Accelerating achievements of national targets through scalable practices within dryland landscapes

Background

The GEF-7 Sustainable Forest Management Impact Program on Dryland Sustainable Landscapes (DSL-IP) operates in 11 countries across Africa and Central Asia with the mission to avoid, reduce and reverse degradation and deforestation in drylands while improving local livelihoods. The seven countries belonging to the Southern African Miombo-Mopane eco-region face common management challenges associated to their mixed farming land management system. Decrease in productivity (leading to increased pressures on forests); lack of diversification (exemplified by their dependency on maize); lack of access to quality planting materials and access to markets, to name a few.

 

To tackle the above challenges felt across the region, each country will become a Miombo-Mopane champion on a jointly identified green value chain/income generating opportunity that supports the countries in meeting their land degradation neutrality targets through gender-responsive sustainable land and forest management good practices.  

 

With one core theme each, the countries operating under the DSL-IP will transform Drylands into a hub of good practices that improve local livelihoods and ensure that the benefits deriving from this approach strengthen the country in question while also benefiting the whole region and drylands overall through up-, out- and deep- scaling of successes and lessons learned.  

 

During this event, this approach will be exemplified by the DSL-IP child projects of Malawi and Tanzania.

 

Objectives: 

• Enhanced understanding of the challenges, opportunities and emerging priorities in the Miombo-Mopane eco-region; 

• Familiarize with the integrated approach of the DSL-IP and the core themes each country will champion; 

• Gaining an understanding of the interlinked nature that must be present amidst field-work, national structures, regional priorities and global agendas for informed decision-making that truly reflects what is needed and amplifies what is being down on the ground.

• Establish a direct link between green value chains, livelihood opportunities, and scalable Sustainable Land Management (SLM) and Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) approaches for the purpose of achieving LDN targets. 

   

Facilitation: Vera Boerger, Lead Technical Officer, Global Coordination, DSL-IP, FAO

• Keynote Speech - Fidaa F. Haddad, Secretariat of the Committee on Forestry Working Group on Dryland Forests and Agrosilvopastoral Systems
  
• The Miombo-Mopane eco-region: a hub of good practices and champions - Cathrine Mutambirwa, Programme Coordinator LDN and Land Restoration, Global Mechanism of the UNCCD 
• Presenting three DSL-IP Champions of the Miombo-Mopane eco-region - Kasizo Chirambo, UNCCD Focal Point, Malawi and Timoth Mande, UNCCD Focal Point, Tanzania
• Linking Sustainable Land Management technologies to tenure - Tatenda Lemann, Research Scientist, CDE WOCAT 
• DSL-IP Champions in East/West Africa and Central Asia - Bora Masumbuko, Senior Programme Officer, IUCN DSL-IP Regional Coordinator, International Union for Conservation of Nature