Achieveing Resilience and Sustainable Livelihood through Landscapes Restoration

Apparently, most people don't view landscapes in term of their multi-functionality, as they provide many benefits apart from just water management, forestry, ecosystem services and agriculture. Today, one billion people on our planet go hungry. Perhaps another one billion suffer from hidden hunger in which vitamins and minerals are insufficient in their diet, causing physical and mental harm. Between 2006 and 2016, world prices for soybeans, wheat, maize and rice climbed to roughly triple their historical levels.  With global food prices towering, the social order in many countries is breaking down. This is evident in increased violent clashes between farmers and grazers across Africa, and it is about same time Boko haram insurgency erupted in Nigeria, and present deepening economic crises across the African region.   

Diverse factors converge to affect the production, demand and distribution of food. But the critical needs of a growing African population would have to be satisfied as decisive resources such as water, land and energy become increasingly scarce. It means our food systems must be sustainable to avoid an unprecedented confluence of pressures leading to more violence in the next 15 years.

The challenges of soil erosion, loss of soil fertility and other related land degradation activities are huge. Rates of water extraction for irrigation exceed rates of replenishment; overgrazing, pests and diseases are a serious concern. Our increasingly unsustainable food production systems will compromise the capacity to produce enough food in the future. That means there will be more forced migration, grazer/farmer clashes, disasters, poverty and violence across Africa. The question now is where do we turn for the right solutions? 

The solution is not just to produce more food, or change diets; but to produce more food from less land, less labour, less cost and less degradation of the landscapes. But we must recognize the fact that producing enough food so that everyone can potentially be fed is not the same thing as ensuring food security for all. The potential threats are enormous that all areas of the food system must be addressed. High priority must be given to landscape restoration as a driver of broad-based income grower, people inclusiveness and stimulator of social cohesion. If we must reverse the trends of poverty, hunger, forced migration; human displacements, disasters and diseases already rife in Africa, and build sustainable livelihood and resilience in our communities, we must ensure there is adequate stability in food prices; and food supplies should be sustainably affordable to protect the most vulnerable. This is impossible when landscapes are degraded. It requires managing biodiversity and ecosystem services, climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction.

If ever there was a time to recognize the crucial role of our landscapes, I daresay this is the time. It requires bold and actionable decisions by political leaders, business leaders, researchers, support from youths, women everywhere to plant new trees to restore our forest landscapes.  We are already planting 100 million trees for Africa. A little action from you can make a huge difference. https://100milliontrees4africa.wordpress.com/ 

Thank you. Tabi Joda