Download or read book Linkages Between Land Management Land Degradation and Poverty in Sub Saharan Africa written by Nkonya, Ephraim and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most African countries strive for both poverty reduction and sustainable land management, yet information on the exact relationship between these goals is limited. This report seeks to fill the gap by demonstrating a strong linkage between poverty and land management. Using Uganda as a case study, the authors show that certain policies, such as investments in soil and water conservation and agroforestry, may simultaneously increase productivity and reduce poverty and land degradation. Other strategies, including development of rural roads, non-farm activities, and rural finance, may reduce poverty without significantly affecting productivity or land management. Some policies, however, will likely involve trade-offs among different goals and will need to have their negative impacts minimized. Those in government, NGOs, the private sector, or academia who are concerned about sustainably reducing poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa will benefit from this analysis of how to pursue these key development goals.
Download or read book Marginality written by Joachim von Braun and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-08-19 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book takes a new approach on understanding causes of extreme poverty and promising actions to address it. Its focus is on marginality being a root cause of poverty and deprivation. “Marginality” is the position of people on the edge, preventing their access to resources, freedom of choices, and the development of capabilities. The book is research based with original empirical analyses at local, national, and local scales; book contributors are leaders in their fields and have backgrounds in different disciplines. An important message of the book is that economic and ecological approaches and institutional innovations need to be integrated to overcome marginality. The book will be a valuable source for development scholars and students, actors that design public policies, and for social innovators in the private sector and non-governmental organizations.
Download or read book Economics of Land Degradation and Improvement A Global Assessment for Sustainable Development written by Ephraim Nkonya and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-11-11 with total page 695 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume deals with land degradation, which is occurring in almost all terrestrial biomes and agro-ecologies, in both low and high income countries and is stretching to about 30% of the total global land area. About three billion people reside in these degraded lands. However, the impact of land degradation is especially severe on livelihoods of the poor who heavily depend on natural resources. The annual global cost of land degradation due to land use and cover change (LUCC) and lower cropland and rangeland productivity is estimated to be about 300 billion USD. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) accounts for the largest share (22%) of the total global cost of land degradation. Only about 38% of the cost of land degradation due to LUCC - which accounts for 78% of the US$300 billion loss – is borne by land users and the remaining share (62%) is borne by consumers of ecosystem services off the farm. The results in this volume indicate that reversing land degradation trends makes both economic sense, and has multiple social and environmental benefits. On average, one US dollar investment into restoration of degraded land returns five US dollars. The findings of the country case studies call for increased investments into the rehabilitation and restoration of degraded lands, including through such institutional and policy measures as strengthening community participation for sustainable land management, enhancing government effectiveness and rule of law, improving access to markets and rural services, and securing land tenure. The assessment in this volume has been conducted at a time when there is an elevated interest in private land investments and when global efforts to achieve sustainable development objectives have intensified. In this regard, the results of this volume can contribute significantly to the ongoing policy debate and efforts to design strategies for achieving sustainable development goals and related efforts to address land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.
Download or read book The Emergence of Land Markets in Africa written by Stein T Holden and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-09-30 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first systematic attempt to address emerging land markets and their implications for poverty, equity, and efficiency across a number of African countries. The high incidence of poverty and the need for increased agricultural productivity remain acute in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa, where a lack of secure land rights and a growing scarcity of land relative to the size of the population are becoming increasingly critical issues. Indeed, land issues in the region are high on the international policy agenda. Yet our knowledge about land tenure security and other rural factor markets (such as labor, oxen, manure, purchased inputs, and credit) is far from adequate to formulate sensible policies. The case studies in the book show that, while land markets and especially informal markets have been rapidly emerging in densely populated parts of Africa - and have generally been to the benefit of the poor--their functions remain imperfect. This is due to policy-induced tenure insecurity and the fragmentation of agricultural land. Applying rigorous quantitative analyses, the book provides a basis for taking into account the role of land markets in national land policies. All too often, the authors argue, land policies have been extreme, either prohibiting all land transactions or giving unrestricted freehold rights to a small elite at the expense of the poor. From the long experience in Asia, it is known that such policies are detrimental to both production efficiency and equity of land use. The authors argue that future policies in Africa should work with the markets. Regulations should be imposed only with careful testing that they are having the intended effects. The Emergence of Land Markets in Africa is a resource for teaching in developed and developing countries, as it provides both comprehensive reviews of the literature and detailed case studies. It is intended to facilitate the dialogue between researchers and policymakers, as well as inspire researchers to go further in their investigations and build an even stronger basis for good policies. The Emergence of Land Markets in Africa is the first publication in the new Environment for Development (EfD) book series. EfD books focus on research and applications in environmental and natural resource economics as they are relevant to poverty reduction and environmental problems in developing countries. The EfD book series is part of the EfD initiative. (www.environmentfordevelopment.org)
Download or read book Breathing Life Into Dead Theories about Property Rights written by Celestine Itumbi Nyamu and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presumption of a direct causal link between formalisation of property rights and economic productivity is back on the international development agenda. Belief in such a direct causal relationship had been abandoned in the early 1990s, following four decades of land tenure reform experiments that failed to produce the anticipated efficiency results. The work of Hernando de Soto has provided the springboard for this revival. De Soto argues that formal property rights hold the key to poverty reduction by unlocking the capital potential of assets held informally by poor people. De Soto's justifications of formal title do not differ much from justifications that were advanced for ambitious land tenure reforms in various sub-Saharan African countries, starting with Kenya in the 1950s. Introduction of formal title in the African areas was seen as the key to solving problems of land degradation and improving agriculture by providing farmers with security of tenure that would create incentives for further investment in the land. This paper argues that there are five shortcomings in both the old and contemporary arguments for formalisation of land title. First, legality is constructed narrowly to mean only formal legality. Therefore legal pluralism is equated with extra-legality. Second, there is an underlying social evolutionist bias that presumes inevitability of the transition to private (conflated with individual) ownership as the destiny of all societies. Third, the presumed link between formal title and access to credit facilities has not been borne out by empirical evidence. Fourth, markets in land are understood narrowly to refer only to 'formal markets'. Fifth, the arguments in favour of formulisation of title as the means to secure tenure ignore the fact that formal title could also generate insecurity.
