Parklands for buffering climate risk and sustaining agricultural production in the Sahel of West Africa

Bayala, Jules; Sanou, Josias; Teklehaimanot, Z.; Kalinganiré, Antoine; Ouédraogo, Sibiri Jean

doi:10.1016/j.cosust.2013.10.004

Cited by 177 publications

(122 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…This is consistent with recent studies which have demonstrated that water harvesting, and farmer management natural regeneration (FMNR) can both increase agricultural productivity and reduce climate-related risks (AGRA 2014;Garrity et al 2010;Bayala et al 2014;Reij et al 2009;Place and Binam 2013). The results underscores the importance of promoting these practices to increase farmers' resilience to the high production risks in the With a number of female household members having non-farm activities, customary land tenure and proximity of plot to home also reduce production risks.…”

Section: Risks and Land Management Practicessupporting

confidence: 90%

Economics of Land Degradation and Improvement in Niger

Moussa

Nkonya

Meyer

et al. 2015

Economics of Land Degradation and Improvement – A Global Assessment for Sustainable Development

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Niger's colonial and post-independence natural resource management policies contributed to land degradation. The country also experienced a prolonged drought that amplified the suffering of the people who are heavily dependent on natural resources. The country learnt hard lessons from its past mistakes and changed its policies and strategies. This study shows a strong association of the policy changes and improved human welfare demonstrating that even poor countries could achieve sustainable development. Enhancing government effectiveness by giving communities mandate to manage natural resources and by giving incentives to land users to benefit from their investment played a key role in realizing simultaneous improvement in land management and human welfare in Niger. Given these achievements, Niger was picked as a case study to showcase its achievement and what other countries could learn from the country's mistakes and achievements. The analytical approach used focuses on estimation of cost of land degradation, ground-truthing of satellite data and drivers of adoption of sustainable land management practices. Land use/cover change (LUCC) analysis shows that a total of 6.12 million ha experienced LUCC and shrublands and grassland accounted for the largest change. Excluding the desert, 19 % of the land area experienced LUCC. Cropland expansion accounted for about 57 % of deforestation followed by grassland expansion. The cost of land degradation due to LUCC is about 2007 US$0.75 billion, which is 11 % of the 2007 GDP of US$6.773 billion and 1 % of the 2001 value of ecosystem services (ES) in Niger. Every US dollar invested in taking action returns about $6-a level that is quite attractive. Ground-truthing showed high level of agreement between satellite data and communities perception on degraded lands but poor agreement in areas for which satellite data showed land improvement. Communities also reported that tree planting and protection were the most common actions against land degradation. Tree planting was done mainly on bare lands to fix sand dunes. In summary, this study shows that severe land degradation and the consequent negative impacts on human welfare is a low-hanging fruit that needs to be utilized by countries as they address land degradation. This implies that instead of abandoning severely degraded lands, strategies should be used to rehabilitate such lands using low-cost organic soil fertility management practices and progressively followed by using high cost inputs as soil fertility improves. Improvement of access to rural services and facilitation of non-farm activities will also lead to faster and greater impacts on adoption of SLM practices and increasing resilience to agricultural production shocks in Niger. As Niger continues to improve sustainable land management, it faces daunting challenges to alleviate the high cost of land degradation. Niger serves as a success story to the world in addressing land degradation. Both the national and international communities need to learn from ...

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Section: Risks and Land Management Practicessupporting

confidence: 90%

Economics of Land Degradation and Improvement in Niger

Moussa

Nkonya

Meyer

et al. 2015

Economics of Land Degradation and Improvement – A Global Assessment for Sustainable Development

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Secondly, the allometric equation used for estimating AGB from crown area was developed for Vitellaria paradoxa and may therefore not be optimal for other tree species. The relationship between crown area and AGB is also complicated due to the pollarding of trees, which is a common practice in the region [92,93].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping Tree Canopy Cover and Aboveground Biomass in Sudano-Sahelian Woodlands Using Landsat 8 and Random Forest

et al. 2015

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Accurate and timely maps of tree cover attributes are important tools for environmental research and natural resource management. We evaluate the utility of Landsat 8 for mapping tree canopy cover (TCC) and aboveground biomass (AGB) in a woodland landscape in Burkina Faso. Field data and WorldView-2 imagery were used to assemble the reference dataset. Spectral, texture, and phenology predictor variables were extracted from Landsat 8 imagery and used as input to Random Forest (RF) models. RF models based on multi-temporal and single date imagery were compared to determine the influence of phenology predictor variables. The effect of reducing the number of predictor variables on the RF predictions was also investigated. The model error was assessed using 10-fold cross ). This mapping approach is based on freely available Landsat 8 data and relatively simple analytical methods, and is therefore applicable in woodland areas where sufficient reference data are available.

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“…The additional biomass that they provide increases soil organic matter, which enhances both soil moisture storage and nutrient availability to the crops. Moreover, there are circumstances under which some trees effectively transfer water from deeper depths up to near the soil surface through their root systems and make such water available to nearby crops ("hydraulic lift"- Bayala et al 2014). These phenomena reduce the rate of onset of crop water stress, enabling crops to more successfully withstand periods of drought during the growing season.…”

Section: Trees Reduce Sensitivity To Shocksmentioning

confidence: 99%