Originally published in 1969, the contributors to this volume examine the natural and social environments of selected areas in Africa and study in detail some particular problems and their solutions. Climate, landforms, soils and vegetation are discussed as fundamental aspects of the physical environment. The next section discusses the social and political environment: demography, agricultural systems and the legacies of colonial administration. Case studies in Malawi, Nigeria, Sudan, Eswatini and Kenya are analysed. The book is aimed at students of African studies, geographers and agriculturalists.
This book presents contemporary case studies of land use, management practices, and innovation in Africa with a view to exploring how multifunctional land uses can alleviate food insecurity and poverty. Food security and livelihoods in Africa face multiple challenges in the form of feeding a growing population on declining land areas under the impacts of climate change. The overall question is what kind of farming systems can provide resilient livelihoods? This volume presents a selection of existing farming systems that demonstrate how more efficient use of land and natural resources, labour and other inputs can have positive effects on household food security and livelihoods. It examines how aquaculture, integrated water management, peri-urban farming systems, climate-smart agriculture practices and parkland agroforestry contribute multiple benefits. Drawing on case studies from Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Burkina Faso, contributed by young African scientists, this book provides a unique perspective on multifunctional land use in Africa and illustrates how non-conventional uses can be profitable while promoting social and environmental sustainability. Tapping into the global discussion on land scarcity and linking food security to existing land use change processes, this volume will stimulate readers looking for diversified land uses that are compatible with both household and national food security ambitions. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of African development, agriculture, food security, land use and environmental management, as well as sustainable development more generally, in addition to policymakers and practitioners working in these areas.
This book links contemporary debates on land reform with wider discourses on sustainable development within Africa. Featuring chapters and in-depth case studies on South Africa and Zimbabwe, Malawi, Kenya, Botswana and West Africa, it traces the development of ideas about sustainable development and addresses a new agenda based on social justice. The authors critically examine contemporary neoliberal market-led reforms and the legacy of colonialism on the land question. They argue that debates on sustainable development should be placed in the context of structural interests, access and equity, rather than technical management of land and resources. Additionally, they show that these structural factors cannot be transformed by institutional reform based on notions of elective democracy, community participation, and market-reform, but require a far more radical programme to redress the injustices of the colonial system that continue today. The book advocates a commitment to building sustainable livelihoods for farmers, calling for a redistribution of land and natural resources to challenge existing economic relations and frameworks for development.
The Africa Open DEAL and Africa’s Great Green Wall initiative is a first-of-its-kind collection of accurate, comprehensive, and harmonized African land use and land use change data. It provides a detailed panorama of land use and change across the entire continent and countries, captured through more than 300 000 sampling points taken from very high-resolution satellite imagery using FAO’s Collect Earth tools. This land report is a collective effort of more than 350 African experts. Using maps and statistics generated from the assessments, the report elaborates future prospects of land use change in a comprehensive and accessible format. Key findings indicate that land restoration for livelihoods, biodiversity and carbon capture is achievable in Africa, in view of multiple large-scale initiatives and countries’ commitments, including restoration targets of 100 million ha for GGW-Sahel, 100 million ha for the AFR100, both by 2030, and another 200 million ha for the Pan-African Agenda on Ecosystem Restoration. Successfully restored lands in the Sahel under GGW would have a profound positive effect on the climate of the whole region, potentially doubling the amount of rainfall or decreasing summer temperatures throughout much of Nnorthern Africa and as far as the Mediterranean. FAO and the AUC remain committed to working with member countries, African institutions and partners to leverage digital technologies to fast-track data on land use change and restoration efforts on the continent. Africa Open DEAL data are embedded within FAO’s Hand-in-Hand Initiative geo-spatial platform and are accessible to anyone through EarthMap.org.
It is increasingly recognized that land can be managed most sustainably through involving local communities. This book highlights the potential of a new methodology of uncovering and stimulating community initiatives in sustainable land management in Africa. Analyses of four contrasting African countries (Ghana, Morocco, South Africa and Uganda) show that as communities directly face the challenges of land degradation, they are likely to develop initiatives themselves in terms of sustainable land management. These initiatives (or ‘innovations’) may be more appropriate and sustainable than those emanating from research stations located far from the communities. The book describes the rationale of the approach used, the set of steps followed, how the project managed to engage the communities to understand the importance of the activities they were undertaking, and how they were stimulated to improve and extend their initiatives and innovativeness. Examples covered include soil fertility, community forestry, afforestation, water, invasive species and grazing land management. Central to the book is the way communities, and scientists, interacted between the four countries and learnt from each other. The book also shows how the initiatives were outscaled locally.
