Lao People’s Democratic Republic is a poorly developed, surface water-rich country that has traditionally given limited priority to its groundwater resources, which has resulted in a situation of inadequate scientific knowledge, technical capacity, and policies within the sector. This is slowly changing as the role of groundwater in socioeconomic development is better recognized.

Kiteto District Livestock Officer Birikaa Olesikilal talks about the benefits of joint village land use planning and participatory rangeland management, Tanzania. Filmed by Marco Buemi http://www.marcobuemi.com Produced by Fiona Flintan, Marco Buemi and Patrick Augenstein 2021

The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands emphasizes the “wise use” of wetlands by conserving the ecological character of wetlands while managing the socio-economic value these landscapes hold for different stakeholders. Reviewing the Convention obligations, resolutions, and guidelines through a feminist political ecology lens, we find them to be overtly simplistic and technocratic.

In almost all forms of agriculture and farming practice, land clearing is the initial step. In Indonesia, in general, the most cost effective means of clearing land is through the use of fire. However, this use of fire often results in uncontrolled outbreaks, particularly in lowland areas especially and during prolonged dry seasons.

Adaptation to climate change is a vital response to enhance the resilience of these smallholder agricultural livelihoods, more so because of their adverse effect on the food security of the nation.

Agriculture plays a key dual role in Kenya. It provides livelihoods for 75% of the country’s population and supports 80% of its rural population. Crucially, it helps the country to meet its food security goals, which is increasingly challenging with Kenya’s population doubling over the last 25 years.

This report investigates the functioning and outcomes of the multi-stakeholder platforms established in Tanzania. The study focused on two platforms in Kilolo and Lushoto districts and analyzed their activities to support scaling agricultural innovations. The findings show that the platforms are successful in network building and knowledge dissemination.

Despite the rapid extension of public service delivery since the end of Apartheid, many rural citizens in South Africa still rely on their own initiatives and infrastructure to access water. They construct, improve, operate and maintain infrastructure of different complexities, from individual wells to complex collectively owned water schemes.

Governments in sub-Saharan Africa promote the expansion of irrigation to improve food security, primarily through the adoption and use of groundwater-based smallholder private irrigation.

This chapter highlights the key dependences, linkages and challenges of water resources management. (Many of these issues discussed are revisited and illustrated in the following chapters.) The first part introduces surface and groundwater management in the terrestrial part of the water cycle.

This synthesis brief draws on the experiences of the Restoring Degraded Landscapes sub-program, part of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE). The brief captures learning from a decade (2011-2021) of research in development work with different stakeholders including farmers and governments across the world to reverse landscape degradation.