Download or read book Sustainable Land Management written by World Bank and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2006-06-23 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Land is the integrating component of all livelihoods depending on farm, forest, rangeland, or water (rivers, lakes, coastal marine) habitats. Due to varying political, social, and economic factors, the heavy use of natural resources to supply a rapidly growing global population and economy has resulted in the unintended mismanagement and degradation of land and ecosystems. 'Sustainable Land Management' provides strategic focus to the implementation of sustainable land management (SLM) components of the World Bank's development strategies. SLM is a knowledge-based procedure that integrates land, water, biodiversity, and environmental management to meet rising food and fiber demands while sustaining livelihoods and the environment. This book, aimed at policy makers, project managers, and development organization, articulates priorities for investment in SLM and natural resource management and identifies the policy, institutional, and incentive reform options that will accelerate the adoption of SLM productivity improvements and pro-poor growth.
Download or read book The Role of Sustainable Land Management for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in Sub Saharan Africa written by John Pender and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 8 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Climate change and land degradation are major threats to the survival and livelihoods of millions of people in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Major new opportunities exist to help improve the livelihoods of African smallholder farmers, pastoralists, and other resource users while mitigating emissions of greenhouse gases, reducing land degradation, and addressing other environmental problems in the context of the current negotiations to develop a post-Kyoto climate change framework, and international, national, and local efforts to promote sustainable land management (SLM) and conserve biodiversity. This issue paper is an executive summary of a larger document with the same title. It seeks to help address these threats and achieve the potential of these opportunities by informing policy makers, development practitioners, and others concerned about these issues about the linkages between climate change and SLM, the opportunities and constraints to promoting climate change mitigation and adaptation through SLM, and the policy and institutional options to overcome theconstraints and realize the opportunities that are now or are becoming available.
Download or read book Environmental Policies and NGO Influence written by Alan Thomas and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Global Environmental Change Programme.
Download or read book Rehabilitation of Degraded Lands in Sub Saharan Africa written by and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Economic Linkages Between Rural Poverty and Land Degradation written by Edward B. Barbier and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper focuses on the potential role of policy in influencing the poverty and land degradation problems facing Africa. This is done through exploring a few case studies, chosen from a broad spectrum of African countries - Sudan, Malawi, Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya. The first case study examines the comparative returns to the gum Arabic agroforestry system cultivated by poor farmers in Northern Sudan, and the role of policies in influencing these returns. The second explores how erratic agricultural pricing policies in Malawi during the 1980's may have distorted the incentives of poor smallholders to adopt less-erosive crops in their farming systems. The third case study illustrates how inappropriate policies and investments can cause displacement of poorer rural groups from their traditional farming and grazing lands, by examining the loss of a major floodplain due to dam building in northern Nigeria. The final two case studies are concerned with policy "lessons learned". The first looks at the impact of a macro-economic adjustment policy - in this case trade liberalization - on farmers' decisions to expand cultivated area rather than intensify crop production in western Ghana. The final case study examines the role of policy in land management success story in Africa, the Machakos District, Kenya, and explores the critical question of whether this success can be replicated elsewhere in Africa. These case studies serve two important functions. First they demonstrate how policy analysis can be effective in highlighting key dimensions of the poverty-environment linkages underlying land degradation. Second, they illustrate how both "good" and "bad" policies can affect the economic incentives determining poor rural household's decisions to conserve or degrade their land.
Download or read book Securing Africa s Land for Shared Prosperity written by Frank F. K. Byamugisha and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2013-06-05 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite being heavily endowed with land and other natural resources, Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest poverty rate in the world. A key to leveraging its land and natural resources to eradicate poverty is improving land governance, the subject of this book, centered on a ten point program to scale up land policy reforms and investments.
