This report identifies key rangeland ecosystem service benefits (food, fuel, construction material, ground water, genetic diversity, climate regulation, recreation and spiritual inspiration) in southern Botswana’s Kgalagadi District. It assesses the costs and trade-offs associated with ecosystem service delivery under: i) communal grazing, ii) private cattle ranching, iii) game ranching and in iv) Wildlife Management Areas. Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) is used to rank the four alternative land use options according to their abilities to deliver different categories of ecosystem services (i.e. provisioning, regulating and cultural categories), encompassing use- and non-use values and based on policy preferences. Overall ranking of each land use is ascertained through a combination of scoring (derived from ecosystem service delivery, identified through the use of a variety of indicators) and weighting (derived from policy analysis) of a range of quantitative and qualitative criteria. Data used to inform the MCDA include semi-structured interviews with land users and policy makers, market price data analyses, ecological assessments and literature reviews.
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Gedaref State was previously known as the food basket of Sudan. Over several decades unsustainable agricultural practices that combined near-monocropping with low nutrient replenishment have led to significant degradation of soils, which are no longer able to sustain farmer livelihoods. This study found that adopting an integrated sustainable land use...
Independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991 presented the republics of Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, with severe challenges for land management with ensuing economic, social, and environmental crises. Driven by the historic development of irrigation projects, often unsupportable increases in livestock numbers on rangelands, and...
Independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991 presented the republics of Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, with severe challenges for land management with ensuing economic, social, and environmental crises. Driven by the historic development of irrigation projects, often unsupportable increases in livestock numbers on rangelands, and...
Food production in Kenya is suffering from low yields, partly due to land and soil degradation caused by poor land management practices. Sustainable land management practices can potentially improve yields, for example, for cereal production. In this research we worked with smallholder farmers in three counties in Western Kenya (Bungoma...