Rangelands are more than just grass but rather complex and biodiverse ecosystems. Covering nearly half the world’s land area, they are in need of restoration and sustainable management.

1. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
Rangeland Management in Africa
Research and case studies
Ravi Prabhu
(with Tor Vagen, Leigh Winowiecki, Jules Bayala, Mieke Bourne, Sabrina
Chesterman, Constance Neely and Kiros Hadgu)

2. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
Stress and Response in African
Rangelands – my key points today
• Changing demography & maladapted land-use;
• Climate variability, temperature increases &
• Markets and poverty drive degradation and loss of SOC
Adaptation (and mitigation) responses are possible, but:
- People need to be convinced to change their behaviour (land-use)
- Management options must be based on understanding demands
- Evidence through research is required, this must ‘fit the hands’ of
decision makers at nested scales – complexity must be embraced

3. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
Livestock on managed pastures and rangelands accounted for more than one half of total
anthropogenic N2O emissions from agriculture in 2014 (medium confidence). {Table 2.1, 2.3.3, 5.4.2,
5.4.3}
Examples of response options with immediate impacts include the conservation of high-carbon
ecosystems such as peatlands, wetlands, rangelands, mangroves and forests.
Eradicating poverty and ensuring food security can benefit from applying measures promoting land
degradation neutrality (including avoiding, reducing and reversing land degradation) in rangelands,
croplands and forests, which contribute to combating desertification, while mitigating and adapting to
climate change within the framework of sustainable development. Such measures include avoiding
deforestation and locally suitable practices including management of rangeland and forest fires (high
confidence). {3.4.2, 3.6.1, 3.6.2, 3.6.3, 4.8.5}

4. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
• Rangelands cover 43% of Africa (in Kenya this goes up to about 80% of the land area)
• Many rangelands are highly prone to degradation and are often severely degraded even
under moderate land use intensity.
• Adaptive management is key, particularly in drier rangeland systems.
• However, traditional adaptive management (e.g. nomadism) is becoming more difficult
due to increased population – and herd – growth and competing land uses such as
agricultural expansion.

5. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
In order to manage
rangelands effectively we
need to be able to
quantify both the degree
of land degradation, its
spatial extent AND its
temporal dynamics.
This example shows a map of erosion
hotspots in part of the Lesotho
highlands.
These maps are developed based on a
network of rangeland health monitoring
sites, using the Land Degradation
Surveillance Framework (LDSF).

6. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
Trees play a critical role in the rehabilitation
of rangelands
• Impact of trees on the productivity of rangelands is through their
environmental services include shade for livestock, evaporation reduction and
thereby prolonging the growth season of fodder grasses under tree canopies
(Miller 1999; Hiernaux et al. 2009).
• In drier sites higher grass biomass is observed beneath tree canopies than
outside.
• In contrast, at the wettest site, grass biomass beneath trees is lower or not
different from that outside tree canopies.
• The quality follows roughly the same trends

7. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
Woody species (often resulting from FMNR) are often the islands from
which bare land is recolonized, e.g. in Malbazan village in Niger & Baringo, Kenya

8. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
Tree based Rangeland Enclosures used in Ethiopia
Community Participation in Rangeland Enclosures Management (PRM) Practices.

9. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
Rangeland enclosures improve soil properties including increasing soil organic matter (OM), total
soil nitrogen (TN), available phosphorous (AP), and cation exchange capacity (CEC) (Mekuria, 2013).

10. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
Gathering the Evidence to act – rigorous, robust,
systematic
• Field data collection using systematic and consistent
indicators and a robust sampling framework (LDSF).
• Data analytics
• Data processing and normalization.
• Statistical analyses and predictive modeling using R
statistics.
• Remote sensing data analysis using R statistics and QGIS.
• Data management and reproducibility of data analysis.

11. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
In extreme cases degradation is so severe that restoration through
replanting with pioneer grass species will be required

12. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
Markets matter, e.g. Lesotho
• Rangelands represent a critical resource.
• Severe land degradation is a threat not only to the people
that rely directly on the rangelands for their livelihoods, but
also to the wider region and its water supply.
• Value chains such as wool and mohair production represent
an important part of the country’s income and the entry
point for sustainability/restoration
• Strengthening the capacity of national stakeholders to
manage rangelands is therefore key

13. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
The key is always
to inform &
empowered
decision makers
across all
stakeholder groups,
at nested scales Research based decision dashboards resulting from a co-design process in Lesotho

14. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
Rangelands are always multifunctional landscapes

15. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
World Agroforestry (ICRAF),
United Nations Avenue, Gigiri,
P.O Box 30677-00100, Nairobi, Kenya
Phone: +254 20 722 4000
Fax: +254 20 722 4001
Email: worldagroforestry@cgiar.org
Website: www.worldagroforestry.org
Thank you!