Doutoramento em Ciências Agrárias e Ambientais
A spatially explicit methodology for assessing and monitoring land degradation neutrality at a national scale
Helene Wanjiru Gichenje

Orientação:  Teresa Pinto Correia & Sérgio Rui Borreicho Coelho Godinho 

Land degradation is occurring in all parts of the terrestrial world, and is negatively impacting the well-being of billions of people.  In recognition of the need for sustained global action on land degradation the Sustainable Development Goals, adopted by the global community in 2015, include a specific goal aimed at halting the decline of land resources and achieving land degradation-neutrality (LDN) by 2030.  The primary objective of this doctoral research was to operationalize the LDN target at the national level, using Kenya as the case study.  The main research questions addressed in this dissertation have been positioned within a social-ecological systems framework in which ecosystems are integrated with human society.  The first task of this research focused on determining the extent of land degradation and regeneration, and in establishing the LDN national baseline using the three LDN indicators (land cover, land productivity, and carbon stocks).  This was then followed by identifying the key drivers that affect land degradation (browning) and land regeneration (greening) trends within the 4 main land cover types (agriculture, forest, grassland and shrubland), and within an area characterised by land cover change.  The third task involved an assessment of the effectiveness of the current land-use policy framework, and associated institutions, to facilitate the implementation of LDN.  Finally, in the last part of this dissertation, a climate-smart landscape approach at the water catchment level was proposed as a possible mechanism through which LDN can be operationalised at the sub-national level.    

Keywords: land degradation-neutrality; NDVI; land-use policy framework; water catchment area; Kenya