This Theme will assess policy and institutional factors that lead to unsustainable land use. It will also assist countries in addressing these factors to attain more environmentally-friendly management practices.

Much has been learned about the underlying socioeconomic and policy causes of land degradation in dry areas. These include population pressure, poverty, lack of access to markets, inadequate or inappropriate infrastructure, insufficent access to credit and other services, unclear land rights, and land tenure insecurity among others (Otsuka and Place 2001; Platteau 1996; Place and Hazell 1993). Local institutions such as community groups and social networks are also important in determining whether farmers are able to practice a non-degrading form of agriculture in the drylands (Mazzucato and Niemeijer 2002).

Much, however, still needs to be learned about how societies respond to desertification and drought. For example, it is not well understood under what conditions communal resource management institutions break down, resulting in unregulated open access that degrades land; or instead, evolve into effective institutions as population or market pressure increases. This understanding is essential for developing the policy and institutional advice that would help societies make the transition to more effective, culturally-appropriate mixes of private and socially-oriented systems.

The context-specific nature of impacts of policies and institutions are also not well understood (Pender, Place and Ehui 1999). Lessons learned from research often tend to be site specific and not replicable to other regions. The difficulty of scaling up to national development strategies and/or scaling out to other communities will be important aspects of this Theme. The trade-offs and synergies among agricultural productivity, human welfare and environmental sustainability due to policy and institutional interventions are another priority issue.

Expected outputs for impact include: lessons learned from past studies and gaps identified; a GIS database classifying target pilot areas into development domains to identify entry points for launching sustainable economic development; options for pilot areas based on predictions of impacts and trade-offs of alternative policy and institutional options; consultations with policy makers and other stakeholders at local, national and international levels to share policy options and implementation guidelines; training of research partners, stakeholders, local and national policy makers in use of policy tools and databases; and documentation of the returns from using scarce public funds to invest in anti-desertification activities.

Initial core partners

IFPRI, ICARDA, and the University of Marburg-Germany (through Desert*Net) along with DRFN in southern Africa. Stakeholders in consortium pilot areas, national and regional experts within the UNCCD framework, and partner research institutions provide invaluable sources of knowledge that can be tapped to get to the heart of these issues through this Theme. The UNCCD focal point partners also provide a pathway for engaging national and regional policy frameworks and decision-makers in a re-examination of policies and institutional arrangements so that Theme results lead to impact.

References Cited