An estimated 65% of arable land, 30% of grazing land and 20% of forests in Africa are degraded (UN-Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO] 2017). About 6 million more hectares of land are degraded each year (World Resources Institute 2020). This directly impacts ecosystem functioning through declining soil fertility, nutrient imbalances, soil compaction and erosion, salinisation and acidification (FAO 2017).

A degraded landscape cannot host high levels of biodiversity and will start to experience microclimatic changes that can lead to desertification (FAO 2017). The monocultures and poisons promoted by the industrial agriculture model undermine agrobiodiversity as well as wild biodiversity, decimating insect and bee populations and also impacting on the diversity of soil organisms.

These damaging agriculture-ecosystem interactions are generating interlinked challenges: a degraded natural resource base impacts on people’s ability to produce food and generate livelihoods while about 70% of rural Africans rely directly on these ecosystems (World Resources Institute 2020). Subsequently increasing hunger and poverty will drive further degradation of ecological systems, as well as migration and conflict (World Resources Institute 2020). Climate change only exacerbates these challenges.

An urgent and radical change is needed in agriculture, food systems and the management of ecosystems.

In southern Africa, rainfall is low and the climate can be extreme. And this situations is profoundly accentuated by climate change. Farmers are increasingly struggling as the ecosystems around them are degrading, making it harder to sustain production on their farms. As they are impacted upon by their environment, they are simultaneously having an impact on their environment. It is vital for farmers to consider the ecosystem they are situated in and to remember that for them to be successful as farmers, they also need to be supported by this ecosystem. The most logical way to enhance this reciprocal relationship is to strengthen the link between each individual farm and the wider system the community is situated within. Moreover, while most of southern Africa experiences one short rainy season and long dry months per year,  livestock and grazing management play a central role and any kind of sustainable land management has to be at landscape level. An ecosystem based landscape approach to the agriculture system is called for. Such a landscape approach must be supported by a sustainable agriculture and social framework. Agroecology provides such a sustainable framework as it embraces many different sustainable agricultural practices as well as a socio-political and economic framework that shifts people’s relationship to their natural environment and each other.

Agroecology comprises the transdisciplinary science that studies the functioning of agroecosystems, including biological, biophysical, ecological, social, cultural and political aspect of these systems and including design. It is also comprising a set of agricultural practices that support a more sustainable farming system. It is also known as a movement that seeks to precipitate widespread behaviour change that supports and promotes ecologically sustainable and socially just farming (Rosset and Altieri 2017).

Neither agroecology or landscape approaches provide a silver bullet, blueprint or operational framework for managing large areas of land. What they are, is a set of principles, practices and approaches pointing the way towards ecosystems regeneration.

Agroecology combined with an Integrated Landscape Design approach provides an organising framework for disentangling the complexity of the landscape and investigating the impacts of different courses of action. Above all, is it a challenge to the status quo and an invitation and call to action for farmers, governments and all citizens to shift their worldview, pick up their tools and create a better future.

In SKI’s approach, rural and especially indigenous communities are viewed as central as they perform the prime role of building landscape resilience. They are the residents, custodians and everyday users of the different aspects of landscapes and they also hold the necessary contextual knowledge. Therefore, a resilient landscape system needs institutions and processes that are collaborative and flexible and which brings together and capacitate actors from various levels and sectors. In this way, communities and their organisations will be able to lead and participate effectively in the decision making processes that affects their landscapes.

Recognising the complexity of socio-ecological systems and the need to work collectively to regenerate landscapes, the AE Landscape is using an adaptive management and governance approach which is based on co-learning and reflective practice. Such adaptation is driven by experimentation and reviewing the actions tried out to learn what works and what needs to improve so that natural systems upon which we depend can flourish. Participatory Action Research (PAR) supported by good documentation and communication is an appropriate method for such a co-learning and reflective practice. Each pilot project was introduced and is using a PAR approach to conscientise participants through cycles of discussion, reflection and planning together, where knowledge is raised and power dynamics understood and questioned. This process is  supported by a AEL Toolkit for Facilitators and further supported by a Framework for Documentation.

Governance also encompasses the adoption of principles to guide decisions, such as inclusivity, accountability and transparency. And it includes best practices around communication, collaborative learning and capacity building to support the principles. Collaboration among landscape stakeholders is key to building a relevant and supporting governance system, which needs to be based on “social cohesion, trust and understanding” (De Graaf et al. 2018).

The SKI AE Landscape Collaborative has developed eight Principles of Effectiveness that is relevant to their own context and that articulates the core qualities and purpose of the approach. The partners in the collaborative have been using these principles in designing their work with the communities in the eight pilot sites, and in sharing their challenges and successes with each other. Using these principles as a framework for decision making and learning at all levels is playing an important part in the pioneering of an approach much more suitable to the complexities of working with communities and landscapes.

Considering the wide spectrum of approaches and disciplines engaged in landscapes, it is useful to remember that there is no such thing as THE landscape approach, but that there are many approaches. But guided by these common principles and working with the capabilities needed to enable implementation, using landscape as a framework provides a discursive space for ‘muddling’ ahead towards more coherence, justice, sustainability.