linking rainwater management strategies to ecosystem/environmental health and resilience

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


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


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


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


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


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


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…)


Diga caseDrivers: changing political institutions & associated access right to land and other resources, policy changes, population growth (birth + migration), state farms and military campus,


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?


Fogera:Drivers: political institutions & accompanying policies; - land re-distribution;

population growth, etc. Incom

e or crop harvest


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


Ecosystem services supply & tradeoffs analysis• Theoretical framework

SES

Crop biomass

Socia

l ben

efits


Biod

iver

sit

y

Cultural value

Soil

health

SES

Crop biomass

Socia

l ben

efits


Biod

iver

sity

Cultural value

Soil health

RMS


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

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linking rainwater management strategies to ecosystem/environmental health and resilience

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