If we are going to meet the challenge of feeding nine billion people without destroying the environment, the transition to sustainable agricultural systems will not only require innovative technical solutions, but also a fundamental shift in behavior, decision making, governance and support of institutions and partnerships.
The CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) focuses on the sustainable management of water and land resources as a way to establish better functioning ecosystem services and help ensure that we stay within the planetary boundaries while meeting food demands and achieving economic growth in the coming years.
The main challenge for WLE is develop a body of evidence that ecosystem based approaches are economically viable and sustainable on wide scale. In 2013, I believe we took major steps in the right direction.
WLE recognizes that elements of an ecosystem services-based approach in agriculture have been in use for generations. Techniques such as the system of rice intensification, integrated pest management, landscape management and conservation agriculture are inherently based on ecosystem services principles.
While WLE builds upon these elements, we take them a step further by deliberately harnessing ecosystem services to meet production goals (e.g., increased yields, nutrition and goods) or in ways that support these goals (e.g., controlling pests, diseases and weeds, and regulating hydrological flows). At the same time, we aim to reduce the negative impacts on the natural resource base that endows these ecosystem services.
WLE carries out research on a number of priority ecosystem services including water quality, nutrient recycling, soil quality, increased carbon storage, biodiversity in landscapes, resource reuse, and cultural and local use.
The stories in this year’s annual report highlight the types of outputs and outcomes that WLE is achieving and hopes to achieve in the future.
The Promise of ‘Big Data’
Harnessing the potential of ‘big data’ to help famers, investors, policy makers and others make decisions in the face of growing uncertainty and difficult trade-offs is at the heart of what WLE does.
The work of the Stockholm Environment Institute, the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF), the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and national partners to develop the Targeting Agriculture Water Management Interventions (TAGMI) tool demonstrates the value of more demand-driven and user-friendly systems that bring together a range of social, market and biophysical information to inform investment decisions. Likewise, our work on flood risk mapping helps governments, farmers and communities cope and adjust to increasing climate and water variability. Finally, the work in the Merti Aquifer by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) highlights new analytical tools that can be used to assess and anticipate the impacts of groundwater investments, including the possible effects of the Kenyan government’s plan to transfer water from the important Merti aquifer to the city of Wajir 120 kilometers away.
Influencing Policy at Multiple Scales
WLE seeks to influence policies and institutions so that ecosystem services–based approaches are being implemented at scale. In 2013, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and CPWF continued to work in the Cañete basin and provide important evidence to support new legislation on rewards for environmental services in Peru (which was finally passed in June 2014). The new law is important because it provides legitimacy to these schemes as well as guidance for their practical implementation. At the global level, IWMI, the lead partner of WLE, has continued to help inform wetlands policy by contributing to resolutions developed under the Ramsar Convention. In particular, WLE scientists have had a role in discussions on conservation and promoting a people-centered approach to wetlands planning and management.
New Partnerships and Engagement Mechanisms
For CG institutions to have impact at the national and local levels new ways of working are necessary. The WLE program on Resource Reuse and Recovery is blazing the trail in innovative public-private partnerships.
Furthest along is a public-private partnership model to turn fecal sludge into fertilizer pellets that started in Accra, Ghana. In addition, WLE is looking at business model case studies to identify potential business or cost recovery models for the safe reuse of nutrients, energy and water.
In the Greater Mekong region, innovative mechanisms for carrying out action research have been tested. These mechanisms bring together researchers, national government agencies, local communities and the private sector to collectively identify problems and possible solutions to sensitive issues related to hydropower, relocation and compensation mechanisms. This approach has been very successful in redefining the role of CG centers in outcome-based research. Here, local researchers and actors take the lead while CG centers facilitate a neutral platform, strengthen capacity and provide advice and support.
Catalyzing Gender and Equity Within Research
Central to WLE research is the question “Are women better stewards of the environment?” The question is meant to provoke and entrench issues of equity within research by prompting inquiries such as “Do women have access to productive use rights?” “Are they part of the decision-making process?” and “How can we find ways for women to reinvest?”
The International Food Policy Research Institute led work in India and Columbia on using experimental games to improve collective water management. These games — simulations of real-life water and farming scenarios — are designed to both measure and improve collective action in local communities. The project aims to understand gender differences, which researchers say is a crucial aspect to strengthening collective decision-making processes.
In Conclusion
Programmatically, WLE refocused its work in 2013, by establishing and earmarking unallocated funds to its focal region programs and innovation fund.
These two new exciting initiatives will pave the way for WLE to establish a distinctive niche within the family of CGIAR research programs and carry out outcome-based research. These initiatives will build upon many of the successes outlined in the stories presented above and will hopefully lead to more successful outcome stories in the future.
Andrew Noble
WLE Program Director