Post on 13-Apr-2017
Water for a food-secure worldWater for a food-secure world
Linking rainwater management strategies to
ecosystem/environmental health and resilienceMulugeta Lemenih
Nile Basin Development ChallengeScience and Reflection WorkshopAddis Ababa, 4-6 May 2011
Water for a food-secure worldWater for a food-secure world
Background: RWM = SLM?• ‘RWM is a variation of SLM’ (Nile 1). Same technologies and practices;
– Emerging as SLWM;
• Changing emphasis in SLM definitions since MEA (examples):– land managed to maintain or improve ecosystem services for human well-being,
as negotiated by all stakeholders (UNCCD, 2009);– Knowledge-based procedure that helps integrate land, water, biodiversity and
environmental management (including input and output externalities) to meet rising food and fiber demands while sustaining ecosystem services and livelihoods (World Bank, 2005);
• Therefore focus of RMS = restoring or enhancing ecosystem services, insuring multi-functionality & building resilience!
– Focus on ESs is important since PES is emerging as driving incentive for environmental management
Water for a food-secure worldWater for a food-secure world
Sustainability & Resilience: how are they related?
• Sustainability: what is it?
– Is it adaptability and endurance or stability (steady state) of a system?
• Is it buffering of disturbances or shocks (environmental, market, political, social) and continue functioning or a system that is operating under prescribed conditions?
– The former is resilience (defined as):• Which is capacity of a system to survive, adapt, and/or grow in the face
of disturbances or stresses,
• A sustainable system is the one that is resilient system
Water for a food-secure worldWater for a food-secure world
Past SES
development
(drivers,
interactions)
Future SES
E & E (Ecosystem services
supply and tradeoff)
Livelihoo
ds and
benefits
RWM
practices
RWM
governance
R E S I L I E N C E = Sustainable
A conceptual framework!!
R E S I L I E N C E = sustainable
Trends and development trajectories =(measure of re
silience)
Present SES
E & E outcomes (Ecosystem
services supply)
Future scenarios
Time
Water for a food-secure worldWater for a food-secure world
Sustainability & Resilience
• Is this a sustainable system? •Yes, wrt crop yield/yr/landscape (also financial gains/hh??)•No, in many measures of ecosystem resources (e.g. soil, biodiversity, water quantity, etc.)!
• We are gradually eating into the natural capital & compromising options for the future!
• Is this a resilient system? Yes but the trend or development trajectory of the SES is degradation?
Intensification of natural capital use Crop
yield/yr/landscape
Water for a food-secure worldWater for a food-secure world
How can we assess impacts of RWM on system resilience (landscape + LH)?
• Resilience concept re-defined within the NBDC context: – A system (e.g. watershed,
landscape, etc.) that maintains a range of supporting, regulating and provisioning ecosystem services!
• Diversity/quality of ESs = ability to resist or withstand shocks or perturbations!
• Simplification of ESs (reduction of ESs) = Vulnerability;
LS
Crop biomass
Socia
l ben
efits
Water quality/quantity
Biod
iver
sit
y
Cultural values
(etc)
Soil health
Water for a food-secure worldWater for a food-secure world
What have we done and plan to do?• Two sites already visited:• Preliminary assessment made: qualitatively past to present SES dynamics, drivers, interactions
and impacts briefly captured, and trajectories assessed: The SES analytical framework followed the below…)
Water for a food-secure worldWater for a food-secure world
Diga caseDrivers: changing political institutions & associated access right to land and other resources, policy changes, population growth (birth + migration), state farms and military campus,
Water for a food-secure worldWater for a food-secure world
Trends and trajectories
Ecological State C
hange
Drivers of change eroded existing GS and NRM traditions and replaced it with a system
that is more exploitative and poor in GS . Thus intensify rapid ecological state change.
Productive and self-sufficient SES under Gumuz occupancy
(Pre-1960s)
Small scale water innovation system, in which GS was integral
part
Governance state change
Severe conflict over resources, landlessness, etc. could these be the threshold?
Where will RWS leading the system trajectory?
Which ESs will be enhanced and which compromised?
Water for a food-secure worldWater for a food-secure world
Fogera:Drivers: political institutions & accompanying policies; - land re-distribution;
population growth, etc. Incom
e or crop harvest
Water for a food-secure worldWater for a food-secure world
Governance system
Signs of ecological state recovery and
improved productivity due to innovative
water use, outmigration and SWC, but without
signs of no GS improvement
40-50 years back the SES was productive with little sign of ecological system degradation and social
system problem
Lack of awareness, institutional
change (politics, policy,
tradition) coupled with
population growth eroded the
traditional GS
Deforestation and soil fertility loss intensified, land use shifted, land scarcity heightened,
water use also intensified
Resource system
How will RMS affect th
is syste
m?
Trend and trajectories
Water for a food-secure worldWater for a food-secure world
Ecosystem services supply & tradeoffs analysis• Theoretical framework
SES
Crop biomass
Socia
l ben
efits
Water quality/quantity
Biod
iver
sit
y
Cultural value
Soil
health
SES
Crop biomass
Socia
l ben
efits
Water quality/quantity
Biod
iver
sity
Cultural value
Soil health
RMS
Water for a food-secure worldWater for a food-secure world
How to assess ESs & tradeoffs?
• Proposed methodologies, yet to be refined:– For water related ESs = SWAT– For biodiversity, crop, etc. = field + RS (GIS)+models;– For social related aspects = survey– So, combinations of d/t data collection methods
• Trade-off/synergy analyses = scenarios coupled with tools such as InVEST or Polyscape?
Water for a food-secure world
Thanks