Integration for success
Policymakers and land managers are increasingly challenged by the inter-related impacts of ecosystem degradation, climate change, resource scarcity, poverty and food insecurity. In many cases, these risks cannot be mitigated only through on-farm management or supply chain programs, and must be dealt with at the landscape scale through partnerships in which all relevant stakeholders collaborate to achieve inter-related objectives.
This type of coordinated partnership at a landscape scale is referred to broadly as Integrated Landscape Management (ILM).
A positive example with room for improvement
Kenya is a leader within Africa on ILM, with 15 integrated landscape initiatives identified in a continent-wide review. However, as the country’s economy grows and resource conflicts increase, even more investments will need to be made within an integrated landscape context. Moreover, the adoption of Kenya’s new Constitution in 2010 has resulted in many changes to the public institutional structure, which may enhance the coordination of investments for multiple landscape benefits.
Investment coordination that works
Economic growth and investment have also been associated with conflicts over natural resources in some parts of the country. While Kenya’s ecological footprint per person is low by global standards, the country continues to move into a state of ‘ecological overshoot’ in which natural resources are depleted faster than they are regenerated (GFN 2015; Goldfinger et al. 2008).
To reduce this pressure from development, far more investments will need to be deployed within anintegrated landscape context. Understanding how to facilitate and coordinate these investments at a landscape scale will be important to ensure that growth occurs in a way that maintains ecosystem services and supports the lives and livelihoods of smallholder producers
