Chartres CJ (2012) Water, land and ecosystems: improved natural resource management for food security and livelihoods, ACIAR Seminar Series presentation, 25 January 2012, Canberra, Australia.

1. Presenter Dr Colin Chartres
Director General, International Water Management Institute
Topic “About CGIAR* Research Program #5: water, land and ecosystems”
Date 12.30pm, Wednesday 25 January 2012
Venue Conference Room, ACIAR House, Canberra.
Acknowledgements Chartres CJ (2012) Water, land and ecosystems: improved natural resource
management for food security and livelihoods, ACIAR Seminar Series
presentation, 25 January 2012, Canberra, Australia.
*CGIAR: Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research

2. A global NRM
partnership

3. The Challenge – sustainable
intensification
• To learn how to intensify farming
activities, expand agricultural areas and
restore degraded lands, while using natural
resources wisely and minimizing harmful
impacts on supporting ecosystems.

4. Focus
• Water scarcity
• Land degradation
and soil health
• Ecosystem services

5. The Conceptual Framework
CRP5 focuses on external and internal drivers of change in
agriculture, how these affect water, landscapes and ecosystem
services and how policy and management changes can be
used to adapt production systems in a sustainable manner

6. Five Strategic Research Portfolios
1. Irrigated Systems
2. Rainfed Systems
3. Resource Reuse and Recovery
4. River Basins, and
5. Information Systems

7. Two cross-cutting themes
1) Ecosystem Services, and
2) Institutions and Governance
Gender and
equity
issues are also
mainstreamed
(CPWF)

8. Where we will work

9. Examples of problem sets for each Strategic
Research Portfolio
Irrigated Systems SRP
• Finally unlocking Africa’s irrigation (Re, ICRAF)
promise
• Revitalizing public irrigation systems
in Asia
• Managing groundwater
overexploitation in India through
the energy–irrigation nexus
• Revving up the ‘Ganges Water
Machine’ through intensive
groundwater use for livelihoods and
environmental benefits
• Managing salt–water balance in (IWMI)
Indus and Central Asian irrigation
systems

10. Rainfed Systems SRP
• Recapitalizing African soils and
reducing land degradation
• Revitalizing productivity on
responsive soils
• Using agro-biodiversity to
sustain agricultural production
• Reducing risk by ensuring water
access for pastoralists
• Reducing risk by providing
farmers with supplemental
irrigation

11. Resource Recovery and Reuse SRP
• Creating wealth from waste
• A grey revolution in wastewater management

12. Basins SRP
(Bioversity) (IWMI)
• Payment for Environmental Services (PES) as a water
management tool: Andes group of basins
• Water storage to reduce regional drought risk: Volta–Niger
• Integrating environmental water allocations and climate
change impacts with water resources development:
Ganges–Indus
• Harmonizing the water–energy–environment nexus in the
Mekong Basin
• Managing water resources to reduce poverty and improve
wetland management in the upstream Nile
• Solutions for transboundary water management hotspots
in transition economies: Aral Sea basins

13. Information Systems SRP
• Monitoring longer-
Elevation
term spatial and
temporal change in Vegetation
agroecosystems
• Harnessing water
Hydrology
and land Topographical
properties
information to Climate
improve
Cost surfaces, etc.
management
Legacy data
?

14. Problem definition: an example from the Nile basin
Issues motivating CRP5 research
• Poor live in rural areas (except in Egypt) and most
make their living in agriculture.
• Egypt and Ethiopia have large populations and high
growth rates. Ethiopia’s plans to develop hydropower
and irrigation are resisted by Egypt.
• Unsustainable agricultural practices have inflicted
upon Ethiopia some of the most severe land
degradation problems in the world.
• Accelerated soil erosion from agricultural land poses
a threat to the health of Lake Victoria.
• There is substantial poverty in Sudan, despite notable
agricultural potential, particularly in the Gezira
region. Little information on the current state of land
resources to guide development in South Sudan.
(IWMI)

15. CRP5 Research Activities in the Nile Basin
• Examine opportunities for improving agricultural productivity in irrigated areas of
the Nile Valley and Delta, given the likelihood of increasing pressure on water
supplies in the region.
• Develop recommendations for investing in new irrigation schemes in Ethiopia and
Sudan, while cognizant of international discourse regarding new water
development in the Nile Basin.
• Develop strong technical capacity in the Nile countries in surface and groundwater
resources assessment and management.
• Develop options for recovering water and nutrients from marginal quality water
and other waste resources for agriculture and aquaculture.
• Establish a basin-wide land health surveillance system to provide a baseline on
ecosystem services, a basis for prioritizing interventions, and mechanism for
monitoring impacts. Ground sampling through sentinel sites will be a high priority
in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan.
Potential impacts
Basin population: 200 million
Rural population: 128 million
Agricultural population: 102 million
(IWMI) We expect to improve the livelihoods of 60% of the
agricultural population.

