Local | PANORAMA

Natural resource governance

Demarcated Route

UNEP

The project aimed to improve governance of land and water resources at the community-level in order to enhance community resilience to water hazards and promote sustainable drylands management. This entailed several measures:

Establishment of a water resource management committee that is responsible for the water retention structure, for undertaking early warning and preparedness for flood and drought; and for ensuring that water is proportionally distributed. The committee also liaises with wider landscape management programmes and the government and NGOs.
Demarcation of the migratory route for pastoralist communities in order to reduce potential conflict over animals entering farmlands, and farms encroaching into rangelands.
Establishment of revolving funds for agriculture (seed bank) and livestock drugs to sustain livelihood activities and provide continued services over the longer term period.

The Eco-DRR project complemented another larger initiative by UNEP, known as the Wadi El-Ku Catchment Management (WEK) Project in North Darfur, implemented along the same wadi and roughly at the same time. The WEK project demonstrate how effective and inclusive natural resource management can improve relationships over natural resources, therefore contributing to peace-building and improving the livelihoods of conflict-affected communities.

Natural resource governance requires stakeholder dialogue to understand needs of the communities involved and for successful implementation of the measures. Furthermore, involving necessary authorities (e.g. linking the water management committee to government and NGOs for technical assistance and finance; and involving government and all relevant stakeholders for the demarcation of the migratory route) helps to ensure sustainability of the project. Having these activities replicated through other projects (e.g. WEK and other projects) is also important. Indeed the demarcation of the migratory route was extended from the 10KM to a total of 120KM route.

Implementation

Local

Subnational

Field interventions

Community nursery in Wad Kota village

UNEP

The field interventions were:

Rehabilitation of a water structure for increased cultivation and greening of the wadi (grey infrastructure)
Establishement of community tree nurseries
Community reforestation
Re-seeding of pasture land
Soil erosion control to address the gully erosion problem in the area (though terracing and check dams with local material)

All were undertaken with community participation. Womens' groups manage the tree nurseries and community forests. Four of the five forests were established using seedlings from the nursery, while the natural forest in one village was rehabilitated and is being protected from livestock grazing.

There was a strong uptake by the local community who contributed substantially with in-kind labour for the field interventions that clearly were beneficial for them.

Designing the right ecosystem-based interventions was challenging due to the limited water availability and young vegetation is more vulnerable to dry spells. Access to water and improving livelihoods were therefore the priority. Indeed any planted trees would be cut down if livelihoods were not also improved by other means. Thus a combination of grey and green infrastructure was necessary. Rehabilitating a water retention structure along with improving agricultural yields and then re-greening the landscape while removing pressure away from the more fragile soils.

Protecting the newly planted forests from grazing was not always easy. After discussion with the community it was agreed to put in place a rotating monitoring system to ensure vigilance against uncontrolled grazing. Future projects could benefit from selecting forestry species that require minimum protection, for example unpalatable trees and shrubs.

Implementation

Local

Building partnerships and community engagement

Consensus building

UNEP

Building strong partnerships at the local and national level and working with the local community is essential for the implementation and overall success and sustainability of the project.

Furthermore it was essential to connect the local communities to government bodies and ensure the state takes joint ownership of the activities so that any future support that is needed can be sought from the government.

UNEP had strong longstanding partnerships (with local stakeholders and local and national implementing partners) in place in the project area.

In a fragile context like in Sudan, having long standing partnerships are vital for the success of the project.

During implementation of community based activities it was learned that community level projects must make it least demanding of time and energy from community members, and ensure the right timing of activities to match communities’ schedule, as project activities generally require voluntary work.

Moreover, when communities see clear evidence of the benefits of the interventions, they then become more willing to implement and continue with similar activities on their own in the future. Interventions that show less direct livelihood benefits require good dialogue and awareness raising campaigns.

Capacity building

Atelier hydro mesure debit technique sel dissous

UNEP

As this was DRC’s first experience in applying both the Eco-DRR, as well as IWRM approach, it was critically important to progressively develop and strengthen capacities over time, which involved:

Awareness-raising;
training and workshops;
Hands-on learning activities in the field demonstration sites;
Field visits and study tours both in the country and in the region.

There was a total of 71 trainings and workshops. These covered general meetings (inception and presentation); national awareness raising workshops on Eco-DRR and IWRM; workshops related to IWRM, the role of Eco-DRR in IWRM and action planning; trainings on hydro-meteorological monitoring, soil erosion monitoring and flood risk modelling; training on agroforestry and value chain production; and trainings on soil loss monitoring and bioengineering to reduce soil erosion.

The project emphasized the importance of linking the local group AUBR/L with the relevant National Government ministries and other partners, whose capacity was also built so that the work is sustainable over time.

The project also created new partnerships, which facilitated study tours in the country and in the region.

A major portion of capacity building took place in the field, as part of “learning-by-doing” through implementation of the field interventions. While these were intended to support field interventions, they were also designed to establish locally-managed systems that would be long lasting. Therefore, trainings were added also according to needs identified during the implementation of the project. For example, it was identified that capacity needed to be established also on how to sell produce from agroforestry (not just on how to implement agroforestry) and on bushfire management after a fire destroyed a reforestation site.

