Policy briefs

At the beginning of the project, LUCID teams in all the sites held discussions with communities living in the study sites to gain historical insights on land use and environmental changes in their localities from their own experiences. In these discussions local men and women who could remember environmental changes that had taken place during the last 40 to 50 years ago, gave their recollections on what has changed in terms of vegetation cover, cropping systems, water resources, grazing patterns, soil productivity, environmental goods and services and other characteristics of in environment.

These perspectives were very instrumental in deciding what LUCID research should focus on. After the research was complete, the findings were communicated through feedback workshops with communities to discus the implications the findings on the environment and on the productivity of their lands. These workshops were found to be very informative as the farmers were able to link some of the environmental changes they experienced like the decline in soil quality and crop productivity to their own activities that reduced vegetation cover and biodiversity.

Proceeding of these workshops were produced in the LUCID working paper series and taken back to the communities through their local administration, agricultural extension offices, and group leaders who participated in the project. At the national level policy workshops were conducted to present research results and to discuss implications especially concerning land use planning and tenure policies, agricultural policies and programs, and conservation of biodiversity outside of protected areas. Also project documents, including the East Africa regional syntheses and three policy briefs, provided policy implications of the research results.

POLICY BRIEFS AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD

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Policy brief 1 (PDF - 251 KB )

Policy brief 2 (PDF - 254 KB )

Policy brief 3 (PDF - 208 KB )