Browsing by Author "Mkilema, Francis"

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Building Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience through Soil Organic Carbon Restoration in Sub-Saharan Rural Communities: Challenges and Opportunities
(MDPI, 2021-10-02) Taylor, Alex; Wynants, Maarten; Kelly, Claire; Mtei, Kelvin; Mkilema, Francis; Ndakidemi, Patrick; Nasseri, Mona; Kalnins, Alice; Patrick, Aloyce; Gilvear, David; Blake, William
Soil organic carbon (SOC) is widely recognised as pivotal in soil function, exerting important controls on soil structure, moisture retention, nutrient cycling and biodiversity, which in turn underpins a range of provisioning, supporting and regulatory ecosystem services. SOC stocks in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are threatened by changes in land practice and climatic factors, which destabilises the soil system and resilience to continued climate change. Here, we provide a review of the role of SOC in overall soil health and the challenges and opportunities associated with maintaining and building SOC stocks in SSA. As an exemplar national case, we focus on Tanzania where we provide context under research for the “Jali Ardhi” (Care for the Land) Project. The review details (i) the role of SOC in soil systems; (ii) sustainable land management (SLM) techniques for maintaining and building SOC; (iii) barriers (environmental, economic and social) to SLM implementation; and (iv) opportunities for overcoming barriers to SLM adoption. We provide evidence for the importance of site-specific characterisation of the biophysicochemical and socio-economic context for effective climate adaptation. In particular, we highlight the importance of SOC pools for soil function and the need for practitioners to consider the type of biomass returns to the soil to achieve healthy, balanced systems. In line with the need for local-scale site characterisation we discuss the use of established survey protocols alongside opportunities to complement these with recent technologies, such as rapid in situ scanning tools and aerial surveys. We discuss how these tools can be used to improve soil health assessments and develop critical understanding of landscape connectivity and the management of shared resources under co-design strategies
Informing versus generating a discussion: Comparing two approaches to encouraging mitigation of soil erosion among Maasai pastoralists
(Elsevier, 2022-10-21) Rabinovich, Anna; Zhischenko, Vladimir; Nasseri, Mona; Stacey, Heath; Laizer, Alpha; Mkilema, Francis; Patrick, Aloyce; Wynants, Maarten; Blake, William; Mtei, Kelvin; Ndakidemi, Patrick
Soil erosion is a critical problem for pastoralist societies that rely on healthy grazing land for their livelihoods. Previous research suggests that unsustainable land management practice is one of the factors exacerbating soil erosion, and that willingness to adjust this practice is closely linked to community land protection norms. The present research explores approaches to building stronger community norms and intentions linked to mitigating soil erosion among Maasai pastoralists in Northern Tanzania. In particular, we compare two impact approaches based on the information deficit model (exposure to scientific information) and the social identity framework (a group-based discussion). The results demonstrate that the information deficit approach results in stronger perceived land protection norms and, indirectly, stronger intentions, as compared to the discussion-based approach. We discuss contextual features that should be taken into account when interpreting these findings and suggest these may be key for impact approach choices.
‘Mind the Gap’: Reconnecting Local Actions and Multi-Level Policies to Bridge the Governance Gap. An Example of Soil Erosion Action from East Africa
(MDPI, 2020-09-25) Kelly, Claire; Wynants, Maarten; Munishi, Linus; Nasseri, Mona; Patrick, Aloyce; Mtei, Kelvin; Mkilema, Francis; Rabinovich, Anna; Gilvear, David; Wilson, Geoff; Blake, William; Ndakidemi, Patrick
Achieving change to address soil erosion has been a global yet elusive goal for decades. Efforts to implement effective solutions have often fallen short due to a lack of sustained, context-appropriate and multi-disciplinary engagement with the problem. Issues include prevalence of short-term funding for ‘quick-fix’ solutions; a lack of nuanced understandings of institutional, socio-economic or cultural drivers of erosion problems; little community engagement in design and testing solutions; and, critically, a lack of traction in integrating locally designed solutions into policy and institutional processes. This paper focusses on the latter issue of local action for policy integration, drawing on experiences from a Tanzanian context to highlight the practical and institutional disjuncts that exist; and the governance challenges that can hamper efforts to address and build resilience to soil erosion. By understanding context-specific governance processes, and joining them with realistic, locally designed actions, positive change has occurred, strengthening local-regional resilience to complex and seemingly intractable soil erosion challenges.
