Impact case study database

Through their direct contribution to the three components of the Joint UN FAO/IAEA research-to-practice framework (i.e. research development, practical application, capacity building), Plymouth scientists have made a fundamental contribution to delivering changes in soil management policy and practice at the catchment scale. As stated by the Section Head at UN FAO/IAEA, “Your research has made a major contribution to the focus and direction of nuclear techniques to support soil conservation policy, and has contributed to fundamental changes in soil management policy and practice at the catchment scale within three of our Member states: Vietnam, Malaysia and Morocco. These success stories highlight the importance of the research-to-practice framework in helping to address the global challenge of soil erosion.” [5.1].

The impact of these contributions on soil conservation are evidenced in four of the Joint UN FAO/IAEA Member state countries: from top-down science-into-policy impact in Morocco, Vietnam, Malaysia to bottom-up community-driven change in Tanzania.

4.1 Changed soil management policy and practice at the government level: Vietnam, Malaysia and Morocco

Drawing on his research, Blake led two training programmes in 2014 [5.2] and 2016 [5.3] for visiting Research Fellows from Member states of the UN FAO/IAEA. These two programmes engaged 46 Fellows from Member states across South America, Africa, South East Asia and Eastern Europe. The IAEA highlighted the significance of the 2014 training event in new techniques and approaches for soil conservation management that led to impact: “ *Through this training, the integrated and combined use of FRNs and CSSI techniques was introduced for the first time on a world wide scale … [to improve] the cost-effectiveness of soil conservation at catchment level, and placing soil erosion control measures where most needed (precision soil conservation)*” [5.2]. The success and influence of this training has been significant, leading directly to changes in policy and practice at the government level in the three Member states of Vietnam, Malaysia and Morocco, with resultant  benefits for soil conservation and water resource management on the ground, as evidenced by the following case studies:

1. Southeast Asia: Blake’s pioneering work on CSSI tracers and dissemination activities was applied to deliver changes in soil conservation practices in Vietnam and Malaysia [5.4], to the benefit of soil and water resource management in both countries. In Vietnam, trained scientists used CSSI tools to assess the influence of land use practices on lowland water quality and identify hotspots of land degradation enabling implementation of cost-effective conservation strategies (2013-2014) that reduced soil erosion in uplands by 90% and retained sufficient runoff water for lowland rice production. This change in land management practice and reduction in soil erosion has had important socio-economic impacts at the scale of the individual farmer. One farmer reported an increase in income of over 20%: “Thanks to nuclear techniques used in determining the exact cause and source of soil erosion, his land is now stable, and his coffee plantation profitable” [4]. In Malaysia, attempts to tackle sedimentation rates in lakes were hampered by lack of information on dominant sediment sources; however, the CSSI tool enabled scientists to identify the exact source of the sediments, allowing for proper soil erosion mitigation measures to be undertaken in cooperation with the State Agriculture Department [5.4].

4.1.2 Morocco: Blake’s development and provision of training support in the use of Be-7 as an isotopic tracing tool [1, 6] enabled Moroccan scientists to change forestry management practice in Morocco: "Using isotopic techniques, we were able to accurately assess soil erosion and the effectiveness of soil conservation practices and make concrete recommendations to policymakers.” (Head of the Forestry Research Centre of Morocco's High Commission of Forest and Water and Combating Desertification [5.5, 5.6]). This has had a significant positive affect on soil conservation: “We have now reduced soil loss in the Tangier-Tétouan region by 40% and by around 60% in the Casablanca-Settat region.” [5.5]. These reductions in soil loss in the Tangier-Tétouan region have been responsible for increasing the economic productivity of individual farmers, again highlighting the impact of Blake’s research and training in socio-economic as well as soil conservation terms: “ Since the scientists [trained by Blake] helped me to conserve my soil, my farm has been producing 20 to 30% more with less input, and my income has gone up” [5.6]. Much of this extra income is now going toward schooling of the farmer’s four children: “I am determined to offer them the education I could never get.” [ibid].

4.2 Pioneering change in land management practices at the community-level: northern Tanzania

While land management policy in East Africa is traditionally top-down, there has long been a history of local governance at the community level that is not necessarily formalised or entrained into state governance mechanisms. The ‘Jali Ardhi’ project (funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund) led by Blake tapped into this potential to bring change in land management practice, overcoming implementation gaps between policy and practice. Blake, Kelly and team applied their interdisciplinary and participatory methodology to enable a ‘bottom-up’ approach to changing land management practices to support soil conservation in remote Maasai communities in the degraded pastoral land of the Lake Manyara catchment of northern Tanzania [5.7]. During 2017, this team held 17 interviews and a workshop with pastoralists, farmers, community leaders, representatives from farmer organisations, and local government officials. This enabled the forensic analytical tools to be coupled with social science expertise and local community knowledge, to understand the complexity and barriers to implementation of soil conservation measures, and led to the co-design of changes to land management practices with the local community.

Through continued community engagement funded by an NERC Follow-on grant, Emaerete Village (a cornerstone study site) undertook pioneering change in land management practices. This involved: (i) new and locally enforced grazing regimes with restriction and exclusion of cattle from severely eroded and gullied communal grazing land around the village from July 2019: “The plot has helped in managing soil erosion and water run-offs. The approach of reserving and setting out grazing areas have been used elsewhere in the village, for example, the area around where the demo plot is and in individual areas, people have respect to such places, and they have started seen differences happening at their lands”. [5.7 - Gustav Joachim, Emaerete Village Chairman] ; (ii) strategic planting of 200 trees in December 2019 to slow down runoff in hydrologically vulnerable hot spots act and trap sediment - workshop participants from Emaerete have acknowledged that the village have already started witnessing benefits to the land after the trees were planted including prevention of further soil erosion and water run-off, with the tree-planting program have extended to individuals households too [5.7]; and (iii) the formation of a village environment committee to plan future initiatives. The success of the initial tree planting programme has led to further investment by CORDS [Community Research and Development Service], an NGO working in the region: “…they [CORDS] came and see that the village have already started doing something about their land…they provided Emaerete with more trees and education” [5.7 – Daniel Sokoine, Chairman Emaerete Environment Committee]. In addition, Monduli District Council wants to extend this programme to other villages in the district, as the problem of soil erosion still poses a challenge to communities in this area [5.7].

A specific workshop run by the project team in November 2019 with Monduli District Council and all 3 of the ‘Jali Ardhi’ project communities identified the need for, and importance of, new byelaws to improve the governance and protection of degraded and vulnerable land. As a direct result of this workshop, all 3 communities have now established a set of new bye-laws to support sustainable land use, which centre on (i) management of cattle through rotational grazing; (ii) fines for grazing cattle in reserved areas; and (iii) mandatory planting of up to 10 trees per year by each household: “At the village level, we have established by-laws that guides management of cattle grazing and laws that foster tree planting initiatives. We have reserved areas for grazing during different seasons of the year (rotational grazing) and if found grazing on one of these reserved areas, a fine of 50,000 TZS will be placed upon. We also have laws that instructs every house/family to plant 10 trees at their residence per year” [5.7 – Olais Tayai, Lendikinya Village Chairman].

For Monduli District Council, the overall impact of ‘Jali Ardhi’ is multi-faceted: “Experiences from Jali Ardhi project has helped the district in many ways in land use plans and on sustainable land management and agricultural practices including technical education it provided on contour farming practices and the use of terraces at Emaerete and Enguiki villages to prevent soil erosion” [5.7 – Roy Mruma, Agriculture Extension Officer, Monduli District Council].