Land and natural resource management in Africa

Anthony Nwajesus Onyekuru - visiting scholar from the University of Nigeria

'Climate change and sustainable forest resource management in West Africa, the need for building synergy among actors'.

Developing economies, especially those in the tropics have been predicted to bear the most consequence of climate change. Particularly, West Africa will be greatly impacted due mostly to  its social, economic and ecological dynamics that predispose the sub region to these impact. Already these impacts are being felt around the countries of the subregion. The forest, which is supposed to be a buffer is at the receiving end of these interactions, due mostly to exacerbations from anthropogenic disturbances. This talk therefore will present an overview of these interactions in the West African subregion, throwing light on the complex interaction between anthropogenic push and pull factors and climate change elements that brings about the ongoing crisis in the subregion. Using empirical evidence, we can understand the underlying problems and discuss the likely framework for engendering synergy among actors in order to build the resilience of both the forest ecology and the forest dependant communities in the area, as well as explore opportunities for collaborations.

Jon Ensor and Joanne Morris - The Stockholm Environment Institute

‘Exploring alternatives for a sustainable future of livestock in Burkina Faso and Tanzania’

Many are concerned about the environmental impact of livestock - yet, in Africa, where livestock production is still low, livestock products still offer a valuable source of nutrition as well as playing an important role for small farmers as a risk-mitigation strategy and a source of fertiliser for their crops in the form of manure. With countries pledging to increase livestock production and improve smallholder livelihoods, ensuring that the negative impacts are mitigated while safeguarding the positive impacts is important. The ResLeSS project (Research and Learning for Sustainable Intensification of Smallholder Livestock Value Chains in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Tanzania) has used a participatory approach to facilitate discussion about the implications of livestock production, exploring alternative ways to increase productivity and well-being while mitigating the amount and distribution of environmental and well-being impacts across the value chain. This presentation will discuss outcomes of this approach in Burkina Faso and in Tanzania. The ReSLeSS project approach, being a facilitation tool to structure a debate, provides a different service according to the needs of the study context. In Burkina Faso, an agro-pastoral area, the approach contributed to conflict resolution over land use for livestock production. In Tanzania, a high potential area, participants learned to look beyond their own farm and realised they can benefit from moving to more intensive production together. https://www.york.ac.uk/sei/projects/current-projects/resless/

Esther Oluwafunmilayo Makinde - Commonwealth Postdoctoral Research Fellow

‘Assessing Land Productivity Dynamics in West Africa Using Remote Sensed Data: A Case Study From Nigeria’

The West African ecology is unique having a range of vegetation cover types. This is largely influenced by the climate of the region and the anthropogenic activity of humans. This study assesses the land productivity dynamics and the impact of climate between 2003 and 2017 across West Africa and between 1986 and 2018 in Nigeria. Data used includes eMODIS NDVI C6 (250m), LANDSAT imageries (30m) and climate data (CHIRPS (0.05o), AFRICLIM (Version 3.0) and in-situ climate data). Some results produced based on the spectral characteristics analysis of the eMODIS images established five distinct eco-regions for West Africa. Subsequently two hotspots (North-East and South West) of land cover change were identified and selected in Nigeria. Subsequently, Landsat images were used to analyse these hotspots, and land cover classes scheme were created and further analysed. Findings show that in West Africa (2003-2017), there is a decrease in the Desert (3.3%) in the dry season and further decreased (3.5%) in the rainy season. Also, in the North-East of Nigeria (1987-2018), there is an increase in the Woodland/Gallery Forest (3%) and a decrease in Sand Dunes (4%). In the South West (1986-2016), there is a decrease in the Less Dense Forest (33.8%) and an increase in the Built-up (22.8%).