This book examines the nexus between conservation, land conflicts, and sustainable tourism approaches in Southern Africa, with a focus on equity, access, restitution, and redistribution. While Southern Africa is home to important biodiversity, pristine woodlands, and grasslands, and is a habitat for important wildlife species, it is also a land of contestations over its natural resources with a complex historical legacy and a wide variety of competing and conflicting issues surrounding race, cultural and traditional practices, and neoliberalism. Drawing on insights from conservation, environmental, and tourism experts, this volume presents the nexus between land conflicts and conservation in the region. The chapters reveal the hegemony of humans on land and associated resources including wildlife and minerals. By using social science approaches, the book unites environmental, scientific, social, and political issues, as it is imperative we understand the holistic nature of land conflicts in nature-based tourism. Discussing the management theories and approaches to community-based tourism in communities where there are or were land conflicts is critical to understanding the current state and future of tourism in African rural spaces. This volume determines the extent to which land reform impacts community-based tourism in Africa to develop resilient destination strategies and shares solutions to existing land conflicts to promote conservation and nature-based tourism. The book will be of great interest to students, academics, development experts, and policymakers in the field of conservation, tourism geography, sociology, development studies, land use, and environmental management and African studies.
This book showcases new empirical findings on the conceptualization, design, and evaluation of land management interventions and addresses two crucial aspects: how and under which conditions such interventions are responsible, and how such interventions can be supported by smart technologies. Responsible and Smart Land Management Interventions is for all types of actors in land management. Although primarily based on cases from Africa, it addresses land management issues from practical and theoretical perspectives relevant for land managers worldwide. It brings the discourse up to date and helps all practitioners designing new policies and those looking for new instruments to do so. Aimed at land academics, including students, teachers, and researchers, as well as practitioners, including those working within international organizations, donor organizations, NGOs, and land independent consultants, this book Delivers innovative methodologies for land management for professionals involved in land administration projects Explores land management from a geodetic and spatial planning perspective Includes real cases, empirical data, and analysis in contemporary and alternative land management developments in Africa Addresses important land issues which contribute to national development and achieving United Nations' SDGs Discusses contemporary research findings related to societal needs in land administration which are equally valid for non-African contexts Acts as a new teaching resource for land management and land administration courses, and land-related disciplines in geodesy, human geography, development studies, and environmental planning
East Africa is characterised by extreme social and environmental contrasts that has undergone transformative changes over the past 300,000 years - the era of modern humans. People have left increasingly deep and pervasive footprints across the region, resulting in the anthropogenically crafted landscape of the present. The book shows how understanding contemporary issues, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, conservation, agricultural development, and achieving the sustainable development agenda, all require an appreciation of the past. The volume explore these interactions from the origins of human species with a particular focus on the last 500 years the Anthropocene. As trade, particularly of ivory, maize, and munitions, expanded with the Asia, Europe and the Americas this shaped many of the current issues in East Africa's society, economy, and environment. These trade links paved the way for the colonial era that started at an atypical moment in East African environmental history. The colonial impacts on society, ecosystems, Protected Areas, biodiversity conservation, and the ensuing legacy through the independent states of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are explored. Given this rich, diverse, and connected past, what the future will be like for East African societies, ecosystems, and landscapes under climate change, high population growth, and rapid development? Rob Marchant is Professor of Tropical of Ecology at the University of York, UK. Much of his research is focused on East Africa, where over the past thirty years of working in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania he has developed close collaborations with the numerous University, NGO, UN and Governmental institutions that, alongside multiple conversations with individuals, have profoundly influenced and shaped the perspectives presented here. The interplay between the climate, ecosystems, cultures, livelihoods, and land uses are explore to document how the massive challenges facing the region have been created, are being addressed and future opportunities maximized.
This book examines tropical resource management in West Africa. Drawing widely on field examples, it argues that more account should be taken of ecological conditions and indigenous land-use methods in decision-making about tropical management projects.
This book discusses knowledge-based sustainable agro-ecological and natural resource management systems and best practices for sustained agricultural productivity and ecosystem resilience for better livelihoods under a changing climate. With a focus on agriculture in Africa, the book assesses innovative technologies for use on smallholder farms, and addresses some of the key Sustainable Development Goals to guide innovative responses and enhanced adaptation methods for coping with climate change. Contributions are based on 'Capacity Building for Managing Climate Change in Malawi' (CABMACC), a five-year program with an overall goal to improve livelihoods and food security through innovative responses and enhanced capacity of adaptation to climate change. Readers will discover more about sustainable crop production, climate smart agriculture, on-farm energy supply from biogas and the potential of soil carbon sequestration in crop-livestock systems.
