Desire for Greener Land

II Identifying, evaluating and selecting SLM
strategies
Identify, document and evaluate SLM options
The first stakeholder workshop gathered some 40 stakeholders,
among whom land users, representatives of the
provincial authorities on agriculture, environment and water
management, researchers, the farmer and irrigation unions,
NGOs and the municipality. The workshop was meant to
draft an overall strategy for SLM in the area (see box), and
to identify potential SLM technologies (see table). The high
level of motivation of local stakeholders was evaluated as a
strength of the workshop. The lack of financial aids and the
lack of women in the representation of stakeholders were
noted as weaknesses.
Fodder crop production was selected for evaluation and
documentation with the WOCAT questionnaires both as
a SLM technology and an SLM approach. The technology
‘woven wood fences’ was added to remediate soil erosion in
cropland. The 4-page summaries of these technologies are
available in this book.
Overall strategy
• To increase soil fertility (through crop rotation, mulching and tree
planting)
• To limit water loss (through drip irrigation and improving grassland)
• To prevent water and soil loss by erosion (through terracing and
check dams)
Sanem Açıkalın
Identification of disturbances in water and biomass cycles by
stakeholders.
Case study of the DESIRE methodology – Eskişehir, Turkey DESIRE – WOCAT 2012
Prioritise and select remediation options
In the second stakeholder workshop, stakeholders set the
objectives for SLM in the Eskişehir study site: protection of
dry-farming areas from water erosion and rehabilitation of
pasturelands. Remediation options corresponding to these
objectives were selected from the WOCAT database on technologies.
The options selected in the first stakeholder workshop
based on an inventory of locally applied technologies
were not selected, since they were only applicable in small
areas (like gardens). Stakeholders selected economic, ecological,
socio-cultural and off-site criteria to prioritise and
select remediation options. The table below lists the criteria
for the protection of the area for dryland farming.
Using the criteria, stakeholders scored the remediation
options in groups of farmers and SLM experts. For the protection
of dryland farming areas, the highest scores were
obtained for the contour planting technology; for pastureland
rehabilitation a vegetative measure was selected
(Caragana korschinskii planting), mainly based on its benefits
as fodder material. Stakeholders concluded that a
combination of measures would deliver the best scores on
the criteria.
The workshop revealed that leadership and authorisation of
the implementation of technologies by governmental organisations
is of ultimate importance. Farmers did not believe in
significant contributions from governmental organisations
(GOs) to the implementation. The representatives of the GOs
did express the feasibility of technologies during the workshops,
but were not able to grant any responsibilities to the
implementation process.
Sanem Açıkalın
Images of the prioritisation and selection of remediation
options in the stakeholder workshop in the Eskişehir study site.
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