Landscape management ‘key to Africa’s agriculture’medium.com /@humphreykariukindegwa/landscape-management-key-to-africas-agriculture-

8249be294588

Africa’s agriculture is linked to land, water and watershed uses, according to Magda Lovei, practicemanager for environment and natural resources, at the World Bank Group, during the 13th TerrAfricaExecutive Committee (TAEC) meeting on sustainable land management, desertification, biodiversity andadaptation to climate change in Peru, last month (4–5 December).

“We are linking up traditional ways of looking at natural resource management andclimate change adaptation needs, including the need for early warning systems forfloods and droughts.”

Magda Lovei, The World Bank Group

TerrAfrica Partnership, a regional initiative led by the African Union’s New Partnership for AfricanDevelopment (NEPAD) Agency, is boosting watershed management partly because the practice couldenhance agriculture. According to Lovei, integrated landscape management will have great impact onwomen, noting that in Ethiopia, through the bank’s financing, they have rehabilitated some watersheds andhillsides, giving new possibilities such as beekeeping for women in honey production. She explained thatthe work in Ethiopia makes lives easier because water comes back as upper watersheds becomerehabilitated and women do not go far to fetch water, thus opening up other opportunities such as havingmore time with their families.

Lovei added that the World Bank Group has US$3 billion worth of investments in African countries — including Ethiopia, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal — co-financed with other partners such asGlobal Environment Facility and governments of Germany, the Netherlands and Norway to boostsustainable land management

“We support the Great Green Wall Initiative that spans from the Sahel to the Horn of Africa, and evencountries like Sudan, which are relatively newcomers in TerrAfrica Partnership, already have [landmanagement] programmes,” said Lovei, adding that the Africa-based partnership, has to create an overallframework and agreements of what to be done and how.

Martin Bwalya, head of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme at the SouthAfrica-headquartered NEPAD Agency, added that through the support of TerrAfrica Partnership, mostAfrican countries are becoming much more able to tackle climate change and land degradation.

Lovei noted that Africa is one of the most affected continents in terms of vulnerability to climate change,and natural resource management is at the core of it.

“We are linking up traditional ways of looking at natural resource management and climate changeadaptation needs, including the need for early warning systems for floods and droughts; building of thecapacity to look at impacts, [and] preparing communities and countries to deal with some of the alreadymanifest signs of climate change,” Lovei told TAEC meeting participants.

She explained that the World Bank has close collaborations and dialogues with ministries of finance, andhas been discussing climate change and adaptation needs at high-level policy issues.

According to Lovei, the World Bank is also working with governments to develop strategies and policies,especially with a focus on investing in the lowest level of communities to ensure initiatives meet localneeds.

She explained that good land use practices dissemination is key and through the TerrAfrica partnershipcommunication, and they are using a range of instruments such as videos and movies to reaching out toboth communities and policymakers. Sergio Zelaya, special advisor on global issues at the United NationsConvention to Combat Desertification, which is headquartered in Germany, said that sustainablelandscape management and resilience in Africa and other parts of the developing world are linked.

“Having more research and knowledge produced in the global South focusing on deforestation, landdegradation and other meteorological effects is critical to addressing landscape management issues,” henoted.

Zelaya added that understanding the link between science and policy is crucial when addressing issues ofsustainable land use, landscape management, climate change adaptation and biodiversity conservation.Disclaimer: TerrAfrica Partnership sponsored Ochieng’ Ogodo to attend its 13th TAEC Meeting onSustainable Land Management (SLM), Desertification, Biodiversity & Adaptation to Climate Change(LDBA) in Lima, Peru. This article has been produced by SciDev.Net’s Sub-Saharan Africa desk.