Desire for Greener Land

Table 2 provides a more detailed description of SLM technologies
and approaches.
Table 2: A description of SLM technologies and
SLM approaches
A SLM technology A SLM approach
These are the physical practices in the
field that control land degradation
and enhance productivity in the field.
They are:
K agronomic (e.g. intercropping,
contour cultivation, mulching),
K vegetative (e.g. tree planting,
hedge barriers, grass strips),
K structural (e.g. graded banks or
bunds, level bench terrace),
K management measures (e.g.
land use change, area closure,
rotational grazing).
Combinations of above measures
which are complementary and thus
enhance each other are part of a
Technology.
Selecting sustainable land management
strategies; the decision support process
Aims and objectives
The associated SLM approaches are
the ways and means of support that
help to introduce, implement, adapt,
and promote those technologies on
the ground.
An SLM approach involves:
K All participants (policy-makers,
administrators, experts, technicians,
land users, i.e. actors at all
levels);
K inputs and means (financial,
material, legislative, etc.); and
K know-how (technical, scientific,
practical).
An approach may include different levels
of intervention, from the individual
farm, through the community level,
the extension / advisory system, the
regional or national administration, or
the policy level, to the international
framework. Besides conservation
activities introduced through projects
or programmes, indigenous conservation
measures and spontaneous adoptions
or adaptations of technologies
are also included.
The aim of this third and final stage of the selection process
is to select promising (existing and potential) SLM strategies
for field testing in the study sites. Taking the options
identified and selected in the previous two phases along
with additional options from the global WOCAT database,
this stage involves stakeholders working together to jointly
select the best strategies that will then be tested in the field.
This stage uses a second stakeholder workshop, which builds
on the analysis and discussions made in the first one. The
main aim of this process is to jointly select one or two SLM
options to be tested in the selected study site. The second
workshop, therefore, has the following objectives:
1. Select possible implementation options from a basket of
options, including those originating from the study area
and those available in the online WOCAT databases on
SLM technologies and approaches 15 ;
2. compare, score and rank these options;
3. negotiate the best option for implementation; and finally
4. decide upon one or two SLM strategies for implementation.
Methodology
The selection of the most promising SLM option for implementation
is complex and requires the stakeholders to
carefully consider both the costs and benefits for man and
ecosystem. To guide the workshop participants through the
decision-making process and allow them to negotiate the
best option(s) in a structured way, the methodology applied
in this stage consists of three main elements: (i) the WOCAT
database is used to choose the options or strategies of land
conservation; (ii) Decision Support System (DSS) software
is used to support the single steps of the evaluation and
decision-making process and, finally, (iii) a participatory
approach guides and leads workshop participants through
the process of evaluation and decision-making.
To demonstrate how a decision is reached using the participatory
workshop approach, see the step-by-step guide
(Table 3).
The WOCAT databases on SLM technologies and
approaches
For each of the objectives identified at the beginning of
the workshop, a number of options need to be selected and
listed. These options are based on the locally applied and
evaluated strategies as well as on worldwide documented
experiences, all of them included in the WOCAT databases of
SLM technologies and approaches. These databases contain
a full range of different case studies documented from all
over the world. The searching and retrieving of options from
the WOCAT databases entails going through a series of key
questions and using a predefined ‘search-by-criteria’ form
to find the most suitable technologies and approaches. To
ensure that the full variety of technologies and approaches
are available for selection from the WOCAT databases, all
Morocco, Gudrun Schwilch Morocco, Gudrun Schwilch
16 DESIRE – WOCAT Desire for Greener Land