Desire for Greener Land

Aims and objectives
This penultimate step of the methodology has several main
objectives:
1. Identify the likely environmental effects of the proposed
SLM strategies.
2. Evaluate the financial viability of the selected SLM strategies.
3. Assess how different policy incentives might influence
the uptake of strategies, and what the wider economic
impacts of such policies might be.
4. Come to a conclusion as to what SLM strategies should
be implemented where to achieve desertification policy
targets at least cost.
Methodology
There are two phases to this methodological step. For the
first stage, models are used as a tool to work with the environmental
and socio-economic data. The information and
outputs from this modelling is then presented, in the second
stage, to stakeholders during a third and final workshop.
At the first stage, models are used to evaluate (i) the
environmental and economic effects of the SLM strategies
selected by stakeholders at both field and regional scales;
(ii) potential policy scenarios; and (iii) global scenarios, for
example about climate change and food security.
Within the DESIRE project, two interlinked modelling
approaches were developed and applied 20 :
1. A biophysical model 21 was used to investigate the likely
environmental effects of the selected SLM options. This
model was an extension of the PESERA model, adapted to
consider a wide range of SLM options and processes, for
example forest fires and grazing. Adapted to each study
site, the model was developed to closely reflect the indicators
and land degradation drivers identified at earlier
methodological steps. Model outputs were then used to
look at the likely regional biophysical effects of different
SLM options that had previously been trialled in study
areas at a local (usually field) scale, to help formulate
extension and policy recommendations.
2. The DESMICE (Desertification Mitigation Cost Effectiveness)
model was used to evaluate the related socio-economic
effects. This model was newly developed within the
DESIRE project to scale up the economic assessment of SLM
strategies from field to regional scale. To do this, it uses
Figure 5: WB5 approach to modelling with PESERA/DESMICE.
a spatially-explicit cost-benefit analysis. Taking the SLM
strategies selected in stakeholder workshops in each study
site as a starting point, DESMICE establishes how costs
and value generated by those strategies change based
on environmental conditions and things like distance to
markets. Using the combination of biophysical and socioeconomic
modelling, it is possible to determine the field
conditions in which different SLM strategies are likely
to be most cost-effective and adoptable. Furthermore,
DESMICE output can be tailored to stakeholder needs:
from a land manager’s perspective, it demonstrates spatially
where each promising technology is likely to perform
most efficiently; from a policy makers’ perspective,
analyses can be made to see how different policies might
affect the viability of different strategies across a region,
or help policy makers identify what environmental targets
can be satisfied at what cost. Finally, DESMICE can be used
to assess the cost-benefit effects of SLM strategies under
global scenarios, e.g. to select the SLM technologies with
the highest mitigating effect on land degradation, by
comparing the costs and productivity the area would have
for different SLM technologies.
At the second stage of this methodological step, a third
and final stakeholder workshop is held to present and discuss
the combined results from the models and field trials.
Following a similar methodology as the preceding workshops
(described in step II of this chapter), this participatory
process enables stakeholders to make a final selection of
what technologies they consider to be worthwhile for dissemination,
based on a combination of environmental, social
and economic considerations. The information and stakeholder
feedback gathered at this stage can go some way to
20 DESIRE – WOCAT Desire for Greener Land
China, Erik van den Elsen