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Africa's lands - its croplands, savannah, bush and forests - are under attack. They are suffering from poor land management resulting in rapid land degradation: massive soil loss, falling yields, deforestation, the disruption of water resources, and the destruction of natural pasture. Land mismanagement - whether of arable land, rangeland or forested areas - consists, usually, of removing too much, returning too little and cultivating, grazing or cutting too frequently.
Land degradation is proceeding so fast that few African countries can hope to achieve a sustainable agriculture in the foreseeable future. Droughts combine with falling productivity to threaten food shortages and famines over wide areas. The livelihoods of millions are being put at risk as a result of lower agricultural yields, water shortages, frequent flooding, and a shortage of natural resources such as fuelwood and fodder.
Yet land degradation can be prevented and even reversed. Soil conditions can be improved, and productivity restored. Africa's lands could be made to support many more people, and to guarantee a secure future for the rural population.
This proposal outlines a plan - the International Scheme for the Conservation and Rehabilitation of African Lands - to mobilize local, national and international resources to fight the problem of land degradation. It suggests a new approach designed to capture the interest and imaginations of rural people throughout the African continent.
Part I of the publication outlines the magnitude of the threat. It explains that while most traditional African land-use systems did little harm to the environment, few of them have stood up to the pressures of expanding populations and more intensive land use. Past approaches to this problem were based on physical measures, such as creating mechanical barriers to soil movement. They were expensive and provided few benefits to the land users themselves. They attacked the symptoms of the problem, not the causes. As a result, most were poorly maintained, and fell into disrepair.
The international scheme advocated here is based on promoting sound land-use management principles which, because they produce increased yields and profits within one or two seasons, encourage widespread participation. Physical conservation measures will still be needed, but much greater emphasis will be placed on increasing and maintaining the land's vegetative cover through appropriate agronomic and forestry techniques, and introducing sound management practices. This approach protects the land surface from wind and water erosion, and improves soil conditions by increasing fertility and organic matter content. As soils improve, productivity rises, profits increase and the risk of crop failure recedes.
Part II of this publication describes a framework for national, regional and international action for dealing with land degradation.
In Africa, few farmers have had the time or the means to adapt their methods to today's conditions of land scarcity. Land mismanagement has become widespread. National action is needed to identify its causes and to suggest solutions based on techniques designed both to raise yields and to prevent degradation. National resources must then be used to encourage the widest possible level of participation in these schemes and to develop conservation institutions, at both government and non-governmental level, to expedite national conservation plans.
Increased research and advanced training are among the many requirements to tackle land degradation. These schemes are often best advanced regionally and there are a number of successful precedents for this.
Finally, a mechanism is described to enable nations, NGOs, donors and financing agencies to cooperate in formulating policies and devising programmes that will work efficiently and effectively. Experience has shown that schemes which are controlled by governments but which invite outside participation at a very early stage are the most likely to succeed.
