National discussion and negotiation workshop report with:
­Overview of the current situation of the rangelands in the country and related laws within the current forestry regulations (forest code and implementing texts),
­Review of ongoing actions, visions and perspectives of national and international partners,
­Testimony of selected rangeland users (GDA, Management Councils),

Extreme weather conditions such as drought and floods, a changing and more variable climate, and the unsustainable use of the natural resources are amongst
complex factors that drive land degradation. This in turn negatively affects land productivity, food security, socio-economic stability, health and wellbeing, and the
provision of other ecosystem goods and services for billions of people worldwide. In drylands, these negative effects are felt ever more strongly given the already
limited natural resources that characterize these regions.

This is the presentation of Dr. Taoufik Hermassi during the workshop "Sustainable Land Management to Achieving Land Degradation Neutrality: Options-by-Context Approach and Tool", final workshop for the project "Impact Evaluation of SLM Options to Achieve Land Degradation Neutrality", held in Tunis on the 24th October 2017. This presentation highlights the SLM techniques documented by the team in Zaghouan governorate.

This research was carried out in three agro-climatic regions of Mali (Mopti, Koulikoro and Sikasso) to assess
contour bunding technology (CBT) for improved land and water management. Reference was made to
existing literature and field surveys were conducted following georeferencing and quantification of existing
land and water management technologies. Farmers’ perceptions towards the use of the most commonly
applied technologies were assessed. Results indicate that CBT is widely adopted in farmers’ fields to

The sustainable economic development considers as the most important goals sought by the society in the Arab Republic of Egypt, which contains all the strategies and plans adopted by the state. Those strategies depend on two Axis, the first one is the horizontal expansion by increasing agricultural areas and new reclaimed lands added to the area cultivated currently, and vertical expansion by increasing Hectare productivity which is considered the most important axis regarding the limited agricultural land resource.

Despite the many advantages of sustainable intensification (SI), the level of adoption of SI practices in African smallholding farms is still very low, posing the need for adequate methods for monitoring farm sustainability. Macronutrient flows and balance in agricultural systems are important for assessing the system sustainability as they indicate what supply risks an agricultural system runs, how resilient the system is to these risks, and what environmental impacts arise from the use of that essential resource.

Presentation on Major Recent ICARDA Water & Land Management Research Initiatives in Morocco.

Modelling socio-ecological systems, in which social and ecological systems interact each other and co-evolve, are useful for supporting decisions in managing landscape ecosystems. Inter-linking socially interactive decision-making to relevant ecological processes faces a great challenge due to at least two reasons: (1) the inherent mismatches in the spatial and temporal scales the considered processes operate, (2) differences in relevant methods for modelling the processes and (3) different data availabilities for the processes.

Rangelands in north Africa and the near east in general provide numerous goods and services that have great economic, social, cultural, and biological values. For centuries, inhabitants of rangelands have engineered pastoral and farming systems that have sustained their livelihoods in these harsh and dry environments. Unfortunately, these rangelands have undergone profound socio-economic changes where traditional grazing systems (transhumance and nomadism) which had historically allowed for grazing deferment were abandoned.

The aim of the project was to develop and implement a web-based GIS tool for defining sustainable
land management (SLM) options by social-ecological context at global scale. This Global Geoinformatics Options by Context (GeOC) tool aims to support the implementation of SLM practices
by the international community. The GeOC is designed to provide stakeholders/projects and
programmes with plausible, robust extrapolation domains for guiding decisions on SLM options,

The aim of the project was to develop and implement a web-based GIS tool for defining sustainable
land management (SLM) options by social-ecological context at global scale. This Global Geoinformatics Options by Context (GeOC) tool aims to support the implementation of SLM practices
by the international community. The GeOC is designed to provide stakeholders/projects and
programmes with plausible, robust extrapolation domains for guiding decisions on SLM options,

To help break the cycle of poverty, improve food and nutritional security, halt or reverse the alarming process of resource degradation in the dry areas, and help communities adapt to the impacts of climate variability and change, ICARDA’s Strategic Plan 2017-2026 outlines our research and organizational approach for action to achieve our vision of thriving and resilient communities in the dry areas of the developing world.