Gully and soil erosion control

Gully stabilisation in Mafumba after intervention

UNEP

Reducing gully erosion was important to reduce siltation of springs and streams in low lying areas and destruction of infrastructure. In order to treat and arrest the formation of gullies, the project implemented a bioengineering technique using vetiver, a grass known for its deep roots that can effectively control soil erosion. In this method, soil-filled bags are compacted in gullies to arrest progression of gullies. Vetiver are planted in the top soil-filled bags (filled with fertile soil). The bags will normally deteriorate and breakdown under the sun, but the roots of vetiver keep the soil in place.

River banks were also stabilised with vetiver grass after removing uneven projections and smoothing the slope. Vetiver nurseries were set up to supply the two working areas (near the water treatment plant and near Kinshasa).

A local charity near Kinshasa, where limited land is available for community projects, provided space for a vetiver nursery.

The use of vetiver for gully and soil erosion control was also very successful, because local residents immediately perceived the protection value provided by the vetiver, especially when sites are located near their homes, schools or public roads. Prior to the project, communities in the basin did not know about the effectiveness of vetiver grass as an erosion control measure. Now neighbouring communities have shown great interest in replicating the bioengineering methodology.

Implementation

Local

Agroforestry and reforestation

Acacia tree planting

UNEP

Reforestation and revegetation was undertaken on degraded slopes and around a water treatment site to reduce erosion and flood risk. To provide seedlings for reforestation and agroforestry, community nurseries were set up.

Community-based agroforestry was established on 15ha to provide additional livelihood support to 20 households. It is based on an 8year rotational cycle of crop production and forestry (over 8 parcels, one added each year), which allows for the sustainable management of land and the reduction of soil erosion. Three types of plants are cultivated within a given parcel, namely acacia, cassava and cowpeas, which provide complementary benefits. Bee-keeping also is undertaken. The produce from all this increases income annually for all households, who manage it together. The households, the landowner and the association who have an agreement, whereby 50% of yields go to the farmers, 25% to the association and 25% to the landowner.

Expected income from 1ha, year 1: 3,000USD from production of 100 bags of charcoal from stumps + 6,250USD from harvest of 2,500kg of cowpeas; year 2: 9,615USD from 6,410kg of cassava; year 3-7: 7,000USD from 1,000L of honey; year 8: 35,000USD from 1,750 bags of charcoal produced from mature acacia trees.

The valuation method 'Integrated Valuation of Environmental Services and Tradeoffs' (InVest) was used to determine field intervention sites by modelling soil erosion potential under different management options. The relatively low data requirements of the InVest model and the fact that it takes into account both the geophysical and ecological characteristics of the area in measuring soil erosion potential make the InVest model highly suitable for EbA/Eco-DRR planning and for data-poor countries.

Delivering multiple benefits and providing tangible evidence thereof is important for community uptake. Prior to the project, charcoal production and slash and burn agriculture were the main activities. The farmers were unfamiliar with agroforestry and believed the land chosen for the project unsuitable for agriculture.

The overall success was evident by the strong community up-take of the interventions, guided by experienced local partners, and the high survival rate (98%) of the agroforestry trees planted.

However, because of the fact that these were demonstration sites, members of the community not chosen and thus not accessing benefits were unhappy. In one case, fire was deliberately set to destroy a reforestation site. Thus in future, it is important to be mindful of local sensitivities and ensuring that project benefits are shared as broadly as possible, in order to minimize conflict between resource users. It also highlights the limitations of pilot projects.

Implementation

Local

Mainstreaming Eco-DRR/EbA in the development of an IWRM Action Plan

Constructing a 3D map of the Lukaya River Basin

UNEP

In order to establish a risk-informed and sustainable water resource management framework for the Lukaya basin, ecosystem-based measures are mainstreamed into an Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) Action Plan. The Association of the Users of the Lukaya River Basin (AUBR/L) developed the plan with support from UNEP and an international expert and is responsible for its implementation.

The Plan outlines a series of priority actions under four main pillars: water, environment, land use planning and governance. An integral component of the Action Plan is promoting sustainable ecosystem management approaches within the overarching framework of IWRM.

Development of the IWRM Action Plan emphasized the importance of linking upstream and downstream communities and strengthening their knowledge of the geographic and socio-economic conditions within their shared river basin. 3D participatory mapping was used to map hazards, land use types, natural resources and identify major environmental problems and areas at risk in the basin, through a multi-stakeholder, participatory approach.

Furthermore soil erosion and hydro-meteorological monitoring was put in place to allow for flood risk modelling. This would establish baselines and provide data to inform IWRM planning.

The Eco-DRR project was implemented in conjunction with an UNDA-funded IWRM project in the same area.

3D participatory mapping is an excellent tool because it facilitates the integration of local

spatial knowledge with topographic data through the participation of many stakeholders and the use of geographic information systems.

A key ingredient of successfully promoting Eco-DRR through IWRM in DRC was the sustained participation of local river users, through the AUBR/L.

The process of IWRM planning was intensive and took almost a year for the first draft to be produced.

