Collaborative project for rangeland restoration in East Africa launched

”Water and transhumance are often overlooked in restoration research projects. I am very glad that Restore4More will focus on these aspects”, said Peter Minang, Director for Africa at the Centre for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF). Minang made the welcome remarks at the launch meeting of the Restore4More project held in the CIFOR-ICRAF campus in Nairobi on 15-17 April 2024.

The long-term goal of Restore4More is to generate knowledge on the biodiversity-water-climate nexus that can contribute to large-scale, long-lasting, and effective rangeland restoration in the drylands of East Afria for increased climate change adaptation and mitigation, enhanced biodiversity, and water and food security. The project is funded by Formas – the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development – within the National Research Program on Climate and the National Research Program on Oceans and Water.

The project launch gathered members from the eight partner organizations: CIFOR-ICRAF, The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Makerere University, the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), Stockholm University, the University of Nairobi, Vi Agroforestry, and SLU. The meeting not only marked the project’s official start, but it also helped anchor it within the partner organizations, foster team cohesion, enhance coordination and synergies among work packages and project partners, and collectively brainstorm gaps and needs.

During the project introduction, Aida Bargués-Tobella (SLU), the principal investigator, highlighted that “Climate change, land degradation, and biodiversity loss are among our time’s most pressing planetary crises and a threat to life on Earth and human well-being, particularly in the drylands. Land restoration is a nexus solution to address these interlinked, mutually reinforcing crises.” She also emphasized the centrality of water: “Water plays a key role in the climate-biodiversity-land degradation crises, simultaneously being part of the challenge and the solution. Sustainable water management is therefore vital”.

Project members showcased their work and progress through data walls, posters, and pictures in a World Café session. Leigh Winowiecki, CIFOR-ICRAF Soil and Land Health Global Research Lead, and Tor Vågen, Head of CIFOR-ICRAF SPACIAL (Spatial Data Science and Applied Learning Lab) shared some of the soil and land health data generated with the Land Degradation Surveillance Framework (LDSF) and Earth Observation. “At CIFOR-ICRAF we are very excited to engage in this project because it will leverage the multiple rangeland health monitoring sites we have established in East Africa using the LDSF” stressed Winowiecki. Margeret Nyaga, PhD candidate at the University of Nairobi within the SLU-led research project Drylands Transform, presented key results from her research on rangeland restoration for resilient livelihoods through ‘Livestock Cafés’. “Livestock Cafés are demonstration sites and knowledge-sharing hubs that bring together local communities, extension workers, practitioners, and researchers to co-create and co-generate knowledge on different rangeland restoration and management options. In Restore4More, we will build on and expand the work in the Livestock Cafés, to catalyze scaling out of rangeland restoration” explained Stephen Mureithi from the Department of Land Resource Management and Agricultural Technology at the University of Nairobi.

Leigh Winowiecki facilitated a panel discussion with Wamalwa Kinyanjui (Animal Health Expert at IGAD), Monica Nderitu (Vi Agroforestry Environmental and Climate Adviser), Robert Muthami (Regional Environment and Climate Change Specialist, Embassy of Sweden in Nairobi), Anna Treydte (Professor at Stockholm University and Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science & Technology) and Stephen Mureithi (Professor at University of Nairobi). The panel discussion, which focused on rangeland restoration in East Africa, contributed to identifying major bottlenecks in restoration, key gaps in restoration knowledge and practice, barriers and enablers to scaling, and potential synergies among ongoing rangeland restoration efforts in the region.  

The work package leads presented the different project work packages, focusing on planned activities, primary tasks, deliverables, and milestones. Muhammad Ahmad and Benard Onkware (CIFOR-ICRAF) trained the participants in the Regreening App, a free mobile-based application for assisted citizen science data collection of restoration activities. This was followed up by a brainstorming session to discuss what functionalities and features could be added to the new rangeland module that will be developed as part of Restore4More. The project MSc and PhD students presented their work plans and some preliminary results.

A significant part of the meeting was devoted to discussing stakeholder engagement, knowledge sharing, and scaling. Dorcas Munyua (Vi Agroforestry), Ahmed Mohamoud (IGAD), and Malin Lundberg-Ingemarsson (SIWI) shared their experiences with stakeholder engagement and presented some of their most relevant networks and stakeholder engagement platforms. “Vi Agroforestry has a wealth of experience in strengthening farmer organizations and their capacity. Community facilitators are trained to disseminate the knowledge further. This is a model we are eager to adopt also in the context of drylands to strengthen farmer and pastoralist organizations and scale sustainable dryland management and restoration practices” explained Dorcas Munyua.

The participation  of IGAD as one of the strategic partners will help us translate the research results to inform policy and practice at the regional level. "IGAD has a robust mechanism of disseminating research findings to all Member States", stated Ahmed Mohamoud of the IGAD Centre for Pastoral Areas and Livestock Development (ICPALD).

Following the meeting in Nairobi, the project members visited one of the project sites in Chepareria, in West Pokot County. The field trip included a visit to the project Livestock Cafés - which work both as experimental sites and knowledge-sharing hubs, meetings with local communities and extension officers, as well as a visit to Vi Agroforestry’s Olof Palme Agroforestry Centre (OPAC) in Kitale.