africa, Mediterranean Europe, Asia, and Latin America. These case studies adopt a common vulnerability framework but employ different approaches to measuring and assessing vulnerability. By comparing methods and results across these cases, we draw out the following key lessons: (1) Our studies show the utility of using consistent conceptual frameworks for vulnerability assessments even when quite different methodological approaches are taken; (2) Utilizing narratives and scenarios to capture the dynamics of dryland agroecological systems shows that vulnerability to climate change may depend more on access to financial, political, and institutional assets than to exposure to environmental change; (3) Our analysis shows that although the results of quantitative models seem authoritative, they may be treated too literally as predictions of the future by policy makers looking for evidence to support different strategies. In conclusion, we acknowledge there is a healthy tension between bottom-up/ qualitative/place-based approaches and top-down/quantitative/generalizable approaches, and we encourage researchers from different disciplines with different disciplinary languages, to talk, collaborate, and engage effectively with each other and with stakeholders at all levels

Livelihood security policy can support ecosystem restoration

Earth faces an unprecedented ecological crisis: the destruction of its ecosystems. Despite increasing interest in restoration, including through the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (Decade), lack of financing and resources mean efforts to reverse degradation have advanced slowly. Restoration efforts require new approaches to ensure the needs of different stakeholders are met. However, analyses of policies and opportunities that help to finance restoration while improving socioecological outcomes, are lacking. This paper analyzes livelihood security funding and opportunities for ecosystem restoration, drawing on India's Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the world's largest livelihood security program. The paper analyzes MGNREGA's performance between financial years 2013–2021, focusing on the financing of ecosystem restoration-related works, community mobilization and policy implementation in the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, the paper reflects on the benefits and shortcomings of MGNREGA and considers wider lessons for the Decade. MGNREGA generated significant funding flows and numbers of projects nationally, which can contribute to ecosystem restoration. Policy design enabled the continuation and increase of works even during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings demonstrate the potential of linking ecosystem restoration with development policies to unlock funds, on a national scale. To maximize contributions to ecosystem restoration nevertheless requires capacity building, inclusion of environmental indicators and integration of best ecosystem restoration practices

Global gas flaring and energy justice : An empirical ethics analysis of stakeholder perspectives

Global gas flaring harms human and non-human health and well-being while contributing to climate change. Flaring activity in the global oil and gas sector is a significant matter of energy justice – concerning the distribution of risks, benefits and harms, recognition of rights, and decision-making influence within gas-flaring-affected communities. This mixed method empirical ethical analysis of gas flaring and energy justice combines Q-methodology and stakeholder interviews with representatives of 14 gas-flaring-affected countries (n = 35) to evaluate the context-sensitivity of distributive, procedural, recognition, and cosmopolitan justice principles to gas-flaring governance. Four dominant normative perspectives emerge around this topic. These perspectives concern: a) government-led zero flaring policy; b) multi-scalar economic governance; c) business responsibility and social license; and d) localism and community empowerment. We find that: first, there is strong stakeholder support for zero-flaring globally. Second, coordinated multi-scalar governance from international-national-local regulatory authorities is desired to protect marginalised communities. Third, egalitarian rights-based approaches are prioritised over utilitarian approaches in planning for oil and gas extraction. Fourth, business responsibility necessitates transparent communication of flaring activities and impacts and the Polluter Pays Principle of environmental redress to affected communities. Finally, stakeholder disagreement centres upon the practical mechanisms to achieve just outcomes - including compensation, the role of local authorities, regulatory agencies, Environmental Impact Assessment, and efforts to tackle rent-seeking and corruption. We conclude that further stakeholder engagement is needed on the implementation processes for gas flaring elimination, rather than the goal itself, through carefully facilitated dialogue and negotiation

How urbanisation alters the intensity of the urban heat island in a tropical African city

Due to the combined effects of urban growth and climate change, rapid urbanisation is particularly challenging in African cities. Areas that will house a large proportion of the urban population in the future coincide with where natural hazards are expected to occur, and where hazard risk management institutions, knowledge, and capacity are often lacking. One of the challenges posed by rapid urbanisation is the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, whereby urban areas are warmer than the surrounding rural areas. This study investigates urbanisation patterns and alterations in surface UHI (SUHI) intensity for the Kampala urban cluster, Uganda. Analyses show that between 1995 and 2017, Kampala underwent extensive changes to its urban built-up area. From the centre of the city to adjoining non-built up areas in all directions, the urban land cover increased from 12,133 ha in 1995 to 25,389 ha in 2016. The area of SUHI intensity in Kampala expanded significantly over the 15-year period of study, expanding from 22,910 ha in 2003 to 27,900 ha in 2016, while the annual daytime SUHI of 2.2°C in 2003 had decreased to 1.9°C by 2017. Although SUHI intensity decreased in some parts of the city, elsewhere it increased, suggesting that urbanisation does not always lead to a deterioration of environmental conditions. We postulate that urban development may therefore not necessarily create an undesirable impact on local climate if it is properly managed. Rapidly growing cities in Africa and elsewhere should ensure that the dynamics of their development are directed towards mitigating potentially harmful environmental impacts, such as UHI effect through careful planning that considers both bluespaces and greenspaces

