Desire for Greener Land

system is focused on control rather than advice and training
activities. There is more information and awareness building
required for land users, as information is often only available
at political or research level.
Research was part of the approach in all cases, which is
not surprising as all these approaches were documented
through the DESIRE research project which is based on local
research institutions. All indicated a moderate or great level
of research inclusion, except for Cape Verde, where only little
research was used. Almost all research is based both on
on-station, as well as on-farm experiments.
Impacts and adoption
All approaches perceive a moderate (3 cases) to great (5
cases) impact on improved SLM.
Adoption of the approach by other land users, other projects
or in other areas is reported to be widespread. Almost
all authors answer the respective question with ‘yes, many’,
except for Russia (‘some’) and Mexico, for which it is too
early to answer this.
Whether the approach has led to improved livelihoods /
human well-being, improved the situation of socially and
economically disadvantaged groups or helped to alleviate
poverty was answered as shown in Figure 36.
Five out of the eight approaches have an impact on all
three socio-economic issues. For Mexico, it is too early to
assess these impacts. In Morocco, poverty alleviation is not
achieved, because the small farmers and landless peasants
were not sufficiently involved and have therefore not really
benefited from the approach.
The use of subsidies and their long-term impact on the
implementation of SLM was not considered to be a problem
in any of the study sites. On the contrary, in six approaches
the impact of subsidies was valued greatly positive and in
one still slightly positive (Morocco). Only in Tunisia has the
willingness to invest in SLM technologies without receiving
financial support decreased due to the land users relying on
being paid for the area treated. However, it is not only in
Tunisia that there is uncertainty around whether land users
can continue the approach activities without support, but
also in Chile and Spain. In Portugal, it is impossible, as the
forest owners do not have the financial capacity to apply
and support the activities by themselves. This demonstrates
that in these eight studied dryland areas, SLM approaches
Impacts
9
improved
livelihoods/
human
well-being
Improved the
situation of
socially and
economically
disadvantaged
groups
are not capable of generating a self-supporting, market driven
mechanism in which the continuation of the approach
is guaranteed. This implies that financial mechanisms are
required to support the starting phase of SLM approaches.
Such mechanisms could include revolving funds, contracts or
payment for environmental services schemes.
Motivation of land users
n/a
no
little
moderate
great
In most SLM approaches, land users are driven by benefits
from increased production, profitability, and/or payments
and subsidies. It is remarkable that in the two Western
European examples, from Spain and Portugal, the land users
are mainly motivated by rules and regulations (fines) or
enforcement. This is not the case anywhere else. As already
discussed above, payments and subsidies play a key role in
most of the approaches (exceptions here are Russia and
Portugal). In five approaches, production and / or increased
profit(ability) and / or improved well-being / livelihood are
very important. Aesthetic and environmental consciousness
seem to play a minor role.
60 DESIRE – WOCAT Desire for Greener Land
No. of case studies
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
helped to
alleviate
poverty
Figure 36: Socio-economic impact of approaches.
DESIRE - WOCAT 2012
Turkey, Felicitas Bachmann Morocco, Gudrun Schwilch