The community-based approach (through AUBR/L) is appropriate because of the weak presence of central technical administration at the local level in post-conflict DRC. Having an existing water management institution was fortunate and enabled bringing together key stakeholders from both upstream and downstream and enhancing collaborative relationships. Obtaining buy-in was crucial for the development of the plan and also for activities, such as installing monitoring systems on land.

Several multi-stakeholder workshops and awareness raising were undertaken for the process. As a result, participants gained appreciation of the basin as a shared landscape and identified common priorities for sustainable watershed management, which also contributes to climate and disaster resilience.

Planning phase

Inception phase

Local

Develop local and national capacity for Eco-DRR

Eco-DRR awareness raising for children

UNEP

The project invested significantly in building capacity for Eco-DRR implementation. Firstly, awareness raising for different audiences (communities in the project area, government, university and other local and national audiences) was conducted by various means such as radio, conferences, workshops, factsheets and posters, 3D model and video.

Secondly various workshops on Eco-DRR implementation were undertaken at the local level to instruct on nursery management, early warning and preparedness, community resilience centre management, as well as trainers training. Field demonstrations and practical trainings at the provincial and national level served as a basis for strengthening Provincial and National Governments’ understanding of Eco-DRR practice in order to sustain future implementation and replication of Eco-DRR measures.

Finally, the project involved universities in Afghanistan in national and provincial EcoDRR conferences and trainings, in an effort to mainstream Eco-DRR concepts and practical knowledge in university programmes.

Having a long standing relationship and working with local organizations and actors is important for a good communication strategy and enabling capacity building. Furthermore, additional funding enabled a learning exchange to promote Eco-DRR and CCA in the region between Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Dialogue, involving stakeholders and working with local organizations, having a local pilot demonstration project and investing heavily in strengthening capacity are key for sustainability.

Implementation

Documentation and dissemination of results

Field interventions at the village level

Orgosh village tree nursery creation

UNEP

In each village, four main interventions were carried out:

Creation of community tree nurseries
Tree planting/reforestation
Creation of community resilience centres
Local capacity building on Eco-DRR activities

These activities aimed to restore tree cover on slopes and riverbanks around the villages in order to reduce flood risk, while at the same time provide direct livelihood benefits to targeted households and stakeholders in the project. Establishment of community centres and disaster preparedness procedures aimed to reduce exposure of households by providing shelter from extreme winter conditions. The project also promoted replication and scale-up of Eco-DRR activities within Koh-e Baba, in order to sustain field interventions beyond the project’s three-year lifespan.

The relatively stable security situation in Bamyan Province, and the long-standing collaboration between UNEP, Conservation Organization for Afghan Mountain Areas (COAM) and the target villages facilitated the implementation and monitoring of field activities.

Field interventions at a much larger geographic and time scale would be necessary to provide evidence of actual flood risk reduction, which was beyond the scope of this project. Therefore the intention was more about having field demonstrations of well-known ecosystem-based measures that have been proven effective in other field research and in the scientific literature to demonstrate their potential in high mountain areas of Afghanistan.

A number of challenges will constrain further uptake, replication and scaling-up of the approach in the country. These include limited capacity of National and Local Governments, lack of access to public land for community ecosystem-based activities, and the need to demonstrate clear economic benefits of such activities to provide local incentives for replication. Indeed there was initial resistance to using private land for nurseries, but by the end of the project there was demand to replicate nursery establishment once the benefits were seen.

Implementation

Local

Mainstream Eco-DRR into local and national development planning processes

Community-based mapping

UNEP

The project designed a Green and Resilient Development Planning template to be used at the village level, and proposed a model to scale up local planning to integrate ecosystem and disaster to the landscape level. Community-based mapping, GIS modelling and remote sensing assessments were undertaken to better understand the current and historical changes in disaster risk, ecosystem health and land use, while taking climate change into account. A visioning assessment with the local community was also conducted to better understand the community’s development needs.

In the template, the planning process starts with a thorough examination of existing physical, social, cultural, religious, and socio-economic conditions, as well as identifying and locating key hazards and disaster prone areas through community consultations, field visits, and local expert knowledge. Once the information is collected, communities are encouraged to discuss and identify local development priorities with respect to livelihoods, village development, disaster prevention and improving community resilience. A village development map, accompanied by a short report explaining the findings, development goals and strategies make up the final plan.

The project realized it would be more useful to embed the development planning process of the project into institutionalized, local development processes. Due to some challenges with this (see lessons learned), the project took advantage of the location of the seven target villages, which were within the boundaries of the Shah Foladi Protected Area, and influenced the design of the protected area management plan to scale-up the ecosystem-based measures within the larger landscape.

One of the challenges faced by the project was how best to support the integration of Eco-DRR elements in local development planning in Afghanistan. While the project started by creating the green and resilient developments plans to be used within the project, it decided to influence the existing development planning process under the Government’s National Solidarity Programme (NSP). However, the NSP is currently under revision, and a new NSP process is being worked out at the national level. Therefore, the project was unable to embed green and resilient development planning into the NSP. However, it has put everything in place so that this can happen in the future.