Deep trenches and terracing in DryDev sites
World Vision
Actions that conserve and protect natural assets
Community installing water-harvesting structures
World Vision
Terracing on sloping land
World Vision
Open-grazing and over-cutting in dryland areas reduces vegetative cover, making them prone to erosion and causing downstream flooding.
DryDev introduced FMNR as a low-cost community-led approach that build consensus on how to manage and govern open-grazing areas through local by-laws (including fines for non-compliance). FMNR uses selective pruning to assist recovering trees and stumps. In denuded areas where root stocks are not present, enrichment planting was undertaken to maximize vegetative cover in the protected areas.
Physical structures were also used, such as terraces, trenches, half-moons, check-dams and gully reclamation structures.
Biological and physical structures in open grazing areas (now protected) led to rapid vegetative recovery, recovery of springs and the rise of groundwater. Smallholders improved their water access for household needs, for small crops and fruit trees, and for animals.
- Community visioning was needed to remind the community what the landscape once looked like, and to imagine the restored state.
- Testing new ideas, such as FMNR, in small plots was useful to members who were unsure of the benefits. Bringing farmers to existing FMNR sites and to talk with other farmers convinced them of the benefits. Bringing government on board also assisted with uptake.
- Water harvesting proved to assist greatly with the speed of vegetative recovery.
Solutions like FMNR are low-cost, scalable and replicable with spontaneous adoption observed in neighbouring sub-watersheds.