Scaling-up Re-greening Solutions in Africa to Boost Smallholder Yields
Event Information
How can Sub-Saharan Africa adequately feed a rapidly growing population in a manner that both advances economic development and reduces pressure on the environment? A recent report on “Improving Land and Water Management” from the World Resources Institute (WRI) observes that most African soils are inherently poor, and soil nutrient depletion is particularly serious. The report proposes investing in a number of promising, proven practices to improve soil fertility as well as the quantity of water available to crops. These “re-greening” practices include agroforestry, conservation agriculture, rainwater harvesting, and integrated soil fertility management.
Craig Hanson, WRI’s Program Director for Food, Forests and Water, introduced the World Resources Report series on Creating a Sustainable Food Future and briefly outlined the key challenges to creating a sustainable food future. Jerry Glover from USAID summarized the evidence for the benefits of improved land and water management. WRI's Bob Winterbottom outlined strategies for scaling up re-greening across agricultural landscapes.
This seminar addressed a number of questions, including:
- What is the latest evidence on yield impacts of these land and water management practices?
- What is the latest data on income and other benefits from these practices?
- Where are the opportunities to best scale up these practices?
- What strategies show the most promise for taking these practices to scale?
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Speakers
Craig Hanson
World Resources Institute
Craig Hansen is the Director of WRI’s People & Ecosystems Program. He is responsible for guiding the Program’s overall strategy, focus on results, financial development, and staff capacity. Hansen has co-developed a number of the Program’s project work including Global Forest Watch 2.0, Regreen, Forest Legality Alliance, Project POTICO, the Brazilian Business & Ecosystems Partnership, and more. He has been the lead author of several WRI publications, including "The Corporate Ecosystem Services Review," "Southern Forests for the Future," "the Corporate Guide to Green Power Markets" series, and the "Energy and Environment Tax Reform" series. Previously, Hansen managed WRI’s Green Power Market Development Group, a coalition of a dozen Fortune 500 companies that helped pioneer corporate energy markets in the U.S. and won a national EPA Innovation Award. Hansen earned an MSc in Environmental Change & Management from Oxford University and an MA (Oxon) in Philosophy, Politics, & Economics as a Rhodes Scholar.
Jerry Glover
USAID BFS
Jerry Glover is a National Geographic Society Explorer and Senior Sustainable Agricultural Systems Advisor for USAID. He earned bachelor degrees in soil science and philosophy and then a PhD in soil science at Washington State University in 2001. Prior to his work at USAID, Glover studied native grasslands and farming systems, including no-till, perennial, organic and integrated systems. He has published the results of his work in Science, Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Scientific American. His work in soil science and perennial-based farming systems has been highlighted in National Geographic, Nature, and three documentary films. Most recently, Scientific American included Glover’s work in its December 2011 special issue on the “Top Ten World Changing Ideas.”
Robert Winterbottom
World Resources Institute
Robert Winterbottom is the Director of WRI’s Ecosystem Services Initiative and Deputy Director of the People and Ecosystems Program. The Mainstreaming Ecosystem Services team is working with governments, companies, development agencies, communities and other partners to develop ecosystem-based strategies, policies and investments that reduce ecosystem degradation and contribute to sustainable economic development.
Over the past twenty five years, Bob worked as a technical advisor to support the implementation of USAID funded development projects in Burkina Faso, Rwanda, Niger, Senegal and Bangladesh. He contributed to the assessment of lessons learned from investments in environmental and natural resource management, and to the development of more effective program approaches integrating governance and poverty reduction with environmental management.
After serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in a community reforestation program in Burkina Faso, and doing fieldwork for The Nature Conservancy in Maine, Bob served as an Ecologist with the Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel. He contributed to the first World Resources Report, the launching of the Tropical Forestry Action Plan, and served as the first Director of the Forestry and Land Use program of WRI. More recently, Bob has been assessing needs and opportunities for climate change adaptation, REDD+ investments and payments for ecosystems services.
Bob earned a MFS in Natural Resources Management from the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies of Yale University, and has a BA in Geography from Dartmouth College.Over the past twenty five years, Bob worked as a technical advisor to support the implementation of USAID funded development projects in Burkina Faso, Rwanda, Niger, Senegal and Bangladesh. He contributed to the assessment of lessons learned from investments in environmental and natural resource management, and to the development of more effective program approaches integrating governance and poverty reduction with environmental management.
After serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in a community reforestation program in Burkina Faso, and doing fieldwork for The Nature Conservancy in Maine, Bob served as an Ecologist with the Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel. He contributed to the first World Resources Report, the launching of the Tropical Forestry Action Plan, and served as the first Director of the Forestry and Land Use program of WRI. More recently, Bob has been assessing needs and opportunities for climate change adaptation, REDD+ investments and payments for ecosystems services.
Bob earned a MFS in Natural Resources Management from the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies of Yale University, and has a BA in Geography from Dartmouth College.
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