| Scope & objectivesImprovement of the Catchment Approach, a methodology for participatory soil conservation planning currently applied in the East African Highlands Ecoregion. Anticipated improvements are: semi-quantification of soil and productivity loss using farmers¿ knowledge, simple ex ante economic cost-benefit analysis of proposed scenarios and moving up the SWC planning from farm level to catchment scale. The resulting methodology should be applicable to other locations in the East African Highlands Ecoregion, e.g. in Madagascar, Ethiopia and Uganda. LocationThe AHI Benchmark sites Embu (Gikuuri Catchment), Kenya, and Lushoto (Kwalei Catchment), Tanzania. Methodology Development of field-scale indicators of erosion and sedimentation based on indigenous knowledge of soil and vegetation characteristics; Coupling of quantitative values of erosion, sedimentation and/or productivity to the developed indicators; Quantification of erosion, sedimentation and soil productivity at catchment scale by the coupling of indicator values to map units and model estimates; Development of a simple tool (model, spreadsheet or decision support system) to enable quick economic assessment of on- and off farm technologies; Development of a participatory SWC planning methodology at catchment level Expected outputsOverall Participatory Rural Appraisals, including characterisations of existing soil-water management systems, farmers¿ perceptions of these and evaluations of socio-economic parameters; Farmers¿ indicators of soil erosion and sedimentation and corresponding field measurements; Maps of farmers¿ indicators and model estimates of soil erosion and sedimentation for the study catchments (catchment totals and erosion/sedimentation maps); Simple tool for economic assessment of technologies; A catchment SWC plan using farmers¿ indicators with an analysis of 1. The inputs required in terms of money and labour, 2. The benefits at farm level, 3. The expected spatial distribution of positive and negative effects due to surface runoff, erosion and sedimentation. The end product of the analysis is a cost-benefit map for all farms in the catchments. If the foregoing steps were succesfull, a method for easy construction of catchment SWC plans using farmers'' indicators. 2004 A tool for farm level analysis and quantification of soil erosion based on indigenous farmers¿ indicators A tool for catchment level analysis and quantification of soil erosion based on indigenous farmers¿ indicators A tool for ex-ante cost-benefit analysis of soil and water conservation measures Merging of the above mentioned tools in the existing catchment approach for soil and water conservation |
