Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
-
Book (stand-alone)Country Study on Status of Land Tenure, Planning and Management in Oriental Near East Countries
Case of Lebanon
2012Also available in:
No results found.The report deals with land tenure issues in Lebanon and analyzes major problems facing sustainable agriculture in view of natural setting, prevailing practices and existing legislation. Lebanon consists mainly of rugged mountainous regions with slopping and steep lands. The population of Lebanon in 2007 was 4 million with 407,362 residing in Beirut, the administrative capital of Lebanon. One of the main problems in land tenure and land management issues is the cadastre where a significant part o f Lebanon is still outside the cadastre (North Bekaa, East Mountains). Based on rainfall amount and land occupation, Lebanon was divided into five large regions and twelve agro climatic zones. Lebanese agriculture is divided into seven agro-climatic regions with 40 homogeneous agricultural areas (Lebanese Agricultural Atlas, MoA, 2005). The land use map of Lebanon published by CDR (SDATL, 2003) showed that the major agricultural areas are located in the Bekaa followed by the Akkar plain and Sout h Lebanon. Agricultural land use in Lebanon might be represented by three main cropping patterns, vegetables monoculture, wheat potato rotation and land under permanent crops - fruit trees or grape production. The total cultivated land area in Lebanon in 2007 was 277,000 ha (27 percent of the total land area), of which about 50 percent was irrigated. Irrigation water in the country is still primitively managed. According to national irrigation experts, the majority of watered lands in Lebanon (6 7%) are irrigated by gravity feed systems (furrows). The report reviews state policy in the management of soil and water resources, challenges, responses and assess the constraints and interventions for sustainable land management highlighting the best practices. Specifically, the report reviews works on how to promote water saving using drip irrigation, disseminate good practices like conservation agriculture, integrated pest management and organic farming. It presents the important role the gr een plan is playing to help farmers in land reformation, road building, land cleaning, water reservoirs construction, and discuss the promulgation of laws that protect agricultural land and encourage the construction on rocky terrains. The report analyzes the chemical, physical and biological land degradation including water pollution and water scarcity, soil erosion, soil salinity, soil sealing and rangeland deterioration. It also discusses the direct and indirect causes of land degradation inc luding the geomorphology of Lebanon, the mismanagement of fertilizer and water input in agriculture, current quarrying practices, deforestation, chaotic urban expansion on the account of productive soils, land use change, overgrazing. It also prospects the conservation practices and governmental control. -
Book (series)Negotiated territorial development in a multi-stakeholders participatory Resource Planning approach: an initial sustainable framework for the Near east Region 2016
Also available in:
No results found.Throughout the Near East, land and water shortages, land degradation, out of date land tenure systems and food insecurity are compounded by asymmetries in gender roles and power, by severe imbalances in the political-military structures within and between countries, by flagrant deficiencies in land and water management and control systems, and by the incessant increases in demand driven by high rates of population growth and urbanization. This interplay of forces and dynamics form a complex hydr o socio-political web that governs the allocation land and water and who benefits from their availability and their ultimate sustainability. The current allocation arrangements of the region's three major river basins - the Nile, the Euphrates-Tigris and the Jordan - are nascent sources of tension, and potential sources of conflict and violence. Political instability that characterizes the Near East continues to intensify scarcity, suppresses growth and engenders poverty and is being increasingl y exacerbated by the impending consequences of climate change. The Middle East is one of the most water poor and water stressed regions of the globe. While the region is home to 5.1% of the people of the world, it has about only 1% of the world renewable fresh water. Today's annual per capita availability of fresh water in the region is only one seventh of its 1960 level, falling from 3,300 cubic metres per person in 1960 to less than 500 cubic metres in 2015. This is the lowest per capita wat er availability in the world. The current land tenure systems are failing to address long-standing problems that include smallholder farmers, landless households and most marginalized groups such as women continue to compete for shrinking natural recourses, while pastoralists are losing control of their traditional grazing areas. Use, management and access to land and water are becoming extremely sensitive matters as the number of users grows. Governments and local actors have often perceived these major issues differently. This requires effort to be made to ensure a participatory approach to decision-making that effectively involves all the local actors concerned in an equitable and balanced manner. About 90% of the land area in this Region is subject to land degradation in different forms and over 45% of land suitable to farming is exposed to various types of