16. How CRP5 will improve natural resource management and
the environment
(IWMI)
• Involving, from the outset, key stakeholders
via participation in research and development
• Achieving critical mass among the CGIAR and
its partners to solve key problems
• Integrating biophysical solutions and socioeconomic
drivers to develop a holistic view of possible beneficial
changes
• Taking an evidence-based approach based on a logical
pathway via hypotheses and methodologies to develop
solutions and catalyze change at policy level

17. How CRP5 will improve natural resource
management and the environment
• Adopting an integrated landscape/basin approach, as opposed to
focusing on single issues
• Viewing agriculture as part of the solution not the cause of the
problem
• Harnessing the private sector and NGOs to help deliver solutions
• Using information systems and technology to ensure the message gets
to farmers and land and water managers
• Being clear about the development outcomes we wish to achieve and
using adaptive management approaches to achieve them
• Developing appropriate partnerships at science, policy and
implementation levels, and clearly defining responsibilities and
accountabilities

18. Gender and Equity
CRP5’s gender and poverty strategy will ensure that its outcomes
target not only to the poor in general, but also women farmers.
The specific objectives are to:
• ensure that all research and associated work undertaken in
CRP5 is pro-poor and benefits both men and women
• ensure that, where appropriate, all data are sex-disaggregated
and analyzed from the perspective of gender and equity issues
• examine the extent to which male and female farmers have
different adoption rates and identify gender-specific barriers
that may work against adoption
• identify gender bias in agricultural policy and in extension
systems
• improve women’s access to and involvement in the
management of major resources, including
land, water, infrastructure and other public services
• develop gender-sensitive policies for land and water
management. (Bioversity)
A conference on gender will be held in the inception
ensure that projects will incorporate key
local and regional gender issues.

19. Governance and Management
Consortium Board
Governance
Steering Committee
Lead Centre
Partner
Board and Director
Representatives and
General
Independent
Members
Program Management Program Director Executive
Assistant
Management Committee
Program Manager,
M&E Specialist,
Gender Specialist Program support/SRP
Portfolio Managers
Strategic Planning and
Management Team (SPMT)
[SRP Leaders and
Working Group Leaders]
Project Delivery
SRP Resource
SRP Irrigation SRP Rainfed SRP Information
SRP Basins Recovery and
Systems Systems Systems
Reuse
Governance and
Ecosystems working group
Institutions working group

20. Budget
Global Other Regions
4% 0%
South East
Information, Asia
31,244 7%
Latin America
15%
CWANA
Rainfed, South Asia 10%
River Basin, 93,525 19%
58,711
Sub Saharan
Resource Africa
Recover & Irrigation, 45%
Reuse, 5,432 44,023
Annual budget
2011 $76m (46% restricted funding, 54% requested from CG)
2012 $83m
2013 $87m

21. M&E
• The starting point for CRP5 support strategies, including
ME&L, are the theories of change developed at different
levels in CRP5.

22. Partnership
Partnership objective Type of partners Area of collaboration Examples of partners
Core Research
Hypothesis testing ARIs Remote sensing analytical solutions, University departments;
Methodology development National universities improving hydrological CSIRO Australia;
Private companies measurement and modeling, ITC Delft; IRD and CIRAD; Water
economic modeling, etc. Watch
On-ground research NARES Studies of nature and extent of ICAR (India)
Regional research organizations, nutrient decline and land and water NAFRI (Laos)
e.g. CONDESAN, ASARECA, degradation, field trials CSIR (Ghana)
APAARI
Implementation
Changing on-ground management NARES; private sector; FAO Jain Irrigation; Nestle; R. Tata
practices Foundation; WWF
Changing policy at government level Ministries of Water, Natural Resources, Developing policy options All major countries in which we
and Agriculture are operating
Changing river basin policy and River basin organizations Water accounting, allocation, Mekong River Commission
management biodiversity and environmental flow Volta Basin Authority
assessment, water economics Nile Basin Authority
SIC (Uzbekistan)
Up-scaling management practices NARES; NGOs; FAO; private sector; Roll-out of new technology and ISRIC; FAO;
World Bank; innovation IDE International; Care
Asian Development Bank; African
Development Bank; Islamic Bank
Influence and Outreach
International treaties and International conventions International public goods RAMSAR; UNCBD; UNCCD; FAO;
conventions FAO relating to wetland and habitat UNESCO; IMAWESA
Global and regional networks Transboundary water agreements protection
Regional synthesis and map

23. A global NRM
partnership