The Future Earth approach and its

importance for understanding land use

change in Africa

Berlin, 19 March 2014

Flash talk session, Global Land Project conference

Future Earth and its approach• A global platform for international research collaboration on

global environmental change and sustainable development• Provides integrated research on major global change

challenges and transformations to sustainability • Strengthens partnerships between researchers, funders and

users of research through co-design of research• Is solutions-oriented, aiming to generate knowledge that

contributed to new more sustainable ways of doing things

Objective: To provide the knowledge required for societiesin the world to face risks posed by global environmental change and to seize opportunities in a transition to global sustainability

Meets African land use dynamics

• Complex and multi-scale, as global and regional change intersects with local systems and practices

• Diverse and non-linear, as bio-physical and anthropogenic processes interact to produce patterns of both enrichment and degradation

• Represented and valued in multiple ways by different stakeholders : Beyond degradation narratives? Sustainability of what for whom? Whose knowledge counts?

Needs research that integrates the knowledges and perspectives of diverse stakeholders – including local land users

To build a richer picture through respectful deliberation and dialogue

What can we learn from existing activities – within and beyond current GLP/GEC communities?

Exploring African Dark Earths (AfDE)Amazonia: Rethinking of pre-Columbian land use dynamics through history, archaeology, demography, soil science – significance of carbon-rich, fertile Anthropogenic Dark Earths (Terra Preta)Africa: Powerful orthodoxies: poor soils, land use only degrades (without external inputs)1990s anthropology/ecology/farmers’ knowledge: hypothesis that Terra Pretaanalogues currently forming through local land use practice

a) b)

Integrated research soil science, botany, anthropology, history, archaeology (2009 – 13, ESRC) Universities of Cornell, Sussex, LegonGhana, Njala Sierra Leone; Monrovia Liberia; Kankan GuineaCo-conducted with development NGOs (eg. FOSED, Sierra Leone)

Indigenous African soil enrichment as climate-smart sustainable agriculture alternative FOSED – sustainable upland farming in Sierra LeoneEU BeBi project – locally-appropriate biochar developmentsEthiopia – indigenous fertilizers

Liberia Ghana

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(Mg h

a-1

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100

200

300

400

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AfDE

AS

**

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-Formed through everyday waste deposits and cultural practices – cooking, agri-processing-Associated with old settlements and forming rings around villages and farm camps- High concentrations of carbon and other nutrients - Valued by farmers for horticulture, agroforestry, cacao, tree nurseries