This document summarizes the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE). [1] WLE aims to sustainably intensify agriculture to feed 9 billion people by 2050 without destroying the environment. [2] It has three main goals: improving food security through sustainable intensification, improving sharing of ecosystem services, and strengthening institutional arrangements. [3] WLE works in 8 regions covering over a billion people to achieve these goals through its four programs focused on irrigated systems, rainfed systems, resource recovery and reuse, and basins.

1. CGIAR Research
Program on
Water, Land and
Ecosystems
Photo: Prue Loney/IWMI

2. Humanity’s greatest challenge
• To feed 9 billion people in
2050, we need to produce
70% more food without
destroying the environment
• Rising incomes and
population are already
contributing to:
– Water scarcity
– Land degradation
– Loss of ecosystem
services

3. CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and
Ecosystems (WLE)
Our vision
A world in which agriculture thrives within
vibrant ecosystems and where rural
communities enjoy a decent living and
have access to everything they need to
continually improve their livelihoods..
Photo: David Brazier/IWMI

4. WLE has 3 main goals…
1. To improve food security and livelihoods of
farmers through the sustainable
intensification of agriculture
2. To improve the sharing of benefits and
risks among users of different ecosystem
services through policies that encourage
collaborative behaviour and dialogue
3. To strengthen institutional arrangements
Photo: David Brazier/IWMI
that cut across sectors and national
boundaries, foster equitable and sustained
development, improve resource
governance and support productive and
resilient solutions

5. Working in 8 regions covering more than a billion
people

6. PROGRAM STRUCTURE & FRAMEWORK
4. Basins
Outcomes and
1. Impacts
Irrigation
Systems 3. Ecosystem
Drivers Resource
Services
of and
2. Recovery Environment
Change Reuse
Rainfed
Systems Adaptive
Management
5. Analysis and Information Systems

7. Irrigated Systems SRP
Solutions:
•Enhancing Success of Irrigation in
sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)
•Revitalizing public irrigation
systems
•Water Management in the Eastern
Gangetic Basin
•Managing salt–water balance in
Indus and Central Asian irrigation
systems
•Peri-urban Agricultural Water
Management
Photo: Tom Van Cakenberghe/IWMI

8. Rainfed Systems SRP
Solutions:
•Reducing land degradation in
rainfed landscapes
•Sustaining productive landscapes
by increasing biodiversity
•Reducing risk and tackling
productivity/environment challenges
Photo :Akica Bahri/IWMI
in farming landscapes
•

9. Resource, Recovery and Reuse SRP
Solutions:
•Business opportunities for
resource recovery and reuse
•Safe wastewater and excreta
reuse
Photo: Andrea Silverman/IWMI

10. Basins SRP
Solutions:
Photo: Bioversity International
(IWMI)
•Managing water resources’
variability and re-thinking
storage in basins
•Resource allocation and
sharing for the benefit of all
•Water and energy for food
(WE4FOOD)
•Water data and accounting in
basins

11. Information and Decision Making
Solutions:
•Decision Analysis —
forecasting interventions
impacts on development
outcomes
•Agro-ecosystem health
Photo: CIMMYT
metrics and monitoring to
support intervention decisions

12. WLE’s focus on gender…
WLE aims to achieve gender equitable
outcomes by:
•Analyzing data from a gender and equity
perspective
•Understanding gender-specific barriers
for adoption
•Developing gender-sensitive policies
Photo: Faseeh Shams/IWMI
•Identifying ways to improve women’s
access to, and involvement in land and
water management (e.g. new income
opportunities; safer practices for
improved health; gender-sensitive
policies)

13. Trade-offs in WLE
• Trade-offs in livelihoods
• Trade-offs – short-term, versus long-term
• Trade-offs in space
• Trade-offs at the landscape scale:
struggling with boundaries
• Trade-offs among ecosystem services

14. Visit our website
wle.cgiar.org
and
the Agriculture & Ecosystem Blog
wle.cgiar.org/blogs