This document outlines an economic analysis framework for targeting sustainable land management (SLM) interventions. It defines key terms like land degradation, outlines immediate causes of degradation like exploitative farming and deforestation, and describes approaches to estimate the costs of degradation and benefits of SLM. These economic approaches, like the change in productivity approach and replacement cost approach, could be used with Ethiopian data to prioritize SLM interventions for greatest impact.

1. Economic Analysis for Targeting
SLM Intervention
By
Mahmud Yesuf
(Based on a Proposal for a Cost-Benefit Framework to Support Pro-SLM Decision-
Making in Ethiopia, by M. Yesuf, G.Zeleke, G. Köhlin and G. Björklund)
UN expert group meeting on
“Sustainable land management and agricultural practices in Africa:
Bridging the gap between research and farmers”
April 16 – 17, 2009, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

2. Contents of Presentation
• Objectives
• Working definitions of LD, SE and SLM
• Immediate Causes of LD
• Major Costs of LD
– On-site Costs
– Off-site Costs
• Economic Approaches
– Change of Productivity Approach (CPA)
– Replacement Cost Approach (RCA)
• Applications of Economic Approaches to ETH
• Economic Criteria for SLM Intervention
• Targeting SLM Intervention in ETH and Implications

3. Objectives
i. Outline economic approaches to assess the cost
of land degradation or benefit of SLM
intervention.
ii. Outline how these economic approaches (CBF)
could be used to prioritize SLM intervention
using available data in Ethiopia

4. Working Definition of Land
• Land encompasses:
– Soil
– Plant
Living
Soil
– Water
organisms
– Living organisms
• Land: “the terrestrial bio-
Human
productive system that
Being
comprises soil, vegetation,
other biota, and the ecological
and hydrological processes Plant
Water
that operate within the
system”

5. Land Degradation cont…
• Land degradation is, therefore,
the destruction/negative
disturbance of all or one of these
components and their Living
interrelationships Soil
organisms
• Land degradation: “reduction or
loss . . . of the biological or
economic productivity and
complexity of rain-fed cropland, Human
irrigated cropland, or range,
Being
pasture, forest and woodlands
resulting from . . . processes . . .
such as (i) soil erosion caused by
wind and/or water; (ii)
Plant
Water
deterioration of the physical,
biological or economic
properties of the soil; and (iii)
long-term loss of natural
vegetation” (UN Convention to
Combat desertification)

6. LD and SLM
– Soil erosion: a particular physical process that causes land and soil degradation, and refers
to the wearing away of the land surface by water and/or wind as well as to the reduction in
soil productivity due to physical loss of topsoil, reduction in rooting depth, removal of plant
nutrients, and loss of water
– The problem is:
– Most cost estimates of land degradation do not distinguish between soil erosion, soil
degradation and land degradation in their analyses.
– The fact that different studies estimate different components of land degradation makes
comparison of cost estimates across studies a difficult task.
– SLM is defined as the use of renewable land resources, for agricultural and other purposes to meet
community needs, while simultaneously ensuring the long-term productive potential of these resources
and the maintenance of their environmental functions

7. Immediate Causes of Land
Degradation

8. 1. Exploitative farming practices
• Steep land cultivation without protection
• Soil fertility mining
– Removal of soil organic matter (open nutrient
cycle)
• Shortened fallow periods

9. Common
Practices

10. 2. Deforestation
 Conversion of forest and wood land to crop land
 Harvesting of forest for fuelwood
 95% (Urban + Rural) and 99.9% (Rural) of HH energy
demand is generated from biomass energy!
 81 % from fuel wood, 10% cow dung, 9% crop residue and the rest other
sources
 This kind of removal of biomass resulted in:
 Deterioration in soil chemical and physical properties
 High soil loss by runoff
 Reduction in soil productivity

11. – Encroachment of virgin
forest areas for
cultivation without
protection (South and
South west)

12. Remnant forests in sacks: result of lack of alternate
energy sources and uncontrolled deforestation

13. 3. Poor Livestock Management
• Free grazing
 Deteriorates soil physical
properties
 Destroy soil conservation
measures
 Remove crop residue
from the soil
 Detach soil particles
• Very weak
grassland/rangeland • 30 million heads of cattle
management (1st in Africa)!

14. • Free grazing with unbalanced Carrying Capacity

15. The vicious circle of resource degradation and poverty!
Famine and Poverty
Trap!