Community Innovations in Sustainable Land Management Lessons from the field in Africa Earthscan Studies in Natural Resource Management Series

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.

1. Stimulating Community Initiatives in Sustainable Land Management (SCI-SLM): An Introduction William Critchley, Maxwell Mudhara and Mohamed Sessay 2. Local Innovation: Theory, Experience and the Basis for SCI-SLM William Critchley and Sabina Di Prima 3. SCI-SLM Methodology: Origins of the Design Sabina Di Prima and William Critchley 4. SCI-SLM: Innovation Begins at Programme Level Maxwell Mudhara and Mohamed Sessay 5. Community Innovations in Sustainable Land Management: Lessons from Northern Ghana Saa Dittoh , Conrad A. Weobong, Margaret A. Akuriba and Cuthbert Kaba Nabilse 6. Community Initiatives for Sustainable Natural Resource Management in the High Atlas, Morocco M. Mahdi, Z. Tijani, M. Tami, and W. Tuyp 7. Stimulating Community Initiatives in Sustainable Land Management in South Africa Avrashka Sahadeva, Maxwell Mudhara Michael Malinga, and Zanele Shezi 8. Community Initiatives for Improving Degraded Ecosystems in Uganda Stephen Muwaya, Richard Molo, John Ssendawula, Swidiq Mugerwa, Alex Lwakuba and Sabina Di Prima 9. Cross-learning with Community Initiatives Wendelien Tuijp, Saa Dittoh, Mohamed Mahdi and Maxwell Mudhara 10. Contributing to Global Environmental Benefits Saa Dittoh, Maxwell Mudhara and Conrad Weobong with Stephen Muwaya and Mohammed Mahdi 11. SCI-SLM Methodology: Refinement of the Original Design Sabina Di Prima, William Critchley, and Eva van de Ven 12. Lessons Learned and Conclusions William Critchley, Sabina Di Prima, Maxwell Mudhara and Saa Dittoh

Maxwell Mudhara lectures at the School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences and is Director of the Farmer Support Group, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

William Critchleyis a Director of Sustainable Land Management Associates Ltd, UK and former Senior Advisor at the Sustainable Land Management Thematic Unit, Centre for International Cooperation, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Sabina Di Primais a Sustainable Land Management Specialist at the Centre for International Cooperation, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Saa Dittohteaches in the Department of Climate Change and Food Security, University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana and was formerly Head of the University's Food and Nutrition Security Unit.

Mohamed F. Sessay is a Senior Programme Officer with the Biodiversity Unit of the Division of Environmental Policy Implementation (DEPI), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Nairobi, Kenya. He was Chief of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Biodiversity/Land Degradation/Biosafety Unit in DEPI, UNEP until his retirement in March 2015.