Rangeland Production and Annual Rainfall Relations in the Mediterranean Basin and in the African Sahelo-Sudanian Zone

Houérou, Henry Noël Le; Hoste, Christian

doi:10.2307/3897463

Cited by 261 publications

(106 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…However, research on the relationship between forest cover and dietary diversity remains somewhat limited. Forests contribute directly to diets of people through the provisioning of a diversity of wild forest-sourced foods, such as mushrooms, berries, bushmeat, and fruits-Pathway 1 (Hladik et al 1990, Fa et al 2003, Vinceti et al 2008, Nasi et al 2011, Termote et al 2011). In addition, access to fuelwood can facilitate the cooking process of a range of food items, such as legumes, which, on average, require a long cooking time-Pathway 2 (Remans et al 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Indirect contributions of forests to dietary diversity in Southern Ethiopia

Baudron¹,

Duriaux-Chavarría²,

Remans³

et al. 2017

E&S

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ABSTRACT. We assess whether forests contribute indirectly to the dietary diversity of rural households by supporting diverse agricultural production systems. We applied our study in a landscape mosaic in Southern Ethiopia that was divided into three zones of increasing distance to Munesa Forest-"near," "intermediate," and "distant." A variety of research tools and methods, including remote sensing, participatory methods, farm survey, and yield assessment, were employed. Diets of households were more diverse in the near zone than in the other two zones (6.58 ± 1.21, 5.38 ± 1.02, and 4.41 ± 0.77 food groups consumed daily in the near, intermediate, and distant zones, respectively). This difference was not explained by food items collected from Munesa Forest but by biomass flows from the forest to farmlands. Munesa Forest contributed an average of 6.13 ± 2.90 tons of biomass per farm and per year to the farms in the near zone, in the form of feed and fuelwood. Feed from the forest allowed for larger livestock herds in the near zone compared with the other two zones, and fuelwood from the forest reduced the need to use cattle dung as fuel in the near zone compared with the two other zones. These two biomass flows contributed to the availability of more manure to farmers closer to the forest (908 ± 853 kg farm -1 , 771 ± 717 kg farm -1 , and 261 ± 487 kg farm -1 in the near, intermediate, and distant zones, respectively). In turn, increased manure enabled a larger percentage of farms to cultivate a diversified homegarden (87, 64, and 39% of farms in the near, intermediate, and distant zones, respectively). Homegardens and livestock products provided the greater contribution to household dietary diversity closer to the forest.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Indirect contributions of forests to dietary diversity in Southern Ethiopia

Baudron¹,

Duriaux-Chavarría²,

Remans³

et al. 2017

E&S

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“…17.5b). Milk and beef production per capita also increased significantly after the devastating decline during prolonged drought in 1977-1985). The regreening of the Sahel could have improved pasture and consequently livestock productivity.…”

Section: Trends Of Human Welfare Indicators and Their Relationship Wimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…• Average daily dietary requirements are 6.25 kg DM per TLU (Houérou and Hoste 1977;Behnke and Scoones 1993;Leeuw and Tothill 1993).…”

Section: Impact Of Land Degradation or Improvement On Livestock Produmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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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“…Average annual rainfall determines the production of biomass, thus affecting the capacity for farming, herding, and tourism (Le Houérou and Hoste, 1977;Parish and Funnell, 1999). Against this background, analysis of the regional impact of climate change on rainfall distribution is essential for planning and managing water demand and distribution in these regions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Downscaling of current and future rainfall climatologies for southern Morocco. Part I: Downscaling method and current climatology

Huebener

Kerschgens

2007

Intl Journal of Climatology

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Abstract:The use of a statistical-dynamical downscaling approach to obtain a high-resolution rainfall climatology for a subtropical region in southern Morocco is analysed. The statistical part of the downscaling uses Circulation Weather Types (CWTs) as a measure for near-surface wind fields calculated from sea-level pressure (SLP) data. The daily CWTs are correlated with daily rainfall data at three different climate stations in the region for the period 1978-1997 and systematic differences are discussed. Results are viewed for one extreme dry year (1984) and one extreme wet year (1989) to show the limits of purely statistical downscaling.Dynamical downscaling is realized for representative days to enable statistical-dynamical downscaling. Comparison of statistically-dynamically downscaled rainfall with measured rainfall for the year 2002 and climatological results show that the method is capable of capturing the relevant mechanisms triggering rainfall in the area. For extreme dry (wet) years, rainfall is overestimated (underestimated) by the method and errors might occur even for normal years. However, application to a climatology calculated for the period 1958-1997 via analysing daily SLP fields from NCEP Reanalyses gives satisfactory results. For sufficiently long periods, the method is well capable of producing a reliable high-resolution rainfall climatology. We will therefore apply the method to climate change simulations in part II of this paper.

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Rangeland Production and Annual Rainfall Relations in the Mediterranean Basin and in the African Sahelo-Sudanian Zone

Cited by 261 publications

References 6 publications

Indirect contributions of forests to dietary diversity in Southern Ethiopia

Indirect contributions of forests to dietary diversity in Southern Ethiopia

Economics of Land Degradation and Improvement in Niger

Downscaling of current and future rainfall climatologies for southern Morocco. Part I: Downscaling method and current climatology

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