Land Degradation Causes, Consequences and Sustainability of the Restoration Efforts: The Case of Soro Wereda, Hadiya Zone, Southern Ethiopia
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 2, June 2023
Pages:
18-27
Received:
21 February 2023
Accepted:
15 May 2023
Published:
25 May 2023
Abstract: Land degradation is a global issue and it is more severe in developing countries like Ethiopia. To address the problems of land degradation in Ethiopia, many efforts have been made since 1970s. From then onwards many attempts have been made and integrated watershed management in one among these. The study was undertaken in Soro Wereda, Hadiya Zone, and SNNPR with the objective of examining land degradation causes, consequences and sustainability of the restoration efforts. In order to achieve the stated objectives, both primary and secondary data were generated by employing qualitative and quantitative methods. Systematic sampling technique was used to select 97 representative households from three kebeles. The quantitative data was analyzed by using frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation. The qualitative data was analyzed through narration. The findings of the study showed that gully formation, stoniness of land, absence of grasses and vegetation cover, decline in crop productivity and change in soil color are the main symptoms of land degradation. The major extent of land degradation as perceived by the local people was severe. Only very few of the households opted that highly severe regarding the extent of land degradation. The major causes of land degradation in the study were soil erosion, deforestation and over cultivation. In addition, topography, overgrazing, lack of conservation methods and cultivation of marginal land were the other important causes with the certain degree of variation. The core impacts of land degradation were the declining of yield year after year, food insecurity| poverty and drought and famine. The remaining increases of inputs, malnutrition, desertification and displacement of people ranked two up to five followed by the above mentioned impacts. It is very difficult to restore the degraded land without the full participation of relevant stakeholders. The main stakeholders that participate in the restoration process include government, NGOs, farmers and DAs and each of these stakeholders have its own roles. Adopting of the participatory approach, promoting the awareness of rural communities as well as other stakeholders, management of restored land, and combining of the restoration efforts with local knowledge are core issues to the sustainability of the restoration process. In order to run the restoration efforts in sustainable way strengthening of community participation, capacity building of stakeholders, providing of incentives for those achieve the restoration process and scale up of the best practices are needed.
Abstract: Land degradation is a global issue and it is more severe in developing countries like Ethiopia. To address the problems of land degradation in Ethiopia, many efforts have been made since 1970s. From then onwards many attempts have been made and integrated watershed management in one among these. The study was undertaken in Soro Wereda, Hadiya Zone,...
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Co-constructing Dynamic thick / Deep Maps for Doing Transformative Transdisciplinary Research (TTDR) in the Context of Complex Sustainability Transitions
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 2, June 2023
Pages:
28-42
Received:
3 May 2023
Accepted:
19 May 2023
Published:
31 May 2023
Abstract: Embarking upon sustainability transitions from an unsustainable towards a more sustainable world is a complex undertaking which cannot be approached with one-size-fits-all approaches (panaceas). The social and institutional arrangements necessary for performing this double-movement, inherent in all sustainability transitions, never takes place within exactly the same set of (universal) conditions, but rather under radically different contextual conditions. Ontologically speaking, it is possible to distinguish at least three fundamentally different kinds of sustainability transitions namely: clear, complicated and complex transitions – each with its own internal transitioning logics and dynamics – warranting different methodological approaches. The consequences of approaching all transitions as if they were essentially the same, with one-size-fits-all methodologies, runs the risk of falling into the trap of path-dependency – i.e. becoming (permanently) locked into pursuing certain dominant – single-track – transitioning pathways, regardless of the contexts in which the transitions are embedded. One way of avoiding this is through methodological agility (MA) –a meta-level research strategy which has purposely been developed for knowing when and how to switch between mono-, multi-, inter- and trans-disciplinary research approaches when facing said ontologically different kinds of transitions. The purpose of this paper is to focus specifically on complex transitions and some of the key methodological challenges we face when dealing with the emergence and subsequent fluidity of these challenges. As a starting point, performing the double movement in complex transitioning processes means / implies dealing with multiple non-linear transitioning pathways between ill-defined current and future states as opposed to more linear transitioning pathways between well-defined current and future states when dealing with clear and complicated situations. However, the prospect of facing the complexity of complex transitioning challenges can quite easily be construed as things being overly complex to deal with, especially at a practical level of working with real-world sustainability transitions. Overcoming this concern will be addressed in this paper by introducing the co-constructing of dynamic thick / deep maps as an appropriate practical, research method for being methodologically agile when performing TTDR.
Abstract: Embarking upon sustainability transitions from an unsustainable towards a more sustainable world is a complex undertaking which cannot be approached with one-size-fits-all approaches (panaceas). The social and institutional arrangements necessary for performing this double-movement, inherent in all sustainability transitions, never takes place with...
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