Brief Description

Lesotho has been grappling with land degradation, and its impacts on poverty, for decades. While some progress has been made, the socio-economic and institutional contexts for Sustainable Land Management (SLM) have shifted substantially. A number of baseline activities are making important contributions in tackling the shifting challenges of SLM, spanning revised extension approaches, basic training for the new local authorities, and various project-based initiatives in soil and water conservation. Nevertheless, significant programmatic gaps must be filled if these baseline activities are to achieve the incremental progress and global environmental benefits that are within Lesotho’s reach.

The goal of the project is that Lesotho begins to alleviate poverty, achieve more sustainable livelihoods and deliver global environmental benefits on the basis of enhanced local and national techniques, approaches, capacity and strategy for up-scaling successful SLM.

SLM takes two main forms in rural areas. First, there is the management of soil, water and related natural resources by individuals and households on their cultivated land – homestead gardens and fields, in the case of Lesotho. Secondly, there is the management of the ‘range resource complex’ across the rest of the landscape by groups, communities and local institutions – the pastures, household fuel biomass, and the other plant resources that grow in and around them (such as medicinal plants and plants used for handicrafts), as well as the soil that sustains all these plant resources.

Three major barriers to overcome:

• Lack of proven, replicable governance models for the management of natural resources which are understandable and can be implemented by evolving contemporary community institutions

• Lack of local and national capacity to adapt and scale up such models as they emerge

• Knowledge management barrier

Outputs:

1. Proven, strengthened, participatory, replicable models and techniques that successfully overcome current institutional and governance barriers to SLM, strengthen country partnerships and integrate SLM into country programmes are ready for national implementation.

2. Adequate local and national capacity in place and is adapting and scaling up proven SLM models and techniques.

3. Lesotho adopts a programmatic approach to SLM - The enhanced awareness, dialogue, understanding and analysis of SLM best practice at resource user, community, local government, NGO and national government levels across the country, is reflected in strengthened, synergistic, multi-sector policies, strategies and programmes that achieve an integrated approach to natural resource management.

Contact:

Ms. Lineo Mdee
lineo.mdee@undp.org