1. Discussion Session 1.4: The Scientific Perspective on
Ecosystem Based Approaches used across the Continent

2. Scientific Perspective
• What does the science tell us about ecosystem
based approaches?
– An Ecosystem based approach (as endorsed by the
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA, 2005):
“is a strategy for the integrated management of land, water and living resources that
promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way which helps to reach a
balance of the three key aspects: conservation; sustainable use; and the fair and
equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of natural resources”
• This approach revolves around equitably
increasing productivity while maintaining
environmental integrity (Sustainable
intensification)

3. Taking Stock
• Which ES services to address and what are the ecosystem-
based approaches used in countries?
In the context of Africa’s endemic food shortage the key prominent ES services are related to
provisioning for food, feed, fiber and fuel; however, considering Africa’s vulnerability to the vagaries
of climate change: both regulating and supporting services such as flood control or soil erosion
remain critical.
• What are other examples of the ecosystem approaches in
use?
- In the Volta Basin, the Water, Land and Ecosystems Program is engaged with partners in pursuing
climate-smart approaches for example Riparian buffer zones, participatory community
engagement and work on sustainable management of water and land resources
- Concerted efforts in Africa to embrace the green growth concept. E.g. Kenya and other E. African
countries including a major development sponsor (AfDB)
- South Africa: Integrated water resources policy that accounts for eco-foot prints
- Mali: Integrated Regional Information Network. 2004. “Mali: Government imposes 6-month ban
on tree felling.”
- Tunisia and Libya: Concerted management of desert margins to meet pressing food demands
through irrigated wheat and large scale land acquisitions (What implications do these have?)

4. Limitations in the use of ecosystem approaches
• What do we know of the scientific bases of this
ecosystem based approach
- Hinged in resource sustainability: Use resources in moderation: meeting
todays needs; keeping in mind for tomorrows demands
- ES services will require an integrated holistic approach (intrinsically ES
services are inter-twined in nature)
• What are the scientific limitations
- Lack of community participation in NRM (Co-creation of knowledge)
- Limited integration across scientific disciplines
• What are the current limitations in their use in their
respective places?
- Biggest limitation is weak human and institutional capacity
- Limited technical strength in local government bodies and unfavorable centralized
institutional structures and land tenure.
- Lack of inter-sectoral linkages and collaboration

5. Priorities
• What should be the current scientific research
priorities?
• The major focus here is to get poor rural people
out of poverty and make them food secure. Can
this be achieved through research? Yes, if….
- Targeted research on integrated crop-livestock-aquaculture systems
- Improve institutional, policy and socio-economic linkages (weakest link)
o Appropriate governance for food security and agricultural development
o Invest in scaling up as a route to rapid success
o Participatory engagement to ensure successful adoption & implementation
- Emphasis has to be paid to climate-smart agro-ecological research and
development: builds small scale adaptive capacity
- Visionary political leadership must deliver on the above research agenda at
international, regional, national and local scales

6. Discussion Questions
• What does the science tell us about those approaches?
This will allow matching local knowledge of use of these
practices, with their scientific basis where applicable.
• What are other examples of the ecosystem approaches in
use?
• What are the current limitations in their use in their
respective places?
• What do we know of the scientific basis of some of the
ecosystem-based approaches?
• What are some scientific limitations of the ecosystem-
based approaches?
• What should be the current scientific research priorities?