The report creates contexts for a systemic understanding of the CGIAR Transforming agric-food system (TAFS-WCA) initiative starting with work package (WP) 3 and expanding the causality effects across the other WPs of the Initiative. The main focus of WP3 is inclusive landscape management, whereby access to and proper use of land and water resources is a prerequisite to building a healthy, productive environment for resilient agri-food systems and livelihoods. Mapping synergies with other Work Packages ensure that respective contributions are integrated and impactful. The process intends to provide policymakers, researchers, and practitioners with a strategic framework to activate solutions temporarily with a stakeholder-defined suite of scenarios.

The report proposes a framework for assessing the sustainability of social-ecological landscapes (SEL) to be used by the West and Central African Food Systems Transformation (TAFS-WCA) initiative for research, planning, and implementation of its Work Package 3 (WP3). It builds on existing assessment frameworks from relevant fields (e.g., Eco agriculture, Agroecology, Integrated Landscape Management, etc.). At the center of a Sustainable Social-Ecological Landscape (SSEL) is the improvement of the management of land and the natural resource base in such a way that land use concurrently meets three goals: (i) provision of products (e.g., food) and services on a sustainable basis, (ii) support for sustainable livelihoods for all social groups and (iii) conservation of the full complement of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Globally, SSEL related approaches like eco-agriculture, agroecology, and landscape approaches are already being applied, with promising results, especially in places where food production, poverty alleviation, and conservation of biodiversity, water, and ecosystem services are all high priorities. However, a comprehensive framework for measuring/monitoring landscape status and performance vis-a-vis competing landscape uses and management interventions has not been given much priority in the literature. Different forms of land use, such as forestry, agriculture, extraction of minerals, conservation/protected areas, and settlements, are interdependent. Therefore, landscape performance and monitoring frameworks that focus exclusively on protecting natural resources or the intensification of agriculture and other land uses can only give an incomplete viewpoint/overview of landscapes with all their uses and stakeholders. Considering the SSEL goals above, a holistic conceptual framework for landscape-based assessment is needed; such a framework must consider the drivers and effects of land use and the individual management interventions as well as the complex interactions among different land uses and interventions across the landscape. The present study proposes the Drivers-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework for SEL. It is important to emphasize that this study recognizes that different individuals and organizations under the TAFS-WCA initiative may have different interests in understanding the status and performance of selected SELs. The research envisages two important applications of a framework for measuring and understanding SEL: i) it can facilitate inclusive decision-making by multiple stakeholders working in the same landscape by explaining interactions, synergies, and trade-offs among SSEL goals and landscape components, and ii) when SSEL-related management innovations are successful (or otherwise), the framework can help document the same, reinforcing the case for adopting and scaling up innovations.

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.

Integrated Landscape Approaches for Africa’s Drylands presents emerging fi ndings on the importance of moving beyond single-sector interventions to embrace integrated landscape management that takes into account the health of the ecosystems that support human livelihoods and contribute to the resilience of rural communities in Sub-Saharan African drylands. Integrated landscape management is particularly important for these drylands because people depend on production systems that are frequently disrupted by exogenous shocks such as drought. The ecological and economic evidence presented in this book shows that integrated landscape management can enhance efforts to invest in tree-based systems and improved livestock management and support productivity increases for rain-fed cropping. Integrated landscape management efforts have helped to coordinate the actions of multiple land users and other stakeholders, reduced confl icts, and improved overall governance of water, land, and other resources. Integrated landscape management is thus a useful approach to enhance the intensifi cation of dryland cropping systems and will, in many locations (but not always), result in multiple wins— including improved farm productivity, water benefi ts at the farm and landscape levels, carbon sequestration, biodiversity and other ecosystem services benefi ts, and higher climate resilience. Various policies and related interventions can be used to trigger and accelerate the scaling up of these benefi ts through integrated landscape management across Sub-Saharan African drylands to restore and increase household and ecological resilience. Policies are needed to develop the framework conditions necessary to both initiate new programs and modify and scale up existing restoration and resilience efforts. The book highlights policy options, covering six broad intervention areas: (1) Clarify land rights and responsibilities; (2) Encourage multistakeholder involvement and collective action; (3) Overcome institutional barriers to integrated landscape management; (4) Create conditions for adaptive planning and management; (5) Create mechanisms and supporting policies for sustainable and long-term fi nancing of integrated landscape management; and (6) Invest in a solid evidence base and knowledge-sharing platforms for integrated landscape management.

Bringing together case studies from Kenya, Benin, Cameroon and the Philippines, this volume provides a multidisciplinary overview of the economics of natural resource management in Tropical regions, at household and village level. By comparing a wide array of climatic and economic conditions, it examines the effect of location and access to the market - as well as the importance of national policies - have on soil and water conservation. The book not only analyzes the benefits of soil and water conservation based on econometric studies, but also assesses the costs involved. In doing so it challenges commonly held assumptions about poorer community's ability to finance such measures.

The meat of wild species, referred to in this report as ‘wild meat’, is an essential source of protein and a generator of income for millions of forest-living communities in tropical and subtropical regions. However, unsustainable harvest rates currently