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Poverty reduction and sustainable land management are two objectives that most Africancountries strive to achieve simultaneously. In designing policies to achieve theseobjectives concurrently a clear understanding of their linkage is crucial. Yet there isonly limited empirical evidence to demonstrate the linkage between poverty and land managementin Africa. Using Uganda as a case study, this analysis seeks to better understand thislinkage. We used several poverty measures to demonstrate the linkage between poverty and anumber of indicators of sustainable land management. In general we found a strong linkage.The results for many poverty indicators give credence to the land degradation–poverty trap,although some indicators showed negative association with land degradation.These results suggest that certain poverty reduction strategies being implemented throughagricultural modernization in Africa can achieve win-win-win outcomes, simultaneouslyincreasing productivity, reducing poverty, and reducing land degradation. Examples of suchstrategies include promoting investments in soil and water conservation and agroforestry.Some strategies—such as road development, encouragement of nonfarm activities, and promotionof rural finance—appear to contribute to positive outcomes without significant tradeoffs.Other strategies are likely to involve trade-offs among different objectives.The presence of such trade-offs is not an argument for avoiding these strategies; ratherit suggests the need to recognize and find ways to ameliorate such negative impacts wherethey occur. For example, incorporating teaching of the principles of sustainable agricultureand land management into educational curricula, and into the technical assistance approachof the National Agricultural Advisory Services and other organizations, is one important wayof addressing such trade-offs. Investment in poverty reduction and agricultural modernizationby itself is not sufficient to address the problem of land degradation in Uganda; it must becomplemented by greater efforts to promote sustainable land management practices.
