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Projects
IUCN’s work on drylands follows roughly three strategic approaches that are reflected in the key projects:
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Promotion and implementation of the ecosystem approach as a global policy for drylands management on a landscape scale. |
IUCN has adopted the Ecosystem Approach as its overall strategy for engaging with a variety of stakeholders and sectors in maintaining and restoring dryland ecosystem functions. Its focus on adaptive management and on linking local and higher scales makes the ecosystem approach particularly instrumental for landscape-scale level management of vast dry areas.
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Case study: Applying the Ecosystem Approach to the Management of the Drylands in the Maradi-Kano border region between Southern Niger and Northern Nigeria
In collaboration with Drylands Research (United Kingdom), Ahmadu Bello and Bayero Universities (Nigeria), and Abdou Moumouni University (Niger), IUCN studies experiences made from the application of the ecosystem approach in the Maradi-Kano border region between Southern Niger and Northern Nigeria in West Africa.
This case study reviews how the principles of the ecosystem approach are applied to drylands management through a participatory process, and documents how formal and informal institutions are managing dryland ecosystems and related knowledge in the above border region. It analyses ecosystem functions that are of interest to different groups of stakeholders, and elaborates an ecosystem management framework based on local categories and terminology used by the Hausa living in the region.
The case study will be shortly available on this site. For more information please see the following preliminary overview of the case study.
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Provision of planning and management guidance addressing specific dryland conservation and development needs. |
Decision makers concerned with development in dryland ecosystems have to to tackle the conservation and development challenges of these fragile ecosystems. To facilitate decision making of specific target audiences in their endeavour to manage particular dryland ecosystem IUCN aims to provide practical planning and management guidance. This includes the development of technical manuals, case studies as well as assistance in accessing resources.
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Extractive Industries in Arid and Semi-Arid Zones: Environmental Planning and Management
This handbook strives to contribute to providing environmental planning and management guidance for extractive industries operations. It gives an overview of the issues and problems associated with extractive industries in arid and semi-arid lands, and recommendations on how these industries can be better planned and managed to minimize land degradation. It is primarily intended to assist government departments responsible for licensing, planning and monitoring of extractive industries activities, to take account of environment and development issues in their decision-making. It also offers environmental planning and management fundamentals for extractive industries, non-governmental organizations, and academic institutions.
This publication, developed in close collaboration with IUCN’s Regional Office for West Africa (BRAO) and the Secretariat of the Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), is available in English, French, Spanish and shortly in Arabic.
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Land Degradation and the GEF: A Guide to Developing Project Proposals and Accessing Project Funding from the Global Environment Facility for Sustainable Land Management.
This guide, developed in collaboration with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), assists stakeholders in accessing GEF resources for developing sustainable land management projects. Following the various steps of the GEF project cycle and combined with technical information on GEF’s approach to sustainable land management, the reader receives practical guidance on how to successfully present a project proposal for GEF incremental financing under the GEF Focal Area Land Degradation (Desertification and Deforestation).
The guide will be shortly available on the website. |
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Advancement of knowledge and understanding of the role and values of dryland ecosystem services. |
Many of the current global, regional and national policy dialogues for addressing dryland degradation and poverty alleviation have not resulted in improvements on the ground. One of the main reasons is an acute lack of understanding with decision makers of the values of the services dryland ecosystems provide and of the economic costs and benefits of different dryland management methods. As a consequence, dryland resources are often perceived to have little or no economic value. The challenge thus consists in providing guidance to decision makers and the public at large, on how to harness the concept of ecosystem services in the context of drylands to improve management schemes that fight land degradation and improve poverty alleviation efforts.
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Case studies: Valuation of Dryland Ecosystem Services: Integrating Dryland Ecosystem Services into National Economic Planning.
This joint initiative started in 2005 with the IUCN Regional Offices for Eastern Africa (EARO), West Africa (BRAO) and Southern Africa (ROSA) aims to increase awareness among local communities, government economists and decision makers on the role and values of dryland ecosystem services for livelihood security and national economies, and to generate and disseminate practical tools for valuation and incentive design for government economists, as well as policy guidelines for decision-makers on sustainable dryland management.
Results will be made available here soon. |
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Supporting multilateral processes towards sustainable livelihoods and conservation of ecosystem functions in drylands . |
With a view to link lessons learnt/practice to policy and policy to lessons learnt/practice in drylands management, IUCN is engaging with relevant multilateral agreements and processes to support policy towards sustainable livelihoods and conservation of ecosystem functions in drylands. It is thus in particular present at the meetings of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and the Convention on Biological Diversity through the provision of technical position papers and the organization of side events and discussion fora.
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Pastoralist Manyatta at the Seventh Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (October 19-21, 2005; Nairobi).
IUCN is executing agency of a UNDP/GEF-funded global initiative - World Initiative on Sustainable Pastoralism (WISP) - that aims to promote sustainable pastoralism as a management strategy in drylands. Under this initiative a side event - The Pastoralist Manyatta - was organized at the UNCCD-COP7 in Nairobi.
For more information on the side event please click here.
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The Ecosystem Approach to Dryland Management:
Integrating Biodiversity Conservation and Livelihood Security
30-31 August 2003, Havana, Cuba.
The second session of the GBF convened in conjunction with UNCCD COP6 aimed at providing an opportunity for inter-regional exchanges of perspectives and experiences on enhancing the livelihoods of local people through the conservation and sustainable use of drylands. GBF participants from more than forty countries offered a variety of examples of ongoing work in and lessons from many regions.
The conclusions and recommendations of the GBF in Cuba as well as the
IUCN statement at the High Level Segment of UNCCD COP6 can be found here.
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