Work Packages

WP1 aims to assess barriers and promoters of sustainable land management by means of a household panel survey. Together with a mental model elicitation, the survey will be used to analyze current land use and tenure systems to better understand investment incentive structures. Participatory creation of scenarios will link future land governance to sustainable land management.

In WP2 high-resolution observational datasets, climate change simulations and ground station weather data will be analyzed for decision support. A regional land and soil information system will be set up, including data layers on soil and plant micro-nutrient contents. Sentinel data will be used to retrieve actual land use.

WP3 aims to assess the sustainability of present land use systems in the study area. Resource-conserving rangeland and livestock management will be analyzed, including field assessments of species biodiversity and biomass yield. Based on climate and soil information of WP2, crop suitability and yields will be projected. The proportion of human-induced climate change on yield changes will be quantified.

WP4 will test and model improved land management practices for crop production, including indigenous techniques, microdosing of fertilizers and tree-based systems for high value perennials. WP4 will also assess improved feeding practices, and will conduct on-farm trials for methane measurements and life cycle analysis (LCA). Furthermore, opportunities and limitations of milk valorization by local cheese making will be examined.

WP5 aims to implement an open-source decision support system (DSS), which has been co-designed and validated by stakeholders. Data sets from different spatial scales will be integrated into the DSS and scaling procedures for up- and downscaling will be developed.

WP6 will package results of WP1-5 into different formats for stakeholders. This includes outreach to policy level (e.g. policy briefs, workshops) and farm level (e.g. radio broadcasts, small instructive videos, farmer field schools). Existing graduate programs will be strengthened through capacity development.