ReGreening Initiatives

ReGreening Initiatives (RGI) is used here to cover all interventions which increase tree density and cover in the landscape, in farms, rangelands, wastelands and degraded forests. × Dismiss alert

GPI2050 Action(s)​ Land degradation leads to a decline in crop yields, food availability, soil fertility, carbon sequestration capacity, wood production, and groundwater recharge, with significant social and economic costs. The Organisation address these emerging issues identified across Kenya by implementing an ecosystem-based adaptation approach to building resilience; bringing together significant policy expertise, scientific expertise and on-the-ground investments to build knowledge and understanding of the climate risks and to enable sustainable, climate-resilient transformation at scale. The organization combines indigenous knowledge with scientifically robust approaches to build on and scale-up existing successful Re-Greening projects through locally appropriate interventions. To varying degrees, all of these approaches increase crop productivity, reliability and resilience; increase the direct production of food, fuel, fibre and income from the products; enhance carbon storage and biodiversity, both above-ground and below-ground, enhancing rain-use-efficiency. The Organisation employs the following models and approaches:

1. Ecosystem-Based Adaptation (EBA) Uses biodiversity and ecosystem services as part of an overall adaptation strategy to help households and communities adapt and respond to the negative effects of climate change at local, national and regional levels.

2. Regenerative Agroforestry An ecosystem-based adaptation practice that integrates trees and shrubs into agricultural and livestock systems. Agroforestry systems involve a wide range of trees that are protected, regenerated, planted or managed with annual crops, livestock, wildlife and humans. This practice provides beneficial products and services and increase the resilience of communities, assisting them to adapt to climate change at an extremely low cost.

3. Re-Greening Initiatives and Approaches Sub-set of agroforestry which emphasizes the deliberate integration of trees and shrubs into cropping systems and pastoral land by planting or managed natural regeneration, which complement and enhance the sustainability, productivity and resilience of those systems through biological interactions. These practices can be easily and inexpensively adopted by rural households. They focus on low-cost, rapid and proven effective technologies to maintain vegetative soil cover, bolster nutrient supply through nitrogen fixation and nutrient cycling, generate greater quantities of organic matter in soil surface residues and improve soil structure and water infiltration.

4. Re-greening The process in which farmers protect and manage trees that naturally regenerate on their land, rather than cut them down. Regenerated trees and shrubs help restore degraded lands and provide many benefits – from increased crop yields, recharging groundwater, providing fodder and firewood, and storing carbon. Agroforestry, where on-farm trees are managed with crops and/or animal production systems, is a cost-effective and "climate-smart" way to intensify and diversify agriculture. Innovative farmers have also developed water harvesting techniques and other improved practices that restore the productivity of degraded lands and contribute to landscape level re-greening.

5. FMNR (Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration The protection and management by pruning of naturally-regenerating trees and shrubs, from roots and seeds that are already present in the soil has proven to be exceedingly effective as a very low-cost way to restore degraded land. FMNR refers specifically to the natural regeneration and management (pruning) of trees. This can be used effectively in farmland (Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration or FMNR), rangeland, wasteland and degraded forests. Taking advantage of the large root system of previously established trees, growth is very fast and mortality extremely low. Emphasis is on the management by the landowner or community. Benefits include restoration of trees, soil health and fertility, water infiltration and retention in the soil. The survival rate of regenerating flora is far higher than that of planted seedlings, and they generally require less maintenance and fewer (often zero) inputs.

6. Natural Resource-Based Value Chain Development Integrated With Improved Access To Finance Household adoption of Re-Greening practices are incentivized through local ecosystem-based value chain development which will in turn increase income and economic benefits to small-scale farmers. The Programme will focus on sustainability, reliability and productivity of farming systems at the household level, while building the capacity and function of CBO's, farmers’ associations and groups to ensure improved coordination and more efficient market access. This will include bulking of produce, improved quality control, handling and storage, and reduced transaction costs. Opportunities for investments and profitable small-scale value chains in this Programme exist in the inclusion of timber or fuel wood trees, either intercropped in cropping systems, or through farm woodlots with sequential agroforestry; fruit and nut trees such as cashew, shea, mango, moringa and baobab; resins such as gum Arabica; and sylvo-pastoralism, which combine trees and livestock. Whilst promoting tree-based value chains, the trees and resultant carbon sequestration will be treated as a future income source through, where feasible, engagement with carbon markets.

7. Soil and Water Conservation: Soil loss is one of the major threats to agricultural development in several of the included Counties. Loss of soil from farmlands has resulted in declining crop yields and hinders overall economic development. Where fertile topsoil is lost, it disproportionality reduces soil nutrients and carrying capacity, requiring (where possible) increased expenditure on fertilizers, which reduces financial viability and negatively impacts the ecosystem. It also leads to a reduction in the cultivable soil depth. Besides the negative impact on agriculture, soil loss also affects surface water resources through reduced water quality and quantity, increased floods, and siltation of rivers. In some highly degraded areas, Re Greening practices alone are not enough to restore land and meet the multiple needs of the farmers and ecosystems, so complimentary approaches have been integrated into the Programme. Re Greening practices will be supported through low cost on-farm soil and water conservation practices, including increasing soil organic matter, improving water retention capacity and applying water harvesting techniques. These soil and water conservation approaches will serve to capture rainfall that would otherwise run off the fields causing erosion, and increase soil water availability and fertility, thereby also increasing crop yields. The combination of these activities with EGP and eco-disaster risk reduction will serve to reduce risk, enhance biodiversity and increase the diversity of available food products at the household level.

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