A. Wood

Wetland cultivation and hydrological management in eastern Africa: Matching community and hydrological needs through sustainable wetland use

Wetlands are critical natural resources in developing countries where they perform a range of environmental functions and provide numerous socio-economic benefits to local communities and a wider population. In recent years, however, many wetlands throughout eastern Africa have come under extreme pressure as government policies, socio-economic change and population pressure have stimulated a need for more agriculturally productive land. Although wetland drainage and cultivation can make a key contribution to food and livelihood security in the short term, in the long term there are concerns over the sustainability of this utilization and the maintenance of wetland benefits. This article draws upon recent research carried out in western Ethiopia, which addressed the sustainability of wetland agriculture in an area of increasing food insecurity and population pressure. It discusses the impacts of drainage and cultivation on wetland hydrology and draws attention to local wetland management strategies, particularly those characterized by multiple use of wetlands, where agriculture exists alongside other wetland uses. The article suggests that where multiple wetland uses exist, a range of benefits can be sustained with little evidence of environmental degradation. Ways of promoting and empowering such sustainable wetland management systems are discussed in the context of the wider need for water security throughout the region.

Local Sustainable Development: Land-use Planning's Contribution to Modern Local Government

This paper assesses the contribution of land-use planning to the objectives of local sustainable development in some of the UKs most urbanized areas. Sustainable development provides the context within which local planning policies are now being prepared, and can be seen to be a potentially important aspect of central governments proposals for modernizing local government. Using the results from a comprehensive survey of development plans in metropolitan authorities, the paper assesses both the strengths and the weaknesses of land-use planning in terms of sustainable development and speculates upon the lessons they may offer to the governments more recent proposals on modernizing local government.

Making Sense of Sustainable Development: Politicians, Professionals, and Policies in Local Planning

The authors investigate the ways in which sustainable development is interpreted within the development plan process, focusing on the roles of local politicians and planners. The rapidly developing ‘policy space’ surrounding the idea of sustainable development provides opportunities for engagement between planners, politicians, and other local actors. This policy space and its relationship to the plan-making process is outlined, along with key political aspects, before the results from an investigation into two case-study unitary development plans are presented. These illustrate how the influences of planners and politicians, along with key characteristics of the planning system, were instrumental in shaping both the content and the form of sustainable development policies and had implications for the way in which local sustainable development was interpreted.

Local institutions for wetland management in Ethiopia: sustainability and state intervention

Locally developed institutions that include rules and regulations, common values and mechanisms of conflict resolution are increasingly regarded as adaptive solutions to resource management problems at the grass-roots level. Since they are rooted in community social capital rather than in external, top-down decision making, they are seen as being dynamic, flexible and responsive to societal and environmental change and, as such, they promote sustainability. Within this context, this chapter examines the case of local institutions for wetland management in western Ethiopia. It discusses how the structure and functioning of these institutions have evolved in response to a changing external environment, and the extent to which this has facilitated the sustainable use of wetlands. It is suggested that these local institutions do play a key role in regulating wetland use, yet they have, uncharacteristically, always relied on external intervention to maintain their local legitimacy. Now there are concerns that the institutional arrangements are breaking down due to a lack of support from local administrative structures and current political ideology. This has major implications for the sustainable use of wetland resources and food security throughout the region.

Competitive forests – making forests sustainable in south-west Ethiopia

The forests of south-west Ethiopia are declining and degrading largely because of the demand for agricultural land. This loss has significant global, national and local implications. This paper presents data on the economic revenues from various land uses and endeavours in the Cloud Forest and Coffee Forest, which facilitates understanding of the rationale behind the livelihood and land use choices made by individuals and communities. These choices are driven by the need to maximise economic benefits from the options available. In the Cloud Forest, the focus is on forest clearance so that smallholder agriculture production can expand. In the Coffee Forest, the increasing economic returns from small-scale coffee harvesting have meant that forest clearance has been halted, but the remaining forest is altered as a result of coffee cultivation. This paper identifies interventions that could increase the value of forest-based activities and products so that livelihood choices are more supportive of forest maintenance. It concludes that there is a need to maximise non-timber forest product revenue, alongside the development of other forest products, including wood and carbon, to make the forests competitive compared to agricultural land use. This exploitation of forest resources will not preserve these forests in pristine condition, but is a pragmatic response which could ensure that they continue to provide the majority of the economic, social and environmental services currently provided. However, to achieve this, major institutional and policy changes are required, as well as a significant investment in forest enterprise development and training and carbon funding through REDD+.

Agricultural policy reform in Zambia : The dynamics of policy formulation in the Second Republic

Abstract The agricultural policy reform process in Africa during the 1980s has been slow partly because it has neglected a number of key factors. Analysis of Zambias experience during the Second Republic suggests that greater attention needs to be given to institutional heritage, political acceptability, the diversity of policy-making organizations and the policy freedom of subsectoral organizations. Neglect of these issues has led to difficulties in getting policy makers to even conceptualize reform, and has led to much concern over the political implications of insensitive reform proposals.

People-centred Wetland Management

In Wood, A.; Dixon, A.; McCartney, Matthew. (Eds.). Wetland management and sustainable livelihoods in Africa. Oxon, UK: Routledge - Earthscan

Wetland entrepreneurs: diversity in diversification in Zambian farming

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore enterprise diversification amongst wetland farmers in Zambia as a way of reducing poverty and improving sustainability. This paper identifies ways in which such entrepreneurial activities can be supported and applied more widely. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative study of Zambian farmers, based on a series of workshops and interviews held in Zambia with farmers and farm business advisers. Findings Despite adopting new technologies most farmers are restricted to the local market where their increased production holds down prices. However, a very small number of farmers are able to progress to production and marketing for markets in major urban centres hundreds of kilometres away, and considerably more are able to use the capital accumulated from wetland farming to diversify their household enterprises to reduce poverty and improve the sustainability and resilience of their livelihoods. Originality/value No work has previously been undertaken in diversification strategies of small-scale farmers in Zambia.

African Forest Honey: an Overlooked NTFP with Potential to Support Livelihoods and Forests

In parts of the developing world, deforestation rates are high and poverty is chronic and pervasive. Addressing these issues through the commercialization of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) has been widely researched, tested, and discussed. While the evidence is inconclusive, there is growing understanding of what works and why, and this paper examines the acknowledged success and failure factors. African forest honey has been relatively overlooked as an NTFP, an oversight this paper addresses. Drawing on evidence from a long-established forest conservation, livelihoods, and trade development initiative in SW Ethiopia, forest honey is benchmarked against accepted success and failure factors and is found to be a near-perfect NTFP. The criteria are primarily focused on livelihood impacts and consequently this paper makes recommendations for additional criteria directly related to forest maintenance.

Baro-Akobo River Basin Wetlands: Livelihoods and Sustainable Regional Land Management (Ethiopia)

The Baro-Akobo system from Ethiopia, along with a major tributary the Sobat from South Sudan, contributes 48 % of the flow of the White Nile where these river systems join downstream of Malakal. Within the Baro-Akobo system in Ethiopia there are wetlands at altitudes from 400 m amsl to over 2000 m, varying in size from 1 ha to more than 1000 ha. These wetlands provide a range of ecosystem services and play critical roles in the livelihoods of the local people. These communities have built up considerable local knowledge about these areas and have developed community management systems. These skills need to be developed and applied more rigorously to address the threats to wetlands to ensure sustainable use with catchment and wetlands managed together in a functional landscape approach.