Novel use of portable gamma sensors to rapidly assess soil status and recovery in degraded East African agro-pastoral land
(Copernicus Publications, 2024-05-01) Blake, Will; Amasi, Aloyce; Kelly, Claire; Lewin, Shaun; Mkilema, Francis; Msale, Furaha; Mtei, Kelvin; Munishi, Linus; Nasseri, Mona; Ndakidemi, Patrick; Taylor, Alex
Soil resources in East African agro-pastoral lands are being rapidly depleted by erosion, threatening food, water and livelihood security. Here we explore the utility of innovation in portable gamma sensors to rapidly assess soil health via proxy measurement of soil organic matter (SOM) providing visual information that enables local communities to take action to mitigate land degradation before it reaches a critical tipping point. This study is grounded in the outcomes of an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to support co-design of land management policy tailored to the needs of specific communities and places. The work has shown that limitations to delivering socially acceptable and environmentally desirable solutions can be addressed by (1) closing fundamental gaps between the evidence bases of different disciplines and indigenous knowledge and (2) addressing, through participatory action, the implementation gap between science-based recommendations, policy makers and practitioners. Key adaptations implemented in the study region include new bylaws to enforce altered grazing regimes, grassland recovery and tree planting. Against this context, we report a first trial of a portable gamma spectrometer to rapidly assess spatial variability in soil health using total and radionuclide-specific gamma emissions from naturally occurring radioisotopes as a proxy for soil organic matter. A Medusa MS-700 portable gamma spectrometer was deployed on foot across a landscape of known variability in soil health status encompassing a spectrum of impact from severely gullied soil/subsoil, heavily grazed surface soil, recovered grazed soil (ca 3 years exclusion of livestock) and conservation agriculture plots. In-situ field results showed a clear gradient in raw total gamma count rate with sample areas in each zone at 1200 ± 100, 980 ± 70, 814 ± 60 and 720 ± 60 counts per second across the above four areas respectively. Correlations between radioisotope-specific gamma spectrometer data and organic matter (range 15 ± 2 to 30 ± 3 g kg-1 from degraded land to conservation agriculture) were evaluated to explore the dominant control on sensor response. Further comparisons are made to major and minor element geochemistry. Feedback from local Maasai community members who participated in the research further underpins the value of the sensor as a qualitative assessment tool e.g. using visual colour coding in the live data feed in the field. Quantitative comparison of sensor and laboratory data will permit development of protocols for airborne (drone) gamma spectrometry that offers community scale evaluation of grazing pressure on soil health to inform livestock future exclusion policy in common land prone to soil erosion.
Protecting the commons: Predictors of willingness to mitigate communal land degradation among Maasai pastoralists
(Elsevier Ltd., 2020-12) Rabinovich, Anna; Heath, Stacey; Zhischenko, Vladimir; Mkilema, Francis; Patrick, Aloyce; Nasseri, Mona; Wynants, Maarten; Blake, William; Mtei, Kelvin; Munishi, Linus; Ndakidemi, Patrick
Extensive land degradation is a global problem that presents a critical threat to pastoralists’ welfare in East Africa and beyond. Although the reasons for this environmental problem are complex, it is likely to be exacerbated by communal land management practices that have become suboptimal due to changes in land access and population growth. In the present paper we make initial steps towards addressing the problem by exploring socio-psychological predictors of willingness to protect communal land from degradation among Maasai pastoralists in Northern Tanzania. Based on the social identity approach and existing evidence for the role of group processes in pro-environmental action, we have developed and tested a path model predicting willingness to protect communal land. The results demonstrate that community identification is linked to willingness to act via perceived development of action-consistent group and personal norms. In addition, multiple groups analysis demonstrated a number of gender differences within the model. The results are broadly consistent with the existing social identity models of pro-environmental action, extending them into a novel context, and offering practical implications for addressing the issue of pastoralist land degradation.
Soils, Science and Community ActioN (SoilSCAN): a citizen science tool to empower community-led land management change in East Africa
(IOPscience, 2022-08-02) Kelly, Claire; Wynants, Maarten; Patrick, Aloyce; Taylor, Alex; Mkilema, Francis; Nasseri, Mona; Lewin, Shaun; Munishi, Linus; Mtei, Kelvin; Ndakidemi, Patrick; Blake, William
Pastoralist communities worldwide face complex challenges regarding food and feed productivity. Primary production systems are under stress, nutritional choices are changing and the relationship between development and agriculture is undergoing profound transformation. Under increasing pressure from climate and land use change, East African agro-pastoral systems are approaching a tipping point in terms of land degradation. There is an urgent need for evidence-led sustainable land management interventions to reverse degradation of natural resources that support food and water security. A key barrier, however, is a lack of high spatial resolution soil health data wherein collecting such information for each individual community is beyond their means. In this context, we tested whether bridging such data gaps could be achieved through a coordinated programme at the boundary between participation and citizen science. Key outputs included a community-led trial of a hand-held soil scanner, which highlighted a range of positive benefits and practical challenges in using this technology in this context, with identification of some potential solutions; and a targeted soil organic matter and nutrient status dataset in a small catchment-based community setting. The results show that if the practical challenges can be resolved, use of portable soil scanner technology has the potential to fill key knowledge gaps and thereby improve resilience to the threat of land degradation through locally responsive farmer and community decision-making.