Identification of Potential Intervention Mechanisms for Improving Small-scale Farmers Livelihood and Reducing Land Degradation with the Support of PES in the Communal Farming Areas of Northern Namibia

The department of Physical Geography and Environmental Change (www.physiogeo.unibas.ch) at the University of Basel is seeking a postdoctoral fellow to lead the project outlined below. The two-year postdoctoral position is funded by the Syngenta Foundation and is aimed at exploring and initialising  applied activities linking soil improvement, livelihoods of small-scale farmers and landscape Carbon increase in northern Namibia. We are seeking a young scientist preferably from Southern Africa to conduct this project. While the postdoctoral fellow will be based in Basel, a significant part of the project will take place in Namibia. The project is embedded in further activities of the University of Basel in Namibia. The postdoctoral fellow should start working around July 1^st 2012.

For further questions and the submission of an application please contact:

Lena Bloemertz

Physical Geography and Environmental Change

Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel

Email: lena.bloemertz@unibas.ch

Project Summary

Payments for Environmental Services (PES), supported e.g. through schemes such as Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM) or Voluntary Carbon Offsets, offer opportunities to fund soil quality and yield improvement on cropland through Carbon (C) credits. These credits can be earned by increasing or preserving Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) or biomass, such as vegetation. SOC plays a central role for sustainable yields, especially in sandy soils such as those that are widespread in northern Namibia, where it is of particular importance for soil resistance to erosion, water and nutrient supply. The careful management of SOC requires the input both of organic and inorganic fertilizer, as well as a significant amount of labour. Therefore, a lack of funds often limits the implementation of measures to increase SOC and to achieve the associated benefits for soil productivity and reduction of soil and land degradation. A priori reasoning suggests that small scale farming in northern Namibia could benefit from improving SOC supported through CDM/PES. However, ecologic and socio-economic conditions create a range of conditions with widely varying potential for a sustainable increase of SOC. Preliminary studies also suggest that while improving SOC on cropland soils offers the opportunity of earning some C-credits and increasing yields, a much greater potential lies in an integrated approach to landscape C management, including shrubland and pasture used for grazing and timber supply. However, the limited information on soil quality and the rationale for particular soil management and land use practices, including those of pasture and forests used by small-scale farmers in Namibia prohibits a conclusive assessment of the potential of CDM-type schemes or PES as a source of income or funding opportunity for development initiatives in northern central Namibia.

Fostering soil and land management aimed at increasing landscape Carbon stocks is best done by promoting existing practices that rely on a high SOC status on cropland or the surrounding pastures and forests used by farmers for firewood or timber supply. Therefore, the focus of this project is to identify existing soil management and land use practices already applied by small-scale farmers in northern Namibia which have a positive influence on cropland soil quality and landscape SOC stocks. To achieve this aim, we propose to conduct a soil quality and land use management survey amongst selected small-scale farmers in central-northern region of Namibia. The results of the survey will be analysed to identify the soil management and land use practices with high landscape C-stocks and potential for wider introduction in the study area. Based on the scientific enquiry into the potential of increasing landscape C-stocks, a grant application targeting an appropriate funding source linking soil improvement, livelihoods of small-scale farmers and landscape C increase in northern Namibia will be prepared.