Integrated Landscape Approaches for Africa’s Drylands

Integrated Landscape Approaches for Africa’s Drylands presents emerging fi ndings on the importance
of moving beyond single-sector interventions to embrace integrated landscape management
that takes into account the health of the ecosystems that support human livelihoods and
contribute to the resilience of rural communities in Sub-Saharan African drylands. Integrated
landscape management is particularly important for these drylands because people depend on
production systems that are frequently disrupted by exogenous shocks such as drought.
The ecological and economic evidence presented in this book shows that integrated landscape
management can enhance efforts to invest in tree-based systems and improved livestock
management and support productivity increases for rain-fed cropping. Integrated landscape
management efforts have helped to coordinate the actions of multiple land users and other stakeholders,
reduced confl icts, and improved overall governance of water, land, and other resources.
Integrated landscape management is thus a useful approach to enhance the intensifi cation of
dryland cropping systems and will, in many locations (but not always), result in multiple wins—
including improved farm productivity, water benefi ts at the farm and landscape levels, carbon
sequestration, biodiversity and other ecosystem services benefi ts, and higher climate resilience.
Various policies and related interventions can be used to trigger and accelerate the scaling up of
these benefi ts through integrated landscape management across Sub-Saharan African drylands to
restore and increase household and ecological resilience. Policies are needed to develop the
framework conditions necessary to both initiate new programs and modify and scale up existing
restoration and resilience efforts. The book highlights policy options, covering six broad intervention
areas: (1) Clarify land rights and responsibilities; (2) Encourage multistakeholder involvement and
collective action; (3) Overcome institutional barriers to integrated landscape management;
(4) Create conditions for adaptive planning and management; (5) Create mechanisms and
supporting policies for sustainable and long-term fi nancing of integrated landscape management;
and (6) Invest in a solid evidence base and knowledge-sharing platforms for integrated landscape
management.