1. UNCCD 2nd Scientific Conference 2013 - Bonn
Channelling science into policy: Enabling best
practices from research on land degradation &
sustainable land management in drylands
Lindsay Stringer & Andy Dougill,
University of Leeds, UK
a.j.dougill@leeds.ac.uk; @AndyDougill

2. UNCCD 2nd Scientific Conference 2013 - Bonn
From local land users & scientists to the policy
arena: two routes
UNCCD: international
policy arena
NAPs: National
level policy
Local knowledge &
scientific research

3. UNCCD 2nd Scientific Conference 2013 - Bonn
Key steps to policy: route to national policy
• Botswana – ‘lock-in’ to a land policy based on privatisation of grazing
lands despite critiques in terms of degradation & poverty impacts
• Shifted to local-scale participatory research to produce rangeland
management guides linked to new community rangeland management
committees– Reed & Dougill, 2010; J. Arid Env,74, 149-155
• Dynamic systems model to understand pathways of change & to predict
future economic impacts of different land use scenarios – Dougill et al.,
2010; Ecol & Soc 15(2): 17.

4. UNCCD 2nd Scientific Conference 2013 - Bonn
Key steps to policy: route to national policy cont.
• Monitor positive impacts of changing practice at local-scale to develop
‘good news’ examples of change showing empowerment, social &
environmental benefits
• Run workshops with policy-makers & researchers to ‘model’ agro-
ecosystem futures based on climate change trends, land management
& policy changes => stakeholder inclusion to explain models of change
& policy impacts
• Disseminate widely at national & District level to ensure awareness
(incl. of economic impacts) & uptake of project outputs

5. UNCCD 2nd Scientific Conference 2013 - Bonn
Lessons from the Local Level Research
• Community empowerment in monitoring can provide data to inform
future policy development & project design, but remains rare
• Studies need to begin with a thorough stakeholder analysis across
multiple levels (local to international)
• Institutional mapping exercises can identify key communication
channels to inform, adapt & tailor research outputs for user groups
• Changing Govt personnel lead to loss of knowledge brokering capacity
& essential to pro-actively push to mainstream land degradation issues
cross Ministries to enhance chances of research uptake
• Share ‘good news’ lessons cross-borders (e.g. Botswana looking to
learn from Community Conservancy initiatives in Namibia)

6. UNCCD 2nd Scientific Conference 2013 - Bonn
International Land Degradation Policy & Entry Points
for Scientific Research
• Analysed the complex, dynamic process of flows of scientific
knowledge into the UNCCD (Stringer & Dougill, 2013) stressing
importance of joint fora enabling knowledge exchange
• Scientific input to national reports vital to shape COP discussions
• Wider media engagement & pro-active communications have
important role to raise public awareness pushing for action
• Projects to develop targeted policy briefs for key events
Is the UNCCD stuck in a knowledge traffic jam?
Discussion paper for CRIC 7 by DESIRE/Drynet/eniD

7. UNCCD 2nd Scientific Conference 2013 - Bonn
Key Enabling Activities
Stringer & Dougill, 2013: J. Envt Mngmt 114; 328-335

8. UNCCD 2nd Scientific Conference 2013 - Bonn
CASCADE’s Integrated Modelling Objectives
• CASCADE Project objectives include –
– To integrate socio-economic factors into ecological model, undertake
scenario analyses of land management strategies & formulate policy
recommendations for preventative & restorative dryland management
– To make the results accessible to interested persons, particularly using
a web-based information system CASCADiS
• Useful lessons to be gained from analysis of previous studies across
drylands globally (see also Ecol & Soc special feature -
http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/issues/view.php?sf=52 &
outputs from DESIRE project)

9. UNCCD 2nd Scientific Conference 2013 - Bonn
CASCADE’s Integrated Research Plan
• Site-based scientific studies develop land management recommendations
with stakeholders including land users & local policy makers

10. UNCCD 2nd Scientific Conference 2013 - Bonn
CASCADE Challenges
• Need to engage with each sites study teams to ensure land-use
decision-making links from small-scale plot studies
• Must identify local drivers of change in land use & management to
enable scenario development for integrated modelling
• Engagement with policy-makers essential throughout not just for
policy workshops towards end of the project
• Good web portal helps (see - http://www.cascadis-project.eu/), but
needs pro-active efforts to identify knowledge brokers & policy entry
points in each country
• Learn from lessons elsewhere, such as dryland Africa, on scaling up
from local-scale insights to policy recommendations

11. UNCCD 2nd Scientific Conference 2013 - Bonn
Thank you & more info in -