Workshop on Alignment & implementation of National Action programmes with the UNCCD 10-year Strategy in the Arab Region
League of Arab States (18- 20 June 2014), Dubai - UAE
IUCN Masumi. S. Gudka - Global Drylands Initiative
14. • Community Based Rangeland Management, which is an evolution of well-
established Community Based Natural Resource Management approaches;
e.g. HIMA
• Ecosystem approaches for Integrated Rangeland and Water Resource
Management;
• Forest and Landscape restoration, emphasising the importance of trees in
rangeland (including savannah) ecosystems;
• Inter-sectoral coordination;
• Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas, exploiting the potential of
sustainable rangelands management as Category 5 and 6 Protected Areas.
Entry points to SRM
15.
16. Outline of Initiative
• Strengthening evidence of the multiple-benefits of
sustainable rangelands management (SRM);
• Building partnerships and dialogue for large-scale
rangeland governance;
• Demonstrating and validating good practices;
• Leveraging appropriate investment, including
development of certification standards and payments
for ecosystem services.
17. GEF 6 Strategy
• Biodiversity
– sustainability of protected area systems
– To sustainably use biodiversity
– mainstream conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity into production landscapes
• Land Degradation
– LD-1: Agriculture and Rangeland Systems, including SLM for Climate-Smart Agriculture
– LD-2: Forest Landscape Management and Restoration
– LD-3: Integrated Landscapes and Scaling up SLM
– LD-4: Institutional and Policy Frameworks and Mainstreaming SLM in Development
• Climate Change
– Adaptation – climate smart pastoralism
– Mitigation – rangelands carbon sequestration
• Sustainable forest Management
– Integrated land use planning
– Capacity development for SFM within local communities
Drylands can be divided into four categories ranging from dry sub-humid (such as the cape floristic region/mediteranean basin), Semi-arid (mongolian steppe or any steppe, savannahs), arid areas (Australian outback) and Hyper Arid (such as sahara (hot) desert/gobi (cold) desert). Drylands are generally designated using an aridity index. Such that; land areas considered to have 1.5 times more potential evaporation (ground/surfaces) and evapo-transpiration (plants/vegetation) than mean precipitation are classified as drylands. The definition of drylands varies, but a lack of understanding of this spectrum can lead to the neglect of some of these categories. Deserts too can be impacted by poor land management, resulting in degradation. Although some consider arid to be desert as well such has the Kalahari.
All these drylands combined, including deserts make up 41.3% of the Earth’s entire land surface area and are home to approximately 2 billion people.
69% of the worlds agricultural land is rangeland and 40% of the total earths surface. Not all rangelands are found in drylands but majority of them are.
If we look at the areas of the globe which have some biological importance be it, the areas of conservation priority as shown by this map or the worlds biodiversity hotspots as shown by second map, it becomes apparent that drylands make up just over a third of those areas. If we focus on the Hotspots map, the coloured areas (red + green) represent the biodiversity hotspots and the red sections are those hotspots that occur within drylands. 35% of biodiversity hotspots occur in drylands.
The biodiversity has adapted specifically to the drylands. Mass migration is a common feature of drylands across the globe. The map above shows the migration ranges of selected dryland ungulates. In large ungulates, several factors influence migratory patterns, such as, movement to and from a breeding site or movement in search of the seasonal high value forage that comes with seasonal changes. Migratory species make the most of briefly available resources such as the rich seasonal growth found in many deserts and move on when conditions are less optimal.
Large ungulate herds have shaped the ecology of rangelands, without which the biomes (grasslands) within rangelands would not exist.
It’s not just the mammals or birds that are mobile, the people of drylands also migrate. Pastoralism is the most wide-spread land-use system in drylands – defined as extensive livestock production on rangelands, reliant on a diversity of grasses and shrubs as it is dependent on herd mobility to respond to the extremely high seasonal variability of veg. and other resources (water). Mobile pastoralism is one of the most economically viable land-use types in drylands by virtue of being low input. It is also environmentally friendly and thus sustainable because it mimics natural processes and ecosystem functions, without damaging ecosystem services.
Livestock and wildlife facilitate each others grazing patterns and provide mutual benefits where managed appropriately.
Traditional land-use systems are often compatible with the natural environment and this balance is thrown off by the introduction of more modern land-uses which are generally hinged on adapting the environment to suit their needs, as opposed to adapting land-uses to suit the environment. This image is of an Indian grey wolf or the Deccan wolf. The decline of the traditional shepherding community on the Deccan plateau of India is associated with the decline in numbers of the Deccan wolf. The community believe that the gods created them to rear the black Deccani sheep. Due to urban expansion, the community made up of four different ethnic groups are being pushed out of their ancestral land into smaller areas, directly resulting in the decline of the sheep, the main prey source for the Deccan wolf. In Spain, transhumance has been found to support populations of vultures that would otherwise be facing threats to their survival. Pastoralism in East Africa is another example of how the land-use system (pastoralism) has allowed wildlife to persist. The community owned conservancies in Kenya are examples of ICCA’s. The distinction between the example from the Deccan Plateau and the Kenyan conservancies is that ICCA’s are based on community ‘ownership and rights’ to the land in order to manage their land, while the Deccan example is about traditional land-use systems which have conservation benefits although they lack formal recognition of the benefits they provide.
They are not unique to drylands, however the drylands offer great opportunity to capture large areas of land conserved by the local communities inhabiting them and indirectly protecting the biodiversity and ecosystem health.
Certain conditions/principles need to be met for Sustainable Land Management to be realised.
Enabling local governance of communally-managed rangeland resources
Resource rights strengthened
For pastoralism it is maintaining or protecting livestock mobility
Coordinating planning between institutions for rangeland management
Links to appropriate markets
Sustainably managed rangelands contribute to multiple and interrelated benefits from:
Food security
Economic growth
Biodiversity conservation and thereby maintenance of ecosystem health, goods and services
Climate change mitigation and adaptation
Protection of hydrological cycles and reduction/prevention or reversal of land degradation among others.
Examples of the multiple benefits and gains from SRM
A concept developed by IUCN to Strengthen pastoralism for sustainable management of the economic and environmental benefits of the rangelands.
The proposed initiative will focus on a multi-country and multi-region approach and build on country led initiatives. Through this, more funds will be leveraged for policy, knowledge management and experience sharing.
Proposed sub objectives of the project concept. Specific activities will be tailored to individual country priorities through further consultation.
The HERD concept is aligned with the GEF 6 strategy in the following ways…
