Integrated Approaches to Nutrient Reduction: Protecting Soil and Water Resources through Watershed Management (DeWees)

Integrated Approaches to Nutrient Reduction

Protecting Soil and Water Resources through Watershed Management

Why are watersheds degrading?

Unsustainable use of natural resources

Erosion, soil fertility decline

Forest cover loss Overgrazing Population

pressure/poverty

Characteristics of upland watersheds

Steep slopes Isolated areas Rural poor predominate Soil fertility management

challenging Higher agro-ecological

diversity then lowlands Less amendable to large

scale investments Proximity to forests Complex land tenure

systems

Review of experience with watershed management projects

53 watershed management projects and projects with watershed management components financed by World Bank (1990 to 2004) What types of activities were supported? How were they implemented? What worked and what didn’t ? Are we learning from experience? Are there opportunities for better nutrient

management?

Lending by the World Bank for watershed management

WSM Project Lending / Region for 15 Yrs

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

AFR EAP ECA MNA LAC SAR

US

$ m

illi

on

00-04

95-99

90-94

Objectives and strategies

0 5 10 15 20 25

Biodiversity

Policy, legal framework

Infrastructure

Research

Planning

Participation

Land degradation

Poverty reduction, Income

Agricultural Production

Capacity, Institution

SNRM, SLM

Two generations of watershed management activities

Experience with the first generation

Technocratic and top-down Expensive erosion control Communities hardly

involved Subsidies an important

incentive for participation

Centralized project management

Lack of collaboration across sectors

Limited attention to land tenure

Lessons from the first generation

Clear need to use participatory approaches

Build on existing social structures and institutions

Develop farmer oriented, integrated approaches to farming system

Lessons from the first generation

Apply problem and demand driven approach

Provide larger set of techniques at low cost

Create win-win situations: combine environmental protection with agricultural production

Influences onsecond generation design Getting the scale right Integrating NRM,

environmental protection and agricultural production

Focusing on institutional capacity

Research Monitoring and

evaluation

Getting the scale right is important

Microwatersheds (<1000ha) are a good size for: integration of multiple objectives (NRM,

environmental protection and agricultural development)

building community capacity and local institution strengthening

participatory approaches locally adapted planning site specific solutions

… but scale does not solve the problem when:

existing social organizations are not well understood;

equity concerns are not addressed;

there is great heterogeneity in land capacity tenure regimes stakeholder interest

Integrating NRM, environmental protection and agricultural production

NRM and agriculture:what worked?

soil protection → improved land management → higher production → income increase

Intensification and diversification of rainfed agriculture

Low cost techniques High technical and

knowledge standards Offer a range of

technology options

NRM and agriculture:what hasn’t worked?

Weak impact when: farmers’ needs and

problems weren’t well understood;

Soil and water conservation was too labor intensive and expensive for farmers;

There were no short term benefits;

Marketing opportunities for products were lacking.

Participation counts

What worked: Community organization

around common interest (road, water, erosion control)

Special attention paid to poor, women, vulnerable groups

Allow for a slow start at beginning of project, flexible project design

But, participation is hard work

Often there is only a limited understanding of stakeholder interests and social organization

Participatory approaches require training and retraining

Many different forms of Participation

Research

Research

What worked? demand driven, adaptive, farmer based research quick results: to be integrated in project activities regional computerized monitoring facilities

What didn’t work or was counterproductive? Demonstration plots, on-station research Studies with little practical relevance and poor

technical quality Delay in regional and national environmental

monitoring support implementation

Monitoring and evaluation

Most M&E was ex-post, not based on rigorous data

Monitoring and evaluation

Need for better measurement at the household level of impact of

interventions on income and consumption at the catchment level of impacts on

sedimentation, water flow and water quality

Moving to the third generation

Nutrient pollution control and management Income generation as a critical element Scaling up microwatersheds to macro-

catchments Exploiting upstream-downstream connections

Challenges for nutrient pollution control through watershed management Mediating interests between upstream

and downstream households Strong focus on service delivery: to

poor communities in upland catchments

Making the linkages between upstream and downstream interests

Upstream interests: jobs, income generation, access to resources (forests, pastures, irrigation) [High poverty rates]

Downstream interests: livestock improvement, manure management, crop productivity [Lower poverty rates]

Adding to the menu of options Capitalizing on local interests

in animal health and hygiene Introducing integrating

manure management systems which return compost to crops/pastures

Reducing and controlling water pollution

Reducing nitrate levels in groundwater