land degradation which include soil nutrient depletion, salinity and wind and water erosion. Per capita arable land availa bility in the region is among the lowest in the world where many countries in the region show levels that are exceptionally low (on average less than 0.123 hectares per person) and the range varies between 0.01 hectares per person (Oman, Qatar, Palestine, Kuwait and Bahrain) to 0.34 hectares in the Sudan in 2015. Arable land as a percentage of land area in the region is very low ranging between 0.1% in Oman to 18.4% in Tunisia in 2013. Most of the countries in the region show shares below 10%. O nly Morocco, Tunisia, and Iraq sow percentages above 10%. Irrigated land areas in the region also represent a small share of total arable land areas. In many of the countries in the region these shares are way below the world average. Only Iran (17.4%) and the UAE (12.5%) show high relative shares in the period 2011-2015. The Region’s critical shortage of water and cultivable land, including the increasing pressure on these resources and their degradation makes their efficient management a pa ramount task. It will be necessary in this regard to promote the engagement of all concerned stakeholders in planning and managing land, water and agrobiodiversity. Actual physical scarcity of land and water, even in the Middle East region, is not the only key issue. Conditions of economic scarcity seem to be equally pressing; there is perhaps enough land and water to meet society's need, but there are few incentives for wise, efficient and egalitarian use of these critical resources. Climate change will impinge on this region’s fragile water balances, suitable land for cultivation, grazing land and food production capacities and will exacerbate the problems and issues of food security. Measures, policies, strategies and institutional capacities to mitigate the impending catastrophic consequences of climate change and to improve the societies’ resilience and adaptation to its consequences are needed now. The sooner the regulatory and institutional setups are put in place the easier the task to deal with climate and other risks. It is necessary and vital to rise up to this challenge by enlisting the stakeholders in the initiatives to promote sustainability and efficiency of land and water use and the management of food security issues. An active engagement of concerned stakeholders in planning and managing water, land and agrobiodiversity necessitates first and foremost the engagement of and participation of particularly women and girls and marginalized groups in all wate r and food aspects as they constitute the main agricultural labour force and the most deprived segments of society. Gender and the water and land nexus in the Arab region is an area where there is still relative little information. There is little systematic knowledge about the many means by which women and men manage water and land in the region. Evidence shows that while women in Egypt have a significant role to play in water use in the process of food production by controlling and managi ng water flows in the fields and supervising workers during irrigation, they rarely own the land they cultivate. Rural women in Yemen spend huge amounts of time collecting and transporting water, often up and down steep slopes and coordinate water allocation and distribution for the various needs of the family and the household but they are rarely involved in decision making and management councils that govern land and water uses. Women everywhere in the Middle East evaluate water quantity and q uality and prioritize water for drinking and health and sanitation purposes but they rarely share equally in the benefits of their labor or in the ownership of the land and water resources. This is why an integrated water and land management system anchored on a genuine participation of stakeholders will be crucial in determining whether the Arab world achieves the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and aspirations for reducing poverty and enhancing shared prosperity. Water and land are the c ommon currency which links nearly every SDG, and it will be a critical determinant of success. Abundant water supplies and cultivable land are vital for the production of food and will be essential to attaining SDG 2 on food security; clean and safe drinking water and sanitation systems are necessary for health as called for in SDGs 3 and 6; and water is needed for powering industries and creating the new jobs identified in SDGs 7 and 8. None of this is achievable without adequate and safe water and sufficient suitable land to nourish the planet’s life-sustaining ecosystem services identified in SDGs 13, 14 and 15. -
Brochure, flyer, fact-sheetOverview of land degradation neutrality (LDN) in Europe and Central Asia
LDN in Ukraine
2021Also available in:
No results found.Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe with large availability of arable land and some of the world’s most productive black soils. Agriculture dominates Ukraine’s landscape, and many soils have been lost due to wind and water erosion or become acidic, saline, or alkaline due to unsustainable agricultural practices, such as excessive use of mineral fertilizers and outdated technologies. Preservation and protection of arable land against land degradation and desertification is a national priority in the country and is essential for ensuring the sustainable development of agricultural landscapes and the reduction of rural poverty.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
No results found.