A social-ecological systems approach is necessary to achieve land degradation neutrality

Viewing humans as drivers of change operating outside the natural environment is unhelpful for defining interventions that effectively manage change and complexity. Indeed, there is now broad agreement that en-vironmental governance needs to consider integrated social-ecological systems (SES) in order to tackle theworld’s grand challenges of land degradation. This requires a more differentiated, innovative approach that considers how changes in SES shape the functioning of land systems as a whole, and the synergies and trade-off these changes may produce. In this study, we identify and discuss some of the ways SES science and practice can inspire progress towards land degradation neutrality (LDN) outcomes in an integrated manner, through synthesis of literature and relevant documents related to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification(UNCCD). We do these by considering: (i) how LDN has been approached to date and the challenges likely to undermine progress towards achieving it; and (ii) an SES-based LDN approach relevant to the neutrality agenda, in particular, by describing how LDN might be thought of differently through an SES lens. We argue that an SES approach focusing on: (i)“people as part of nature”, not“people and nature”; and (ii) the frame of reference against which neutrality can be assessed across temporal and spatial dimensions, is necessary to both inform policy and guide actions of the different groups involved in avoiding and combating land degradation. Such an(integrated) approach adds a dimension (to achieving neutrality goals) not previously explored in sustainable land management and LDN research. Important next steps in operationalising the SES-based LDN approach involve empirical and field case studies, requiring interdisciplinary, mixed method technique

Evaluating the Potential for Harmonized Prediction and Comparison of Disposal?Stage Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Biomaterial Products

The carbon footprint (CF) of biofuels and biomaterials is a barrier to their acceptance, yet the greenhouse gas emissions associated with disposing of biomaterials are frequently omitted from analyses. This article investigates whether harmonization is appropriate for calculating the importance of biomaterials’ disposal. This research shows that disposal stages could double a biomaterial's CF, or reduce it to the point that it could claim to be zero carbon. Incineration with combined heat and power coupled with on-site energy production in the biorefinery are identified as prerequisites to being zero carbon. The article assesses the current UK waste infrastructure's ability to support a low-carbon bio-based future economy, and finds that presently it only achieves marginal net reductions when compared to landfill and so cannot be said to support low-carbon biomaterials, though the article challenges the polluter pays principle where low-carbon disposal infrastructure are not available. Reuse and recycling are shown to have the potential to offset all the emissions caused by landfill of biomaterials. However, the savings are not so great as to offset the biomaterial's upstream emissions. The study explores the ability to overcome the barriers to incorporating disposal into life cycle assessment while identifying limitations of using harmonization as an assessment method. Specifically, data availability and industry consensus are flagged as major barriers. The study also uses sensitivity analysis to investigate the influence of methodological choices, such as allowing additional reuse and recycling stages, classifying biomaterials into different types, and choosing between opposing allocation methods

Towards a holistic understanding of non-native tree impacts on ecosystem services : A review of Acacia, Eucalyptus and Pinus in Africa

Fast-growing, stress-tolerating tree species belonging to the genera Acacia, Eucalyptus and Pinus have historically been introduced to many tropical and sub-tropical regions to support various economic and environment-regulating functions. While these non-native tree (NNT) species are often highly useful, many are simultaneously invasive, generating negative environmental impacts. Current knowledge regarding the impacts of these NNTs on the ecosystem services (ES) that affect human well-being is largely informed by South African research, which inhibits a broader understanding of the contributions of these trees to those services. Acacia, Eucalyptus and Pinus have been widely introduced globally, yet very little is known about their contribution to ES in many locations. Here, we aimed to summarise the evidence for Acacia, Eucalyptus and Pinus as generating benefits and harm to ES, focusing on sub-Saharan Africa outside of South Africa. We conducted a literature search using the ISI Web of Science, which yielded 125 relevant publications. Although the three genera were reported to affect key ES in sub-Saharan Africa, the data were limited in geographic scope, with a strong bias towards East Africa as well as biases towards certain species and ecosystem service. The benefits of these NNTs relative to their costs are context dependent and may not reflect their actual impacts on ES in sub-Saharan Africa. Our review highlights the need for more systematic research from a broader perspective to manage potential conflicts and guide better management prioritisation