Download or read book Agricultural Land Redistribution and Land Administration in Sub Saharan Africa written by Frank Byamugisha and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2014-05-02 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Agricultural Land Redistribution and Land Administration in Sub-Saharan Africa: Case Studies of Recent Reforms focuses on “how” to undertake land reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa, but with relevant lessons for other developing countries. It provides details, with case studies, on how reforms were undertaken to address a pressing and controversial development challenge in Africa – land ownership inequality – and an intransigent development issue – inefficiency and corruption in land administration. An equally important contribution of the book is assessing reforms and highlighting valuable lessons for other countries contemplating reforms. The six case studies collectively cover two main areas of land governance: reforms in redistributing agricultural land and reforms in land administration. The first two case studies discuss reforms in redistributing agricultural land in Malawi and South Africa, part of the southern Africa region where land ownership inequalities rival those in Latin America. The remaining case studies, four in number, are focused on addressing corruption and inefficiency in land administration in a variety of contexts of governance including stable and post-conflict countries. The case studies cover: • Decentralizing land administration with demonstrations from Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Ghana; • Developing post-conflict land administration systems with examples from Liberia and Rwanda; • Re-engineering and computerizing land information systems with examples from Ghana and Uganda; and • Improving management of government land through land inventories with examples drawn from Ghana and Uganda. The common elements between sometimes disparate experiences provide lessons of relevance to African and other developing countries contemplating similar reforms. The rigorous analysis and yet down-to-earth lessons of experience are a reflection of the authors’ deep global experience underpinned by personal participation in the reforms covered by the book. This volume will be of interest to a wide audience including land specialists and practitioners, African policy makers, experts and managers in the international development community, and the academia.
Download or read book Sustainable Land Management in Practice written by FAO. and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Land Reform and Structural Adjustment in Sub Saharan Africa written by Jean-Philippe Platteau and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 1992 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Community Innovations in Sustainable Land Management written by Maxwell Mudhara and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-06-23 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is increasingly recognized that land can be managed most sustainably through involving local communities. This book highlights the potential of a new methodology of uncovering and stimulating community initiatives in sustainable land management in Africa. Analyses of four contrasting African countries (Ghana, Morocco, South Africa and Uganda) show that as communities directly face the challenges of land degradation, they are likely to develop initiatives themselves in terms of sustainable land management. These initiatives (or ‘innovations’) may be more appropriate and sustainable than those emanating from research stations located far from the communities. The book describes the rationale of the approach used, the set of steps followed, how the project managed to engage the communities to understand the importance of the activities they were undertaking, and how they were stimulated to improve and extend their initiatives and innovativeness. Examples covered include soil fertility, community forestry, afforestation, water, invasive species and grazing land management. Central to the book is the way communities, and scientists, interacted between the four countries and learnt from each other. The book also shows how the initiatives were outscaled locally.
Download or read book Soil Degradation and Restoration in Africa written by Rattan Lal and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2019-07-09 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Soil degradation is a widespread problem in Africa resulting in decreased agricultural productivity while demand for food continues to increase. Degradation is caused by accelerated erosion, acidification, contamination, depletion of soil organic matter and plant nutrients, and salinization. The major cause of soil degradation in Africa is uncontrolled and excessive grazing in the savanna regions followed by deforestation and the use of inappropriate and extractive farming practices. Perpetual neglect of the health of soils in Africa can exacerbate the already serious problems of food and nutritional insecurity and environmental degradation. Food and nutritional security of the growing population of Africa can only be achieved if degraded soils are restored and soils of agroecosystems are managed prudently and sustainably. Ignoring soils and taking the fragile, finite and precious soil resources for granted is the principal cause of poverty, hunger, and environmental degradation. The downward spiral must be reversed through soil restoration measures based on translating science into action. This book describes the soils of Africa, processes of soil degradation, extent and severity of soil degradation, and the impacts of degradation processes on food and nutritional security. Features: Explores the extent and severity of soil degradation in Africa Analyzes the cause–effect relationship between anthropogenic activities and soil degradation Reviews processes of soil degradation in Africa including erosion, salinization, nutrient depletion, and decline of soil organic matter Addresses the effect of climate change on soil degradation in Africa. Explains how soil degradation causes food and nutritional insecurity Part of the Advances in Soil Sciences series, this volume is specifically devoted to the processes and factors that cause soil degradation and the challenges and potential for remediation and restoration of soil health in Africa.
Download or read book Recarbonization of the Biosphere written by Rattan Lal and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-03-28 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human activities are significantly modifying the natural global carbon (C) cycles, and concomitantly influence climate, ecosystems, and state and function of the Earth system. Ever increasing amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) are added to the atmosphere by fossil fuel combustion but the biosphere is a potential C sink. Thus, a comprehensive understanding of C cycling in the biosphere is crucial for identifying and managing biospheric C sinks. Ecosystems with large C stocks which must be protected and sustainably managed are wetlands, peatlands, tropical rainforests, tropical savannas, grasslands, degraded/desertified lands, agricultural lands, and urban lands. However, land-based sinks require long-term management and a protection strategy because C stocks grow with a progressive improvement in ecosystem health.
