The Global Assessment of Economics of Land Degradation and Improvement A Book Preview Joachim von Braun Center for Development Research (ZEF) University of Bonn 3rd Global Soil Week 20 April 2015, Berlin, Germany

Book: Global Assessment of the Economics of Land Degradation and Improvement (forthcoming by Springer Publ. 2015) Edited by: Ephraim Nkonya (IFPRI), Alisher Mirzabaev (ZEF, Uni. Bonn), Joachim von Braun (ZEF, Uni. Bonn) Highlights: 1. Develops a conceptual framework for comprehensive assessment of the costs of land degradation, including the value of land ecosystem services 2. Provides with analytical methods to determine the costs and drivers of land degradation at various scales 3. Maps the global areas of land degradation hotspots 4. Estimates the costs of action vs inaction against land degradation at global, regional and national levels, incl. application 12 in-depth case studies. 5. Book in electronic format will be open source and freely downloadable J von Braun 2015

Authors • Twenty two chapters, written by 53 authors with very diverse disciplinary backgrounds: soil scientists, ecologists, remote sensing experts, geographers, hydrologists, crop modelers, sociologists, agronomists, economists…. • Case studies conducted by national research centers and universities • A wide range of regional and international teams contributing to specific chapters J von Braun 2015

Table of Contents Chapter titles 1. Introduction

Lead authors Nkonya, Mirzabaev and von Braun Concepts and Methods

2. Methods paper 3. Institutional framework of taking action against land degradation Global

Nkonya et al. Baumgartner and Cherlet

4. Global extent of land degradation 5. Ground-truthing of land degradation mapping 6. The global cost of land degradation 7. Global drivers of land degradation 8. ELD in global rangelands Regional

Le et al. Anderson et al. Nkonya et al. Mirzabaev et al. Nkonya et al.

9. ELD in sub-Saharan Africa 10. ELD in Central Asia

Nkonya et al. Mirzabaev et al. Country Case Studies

11. Argentina 12. Bhutan 13. China 14. Ethiopia 15. India 16. Kenya 17. Niger 18. Russia 19. Senegal 20. Tanzania & Malawi 21. Uzbekistan 22.Lessons Learnt and Implications

Brizuela et al. Nkonya et al. Deng and Lia Gabre Selasie et al. Gurumurthy et al. Mulinge et al. Moussa et al. Sorokin et al. Sow et al. Kirui Aw-Hassan Nkonya, Mirzabaev and von Braun J von Braun 2015

External Review • All conceptual, global and regional chapters have been externally reviewed by leading experts in the respective fields (8 external reviewers) • Review process led by Prof. Rattan Lal (Ohio State University, President of International Union of Soil Sciences) • Most chapters have been presented in various scientific conferences and have received important peer appraisals

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Global Land Degradation Spots

On 30% of global land area Accounts for the masking effects of rainfall and atmospheric fertilization. Groundtruthed through community focus group discussions and, in some cases, soil samples collection. Source: Le et al. (2014). Baseline – 1982-86. J von Endline: Braun 2015 2004-06. Based on biomass productivity.

Global Land Improvement Spots

On 3% of global land area Source: Le et al. (2014). Baseline – 1982-86. J von Endline: Braun 2015 2004-06. Based on biomass productivity.

Implications • Land degradation is occurring 10 times faster than land improvement. Substantial efforts are needed to achieve a “land degradation neutral” world. • All biomes and agro-ecologies are affected. Rangelands are affected the most, but so far received less attention.

Continents

Crop land

Mosaic vegetation - crop

Forested land

Mosaic forest- shrub /grass

Shrub land

Grass land

Sparse vegetation

Asia

30%

31%

30%

36%

33%

24%

43%

Europe

19%

21%

21%

20%

6%

17%

17%

North Africa and Near East

45%

42%

30%

36%

39%

52%

18%

Sub-Saharan Africa

12%

26%

26%

26%

28%

40%

29%

Latin America and Caribbean

25%

16%

10%

29%

29%

24%

34%

North America and Australasia

17%

16%

32%

36%

27%

40%

22%

World

25%

25%

23%

29%

25%

33%

23%

Source: Le et al. (2014).

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Some findings: Global Costs of Land Degradation • Global annual costs of land deradation are high:

• About 300 bln USD, of which 230 bln USD due land use and land cover change, and 70 bln USD due to crop and rangeland degradation

• Most strongly affected are the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa: • On average, about 7.4% equivalent of their annual GDP are lost due to land degradation

• Investments to address land degradation yield substantial economic returns: • Globally, each dollar invested into sustainable land management is found to yield, on average, 5 dollars of returns over the 30-year horizon. Source: Nkonya et al. (2015).

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Action against Land Degradation and for Sustainable Land Management

Source: Nkonya et al (2011)

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What can we learn from the cost of inaction against land degradation? In many cases, the costs of inaction are much higher than the costs of action. However, we observe much less investments to address land degradation. Why: • Bigger share of costs are global externalities. Land users may not be able to fully internalize the benefits of SLM (e.g. payments for ecosystem services) • Barriers for adoption of SLM practices • Need to understand better the opportunity costs of investments into SLM J von Braun 2015

Case Study Locations

-

Good coverage of major global biomes, and of various socio-economic and institutional characteristics

Map source: modified from Wikipedia Commons

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Drivers of SLM Adoptions Tanzania

Malawi

Senegal

Uzbekistan

Ethiopia

Access to extension

Access to extension

Non-farm income

Knowledge about SLM technologies

Access to extension

Market access

Market access

Market access

Market access

Market access

Secure land tenure

Secure land tenure

Population density

Secure land tenure

Secure land tenure

Crop diversification

Access to credit

Access to credit Access to credit Higher assets Larger plot size

Larger plot size

Larger farm size Larger farm size Access to irrigation

Based on econometric analyses of agricultural household surveys. Several drivers are consistent across such diverse countries. J vonKirui Braun 2015 Aw-Hassan et al. (2015). Sources: Sow et al. (2015), Gebreselassie et al. (2015), (2015),

Some book messages on what needs to be done to address land and soil degradation? 1. Land and soil degradation is more costly than perceived. Now a broad coalition of actors and investors is called to action. 2. Strong leadership needed, including emphasis within SDGs, because sound land and soil management serves multiple goals. 3. Management in government should adopt Nexus approach to minimize trade-offs with water, energy and food security. 4. Focus on problem areas and solutions: Land degradation is affecting all biomes. Regionally needs attention to rangelands. 5. Research involving interdisciplinary, and linking across scales, hard soil sciences and human behavior; technology. 6. It is people and their deficient institutions and organizations who degrade land and soils. They can avoid it with right incentives; land rights; collective action by farming communities.